Student Winter Skills Weekend 2026

Supported by:  

The Scottish Mountaineering Trust 



Access to subsidised mountain skills courses and lectures is one of the key benefits of being a Mountaineering Scotland club member. As well as being able to book a place on our general course programme, we organise training activities tailored especially for our university and college clubs.

What's it all about?

This training weekend will give participants a strong grounding in a range of essential skills for venturing into Scotland's mountains in winter that they can build upon in the future and share with fellow club members.

We will cover route-planning, navigation, winter safety, avalanche avoidance, walking with ice axe and crampons, ice axe self-arrest, and much more (conditions permitting). It will not involve any use of ropes. The staffing ratio is 1:6.


Course essentials

  • Date: Fri 16 Jan - Sun 18 Jan 2026
  • Location: Glenmore Lodge, Aviemore, PH22 1QZ

  • Number of places: 60

  • Price per student: £143.25  (includes two nights' accommodation, meals and some equipment - see kit list)

  • Please read our booking and cancellation conditions before booking your place - course fees are non-refundable.

How to book a place

Our student courses are increasingly popular,  therefore we have a booking system that allows us to allocate places fairly.  

Club allocated spaces

  • To ensure your club is included in this event, club representatives are asked to complete the online form included in the course information email to let us know how many places their club would like to book. We will then allocate a number of places per club and share the booking link and deadline.
  • All places must be paid for in advance of the course.

  • Club contacts will be sent your club allocation and booking information on Monday 20 October. The deadline for booking your allocated places of 5pm Wed 3 December 2025.

Book online, registered members only

  • Individual club members can book and pay for their course place themselves, or, club officials can book and pay for a group of members on behalf of the club, all through our members online portal.
  • A student must have an active Mountaineering Scotland membership at the time of booking, which means a club needs to register any new members with us in advance of them being able to book their place. Club secretaries/treasurers can do this quickly and easily, directly through their members online portal login, or, can send us a spreadsheet with new members’ full contact details and we will upload a large number of new members on your behalf.
  • When a course place is booked, each student will receive an email confirmation with joining instructions.
  • All memberships and course places, including those booked by invoice, must be paid for before the course.

Group bookings

If clubs would like to manage the course booking at a committee level and make a group booking as a club official, you can do this in the members portal by visiting the event page in JustGo.

We require the following information at the time of booking:

  • Name and contact details (email and mobile) of each participant
  • Sex (male/female) for room allocation
  • Emergency contact name
  • Emergency contact phone number
  • Relevant health or medical issues, allergies and medications
  • Any dietary requirements

Any questions?

If you have any questions about this course, how to book or how to use our members portal, please get in touch with our membership team on 01738 493942.

Previous participants said:

  • I recently attended the Student Winter Skills course and absolutely loved it. It was so incredibly useful, I feel a lot more confident heading out in winter now.

  • It was a fantastic weekend and one of those rare occasions where you find the hype is much lived up to, and some! I was surprised how much practical material we managed to get through over the weekend, and appreciated the work you and your colleagues all put in to trying to get us all out in the hills and learning in your big Cairngorm Classroom.