GUEST ARTICLE Remote Toilet Challenges Responsibilities and retrospective thinking by Amanda Roll-Pickering and Louise Halestrap Centre for Alternative Technology When we enjoy the beauty of our mountains, our last intention is to damage their fragile environment. But, whether on a day walk in the Highlands or a trek in Nepal, we have all been caught short up a mountain, or been tempted to leave that biodegradable apple core or banana skin behind. Sadly 'biodegradable' is not always good for the environment. The higher up the mountain the more difficult it is for life to cling on there, so the less bugs there are to eat your deposits. On busy routes and passes, poo and litter builds up and becomes a big problem. This is particularly bad in really high tourist hotspots like Mount Fuji in Japan and the popular trekking routes in the Himalayas, but is an unpleasant problem on well-walked paths in our local mountains. Closer to home, it is not uncommon to find flush toilets in bothies that run out, untreated, into the nearest loch or burn. Untreated poo doesn't just spoil the natural environment; it can make us very ill. There are a variety of diseases that are related to sewage ranging from E. coli, Salmonella, Cryptosporidium and Enteroviruses: the symptoms of these range from mild stomach upsets, to vomiting, acute diarrhoea and even death. This disgusting problem is easily remedied without connecting the most remote crags and high passes to a mains sewage supply. Low-tech solutions are cheap, easy to build, environmentally friendly and more hygienic. The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) helps people find the most appropriate sewage solutions for mountains and other isolated locations. CAT is itself remote, located in the beautiful Cambrian mountains of Mid-Wales. We have no mains water or sewage, so treat all our drinking water and sewage independently without using energy or chemicals (no mean feat as we have 1000 visitors a day in summer). We have worked on projects as far flung as the Indian Himalayas, Mount Fuji in Japan and Thurso! CAT worked with Palenquin Travels, a trekking company who lead tours through the Zanzker Valley in the Himalayas. As the popularity of their route increased, the environmentally aware company became very concerned about the quantities of poo that was generated. Up to 3 groups of 20 people were camping in one location every night for the whole season. That's 60 poos a day for 4 months = over 7000 poos! These were liberally spread all over common land, so barefoot Zansker children often became ill from contact with foreign bugs that they are unaccustomed to. CAT designed a compost toilet that was sensitive to the local environment and to the local culture to be built at the most popular campsites. Young volunteers installed this last year with help from Palenquin. Closer to home, we designed a reed bed system for the Pinnacle Club (the only women's mountaineering club in England and Wales) at the base of Snowdon. The design combined a traditional septic tank with twin reed beds that is working well after 4 years in use. We also designed a very clever system for an isolated house in the wilds of the Scottish tundra that included a solids separator and composting unit, so it is a flush compost loo! Easy to empty and with a nice product to enrich the poor acid soils of the garden. Ecology and sustainability are our underlying principles. We find it frustrating that in high mountains with many visitors, facilities are sometimes discouraged for aesthetic or conservation reasons, and hugely damaging toilet systems are installed (like the New Zealand model of flush toilets with helicopters to ship the waste away!), rather than environmental protection. If we are prepared to damage these areas with our mere presence, then we should be prepared to repair the damage in the most environmentally responsible way, even if this means sticking a compost toilet on a mountain pass. CAT was set up in a disused slate quarry in the 1970s by a group of committed environmentalists. They formed a community to experiment with new, green technologies. Almost thirty years later, their pioneering dreams have grown to become Europe's largest eco-centre, gaining a worldwide reputation as one of the leading organisations demonstrating and advising on ecological technologies and lifestyles. Our mission is to inspire, inform and enable people to explore new ways of living. We have a visitor centre aimed at all age groups, with a wide range of interactive displays that provocatively address the environmental aspects of our lifestyles and the steps we can take towards greener living. Each year 70,000 visitors come to look and learn. CAT especially encourages visitors to use sustainable transport - there's even a discount if you arrive by train, bus, cycle or walk (it's a long walk from Scotland). Amanda is CATs well travelled media officer and Louise is Head of Biology and author of “Lifting the lid” - an ecological approach to sewage treatment (available from CAT). For more information, contact CAT (01654) 705950; email: info@cat.org.uk, website: www.cat.org.uk.

SAFETY & TRAINING NEWS Hillwalking Special Offer - available from the MCofS Hillwalking is the official handbook of the Mountain Leader and Walking Group Leader schemes. The book is a reference tool for every walker as well as for those who wish to lead in the hills. There are three main parts:- Getting Around in the Hills. The Upland Environment. Party Management One of the features of the book is the boxed sections which occur whenever there is any information that is especially relevant to leaders. This allows the main topics to be addressed from the viewpoint of an individual walker and this makes the book very user-friendly for the recreational hillgoer. The headings of the first two parts are clearly relevant to all walkers not just potential leaders and the book covers a wide range of important topics. The first sentence of Part III Party Management clearly places this section well within the interest of recreational club hillwalkers, “A leader's responsibility can range from a nominal role within a group of equals, through to the challenges and rewards of caring for a party of novices.” The section goes on to discuss the subconscious links and alliances that are formed within any group and the pecking order that is established. This may seem anathema to some recreational mountaineers but members of many club groups will recognise this phenomenon and be aware of how different personalities deal with this issue. “Duty of Care” lurks around here somewhere and individuals and clubs ignore this at their peril. This section also covers hazards and risk management, ropework and how to deal with incidents and injuries. There is a great deal of useful information in this book and at £14.99 it is excellent value. order books   Winter Resoling By Roger Wild The Soul of the Gael is on the summit of the mountain……..but are your soles up to the job? A mountaineer's safety is dependent on secure footwork. Worn down soles make it more difficult to be secure, especially in winter. Now's the time to have a look at your winter boots and see if they need resoling - don't wait until the first snows of the autumn when it will be too late to send them off.   MCofS Safety & Good Practice Seminar for Scottish University Mountaineering, Climbing and Hillwalking Clubs 22nd & 23rd November 2003 - Glenmore Lodge, Aviemore The seminar is aimed at Senior University Club members or those who might expect to be in a position of responsibility by virtue of their experience, organisational remit or committee membership. The weekend will NOT focus on introducing new or inexperienced members to climbing or hill walking, or provide much in the way of purely personal skills training. Union or university employees will also be invited if they have an overview of club organisation or safety issues. The programme will cover a wide range of subjects including:- Duty of Care Choice, care and maintenance of pooled equipment Basic First Aid and Emergency Care Incident Management Safety on Scotland's Winter Mountains Minimising risk and doing practical risk assessments Qualifications and Experience PRACTICAL SESSIONS Hillwalking Moving on Steep Ground Rock Climbing For further details please contact the MCofS Mountain Safety Adviser, Roger Wild. roger@mountaineering-scotland.org.uk   Risk, planning & preparation young mountaineers and traffic By Roger Wild I've just had a couple of thought provoking days involving my 17 year old son who has started to branch out onto the hills on his own. Yesterday morning he decided to climb Gulvain, a Munro to the west of Fort William where we live. His plan was to cycle from Fort William to Kinlocheil, climb the peak and cycle home. A simple enough plan and yet I had a nagging doubt. It was a cloudy day and visibility would be poor. He was going alone and, although he has started to develop sound navigation skills, I was still worried. Worrying, of course, goes with the territory if you're a parent. I asked him if he had checked the weather forecast or planned the detail of the route. He hadn't and our conversation deflated his enthusiasm slightly. So we checked the forecast (which was for cloud all day) and got the map out. On the map we went over the route, identified the prominent navigation features, measured distances and bearings and examined the consequences of going “off-route”. I was still a bit worried but I felt the need to balance my natural parental concern with the drive of a young man to have adventures (which he is going to have whether I agree or not!). We had nearly completed the route planning, and I was just about happy with the plan, when I realised that the summit was off the edge of the map (to his credit, he had both maps). The final section of navigation at the highest point in the day involved changing maps. I weighed up the factors:- a 17 year old with average navigation skills, on his own, negotiating a map change at 3000 feet in cloud. I wasn't happy and suggested a change of plan. The new plan was to climb Mullach nan Coirean from the Lundavra road. This involved simpler navigation, was a shorter trip and he had some local knowledge. We went over this route on the map and then he went off and climbed Mullach in a few hours. He came home with stories of taking and following bearings, pride in successfully finding his way in the mist and of having a great trip. I feel this trip was a realistic adventure for which we had examined the relevant factors and reached a reasonable decision. It was also a progression towards his original Gulvain plan for which he would now be better prepared. There can be no guarantee that things will go OK on any trip but we had taken reasonable steps to minimise the risk. This morning, he was up early getting his bike out. I asked what he was planning (I expected that he was going to do the Gulvain trip). I was wrong. He was going to cycle along the A82 (southwards) to visit a friend. This is a desperate road for cycling and I had decided some years ago not to cycle on it anymore. My concerns about the Gulvain plan on the previous morning paled into insignificance alongside the prospect of cycling along this road in the morning rush hour traffic but I felt that all I could do was to point out the dangers and ask him to be careful. Maybe I worry too much?

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