Safety Guidance to Mountaineers Receiving
Professional Instruction from Guides or Instructors
Mountaineering is a risk activity which takes place in a potentially hazardous environment. Summer or winter hill walking, scrambling, rock or ice climbing and ski touring all expose a participant to the possibility of personal injury and even fatal accident. The adventurous nature of these activities is one of its attractions.
'Climbing and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement'.
UIAA Participation Statement
Many mountaineers are initiated into the activity informally through friends and clubs. While the MCofS fully supports this practice as one of the best ways of becoming involved in mountaineering it also recognises the benefits offered by professional guides or instructors. Recent incidents and accidents have led to widespread discussion, especially those that have resulted in legal action. As a result the MCofS offers these guidance notes to members (and any other person) who wishes to benefit from professional instruction by Guides or Instructors.
These notes should be read in conjunction with the MCofS 'Guidance on Safety and Liability for Clubs and Other Organisations', February 1996 and its 'Supplementary Paper - The Organisation of Club Affairs', September 1997 [available from the publications list].
Members taking advantage of professional instruction by Guides or Instructors should keep in mind that :-
- As a mountaineer one is expected to be self reliant and responsible for oneself. The degree to which this is possible will relate to how much experience of mountaineering is possessed. Be objective in assessing ones own experience and technical skill.
- The MCofS endorses the quality of experience, training and technical expertise of British Mountain Guides and Mountaineering Instructors with qualifications endorsed by the United Kingdom Mountain Training Board (UKMTB).
- It is possible for a guide / instructor to make things very safe by ensuring very wide parameters of safety but this may not result in very exciting expeditions or effective instruction.
- Distinguish for yourself whether it is a guiding / leading service that is wanted or an instructional / coaching service.
- Work out with the guide / instructor what is wanted. Make it explicit whether your priority is safety above all else (as will be the case with young people and novices) or whether you want an increased delegation of responsibility for what is done (as may be the situation if improved performance and decision making capacity is the desired outcome).
- Do not mislead the guide / instructor as to your level of experience, technical skill and commitment to being exposed to the full rigours of the activity.
- The client under instruction, as well as the guide / instructor, are still subject to all the hazards of the mountain environment and risks intrinsic to participation in mountaineering.
- Remember that the guide / instructor may conform to all aspects of professional best practice and make all the correct decisions but that an accident may still occur, because mountaineering is a risk sport.
- Accidents involving people in the care of a guide or under formal instruction by qualified leaders and instructors are very unusual, although highly publicised when they do occur.
- It is advisable to take out insurance against accidental injury / death, and check that mountaineering activities are covered by any Life Assurance Policies so that the future of any dependants is secure.
© The Mountaineering Council of Scotland, March 1998
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