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: Paul Warnock

Staff: Matt Stygall and Stu McAleese

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

Date: Sunday 19th January 2020 arrival at 8pm.

Course Programme:

5 Days of winter guided climbing. 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. Ideally. one day will be of a more general mountaineering nature (one rope, mountaineering style up to grade III). This could be an extended day to look at navigation etc and prepare for the expedition element of the assessment. 2 days will be of a more technical climbing nature and dependant on actual conditions, ideally snow/ice and mixed. Ideally, 2 days 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 obviously be weather/conditions dependant. We’ll 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 course syllabus attached. Pre-course preparation: Good hill fitness and plenty of winter climbing mileage (so that we can concentrate on details of good guiding, rather than early season faff and tangles). It is essential that you are climbing confidently, consistently and safely at Scottish V for the start of this course! 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 and probe.

Cost: £1024.25 course fee.

The self-catering accommodation at Calluna should be arranged by contacting Victoria Kimber on infor@fortwilliamholiday.co.uk or 01397 700451.

It is essential that we all stay at Calluna as the course works best if we are all together in the evenings to review and chat about consolidation and assessment preparation.

Course Booking: Please make your booking through CMS.

Course Convenor contact details: If you have any queries don’t hesitate to contact me: paul.warnock@hotmail.com / 07796698473

Signed Paul Warnock Course Convenor Date: December 2019 BMG Office Siabod Cottage, Capel Curig, Conwy LL24 0ES Tel: 01690 720386 Fax: 01690 720248

Start

20/01/2020

End

24/01/2020

Total Days

5

Maximum Bookings

6

Bookings

5

Venue

Calluna Bunkhouse

Town

Fort William

County

Fort William

Postcode

LL24 0ET

Country

Scotland

Latitude

53.10239

Longitude

-3.92265

Name

British Mountain Guides

Phone

01690 720386

Email