In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:
> I'm quite curious about this. The concept of young people wanting a course before they feel able to go hill walking just seems really strange.
It's not the young people wanting a course, it's people (of any age,) wanting to go hill walking or outdoor climbing, not knowing where to start, have anyone to start it with, not having an obvious solution in front of them that is backed by a national body and, above all, is cheap. You say that young people find it easy to do, I have met countless students, all mad keen for the hills, but unsure of the first steps. Sometimes it can take a day and that's all they need, sometimes they want the assurance that when something happens, whiteout, dodgy navigation, rain, etc. That they'll be fine. If people don't want that then fine, I think enough do, and would be grateful to the organisation sorting it out that they hang around themselves.
> If BMC/MCofS have a better opportunity how do you explain that DAV has 939,000 members and BMC 61,500.
I can't speak for the dav, I tried joining once when I lived in Germany, but found it too tricky. I can say that the difference in activities anyone can do fairly cheaply is very different when you compare summit/ Scottish mountaineer to the aac magazine when it comes out. Requests for work parties, trips being organised local events. And the aac in the UK is about 13,000. If I ask myself what I want from my national body, aac does a better job than mcos/ BMC.