Ml on eBothy Blog

ml and scrambling

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Mountain Leader (summer) award is more or less for leading groups in the UK and Ireland on non scrambling terrain. I sometimes call it the Grassy Mountain Leader award as you’re not “allowed” to lead scrambles. It’s a grey area though. What I mean by “allowed”, is scrambling is not in the remit of the award, as it’s a walking award, however, what it boils down to is you can use the rope in an unplanned situation but not go out in the hills intending to use it. So if you are leading a group of very strong walkers who would have no trouble going along, say, the Clach Glas ridge unroped, you could argue that you had no intention of using the rope. On the other hand, if you tried it with a group of novices, as a competent leader, you would know where the rope would be needed and therefore that its use was planned and you’d be out of remit. It’s this grey area that puts most of the Cuillin “off limits” to ML award holders, including myself.

on the edge winter ml training

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I had heard it was a respected qualification and that the drop-out rate for the six day training was quite high, so it was with some trepidation I turned up at Alltshellach last week for my Winter Mountain Leader training with Plas Y Brenin. I’d led from Alltshellach last year for the HF so I knew the house was superb and the new swimming pool and jacuzzi was open so I was looking forward to a soak or two. In the bar on the first night I met Phil, my HF assessor and got the low down on scrambling assessment to lead guests on the more challenging holidays and made a note to apply for that when I got back. I’m really enjoying the outdoors life. Here I was, preparing for winter leader training and was already thinking about another assessment! All good stuff.

winter ml tips n tricks

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Following on from my winter ML training, I thought I’d write down some tips ’n tricks I picked up along the way. Hopefully they’ll prove useful to anyone who’s thinking of doing their winter ML or indeed anyone who fancies going out in the winter mountains. These points are a brain dump after the training. Practical stuff that I’d teach on the hill, like step kicking, step cutting, cutting rest ledges, self-arrest and using pits to assess avalanche risk aren’t included as these really need to be demonstrated on the hill.

the tao of navigation

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I read a really nice article the other day by Lauren Webster about the Taoist principle of action and I thought about how this might be applied to navigating in the mountains. The principle basically states that to overcome obstacles in life, you have to be confident in your environment and your abilities. You have to believe in yourself. One of the traits of a good mountain leader is having the courage of your convictions. Many times I’ve been out in foul weather and someone has been making pronouncements on the way ahead while I have been studying the map and working out a safe descent route. More often than not, the compass shows the way that is not obvious from memory. The way down always looks obvious in the mist. It’s the route of least resistance but which can lead to a big drop or a swollen river. The wisdom of the compass is always hard for non-believers to trust.