The Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) has teamed up with mountain guiding company Chicks Unleashed to provide a series of women-only GPS training courses.

The day-long courses will be held at Glenmore Lodge near Aviemore on 15 and 16 May 2010 and cost £25. The course will begin with a short (approx 1 hour) introduction session indoors for participants to familiarise themselves with the GPS units. This will be followed by practical sessions in the woods around Glenmore and later out on the hill. The courses will be tutored by Heather Morning, MCofS Safety Officer, and Rosie Goolden from Chicks Unleashed. Advance booking is necessary see the McofS website for more details.

Guys have not been totally left out of the picture as places remain on four GPS navigation courses that the MCofS is running in October 2010. Click here for details of those courses.

The habits of some of St Kilda’s smallest inhabitants will soon be uncovered, as the University of Edinburgh begins a three-year study of the archipelago’s native field mouse.

The St Kilda Field Mouse is unique to the islands, which are owned and cared for by the National Trust for Scotland. Although field mice are common through the UK, the ones on St Kilda are unusual for several reasons, the most notable being that they are nearly twice the weight of their relatives on the mainland and have different hair colouration on their belly. They also live in unusual conditions, in that they have almost no predators on the islands and share the grass and herb food supply with only one other mammal, the diminutive Soay sheep.

Another subspecies of mouse unique to the islands, the St Kilda House Mouse, became extinct shortly after the evacuation of the archipelago in 1930.

While the St Kilda Field Mouse has been known about for many years, almost nothing is known about its numbers, habits or life cycle. The PhD study intends to uncover the manner in which these creatures live in order to understand how much they differ from mainland mice and to better conserve them in the future. Tom Black has been appointed to carry out the research and will travel to St Kilda in November to begin work on the mice.

The work is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, the National Trust for Scotland and Scottish National Heritage. Dr Richard Luxmoore, Senior Nature Conservation Adviser at the Trust, said, “We are particularly keen to find out about this little animal because we don’t want the same fate to befall it as its former neighbour. We need to know how many there are, where they live, what they eat and how they survive the winter on these seemingly inhospitable islands.”

Tom Black, the PhD student undertaking the research, said, “It is very exiting to have the opportunity to study a British mammal about which so little known. Being able to address so many questions about the ecology and evolution of these mice within a single study and in a location as incredible as St Kilda is a rare privilege.” It is not known what Tom thinks about starting his research in November on St Kilda which is renowned for its winter storms.

With the clocks having gone back this past weekend we will soon have winter upon us. Hillwalkers and climbers will be looking out their ice axe, crampons and headtorches, but it takes much more than just these to be ready for winter. To help hill walkers and climbers prepare for winter the MCofS (Mountaineering Council of Scotland) is providing a free Winter Safety programme.

The programme includes free Winter Safety Lectures and a range of webpages with comprehensive guidance on mountain safety in winter. In addition to this specific winter programme, the MCofS also funds the Mountain Weather Information Service, which operates throughout the year, but which provides a particularly vital resource for mountaineers in winter.

Details of the MCofS guidance on Winter Safety are available here on Walkhighlands.

The Mountain Weather Information Service can be found at mwis.org.uk.

MCofS also urges all mountain users to check the sportscotland Avalanche Information Service (SAIS), which provides daily reports on snow conditions and a forecast for the major climbing areas of Scotland. Their free daily reports are available at: http://www.sais.gov.uk/ from December onwards.

MCofS Mountain Safety Adviser Heather Morning said: “Last year (2008) there were 387 mountain rescue call-outs in the Scottish mountains, of which 142 were in the winter season. There were also sadly a total of 20 fatalities during the year, 10 of which occurred during winter. Folk heading out onto the hills in winter should aim to take advantage of the advice and information on offer, to ensure a safe and enjoyable day on the hill.” Heather went on to say: “As well as making sure you have an ice axe, and crampons that fit, remember that winter days are shorter and colder, so a headtorch with spare batteries is essential. A simple bivouac shelter is also a very good addition to the kit you carry in your winter rucksack.”

MCofS Chief Officer David Gibson said: “The MCofS puts a lot of its resources into winter mountain safety education, and for good reason. Scotland’s mountains in winter can be incredibly beautiful and rewarding, but they can also be extremely hostile when the conditions turn rough; which they can do at a moments notice.”

The MCofS has recently secured sponsorship from Buff for the free series of Winter Safety Lectures in Aviemore, Fort William and Glencoe.

Uags bothy

The MBA maintain a number of buildings in remote areas for use as shelters open to all. These buildings do not belong to the MBA, they remain in private ownership. From time to time, there is evidence, either in the form of actual use or in advertising, that some of these bothies are being used by commercial organisations as overnight accommodation for their clients. Such use is not a permitted activity under the MBA’s agreements with the owners of these buildings unless that owner has given specific permission.

Unauthorised commercial use of bothies places the good relations that the MBA has with the owners under some strain and may even result in closure of a bothy. It is also unfair to legitimate users arriving at the bothy who may have difficulty finding space, being made unwelcome or even rejected as has happened in some cases.

Commercial organisations that wish to use bothies to accommodate their clients or for any other purpose must obtain permission from the owner of the building. In most cases, the bothy owner is the estate owner. Organisations having difficulty finding bothy owner contact details can send a message with appropriate details to the MBA website and the MBA will try to help.

Despite 18,000 objections, the controversial proposed power line between Beauly and Denny – running through some of the most beautiful parts of the Highlands, is expected to get the go ahead from the Scottish Government in the next few weeks, according to the BBC and other sources.

The new line, which will involve the building of 600 pylons of up to 200 feet in height, is to stretch from Beauly near Inverness to Denny near Falkirk.

The former MSP Dennis Canavan, president of the troubled Ramblers Association Scotland, said on the BBC Politics show, “If it does get the go-ahead then it will be an unacceptable act of vandalism. In Scotland we’re very blessed, we’ve got some of the most scenic countryside in the world. It’s a national asset, it’s something that we should be looking after not just for ourselves but for future generations.” Mr Canavan pointed out that the enquiry refused to consider alternative means of transmission, such as a sub-sea cable or taking the power lines round the east coast of Scotland. It was also claimed that the existing power lines could transmit the power from all the windfarms currently in planning permission across the Highlands.

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland commented that “if it proceeds, the power line will damage some of Scotland’s most important and beautiful mountain landscapes, including a section of the Cairngorms National Park. Scotland’s landscape encourages people from all walks of life to enjoy the mountains, which offer opportunities for recreation, relaxation and tourism. The prospect of a new industrial landscape in the Highlands is one that will have a negative impact on all these activities.”

See also:
Maps of the proposed route are available on the website of Scottish and Southern Energy
Mountaineering Council of Scotland
Ramblers Scotland

Walkhighlands today launched its new intelligent search feature, Find-a-walk.

Want to search for walks which visit lighthouses? Looking for easier (Grade 3) walks up Munros and want to know which of these are rated as the best? Interested in coastal walks with a link to the Highland Clearances? Perhaps you want to find forest routes between 5 and 7 kilometres long with a maximum of 300 metres of ascent and no bad bogs? How about island walks which visit sandy beaches?

Find-a-walk lets you search our database of over 900 routes in all these ways and many more. You can order the results by length, difficulty, how many hills are included or how our users have rated the route. The start points of the walks are shown on a map so you can quickly find the routes that interest you.

Why not have a go and Find-a-walk now? You can access it from any page on the site using the button in the top right corner.