MOUNTAIN TRAINING Chris Dodd
Former BMC Training Offi cer. Brought as the MLTB's secretary in the aftermath of the ferocious
training debate, Chris Dodd was a calm and well liked infl uence in the healing process. Became relationship manager with Sport England.
“STARTING CLIMBING IN THE 1940S AND 1950S WAS A RISKY PROPOSITIONWITH FEWCLUES ON HOWTO PROCEED.”
Libby Peter One of the early
female mountain guides. Author of bestselling book Rock Climbing.
Steve Long Guide, author of super-bestseller book Hill walking and currently Chair of UIAA Training Standards Panel.
Went up El Cap with Jack Osborne.
John Cousins, the organisation’s current chief executive, acknowledges the controversies of the past, but is swift to point out that fears certifi cation might undermine the ethos of mountaineering are unfounded. ‘To become a mountaineering instructor,’ he says, ‘you need real experience. We insist on it. We’re not creating a mechanistic situation where we train people to keep folk safe and that’s the beginning and the end of it.’ Outdoor centres run by education authorities have had a hard time of it in the last decade or so, especially in the face of government cuts. Cousins sees a shift from institutional mountain training to what he calls “a man, or woman, with a van” –freelance instructors offering a service rather than a philosophy. Even before the current round of cuts, education authorities were cutting back on the length of courses and, in the face of curriculum demands, reducing the age of those involved. One of the consequences of the 1970s training controversy, coupled with regional devolution, has been a long-term obsession with Mountain Training’s structure. That now seems to be at an end, although it didn’t go quietly. Visit Mountain Training’s website and the complex array of organisations and logos has disappeared. In its place is a system more focussed on those wanting to take training courses rather than those administering them.
“Our customers don’t care,” Cousins says. “They just want to know about mountain training and their path through it, not the politics.” These days, he says, the relationship with the BMC is much closer – “meshing” is the word he uses – a process helped by the arrival of former BMC president Rab Carrington as chair of one of the parent committees. Taking the politics and philosophy out of Mountain Training has, according to Cousins, allowed the organisation to focus on giving people the skills to be safe. “The reason people go outside is not for us to determine.”
Allen Fyffe Guide, Scottish
winter pioneer and current executive secretary of the
Scottish Mountain Leader Training Board.
But if the training debate has moved on, then so has the broader community. Outside pressures have driven mountain training and the sport’s self-reliant ethos closer together not further apart. Society’s attitude to risk-
taking has grown ever more hostile. “The pressures from health and safety are so crippling,” Don Roscoe says. “If you tried to set up the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme now, you wouldn’t be allowed to do it.” So far, we’re still free to go into the hills on our own
terms. Risk is still a fundamental part of climbing’s ethos, despite the rise of sport climbing and climbing walls. Tomorrow’s young climbers aren’t growing up playing in bombsites but heading for climbing walls. Even so, as Don Roscoe says: “Adventure is still there for people, if they’re prepared to look for it.” Mountain Training, John Cousins says, has a role to play as an advocate for the activity. “It’s not about increasing numbers; it’s about preserving the numbers we’ve got. Our principal role is to make the activity sustainable. If we get it wrong once, everybody wants to stop us because they assume we’re all crazy. We have excellent standards and we need them.”
CURRENT MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
MOUNTAIN TRAINING
Mountain Training, the awarding body responsible for managing skills and award schemes in the UK and Ireland, has turned 50 this year. To help celebrate, check out our articles, interviews and stories online.
www.thebmc.co.uk/ mountaintraining
Visit the brand-new Mountain Training website.
www.mountain-
training.org
Martin Doyle
Chief executive of Plas y Brenin
Bob Kinnaird
Chief executive of Glenmore Lodge
Trevor Fisher
Chief executive of Tollymore
Jon Garside Joint BMC and Mountain
Training England training offi cer
John Cousins
Mountain Training chief executive
Rab Carrington
Former BMC president and current chair of Mountain Training England.
BMC vice president Ed Douglas is a freelance journalist specialising in climbing and mountaineering. Follow him @calmandfearless.
Mal Creasey Once described as “the voice of god”, mountain-man Mal has just retired from his post as Mountain Training England’s development offi cer.
R Glenmore Lodge. 76 | 70TH ANNIVERSARY | FOR BRITISH CLIMBING AND WALKING SINCE 1944
PHOTO: MOUNTAIN TRAINING.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100