February may be the shortest month of the year, but there was no shortage of walk reports entered in Walkhighlands.co.uk monthly trip reports competition. 189 reports of walks were posted publicly on the site with everyone in with a chance to win a total of £90 worth of prizes from online outdoor gear retailer Webtogs. This months winner, and £60 to spend at Webtogs, goes to Yokehead. He put in a stack of quality reports, choosing just one was difficult. But the prize goes to his report for Ben Attow in Kintail entitled, That’s Attow Do It. The runner up…

Are you involved with taking the lead as part of your walking or mountaineering club days out? The MCofS are offering members the opportunity to apply for a place on a Summer Mountain Leader Training Course (SMLTB) which will run over two long weekends in September. The MCofS in partnership with Richard Bentley from Mountain Motion are offering club members the opportunity to participate in a SMLTB course based from the Loch Lomond Outdoor Centre at a special discounted rate. The six day, 2 modular course will be held on the following dates: Friday 9th September – Sunday 11th September…

Glencoe-based Keri Page is planning to undertake a solo walk of the UK’s 3 big mountain rounds in one go. The charity challenge which will raise funds for the John Muir Trust and WaterAid, will take in the Bob Graham Round (England), the Paddy Buckley Round (Wales) and the Ramsay Round (Scotland). Overall this amounts to 187 miles, 113 mountain summits and 83,000ft of ascent or roughtly 3 times the height of Everest. Keri, who up until 5 years ago had never climbed a mountain but is now a keen climber, fell runner and hill walker, says: “Each round in…

Are you planning a climbing trip or expedition between April 2011 and end of March 2012? If so, you might want to consider applying for a bursary from the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS). However the deadline for bursary applications is approaching fast, as applications have to be received by the end of February. Applicants must be members of the MCofS. The MCofS supports a wide range of disciplines at any venue in the world: * The MCofS will support traditional style expeditions * The MCofS will support pure rock or pure ice climbs in less remote settings but which…

It appears that UK mountain rescue teams have won their fight to be able to reclaim the VAT spent on kit. Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury,told the House of Commons that money had been put aside to help MRTs with the cost of VAT. The money will be available from April this year and a detailed statement is expected from the Government in the near future. Mountain Rescue, which is funded through donations in England and Wales and receives funding from the Scottish Government in Scotland as well as donations, has to pay VAT on new kit such…

The Government has confirmed that plans to privatise the Search and Rescue service (SAR) throughout Britain have been suspended. As reported on Walkhighlands on 26 January, the Royal Bank of Scotland pulled out of the consortia bidding to run the privatised service following allegations that commercially confidential information had possibly been leaked to one of the companies taking part in the bid. Ministry of Defence (MOD) police are now investigating this allegation. The Government now say that the preferred supplier consortia, Soteria, will not be used. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, issued a statement to Parliament saying: “In mid December, the…

Police have confirmed that the body of missing hill walker Hyder Ali Manir from Worcester was found in the area of Ben Nevis on the afternoon of Sunday 6 February 2011. Mr Manir, aged 20, had been reported missing to Fort William Police on Sunday 30 January 2011 by his cousin, when he had failed to return from climbing Ben Nevis. His cousin had had left him some distance from the snow-covered summit and turned back while Mr Manir continued. Over 900 man hours and eight Mountain Rescue Teams from Lochaber, RAF Kinloss and RAF Valley, Cairngorm, Torridon, Dundonnell, Assynt…