Our Month: Mountaineering Scotland in May 2025

Ross drove up to Glenmore Lodge in the standard (for this year) glorious sunshine for the STAG meeting, which stands for 'Snowsports Touring Advisory Group'. We discussed all the things that effected ski/board touring in Scotland this winter, but there was a common theme of sparse conditions. However, it was noted that several excellent new books on the subject came out this winter with the updated SMC guide due winter '25/6.

With winter now truly over and the last patches of snow fading, Mountaineering Scotland would love anyone who had a 'near-miss' or actual incident to share their experience with us so we can continue to learn and inform ourselves with what issues are affecting our activities. This can be done via our website here.

Max and Ross were out enjoying full summer sunshine with the Mountain Skills weekend which this year was held near Crianlarach. As well as the usual topics of navigation, movement on steep and broken ground and emergency procedures, we also needed to consider the other 'glaringly' obvious hazard - heat and sunshine. 

The team were joined by Iain Murray (team leader of Locharber Mountain Rescue Team) for the Intro to Scrambling course in stunning Glencoe. Again, we had fantastic weather which allowed all participants to explore and gain the skills and confidence needed to tackle parts of the mountains off the beaten tracks. Kirsty Pallas,  fellow Mountain Safety Advisor wasn't able to join us this year as she was on a first aid course to keep herself up-to-date!

New volunteer Director for Clubs, Steven Johnson, hosted the first clubs online meeting of 2025 at the start of the month. The main focus of the meeting was a presentation by Wendy McBain from Volunteer Disclosure Scotland on changes to the PVG scheme and what that means for club members and committees. The next meeting is scheduled for early August.

Our communications this month have been focussed around National Walking Month and Mental Health Awareness Week, with a series of inspirational ‘Scotland’s Favourite Walks’ blogs, chosen by some of the Mountaineering Scotland staff and board members, along with some helpful insights into mental health and supporting someone in mental distress by Cory Jones from the First Aid Training Cooperative. You can read more about all of these in the News section of the Mountaineering Scotland website.

CEO Stuart Younie appeared on BBC Landward, showing Dougie Vipond the progress that has been made on repairs to the mountain path on An Teallach, as part of the It’s Up to Us campaign, which has just reached the £250,000 mark of the £300,000 fundraising appeal, two years after it launched. Definitely worth a watch, if not just for the stunning views!

Senior Mountain Safety Adviser Ross and Communications Officer Megan, made the most of the sunshine and met up with the team from Tiso to film a series of short summer social media videos. If you loved the winter videos they produced, you’ll definitely want to see these, so keep an eye on our Instagram and Tic Tok over the coming months.

And finally, the new issue of Scottish Mountaineer magazine is fresh off the press and on it’s way to members, with the digital version available online – just log into the members portal to download the link to view it now.

Our programme activity in May has ticking along following a busy April with programme activity happening both indoors and outdoors. Robert has been busy delivering RealRock – Mountain Training Rock Skills sessions at Benny Beg and for the first time at ‘the bunker’. Robert was joined by two super psyched young climbers Over the two sunny days at two venues, and learned loads of new skills that will keep them safe when we are out at the crag.

We also had our first Big Mountain RealRock of 2025 seeing the a father and daughter duo exploring the steep grounds of Buachaille Etive Mor under the supervision and guidance of the amazing Kirsty Pallas.

Jack, Lucy, routesetters and coaches organised and delivered a comp route sim at EICA for Scotland Squads academy programme. Lucy and her team put up some hard comp routes for the squad to have a go at, in preparation for the upcoming Irish and Scottish Climbing championships… and wow did the squads put in one hell of a shift! So amazing to get a chance to work with a group of climbers that are so keen to take on and learn from these sorts of opportunities! Massive thank you to the coaches for bringing it all together, the setters for providing the terrain, EICA for hosting us, and of course the parents for getting the squads over to us for the weekend!

Heather and Jamie have been busy in the background getting things ready for the 2025 Scottish Youth Climbing Championships and Round 3 of the new British Speed Series which will take place on the weekend of the 21-22 June at EICA, which will be awesome and look forward to welcoming everyone too. Bookings are still open and more info can be found here.