What does it takes to get a Mountain Leader (ML) qualification?
by Paul Cummings (Originally posted on uk.rec.walking, and published here with kind permission. His website is here)
PART TWO – Training (page 1 – page 2 – page 3 – page 4 – page 5 – page 6)
Once you have registered and written up your log to show 20 QMDs (which can be from before you registered), you can apply for training. One thing I would recommend is that you get your navigation right up to speed before you go. That way you can enjoy the training and assessment rather than struggle in them (same goes for fitness really). I took my ML training in April of this year with Plas-y-Brenin. The basic format of the course is four days consisting of lectures first thing in the morning, 5-6 hours on the hill or around the site practicing skills then an hour or so of more lectures before dinner. The final two days are spent on an expedition into the hills with a wild camp, returning early afternoon for a final debrief.
On day one, the first thing that struck me was that more than half the class were already professionally involved in the outdoors. There was a kayak instructor, a couple of DoE or Scout leaders, a couple of people who already ran outdoor trips on a part time professional basis. The rest were every weekend walker types who lived within about 90 minutes of a National Park. Nobody was just a keen walker, living hours from the nearest real hill, except me. There were eight men and three women on my course with ages from early twenties to late forties. When it came to kit checks, I was pleasantly surprised. Having something of a gear fetish, and more than an average amount of disposable income, I had at least as much kit as everyone else and mine was of at least as good quality. I was the only one with a
GPS.
Classroom subjects included things like a leader’s responsibility, kit lists (personal and group), legal issues (including CROW act), weather maps, the environment etc. Some were useful, some were interesting and some I just sat through and hoped to stay awake (especially the environment lecture late in the week). The two main instructors were great, very funny guys, who still kept us all focused on learning during the week.
Day one had a trip up onto some small rough areas just north of Capel Curig. Here we practiced micro-navigation – finding very small features on the map. Those that couldn’t navigate found this a hard introduction, those that could, but were rusty, like myself, found it hard to get back into good habits (when out walking, how often do you want to know exactly where you are on a hill?).
Day two was a trip up Moel Siabod. This was to practice steep ground. This was a real test for me as I am a walker, not a climber. The day was bitterly cold and raining heavily, with snow on the final 200m of Siabod. Chris learnt a serious lesson about taking enough clothing to cope with unexpected problems. We then climbed up onto a ridge I would certainly not have taken a group up (big girl’s blouse that I am). This required scrambling up a 15 foot high crag. Not really hard, but not something I would not like to take a group up. We had to practice spotting each other. I raised this later with the instructors and they called it borderline ML terrain, but might be used to escape out of an area if the other option was five km more and brought you down in the wrong valley.
Day three was a centre based day about river crossings and emergencies. This was spent in the grounds of Plas-y-Brenin. We started by making many types of improvised stretcher and then practiced using them. Surprising how many of them were great ideas until it came to carrying someone in them! After a few practices on dry land, we were into the river for our river crossing practice. The basic idea is that you learn that a river crossing is a thing of last resort and not the first option you think of.
The final day trip was to close to Llyn Ogwen for some rope work. This involved confidence roping in the morning then belaying / abseiling after lunch. This is all done with helmets, but not harnesses (who carries a harness when out walking?). This is taught as a last ditch procedure – you, as leader, have cocked up on navigation getting into some dodgy ground. The option is a bit of rope work to get the party down safely or hours more on the hill finding an alternative route. Looked at like that, you can understand why rope work is expected on a walking qualification (which is what the ML is).
By the time we were tired due to the exhausting week, we had to set off for the expedition. This was a six or so hour trudge around the Molewyns in the pouring rain, broken only by Glenn seriously twisting his ankle in a surprise hole he found. After quite a break for treatment, the instructor asked me to lead off and keep the group moving over the simplest terrain I could find to our destination. I like to think it was because I was by then regarded as the best navigator in our group of five (we had been split into a five and a six for most of our hill time). We eventually reached our
destination, a beautiful sheltered lake, and set up camp. After a few hours to eat and sleep, we were off again for a trip to visit an old mine and then night navigation. The night navigation was for each person to have two legs to lead to find a point approximately 400-600m away. Everyone else had to then tell the instructor where they thought we were. This is actually much easier than it sounds (if you can navigate well in daylight that is), but you will certainly benefit from having practised a little beforehand. Eventually we got to bed something like 02:00.
Up and ready for a 09:00 start, we had a slight delay whilst the instructor examined Glenn’s ankle again. Glenn was passed fit, but we decided to abandon the main walk for the day and slowly make our way out. Once back at Plas-y-Brenin, we had a group debrief then individual debriefs then we were released into the real world again. The personal debrief I got was slightly contradictory. One of the instructors suggested I take my time and don’t rush back for assessment. The other instructor, Martin, said that I navigated very well and all I needed was to get up a few steep hills as I was slightly hesitant on the steep ground. He also suggested I get up to Scotland to get a greater range of experience. I followed this up by getting up the North Face of Tryfan the next day on my own, something I would not have attempted before. This gave me huge confidence.
Page 3 – Assessment
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