Courses

Scotland and Winter Skills

Scotland and Winter Skills

Winter Safety Talks 2010 & 2011

The last few winters have helped turn the Irish Mountains into a fantastic winter playground, but these excellent conditions have also turned summer hill walkers into curious winter adventurers, which in turn has lead to some very serious and large scale mountain rescue call outs all over the country.
In an effort to help raise awareness and reduced the risk of serious injury or worse.
This winter season Bren Whelan, who is a full Mountain Instructors Certificate (MIC) holder and member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors is running a series of winter related safety talks around Ireland.
These are run in conjunction with the Irish Mountain Rescue Association (IMRA). On the night there will be 'winter hazards' and equipment talk, combined with a slide show and video section. There will also be a presentation from a representative from the local Mountain Rescue Team discussing their teams winter related accidents and call outs. All proceeds are in aid of the local mountain rescue teams and IMRA. Each of the talks will be delivered in a local outdoor retail store and will hopefully help raise a few Euros for the local shop too!
Cost: These talks are FREE!
These talks are sponsored by www.MountainTraining.ie & Berghuas
Venues as follows:
Donegal, Letterkenny 'WetnWild' - October 20th 2010 - Time: 19.30hrs
Sligo, Sligo Town 'Call of the Wild' - October 29th 2010 - Time: 19.30hrs
Dublin: 'Great Outdoors' November 2nd 2010 - Time: 19.30hrs
Louth, Dundalk Town 'Outdoor Xchange' - January 27th 2011 - Time: 19.30hrs
To book your seat email: bren@mountaintraining.ie

 

 

 

 

In this section you will find information on:

Check out a slide show of last winter: 

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc175/brenwhelan/?action=view¤t=08880319.pbw

Winter Mountaineering Courses

Join us in the magical Scottish Highlands. Once again we are running a full action packed Scottish winter mountaineering skills programme. All our mountaineering courses are progressive and are run at a pace that will allow you to build and develop the skills required to travel above the snow line.

All our Scottish winter mountaineering week long courses are Directed by Bren Whelan, a Full Mountain Instructors Certificate holder with 15 years of experience climbing, working and running courses in Scotland.

Winter skills courses are based in Fortwilliam on the West Coast of Scotland in the shadow of Ben Nevis, the Uk's highest summit (1344m's). We are perfectly positioned for a winter ascent of 'The Ben'. Which is a must for all winter mountaineers and if it's your first time, then during your winter mountaineering week we will take to the top of this awesome mountain!

Email: bren@mountaintraining.ie

Prices include modern self-catering accommodation, airport transfers and travel with-in Scotland. Candidate's must provide their own food. All courses are five full days of mountain activities with one day of travel either side.

Course fees also include the use of the following:

Ice axe, crampons, helmet, harness, shovels and ropes


We only employ FULL Mountain Instructors (MIC) or Mountain Guides on our courses. These are the highest awards available for working and instructing in the winter hills. These instructors have attained the highest awards to keep you as safe as possible in the winter mountains, you should use these as the Q mark awards for your personal safety which we take very seriously. WARNING!Don't book a course with under or unqualified instructors. For details check www.ami.org.uk


Introduction to Scottish Winter Mountaineering
This course introduces you to the wonders of Scotland under it's winter mantel. During a week in the Scottish Highland's you will ascend some of the classic peaks on the West Coast, many of which are over the magical 3000foot mark, Ben Nevis, is just one of the classic summits we climb during the week. This course will introduce the essential techniques required for travel above the snowline in the Scottish hills in the winter.

You will learn:- step kicking, step cutting, crampon use, ice axe arresting, basic avalanche awareness, basic winter rope techniques,how to build an emergency shelter

This Scottish winter mountaineering course is also ideal for anyone travelling to the Alp's or further afield to ascend one or all of the Seven Summits.

This winter training course also includes evening lectures on Avalanche Awareness / Eduction, Route Planning and World Climbing & Mountaineering.

Email: bren@mountaintraining.ie


Previous Experience – Summer hill walking and a good level of fitness

Ratio: 1:6

Technical Scottish Winter Mountaineering
In 2003 we developed this course and it has proved to be a great success for those who wish to develop the skills to travel in more remote mountain areas under harsh winter conditions. This course builds on the basic skills of winter mountaineering and moves on to cover more advanced techniques such as: avalanche assessment, winter mountaineering rope work, winter navigation, expedition and route planning, snow cave construction. During this course you will spend three days and two nights on expedition in the highlands and you will dig, construct and sleep in a snow cave, a fantastic experience not to be missed! This is Scottish winter mountaineering at it's best and we run the bench mark winter skills training course in the biggest and best mountains on Scotlands West Coast.

Email: bren@mountaintraining.ie

Previous experience – Intro Winter or Alpine mountaineering course along with a very good level of mountain fitness

Ratio: 1:6


Link: http://www.mountaintraining.ie/index.php?lnk=schedule&uid=226

Rope work info: http://mountaintraining.ie/index.php?uid=17&lnk=information

Avalanche reports and info: http://www.sais.gov.uk/latest-forecasts.asp

 


See a list of scheduled courses