Thread: Mountain Leader

Afternoon chaps,

A young relative of mine has just turned 21 and being very keen on his hillwalking and expeditioning has shown an interest in the Mountain Leader Award. I've heard dimly of this and have done some rapid Googling, and I wondered if there's any posters on here with any knowledge of it, specifically;

1. Is 21 old enough? He's fairly experienced as people that age go, worked his way through all three Duke of Edinburgh Awards, been a boy scout and goes off hiking pretty frequently but would all this pre-18 stuff count?

2. How much does the training and assessment usually cost? I'm considering funding it as another 21st birthday present, but I've no idea of ballpark figures, whereabouts in the country offers the best experience at a reasonable price etc. He's not joining up or associated with the OTC so doing it in green's unfortunately not an option.

3. What experiences did anyone here have of doing it? Anything he should be aware of or brush up on? Has it been useful in the long term?

Thanks for any help.
BZ

Bump; posting this at lunchtime when nobody's looking at the sports forum was evidently a bad plan.

I have done my ML Training and just getting days now before assessment.
21 is feasible and his pre 18 experience will count. As a guide though what ever the minimum days the guidance notes say (40 I think) you want to look at nearer double... and in several areas of the UK i.e. Lakes, North Wales and Scotland. South Wales is ok but they like more experience in the steeper environment.

Check out this as a start:
Mountain Leader Award | Mountain Leader Training England

The MLTE site will tell you all bout the award and requirements plus it has links to course running so you can check out prices dates etc.

Hope that helps!

Now I await the usual responses

but if he's into that sort of stuff he could do worse than join the cadets as an AI, courses are cheap, £30 for Summer Mountain leader training, and plenty of opportunity to get his practice time in with groups etc.