Page 45 - 2023 AMA Spring

HOT TOPICS ONLINE BRITISH MOUNTAINEERING COUNCIL
The BMC is teaming up with the British Mountain Medicine Society to offer members and non-members 1-2 days first aid training at Hathersage, Derbyshire over the weekend 13-14 May 23. Specialist topics include children & mountains, altitude & acclimatisation, avalanche medicine and ticks & lyme disease, amongst others, and priced £108 - £180 depending on membership status and duration.
MOUNTAIN TRAINING ASSOCIATION
In 2023, the MTA will continue to offer their free MTA Mentoring Programme to trainees who have successfully passed one of their training courses. MTA Mentors offer one-to-one support to trainees as they progress to assessment. For more information on the scheme and how to apply, search Mentoring Programme 2023 on the official MTA website.
MOUNTAINEERING SCOTLAND
January 2023 witnessed a pivotal moment as Scotland celebrated 20 years of statutory access rights following the introduction of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The Act provides the public with the legal freedom to roam the land, with some restrictions, with the Scottish Outdoors Access Code acting as a handrail to responsible behaviour. Stuart Younie, CEO of Mountaineering Scotland said: “It is important that we celebrate the passing of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and acknowledge the tremendous amount of work carried out by the individuals and organ- isations involved in drafting the legislation and particularly those representing the mountaineering community. The right to access Scotland’s landscapes and nature unhindered is something to cherish and protect.”
DARTMOOR NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY
The long held belief that the public has a legal right to wild camp on Dartmoor has been challenged in the High Court with Sir Julian Flaux, Chancellor of the High Court, concluding that, contrary to popular interpretation, section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 does not extend such a right. This view is not shared by the National Park Authority who claim that the act, properly construed, did grant such a right and that there was a local custom of camping on Dartmoor Common that had the force of law irrespective of the Act. As they seek to appeal the High Court decision, DNPA with the Dartmoor Commons’ Owners Association, are working on a fee-based permissive system that, if implemented, could see the right to camp protected through a voluntary scheme. Watch this space!
MOUNTAIN RESCUE ENGLAND AND WALES
March 2023 will see the launch of the new AdventureSmart UK Toolkit to businesses operating in the Lake District. The toolkit, created by AdventureSmart UK in collaboration with Lake District Visitor Safety Group, offers simple advice to visitors and outdoor users in an effort to reduce those incidents that lead to avoidable callouts for the emergency services and local mountain rescue teams.
THE INTERNATIONAL CLIMBING & MOUNTAINEERING FEDERATION (UIAA)
Earlier this year, the UIAA reaffirmed its commitment to creating an international database of mountain accidents and near misses. The database will offer a broad dataset that supports the safety related work of UIAA Commission, risk management and accident prevention whilst also encouraging member associations to develop their own accident and incident reporting systems that will ultimately contribute to building the dataset further. The Working Group that was set up to progress this pandemic delayed initiative aims to research existing accident reporting frameworks and conduct trend analysis to arrive at data-driven recommendations on accident reporting and prevention in the mountains.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 45
all the disciplines, with the aspiration that some of those who gain these qualifica- tions will continue on to higher levels.
Having seen what Halton has in the way of real estate, we hope to expand our centre there, offering more courses and in addition, enabling unit use of the expertise and the equipment there when the centre is not being used by CCAT. The UK is a big old place, especially in these times of disrupted travel, so we also intend to take the mountain to Mohamed, as they say, by running a number of concentra- tions in regions away from the centre like Scotland and the Southwest.
And what does this have to do with the AMA, you might well ask? Well, despite the ACF and CCF(A) being a uniformed youth organisation and not a recruiting tool for the Army, many cadets do join the Army, influenced by their positive cadet experience. All of them will have expedi- tioning skills, be that through mandated syllabus expeditions or the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, and many of them will have been exposed to rock climbing as it is an equipment-light, locally available option for the mandated AT syllabus. This means they have all been exposed to the underpinning activities of our association, albeit at a very basic level. However, those who elect to carry on with AT throughout their cadet years will have the opportunity to advance their skills and now we have adopted NGB qualifications, might even have gained lower-level awards (NGB awards can be gained at younger ages than JSAT awards). Therefore, some of them may be useful future AMA members!
If you have any AT qualifications, and remember, we might have parted ways with the JSAT scheme but we still recognise JSAT awards, and you would like to help develop some more AMA members, type your postcode into the search function on ‘www.army cadets. com’ to find your nearest ACF detachment and volunteer.