Today the doormat thud from the postie was ‘The Mountain Leader’ by Mike Raine ( @mike_raine_notes_from_the_hill ).
As an avid reader and user of both his book ‘Nature of Snowdonia’ and his website and courses, i’m aware of the deep well of experience that Mike has and shares.
I also think there are a lot of people wandering around using their ML qualification professionally that got it decades ago ‘int’ olden days’ for whom a post-qualification manual of current thinking is a very good thing (or they could embrace the CPD that’s available).
Of course there are also the thousands of people who don’t ‘lead’ in the mountains – who go walk for themselves or with their mates – and i heartily recommend this book to them too – they will learn lots by dipping in and out of this book.
It’s greatest strength is in removing the bullshit around becoming and ML and using the qualification. I nodded at almost every page of it. Be unthinkingly excellent at the technical aspects of being an ML ….. but you’ll rarely use them. Flora and fauna, encouragement, example setting, local knowledge, story telling, phone app use and real-world problem solving will be your most used skills.
It is both an age old profession and a privilege and a pleasure to be able to make an income from leading / guiding folk in the hills. Be as good as you can be.
Be the person that ignites a lifelong interest in nature and the outdoors in people. Be ‘the funny man in the yellow coat on Snowdon in the non-stop rain that opened up a whole new world to me’ that parents excitedly tell their kids about in 25 years time.
A book for twenty quid containing over five decades worth of accumulated hill nous seems a very good deal to me.
