Awarding Body

Mountain Training

Scheme

British Mountain Guide

Course

Winter Training

Type

Training

Award Description

This international award trains and assesses candidates in the skills required to guide climbing (including the coaching of lead climbing) skiing and mountaineering on rock, snow & ice, and in alpine terrain. It is administered by the BMG to the standards set by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA). The Guide’s carnet is an extensively used professional award.

BMG Course Convenor: Matt Stygall

Staff: Paul Warnock, Mike Pescod, Andy Nelson

Course Base: Calluna Bunkhouse, West Coast Mountain Guides, Fort William, PH33 6RE

Date: Sunday 19th January 2025 arrival at 8pm.

Course Programme:

5 Days of winter guided climbing and mountaineering. These will be the Monday to Friday on the mountains (22-26th January inclusive).

The course will aim to include aspects of planning and preparation with clients. Practicalities of climbing with clients in winter including pace, gearing up, safe guarding approach slopes, transitions with rope work, stance management, communication and problem avoidance. Technical descent work as appropriate. Essential good and effective winter guiding. Some days will be of a more general mountaineering nature (one rope, mountaineering style up to grade III). These could be extended days to look at night navigation etc and prepare for the expedition element of the assessment. Other days will be of a more technical climbing nature and dependant on actual conditions, ideally snow/ice and mixed. Ideally, some will be guiding on longer Scottish classic routes looking at all aspects of solid guided winter climbing and any other aspects highlighted by the previous training days. This of course, is a very flexible outline and the order of these days will be weather/conditions dependant.

We will order and frame these aims at the initial evening meeting (Sunday evening, 8pm ). There will be time in the evenings for plenty of input regarding preparation for assessment, and general aspects of good winter guiding. Please refer to the syllabus.

Pre-course preparation: Good hill fitness and plenty of current winter climbing mileage (so that we can concentrate on details of good guiding, rather than faffing). It is essential that you are climbing confidently, consistently and safely at Scottish V for the start of this course! This is important so as to be a safe memeber of the course and for the collaborative safety of your peers. This should be recorded in your BMG logbooks and will be reviewed by the course convenor during the initial course briefing.

As always, it will be useful if you have been out and about the few days prior to the course to gather conditions info and allow us to maximise on what’s available. Post-course consolidation; As well as the consolidation skills you all used for your recent summer test, please note that a minimum of 2 days of peer group work must be shown in your log book before assessment in March. Clearly the time pressure between winter training and assessment means that structured and thorough consolidation is vital.

Internal Course Transport: Use own cars. Equipment: Normal Scottish winter hill gear, plenty of current winter rack (ice and mixed, depending on conditions). General purpose crampons, mountaineering axe and technical tools. Single ropes (plus spares if poss). Guidebooks and maps of popular winter areas (ie Ben, Coe, Creag Meagaidh and N Cairngorms). Metal shovel, probe, first aid, shelter and other group gear.

Cost: £1320.00 course fee.

Accomodation cost: The self-catering accommodation at Calluna, Fort William and has been booked and arranged with Victoria Kimber. The cost for each candidate is £110.00 and will be paid for by arrangement through Victoria info@fortwilliamholiday.co.uk. please get in contact for payment details. 

It’s essential that we all stay at Calluna as the course works much better and more safely if we are all together in the evenings (and mornings!). It also allows us to plan and review at our convenience.

Course Booking: Please make your booking through CMS.

Course Convenor contact details: If you have any queries don’t hesitate to contact me: Matt Stygall 07790424120

Signed Matt Stygall, Course Convenor Date: October 2023 BMG Office Siabod Cottage, Capel Curig, Conwy LL24 0ES Tel: 01690 720386

Fax: 01690 720248

Start

20/01/2025 07:00

End

24/01/2025 17:00

Total Days

5

Maximum Bookings

7

Bookings

7

Venue

Calluna, Fortwilliamholiday

Town

Fort William

County

Argyle

Postcode

PH33 6JX

Country

Scotland

Latitude

56.81117

Longitude

-5.11696

Name

British Mountain Guides

Phone

07790424120

Email