Leader of the Month - August

August was a busy month, with lots of outdoor action and expeditions a plenty. After convening our panel of experts we are proud to announce...

August's leader of the month is...

Stephen Ramsay

"Stephen has been an integral member of Durham Scouts for many years. He tirelessly and selflessly donates almost every second of his spare time to inspiring and leading young people of all abilities and backgrounds within the British mountains. Steve runs numerous courses throughout the year for scout leaders, to train and assess them so that they may take their young people walking in the mountains. He does this for no personal gain, only the satisfaction of seeing scouts across the county engaging in outdoor activities. He spends a great deal of time training and assessing D of E groups throughout the UK, only asking for petrol money in return.

His actions and decisions are entirely based on what would be best for that young person. For several months, Stephen has put all of his effort in to helping a scout network member in Durham who has Cerebral Palsy, who was wheelchair bound for many years. With Stephen’s dedication and enthusiasm behind her, she has managed to achieve her Gold D of E award and succeed in numerous BMC para-climbing competitions. His skill, dedication and enthusiasm is endless, and I cannot think of any person more deserving of this award."

Stephen is a Mountain Leader and also holds the Climbing Wall Award and Abseil Module. He was nominated by fellow scouter Sam Oliver from County Durham.

Special mention also goes to...

Mick Fenwick

"Mick is an assistant headteacher in our school and has run the outdoors programmes here for five years. As a leader he has set up and run the Duke of Edinburgh’s award in school taking nearly 300 students through this scheme in the last five years. He’s also worked extensively to create outdoor activity programmes focused on hill walking using his qualification in mountain leadership to develop young people’s understanding of the countryside, to improve their own personal and team skills and to show them that a world exists beyond Hartlepool. He has trained a team of staff through the BEL qualification in school to assist on leadership of these programmes. This training has inspired us to want to develop further by looking at and now registering for programmes such as the Mountain Leader and Single Pitch Award. His dedication to developing outdoor programmes and leadership has been inspiring and our students and staff were keen to recognise this through a nomination for this award as we feel that all he does is in keeping with the spirit of Mountain Training. (Even sporting his MTA buff when training students as he was in the attached photo).

In addition, he also keeps an online blog of the students and other adventures as he enjoys sharing these successes with as wide an audience as he can to promote the outdoor activities."

Mick is a Mountain Leader and MTA member. He was nominated by fellow teacher Lucy Claber.



Each month's winner will receive a year's free membership of the Mountain Training Association and a Sherpa technical fleece.

To nominate someone for Leader of the Month, email nicola@mountain-training.org and explain, in 200 words or less, why you think they deserve to win. 'Leaders' can be anyone with a Mountain Training award.