UKC

Hi all,

Recently been getting lots of good quality Scottish Winter days out after lots of previous UK hillwalking and scrambling over the years. I'm 19 and haven't really got any plans to do any ML or other qualifications any time soon but someone advised recently that I should be logging mountain days as they would make the process much quicker and cheaper if I did come to do any courses.

Is this the case? And if so, how much would information would I need about each day for it to be credible?

Many thanks...

Alex

In reply to Stani49:

It does make it easier if you do decide to, but if you don't think you are going to then it might not be worth your effort!
If you log them, doesn't need to be too detailed. Date, where you went, were you alone or part of a group, any significant weather or other events of note.

In reply to Stani49:

Cheaper? Not sure how?!

In reply to JayPee630:
I imagine he means that if he had a load of hill days logged already, he wouldn't have to spend money going out specifically to show experience.

In reply to Stani49:

You could use UKH's log feature to record your days. Personally, I find it much easier to log things that way than any more manual method. Different for everybody, though.

In reply to Stani49:

have always kept a hill diary from age 18. Sad I know, but oh so handy when doing ML and SPA to be able to confidently list the relevant dates and details. Plus its good to look back at and remember days out, friends etc.

In reply to Stani49:
When you do your qualifications, Mountain Training would like to see you log your days on their DLOG on their Candidate Management System. https://cms.mountain-training.org/

I might be wrong, but I believe that if you register as a user on their system you can start using DLOG. If registering alone isn't enough, if you register for the Hill and Mountain Skills scheme (£20) then you will definitely get access to the DLOG. Also, going on a Hill or Mountain Skills course will give you a taste of what skills/experience you need to meet the prerequisites of Mountain Leader training.

Hope this helps,
Mehmet

In reply to Luke90:

Or perhaps it's been suggested that if he gains loads of experience, he could apply of exemption from training? Not something I'd necessarily recommend!

To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much, beyond keeping a note of the hills/routes, conditions and anything of particular interest. If you go on to do qualifications, you'll probably do plenty more quality mountain days in the period between training and assessment, and can record those in more detail.

In reply to Stani49:

I got given one of these:- http://www.amazon.de/Gipfellogbuch-Marion-Meyer/dp/3864970784

In reply to Stani49:

I think it's a good idea to keep a hill diary anyway, even if you have no plans to get qualifications. I'd hate to find, thirty years down the line, that I'd forgotten which hills I'd done. That's why I've kept a logbook since day one.

I just use a hardback notebook. Plenty of pages left to fill.

In reply to Stani49:
FWIW, from what I've heard from people who've done the ML thing, what the assessors are particularly keen to see in logbooks is examples of you leading (ie being responsible for the safety of) other people, and/or of dealing with particularly difficult/adverse conditions. I vaguely remember hearing a story about someone who'd logged the requisite number of days but failed to satisfy the assessors they'd been challenging enough or ticked the right boxes and was sent away until they'd got some more suitable experience.