Our April navigation courses are postponed. We will be rescheduling them when we can and will be giving priority booking to those who were booked on the April dates. We are in the process of contacting those people who are affected.
Our May courses are currently scheduled to go ahead but we will be reviewing the situation in mid April.

Registered charity Mountain Aid (SC040294) have places available on their introductory Confidence with Navigation training days in April.

​Available dates are:
Wednesday 8th April - Stirling
Saturday 11th April - Ochils (afternoon / evening )
Wednesday 22nd April - Pentlands

Although free for participants, all courses are delivered by fully qualified and insured instructors.

More information and booking available on the Mountain Aid website at https://www.mountainaid.org.uk/.

Four members of the Mountain Aid committee attended this Scottish Parliamentary Reception at Holyrood on 28th January. Organised by Scottish Mountain Rescue and Mountaineering Scotland the event was hosted by Liz Smith MSP. After a number of speeches including one by Damon Powell the Chair of Scottish MR about a rather dramatic rescue on Ben Cruachan, we had time for networking. We renewed old contacts and made new ones and hopefully spread the word about what we, Mountain Aid, are able to contribute to mountain safety.
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Following a period of exceptionally mild and wet weather the snow cover in the Cairngorms has all but disappeared. Recent weather has seen no build up of snow cover and what remains are pockets. Weather forecasts do not suggest any extension to cover and conditions will continue to deteriorate the remaining snow.
 
The likelihood of there being any suitable conditions on the ground is highly unlikely even if snows return during the week. Any cover will be thin and insubstantial and as Mountain Aid is a charity we are not keen to pay out fees with the possibility that the main purpose of the course can’t be achieved.

Therefore we have made the decision to postpone next weeks winter skills course 18th / 19th January). 

Our 2019 submission to OSCR (the Scottish Charity Regulator) has now been published on our website. You can download the report at https://www.mountainaid.org.uk/documents.html.

Our fundraising initiative, Corbetts for Courses, took place over the 3 months of May, June and July 2019. Over the course of the event, more than 200 ascents of corbetts were made including 139 distinct hills. 
In total we raised almost £1200 sufficient to fund 30 places on our navigation and winter skills courses.
More than 70 people took part in the event, some solo, some with family/friends and others in clubs.
The more remote hills were approached by kayak and yachts and we even had a night-time ascent of Goatfell on Arran.
​Mountain Aid extends its thanks to everyone who supported the event.