Page 47 - 2020 AMA Summer

WINTER MOUNTAIN LEADER THOUGHTS
By Sean Mackey
The Winter Mountain Leader Award is considered by many to be a ‘Big Tick’. This award allows you take out groups and individuals into the most serious weather conditions the UK can throw at you. It also takes quite a long time achieve with no direct entry point and a hefty amount of pre-requi- sites. Prior to assessment; You must have the Summer Mountain Leader Award already, completed the Winter ML Training course, have a minimum of 40 winter QMDs and 10 Grade One gullies or ridges. Unless you’re blessed with living in one of Scotland’s National Parks or can take some serious time off work, I doubt many people could achieve all that in one season maybe not even two!
I went and thankfully passed my assessment this winter before Cornovirus and COVID-19 shut the country down. I was lucky in as much as I had quite a few friends who already held the award
and they gave me their advice freely. What I have written in
this article are my thoughts and top tips on passing and making your life easier. You may disagree with them but these are solely my opinions and make of them what you will...
Many people register for the civilian award. Looking at the statistics from Mountain Training for 2018 (Ill ignore the more recent 2019 winter as it was particularly poor) 147 people registered for the award. These are all qualified Summer Mountain Leaders and under gone the process for a MT award before and know the score. However, from those only 134 people actually booked and conduct a training course, either at one of the national centres or with independent providers. Those that go onto an assessment and pass are much fewer still at 63 people. Of those that go for the assessment 72.5% get a straight pass, while 22% defer for a variety of reasons. It is only a very small amount who fail. Taking the journey as a whole, the statistics show that the assessment really isn’t the stumbling
block it’s the consolidation period.
The attrition rate to gain the qualification is quite high which can be attributed to a number of factors, but mainly I feel its because you have to commit fully to the process and can’t cut corners. Why am I sharing these statistics with you? Because going for an assessment before you feel ready is a waste of effort and time. You don’t want to be in the 25% who didn’t get the result they wanted.
Fundamentally, you can get yourself in a really strong position to pass before you even get there. I spoke to a Glenmore Lodge assessor and he looks for three things on day one of the course. The first is a bullet proof log book with more days than the required forty. The second is a well written and researched test paper. Finally, that you have all your own kit and equipment that is serviceable and has been well used.
The logbook speaks for itself. Brew a pot of coffee and spend an afternoon going through your logbook and be ruthless with yourself. If you think that something might not be a QMD then I can guarantee
the assessor won’t think it is and take it out.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 47