Career Profile:
Job Summary:
As a mountain leader you will provide learning for young people and adults in the outdoors – usually in the hills and mountains of the UK. It involves enabling them to gain essential life skills in walking, navigation and confidence to eventually go out walking in the hills safely on their own. The role includes teaching navigation, supervising young people in expeditions, teaching camp craft, providing adults with support to achieve summits and overseeing long distance walks & challenges, such as the three peaks challenge.
Job Tasks:
- Teaching navigation & hill skills
- Supervising groups remotely
Assessing abilities of individuals - Coaching individuals to learn hill skills
Boosting confidence to achieve goals - Managing group behaviour
- Dealing with problems effectively
- Administering basic first aid
- Completing risk assessments
- Organising groups
- Organising logistics & paperwork
- Managing safety equipment
Skills Needed for this Job:
Many people enter this role, because they love being out in the hills. In addition to a love of the hills, excellent communication skills are a must – your role is focussed on supporting and developing others, so understanding individual motivations, being able to motivate others and having empathy will help you to excel. You are likely to spend a lot of time in the company of other people an interest in working with people is important for this role.
Other skills include:
- An ability to work with young people & adults from a variety of backgrounds
- Teaching and coaching skills
- Personal hillwalking confidence and skills
- The ability to manage groups of all skill levels
- Strong navigational skills
- An ability to engage, inspire and motivate others
- Remaining calm in difficult situations
- Assertiveness
Working Hours:
Long days!
With adult groups on challenges such as Yorkshire 3 peaks or national three peaks, the days take as long as they take. Days can easily stretch to 11-12 hours depending on the route and the group. A summer Mountain Leader may lead Duke of Edinburgh expedition groups, so work will last for the full duration of the expedition, which will be between two and five days depending on the level. Typically, you’re not responsible for the students once they reach the campsite, but some schools like you to do this too, so these expeditions can involve many hours of work.
A large proportion of mountain leaders have other jobs or take on other short-term contracts to supplement their income. This can include retail work in the industry, climbing instructor work at indoor walls and a whole host of other work across a range of sectors.
Income:
A typical day rate for a mountain leader is £100 – £120 a day. It is rarely a standard 7 or 8-hour day. For those jobs that are known to be more intense, such as the Three Peak Challenge, you can expect £140-£180.
Some companies pay travel expenses, but don’t expect this a standard. As a mountain leader, you are highly likely to need a car. You may need to get to remote locations to meet groups, at times when public transport is not available. If you are a non-driver or without access to a car, you should strongly consider how you will make this career work without the ability to drive and without access to a car.
Much work as a mountain leader is freelance, which means that you may not have a regular income. As a freelancer, you will also have to consider the other costs involved in running your own business, such as business insurance, tax, national insurance, invoicing and banking. Find out more here.
Training & Qualifications:
To become a mountain leader, you will usually need the Mountain Leader (Summer) (ML(s)) qualification and an in-date outdoor first aid qualification. In some instances, you can prove your skills and competence through experience, however the majority of people working in the industry will gain the ML qualification in order to satisfy the requirements of their insurer and to guard against liability in the event of an accident with a member of a group they are leading.
The qualification for working in winter conditions is the Mountain Leader (winter) (ML(w)), which you can usually only start once you have completed the training and passed the assessment for the ML(s).
Before you book onto the ML(s) Training course, you will need 20 Quality Mountain Days (QMD) logged. More information about the Mountain Leader Training & Assessment process can be found on the Mountain Training website.
Having a minibus driving qualification may help you to gain more work.
Mentors:
The Mountain Training Association advertises CPD sessions which you can attend and log through their online system. You may be able to find a mentor by asking informally on the Mountain Training Facebook group or on the Women in Mountain Training Facebook group.
Industry Information:
There are more qualified mountain leaders in the UK than opportunities for full time work. Some people work part time in the industry and others qualify in order to meet requirements in voluntary roles, such as the Scouts or Army Cadet Volunteer roles. Many people work at weekends in addition to their full-time job. Others make it their full-time job through hard work and building up a strong customer base within the industry. It is considered difficult to make a full-time liveable income solely through work as a mountain leader. Most people who make a full time living from the industry move on to gain higher level qualifications such as the ML (Winter), MIA and MIC awards. Others gain the IML, or go on to become British Mountain Guides or IFMGA qualified. IFMGA is the highest qualification in the world for guiding in the hills. Find out more about IFMGA, BMG and IML.
Other Relevant Information:
Many companies will allow you to shadow other staff in order to get the group management experience even if you’re not qualified. It is highly unlikely that you will get paid for this and should treat it as a way of gaining the experience you need to pass your ML assessment and become a competent outdoor leader.
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