OK, I’ll get straight to it: why bother with the Lowland Leader award when you can go straight to Mountain Leader Summer? What’s the point?

The Lowland Leader syllabus is so fundamental to everything else that it’s a naturally good place to begin. It’s a great entry point into outdoor leadership, although many people I’m sure (myself included) went straight for Mountain Leader Summer as it’s ‘worth’ more professionally.

The thing is, a mountain day, if you think about it, is made up of bits of lowland, hill and moorland and even expedition leadership if you stay out long enough. If you’re starting a walk from a youth hostel in the lake District with the aim of hiking up Helvellyn, then you’re starting in lowland terrain, going through areas within the remit of hill and moorland leader, before finally going onto the areas covered in the ML syllabus. They’re all part of the same journey, and the skills and knowledge required are all different. I would actually argue that micro-navigating a town centre you’ve never visited before to find that hidden public right of way which eventually leads you to the moors is in many ways harder than navigating to a ring contour on a mountain top.

If you want to really get the most out of your mountain days further down the line, then the Lowland Leader syllabus is essential really. That’s why I’m covering it in detail, and why I think you should too if you’re aspiring to become a future mountain leader. Lastly, you may also find that the bulk of your outdoor experience is actually logged in lowland terrain, especially if you live in an urban area or God forbid, a city! This means that it literally forms the base of all your other adventuring. Excellent competence as a lowland leader will ensure you get the fundamental techniques of navigation and leadership sorted, not to mention a good grounding in the natural world and plant identification. The posts throughout this year will showcase highlights of my local area (as well as the odd cheeky hill and moorland/mountain day thrown in) and lead on to other parts of other qualifications.

Hope to see you out there sometime!