Well that winter didn't last long. Not even the end of March and already been hill walking in short sleeves. We managed 5 new Corbetts in a mega-weekend to Glen Dessary last week. A 9.5 hour day on Saturday & 12 hour day on Sunday. It was a long time (19 years) since I'd been to Glen Dessary, so good to get reacquainted with one of Scotland's finest mountain areas. There's still so much to do there, so no way I'm going to leave it so long before our next trip there.
Even though it was still March, it was so good to have that extra bit of daylight at the end of the day. Light until 8.00 p.m. Fantastic! From now on the days just get longer, but no matter what the month, there is always that danger of misjudging how long it will take to complete your route and you could end up benighted.
If you follow the MCofS on Facebook and Twitter you will have seen that we've really been pushing the "check your headtorches" message this winter. Take a look at the Mountain Rescue statistics in the 2010 report http://www.mcofs.org.uk/assets/scottish_mountain_rescue_incidents_2010.pdf and you will see that getting benighted is one of the main attributable reasons for incidents involving rescue teams. If everyone in your party has a headtorch with good batteries and spare batteries then you are unlikely to end up benighted and therefore less likely to become involved in a rescue incident.
Even as we go into the summer and enjoy the long evenings, it is still worth remembering the message about always carrying a good headtorch with plenty of battery power available.
As for current work in the MCofS office, we've been busy with several things this week. There have been a few updates on the MCofS Members' Discount Scheme pages on the website. http://www.mcofs.org.uk/discounts.asp We welcome the Braeside Guest House in Drymen to the Accommodation page and there's a few changes on the Short Term Offers page. Worth a look.
We've also sent out MCofS posters to the members of the Scottish Climbing Walls Network, so if you go to any of these walls look out for these posters.
We've also been promoting our upcoming Navigation courses, so if you are interested in these take a look at: http://www.mcofs.org.uk/navigation-courses.asp.
Unfortunately, the weather looks like returning to form tomorrow, just in time for the weekend, so a chance to rest up after last weekend's exertions. Hopefully this early season heatwave is a taste of the long hot summer of 2012 to come. We have a long list of Corbetts and kayak trips in mind, so more good weather please.
As always, don't forget to check MWIS http://www.mcofs.org.uk/weather-reports.asp for the weather forecast before you go out.
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