Mountain Skills

Gareth, our guide in Mont Blanc, made a throwaway comment that stuck with me. On our 2nd last day in Chamonix I indicated that my daughter and myself would go off by ourselves and do some hiking in the Chamonix Valley. Gareth said, sure no problem, as long as I had map and compass skills that shouldn’t be a problem for us. As it transpires we followed tough, but well-worn paths that are part of the TMB, so it was all fine, but I did realise that if I wanted to truly experience and be comfortable in the hills and mountains then I did need some navigation skills beyond Alltrails!

Back in Ireland I did some research and found that there are a couple of mountain skills courses, accredited by Mountaineering Ireland, targeting people like me who want to learn about navigation, developing confidence in the mountains and who knows maybe going on to lead groups.

I signed up for the imaginatively named course Mountain Skills 1 and met a bunch of like-minded people all at different stages and with different reasons for wanting to develop their mountain confidence and skills. MS1 is a two-day course, available through an ever-increasing number of accredited trainers (post Covid, there has been a massive growth in all things mountainy!) where you learn and practice the basics around navigation, mountain safety, hazards and equipment. Aspects of it brought me back to school Geography in terms of reading maps and measuring distance. MS2 is a follow-on 2 day course where more advanced navigation and night-navigation and leading skills are taught. What I wanted to get out of the training was the confidence to take on new routes or become more of a leader in the hills rather than just a follower or even to go off-trail in exploring new areas. So with these now under my belt the intent is to get out and practice my newly acquired mountain skills and build up a log of hikes before taking on the assessment.