COVID-19: a letter to members

We are sure you will be aware that the latest Government announcements now mean that there can be no recreational mountaineering activities for the foreseeable future. Until the current restrictions are relaxed, we are all under instruction to stay at home with extremely limited scope for shopping, exercise and critical work needs as well as avoid meeting with others we are not living with.  

This follows a weekend when Mountain Rescue Teams had a busy period for callouts resulting in unprecedented warnings that they might not be able to respond to future incidents due to capacity issues and an appeal for people to stay off the hills. There were also concerns expressed by rural communities on the continuing number of visitors, the threat this posed to further spread of the Coronavirus and the possible impact to fragile infrastructure. All the events of the weekend have now been overtaken by the latest announcements and it is very clear what our social responsibilities are to ourselves, friends, families and those rural communities who are rightly concerned about the impact of visitors.

We know this will be a challenging time for everyone and the team at Mountaineering Scotland are reorganising the way we work to ensure we continue to deliver the services and activities our members expect from us as best we can. We are taking some tough decisions to cancel our events, and courses over the next 12 weeks but are looking at new ways we can still engage with the Mountaineering Scotland community using online platforms. 

The Granary will be closed for business from today and staff moving to remote working arrangements and we are fortunate that many of our staff are used to working from home so we will continue to respond to emails but would ask that you do not contact us by phone but direct general enquiries to info@mountaineering.scot or info@climbscotland.net 

Communication will be key over the coming months and we also want to ensure we are continuing to provide the best advice and support to our members that we can as the situation evolves.

On behalf of everyone at Mountaineering Scotland, we would like to send our very best wishes to all of our members at this very difficult and challenging time and we hope that we can rely on your continued support over the coming weeks and months. We look forward to getting back to enjoying our sport in its various forms both inside and outside when the time is right for everyone. The hills and mountains will still be there for us and we hope to be welcomed back with the same warmth and hospitality we are used to.

Yours sincerely,