Our Month: Mountaineering Scotland in October 2025

Our CEO Stuart Younie started the month of October meeting with our new sportscotland partnership manager Sarah Birrell. Sarah takes over from Derk O'Riordan who has taken a secondment opportunity with UK Sport. Sarah is an experienced member of the sportscotland team and has managed the expert resource service for many years so has a good understanding of the challenges faced by Scottish governing bodies of sport and as a keen sailor also has an appreciation of outdoor sports. 

Stuart and Jamie also met with former GB Olympic snowboarder Lesley McKenna to discuss how they might be able to support a review of our climbing performance pathway.  Lesley has an MSC in Performance coaching and has recently submitted her PHD on Ethics in High Performance coaching but as a former athlete has a unique insight in to high performance in the context of action sports like climbing.  

Stuart travelled up to Aberdeen on the 10^th Oct to team up with Gavin Corbett, Policy and Public Affairs Manager to share a stand in the exhibition hall to promote the Scottish Outdoor Recreation Alliance manifesto calling for the establishment of a Scottish Paths Fund. Catriona Davies took over for the Sunday and Monday of the conference and it was a valuable opportunity to make contact with senior politicians ahead of next year's elections. 

Later in the month Stuart met with the CEO of Netball Scotland Ken Hay to discuss their recent move to charitable status and also joined the International Outdoor Safety Forum where the focus of the discussion was on the use of AI.

October started with boots firmly hitting the mountains with the first long weekend of the Summer Mountain Leader training course. This is a six-day training course that we split over 2 long weekends, which allows greater access to those with work or family commitments. We put this training course on primarily aimed at those who want to support a club or youth group.

While I was working on the ML training course and Max supporting clubs, Kirsty was flying out to the USA to attend the International Commission on Alpine Rescue (ICAR) where she represented Scottish Mountain Rescue (SMR) for the avalanche group. Although Kirsty attended out-with her job in Mountaineering Scotland, it is fantastic to have someone so involved who can feed her knowledge into what we do as Mountain Safety Advisors.

The weather then held out for Max and Kirsty delivering the final day navigation course in Arrochar, followed by the clocks changing and the start of the Night Navigation courses in the Pentlands. These courses are an excellent way of improving your existing navigation skills as well as gaining some experience and confidence with the support of an instructor (Kirsty or Max). We still have a few places left on our courses in Dumyat (Stirling) on the 4^th and 5^th Nov.

And Finally, as I write this, the Mountain Safety team are in full prep mode getting ready for the Student SMART weekend. Malcolm Airey, who is the Mountain Safety Instructor for students fully funded by St John Scotland, will be joining us for this too. But Malcolm has also been busy meeting students at various locations around Scotland’s huts to help train and guide them on all things safety now that student clubs are back after their summer break.

The first of November marks the start of our winter access arrangements in Glen Strathfarrar. The winter season, from November through to March, is a busy period for the stalking estates in the glen, so the private glen road is closed to the public. Our normal rights of responsible access still apply, so anyone can walk or cycle up the glen as usual. However, Mountaineering Scotland has secured permission from the landowners for our members to take a limited number of vehicles up the glen. To take advantage of this arrangement you must submit an online request form on our website at least 2 working days before your planned visit. Please read all the information on our website carefully before you make your request.

Thanks to Culligran, Braulen and East Monar Estates who have kindly agreed to continue with the vehicle access arrangements for the 2025/26 winter season. This is following a successful 2024/25 winter season when there were no major issues, in large part due to the efforts of our fantastic local volunteers who maintain the padlocks and the Granary office staff who manage the booking system.

The annual meeting of Local Access Forums (LAFs) and the National Access Forum (NAF) took place this month. This meeting (known as NAF/LAF) is an opportunity to update LAF members and Local Authority staff on the activity of the National Access Forum and give LAF members an opportunity to share and discuss issues and successes from their areas. We also enjoyed a presentation introducing us to the brand new online training course from Scottish Outdoor Access Network (SOAN) aimed at anyone who works in outdoor access, including access officers and countryside rangers. This will be a valuable for resource for those new to the field and those wishing to refresh their knowledge alike.

We responded to the scoping report for another proposed wind farm this month, this time in Glen Markie, in the south-western Monadhliath. As this project is still at an early stage, we were able to take the opportunity to suggest additional viewpoints for inclusion in the Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment that will form part of the full planning application. You can read our response in full here.

The ClimbScotland team have had a busy October, first of, with rounds 3 of the Youth Climbing Series. Round 3 took place in Dundee and Block 10 Bouldering wall on Saturday 11^th October. Our Head Setter Euan reflected on the round saying that the boulders might have been a bit on the tough side but feedback from the day was all positive from those in attendance, including the 118 competitors. Massive thanks to Bloc10 for hosting and well done to Heather and our Competition Coordinators for all their planning and ensuring the comp ran smoothly. At the time of writing this, round 4 has yet to take place but the team will be heading to Transition Extreme in Aberdeen for the final regional round. Good luck everyone!

Robert was busy getting married in October! Massive congratulations to him and Lanah for tying the knot but also doing so during Storm Amy at the Kings House hotel in Glencoe. Not even a power cut could put a dampener on their special day. On his return to work, he was busy launching our new Advanced Belaying workshop which there has been great interest in from members and our clubs.

Jack had the Scottish National Squad down south training at UK Boulder and the Big Depot in Manchester. Lot’s of great feedback from the squad members in attendance and massive thanks to GB Climbing Coach, Clare Freeman for supporting the weekend and Uk Boulder and Big Depot Manchester for accommodating the squad.

Jamie has been working on Mountaineering Scotland’s new Safeguarding Policies over the past few months and finalising them with support from Children First. These will be going to the November board for sign off and will be published and shared with members/clubs in due course. Jamie has also been working on an exciting new partnership with Lost Shore which you’ll hear more about shortly with some great membership benefits!