UKH

With Scotland now in Phase 1 of the journey out of lockdown, the presumption against climbing and hillwalking that most people have adhered to for the last two months is finally relaxing. So what next?

Mountaineering Scotland have released detailed new guidelines today, including suggestions on activities people might now do, and others they might want to lay off until Phase 2.

Meanwhile, Scottish Mountain Rescue and Glenmore Lodge have issued a joing article outlining a framework for decision making based on the Be Avalanche Aware model... 

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In reply to UKC/UKH News:I hope that climbers in Scotland adhere to these guidelines better than the English who either never read the BMC advice or chose to ignore it for their own selfish ends ,driving miles to busy areas to climb in groups ! 

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

This is the original lockdown law:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2020/103/regulation/8/made

And today's amendment:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2020/164/regulation/2/made

In reply to UKC/UKH News:

I find this advice quite difficult to follow. On one hand we're being advised to "take a sensible approach" and Mountaineering Scotland  are "emphasising individual responsibility". On the other hand they have said phase 1 activities should be restricted to low-level bouldering, hill walking to Munro level and top roping. Come phase 2 we can lead again. There are obviously huge differences between all these activities and I'm wondering what they're basing this decision on  Any evidence to support this? 

I personally think the best advice is the former approach, placing a significant emphasis on social distancing. Advising a safe approach is fine. But restricting a very broad hobby to specific activities with no basis is pretty poor, especially with the government advice (which I would place greater trust in at all times) to stay local. 

For instance, how many people are in the situation of having a bolted or traditional crag within their local area, but no low-level bouldering, munro's or top rope suitable crags in their local area? 

Very poor advice in my opinion.

In reply to jack_44:

Thank you so much for this gem, gave me a good laugh. I'd love to do a UKC poll of how folk would respond to the statement "I would place greater trust in government advice" when compared any other source of advice you can think up. Going by everything I've read in the last couple of months you are in a tiny minority

You are making the assumption that the MCofS advice was written purely for hill walkers. When it was most likely written to serve a multitude of competing agendas a) firstly for the consumption of the Scot Gov' ~ look at us we are a compliant organisation trying to help (please consider our members interests a bit more in Phase 2, and p.s. we aren't going to give you any reason to cut our Sports Scotland funding), b) for the Mountain Rescue teams - look we are trying to reduce call outs, encourage folks to stick to the 5 mile limit, even though our membership can see through the politics, and know the risks of regular hill-goers is minimal c) some element of a nod to rural communities, d) for membership/ hill-goers ~ we are trying, but to be honest its difficult to have significant influence......……..hence its not going to have a clear narrative flow.

The question is does this approach properly 'represent' us; which is where differences in opinion become widely disparate.

In reply to chudders1:

What has any of this got to do with the BMC?

In reply to henwardian:

Yes, I would personally follow public health advice from the Scottish government. If that puts me in a minority (I know nobody else who isn't following current Scottish government advice on Coronavirus) then that's ok too.

In reply to ScraggyGoat:

I appreciate that, and you're right, there's a lot of interested parties. I am glad that many elements of advice by Scottish gov,  MCofS and MRT's is guidance and advice, with no strict rules/law. Appreciating the variety of the locations and elements of climbing/hill walking maybe.

In reply to jack_44:

Ah, that's not really what I meant. I was taking the general theme of trusting the government, which is not a prevalent attitude on UKC!

In reply to henwardian:

Sadly, it seems clear that we have simply become a nation of fearful sheeple, unable to take personal responsibility, unable to think for ourselves, not worthy of being treated as adults, instead we need to be endlessly patronised and micromanaged all in the name of social responsibility. I had no idea that civilization was so gossamer thin.