Student safety

Slightly belated write up of a day out last weekend working as a volunteer instructor for Mountaineering Scotland (MCofS) at Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms. This was the annual Student Safety weekend, where lots of students from Scottish university climbing and hillwalking clubs get the chance of a heavily subsidised weekend of mountain skills. I was helping run the Mountain Skills day, and had students from Dundee and Edinburgh in my group. We spent a couple of hours learning/refreshing the basics of map and compass work---taking a bearing off the map, sighting and following a bearing, before adding in some pacing and timing. It was then off onto the hill to do it for real, with everyone showing they had a good grasp of the skills.  We were below the freezing line so although we had some wintry showers, nothing was settling for long at our altitude. Higher up snow was accumulating quickly from the looks of things, with some beefy showers being pumped in on a cold Northerly.  We then headed down, chatted through what equipment to take as a group on Scotland's hills, and practised what to do in case of an accident. This weekend is a great resource for Scotland's university clubs, and it was a pleasure to help out and pass on some skills.