A Summary of the Mountain Training UK Board Meeting

Lots of exciting developments were agreed at the Mountain Training UK board meeting held at Plas y Brenin on Saturday 12th October. The Walking Awards review and the Hill and Mountain Skills developments were top of the agenda and here is a summary of some of the decisions:

The Lowland Leader scheme has been approved and will be launched on 30th March 2014. Staff are now working hard to create all the information needed by the public, new candidates and potential providers.

The Walking Group Leader award will get a name change to “Hill and Moorland leader” as a better representation of the terrain used within the award. The Overnight camping element will be removed from the award syllabus and made available as an optional Expedition Skills module which can be used by existing award holders and Lowland Leaders to extend the remit of the award to remote camping in appropriate terrain. These changes will all be in place by 30th March.

The “Hill & Mountain Skills” scheme was agreed and will have two courses “Hill Skills” and “Mountain Skills” Hill skills will be an introduction course in hill walking and participants will require no previous experience. “Mountain Skills will be defined as a progression and that participants will be advised to have some hill walking experience. The minimum age for scheme will be 14 years of age. Further guidance is being developed and will be available shortly. Home Nation Boards will determine the number of approved providers for the first round of provider applications. For those who are keen to be a provider for “Hill and Mountain Skills” courses further information will be available on the website soon.

The Scheme

The Foundation Coach and Development Coach were successfully launched on 1st October and one hundred and eighteen candidates have already registered, development work is now underway for a Performance Coach. A big thank you to Martin Chester and the supporting staff and volunteers for delivering the scheme on time for the agreed launch date.

50 Years of Mountain Training

If you haven’t heard yet, Mountain Training will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary next year and we have an expert marketing working group steering us in the right direction to ensure we celebrate in style throughout the year, with one of the earliest events being the Outdoor Show on 13th February 2014.

So as you can see it was a very busy meeting with lots of positive outcomes. Regular updates and information will be available on the Mountain Training Website, posted via our social media sites and through the Mountain Training Association Newsletter. So stay tuned in for further updates.

The next meeting will take place on the 15th March 2014 at Glenmore Lodge