Thursday 18th December 2025, 12:13pm
As 2025 comes to a close, it’s time to look back and celebrate another full year of work on behalf of our members - from safety to access, climbing to conservation, clubs to community.
Early in the year (February), we published our new strategy for 2025–29 after Board approval — and began exploring expansion of the Board from 10 to 12 members, including a dedicated Chair role.
Throughout the year, under the leadership of our CEO, Stuart Younie, we maintained strong governance: the Finance Advisory Group and Board oversaw a surplus for 2024/25 and forecast another for 2025/26, although rising costs loom.
We saw a few staff changes and new appointments in 2025; we said farewell to long-serving colleagues and welcomed new team members in key roles including Charmaine as Membership & Admin Officer (April), and Christina as Membership & Club Development Officer (September) to support club growth and engagement.
These developments underpin our ability to deliver across all activities, from access, safety and training to member services and communication.
We continued to champion responsible access, conservation, and path maintenance, working alongside clubs, volunteers, and partner organisations.
Early in the year, Davie Black retired after 7 years as Access & Environment Officer with Mountaineering Scotland. In June, we welcomed his replacement, Catriona Davies, who has been continuing the work to protect our responsible access rights and getting stuck into conservation projects. Catriona has already responded to many planning consultations, wind farm proposals and car park and forestry plans, and has been an active contributor of the Radical Road Working Group regarding the reopening of climbing access in the Salisbury Crags area in 2026.
Our It's Up to Us campaign, in partnership with Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS) started the final phase of repair work on the An Teallach path as fundraising edged closer to the £300,00 target. You can still donate to this project to help complete the work early next year. In September, a team of volunteers including members of Mountaineering Scotland, the BMC and OATS path volunteers spent a rainy few days on Skye, clearing 122 cross drains on paths leading up to the Cuillin and planting 200 native trees.
Our commitment to improving mountain safety and training has continued through 2025. The Mountain Safety Group (MSG) continued to meet regularly, including a June meeting which welcomed representatives from the newly formed England & Wales Mountain Safety Forum. Across the seasons, mountain safety work has considered changing risks, especially in response to hotter, drier summers, warmer and wetter winters, and an increase in rescue callouts, with the MSG now factoring this into a draft strategy for Mountain Safety in Scotland.
In Summer, we trialled new venues for navigation course in Fort William, Glencoe, Kinlochleven, and Kingussie. Come autumn and winter, the team prepared a robust schedule of winter-skills courses, from night navigation to avalanche companion rescue, ready for the colder months ahead.
These efforts reflect our ambition to ensure climbers and hill-walkers — new and experienced alike — have the skills, support, and awareness they need to stay safe.
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2025 was a big year for climbing development and youth engagement under our ClimbScotland programme. Early in the year, planning and moderation of our FUNdamentals of Climbing coaching workshops (FUNdas) got underway, helping ensure consistent quality across providers for 2025.
The Scottish climbing competition scene was thriving with 941 athletes competing across the year from all over the country. In April, we delivered the Scottish Boulder Championships with a record turnout of 225 competitors, including for the first time a senior category. A huge thanks to the 50+ volunteer judges and belayers, dedicated competition coordinators and brand partners for their support.
We said goodbye to ClimbScotland Head Setter, Lucy Ross in the summer, and welcomed her replacement, Euan McFayden. Lucy and Euan both worked closely with Jack, ClimbScotland Talent and Pathways Officer, to develop training sessions for our National and Development Squad teams. 2025 was a successful year for both teams with podium places secured across both national and international competitions.
Summer saw a big push for access to bouldering and sport climbing. We had a successful season welcoming new and developing climbers through our RealRock and Ready to Rock programmes, including new Outdoor Bouldering courses. In June, we ran Scotland’s first Bouldering Wall Instructor training, opening up coaching opportunities for volunteers from community groups.
In July, Mountaineering Scotland made a strategic investment in the only international standard speed-climbing wall in the UK, supporting the installation of new IFSC-certified holds at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena (EICA) Ratho. This is a huge support to elite training and competition-level speed climbing in Scotland. A massive congratulations to Ava Hamilton, who became Britain’s fastest female speed climber in October with a time of 7.897 seconds.
This year we invested in our members, offering more benefits, engaging communications, and stronger support for clubs and individuals.
At the start of the year, we said goodbye to Karen McVeigh and welcomed her replacement Charmaine Duthie as Membership Admin Officer. Charmaine has worked hard over the year helping answer member enquiries, processing membership renewals and developing new member benefits.
We expanded retail discounts for members with new brands coming onboard including Lu Innovations, AllTrails, OS Maps, Scottish Mountaineering Press, Hydro Flask and more! As well saving money on shopping, members can also save on a range of accommodation with discounts at over 60 locations across Scotland. Find all your member benefits here.
In September, we welcomed a new Membership & Club Development Officer, Christina Skounti, to support club and membership sustainability and growth. Christina has already started engaging with members, helping clubs recruit and navigate governance and insurance changes.
The team has had an incredibly busy year in terms of events, with Fort William Mountain Festival in February, the International Winter Climbing Meet in March, and supporting our other teams with Climbing competitions, student and volunteer weekends, and our Winter Unlocked talks in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Communications Officer Megan, who joined late 2024, has settled into the role, publishing two issues of Scottish Mountaineer in June and November and applying a new strategy to our digital communications on social media and via email to drive community engagement and provide valuable content to our audiences.
Some of our favourite campaigns from this year include National Walking Month in May, International Women’s Day, and of course ThinkWINTER.
2025 has been a busy, productive and strategically significant year for Mountaineering Scotland. We have strengthened our foundations, supported our community of members, invested in safety and development, and continued our commitment to protecting Scotland’s mountains.
In 2026 we’re looking forward to continuing to deliver our 2025-29 strategy, developing our course offerings, and building on the community engagement we loved so much this year!
To every member, volunteer, staff member, partner organisation and supporter: thank you.
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ClimbScotland is a registered trademark of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland Limited
Mountaineering Scotland is a registered trademark of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland Limited
