Top Tips For Using Your Digital Logbook (DLOG)

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Top Tips For Using Your Digital Logbook (DLOG)

When you register with Mountain Training for a personal skills or qualification course, you will have access to your digital logbook, or DLOG. Amongst our candidates we see the whole range of attitudes towards the DLOG, from ‘I find it easy and straightforward to use and I’ve logged all my experience’, to ‘I find it really confusing, and most of the info I’ve inputted has disappeared’. For those of you who struggle with your DLOG, here are some tips to help you to get on better with it.

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The ABC of Trad Climbing

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The ABC of Trad Climbing

Until fairly recently, climbing was just called… climbing. With the rise of sport climbing, a new name was needed for what everyone had been doing previously, and so the name ‘traditional climbing’, or ‘trad climbing’, was born. In sport climbing, the routes have pre-placed bolts, allowing the lead climber to follow the route and quickly clip in to the bolts. In trad climbing, the lead climber carries, places and clips into protection (nuts, cams, etc) whilst finding the route, so as well as the physical challenge there is a significant mental challenge too. The basics of trad climbing can be summed up in three letters: A = anchor; B = belay; C = climber

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Who Needs A Mountain Mentor?

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Who Needs A Mountain Mentor?

I love being asked for help and advice from people who climb for pleasure, or who want to know how to work out the next step in their outdoor career. I benefited from such advice when I was starting out as a climber forty four years ago aged twelve, and as an outdoor instructor thirty nine years ago, and now that I have built up so much knowledge from my personal adventures and from working as an International Mountain Guide for twenty plus years, I’m super-keen to pass it all on. Most successful people, whatever their field of interest, will probably have had a mentor at some point on their journey. Mentoring is the answer to the problems of missed goals, lost momentum, inability to identify the next step, and failed plans. A mentor should be someone who has done the things you’re striving to achieve, who is truly passionate about the outdoors, who will encourage a growth mindset, and who will challenge you.

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Our Top Twenty Most Successful Blog Posts

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Our Top Twenty Most Successful Blog Posts

Since December 2016 we’ve been tracking the performance of our blog posts, so we that we can keep up with what kind of content our followers like to read. Often, something that we think will be really useful and interesting doesn’t turn out to be very popular, and vice versa. And the results, as of 31st March 2019, in reverse order, are…

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So What's The New Rock Climbing Instructor Qualification All About?

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So What's The New Rock Climbing Instructor Qualification All About?

The new Rock Climbing Instructor qualification replaced the Single Pitch Award on 2nd April 2018, following a review of all the climbing awards by Mountain Training. Both awards are national qualifications which provide a level of basic competence for those who are in a position of responsibility on single pitch crags and artificial structures. So what’s the same, and what's different?

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