Description: A climbing conditons blog based in Fort William. rock climbing, Scottish winter climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, instruction and guiding.
How many people can a guide/instructor/leader look after safely whilst in mountaineering terrain? What do I mean by mountaineering terrain? Scrambles and easy rock climbs, somewhere that your guide/Instructor may choose to or be expected to use a rope at times to safeguard you.
There have been many discussions about this over the years and although there are so many nuances around this topic, such as the chosen route, are the group members known to each other or strangers, weather conditions, customers fitness and comfort levels in different conditions, how well your guide/instructor knows the route, commercial and contractual pressures just to name a few. Though, in my m ind, it is a pretty clear cut when we start to talk about your safety.
Let’s say the above pie represents your guided day out in the mountain, how about ‘ticking off’ three Munros on the Skye Cuillin Ridge. As a single customer, you might think that the price for that guided experience is a little on the pricey side so you invite 3 friends along with you and the guiding company says yes. This reduces the cost to each person and makes it seem more affordable, so affordable that you may not mind paying just a little bit more per person for the same experience. Sounds great, does