Brown Cove, scene of Saturday's incident

A woman was airlifted to hospital yesterday after falling 200m (656ft) while climbing in the Lake District.

The incident, in Brown Cove on Helvellyn, was witnessed by members of the Search and Rescue Dogs Association who were training nearby. Ten dog handlers from Sarda Lakes and 14 members of the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team went to the woman’s aid.

The fall happened about 12.20 on Saturday.

A spokesperson for Patterdale MRT said: “As a result of the information received by the dog handler – who was quickly on scene – and the length of the fall, a Sea King helicopter was requested.

“Rescue team members were quickly on scene and also a team doctor. The casualty was quickly stabilised and she was eventually winched into the helicopter and taken to Carlisle Infirmary for further examination and treatment.”

Jamie Green's photo of brush burning

The photographic work of two Lake District volunteers has been shortlisted in a national contest.

The Muck in 4 Life competition was set up to celebrate volunteer activities. Mike Turner of Halifax, West Yorkshire, and Jamie Green of Backbarrow, Newby Bridge, are among four finalists chosen from 50 entries in the competition, run by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Mike Turner's picture of drystone wallers

Both men are volunteers with the Lake District National Park Authority. The pictures will be submitted by Defra to the Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition at Kew for final judging.

Mr Turner has been a volunteer for six years, and has worked in commercial photography. Many of his images are used on the authority website. His picture is of drystone walling near Ennerdale Water.

He said: “I took the walling pictures on a horrendous day in August. Despite the driving wind and rain, the volunteers were out there, getting the job done. I wanted it to show how much we all care about the Lake District.”

Mr Green’s shot shows brush burning in the Rusland Valley. The retired civil servant, musician and busker and volunteer of seven years said his photograph showed people don’t need specific skills, just the ability to muck in.

Environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies, said: “These are great photos and picking a winner will be a difficult task. They show how people enjoy mucking in to help with the environment.”

The Lake District: it's full of fresh air

Deskbound and dreaming of the open fells? Is the dreary grime of the city making you pine for the hills?

A little help is at hand: 0.42g of help exactly. That’s what the National Trust is offering to city dwellers, in the shape of a jamjar full of clean fresh air. Stressed-out workers in the City of London have already been given samples of the country air, and a further 100 jars full of the stuff are being offered.

The air has been captured in recycled glass containers at the trust’s properties on the banks of Lake Windermere, at Box Hill in Surrey and at Stourhead, Wiltshire.

Head of communications Andrew McLaughlin said: “With most of us living in an urban environment and having little time to escape to the great outdoors we thought it was about time the National Trust shared just a fraction of our copious amounts of fresh air with the nation.”

A study found that, for lowering stress, 72 per cent of those surveyed said seeing the sea was the quickest and most effective stress reliever. This was followed closely by a walk in the countryside (66 per cent), contact with fresh air (59 per cent) and the sand between the toes (33 per cent).

The National Trust says its fresh air has been captured in environmentally friendly British-made recycled glass jars that can be reused for jams, preserves or capturing more fresh air.

The trust is also opening up many of its country properties for free visits over the weekend of 20 and 21 March. Details can be found on the National Trust’s website.

Skiddaw, scene of the alleged hoax callout

Police in Cumbria have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances of phone calls made during the November floods which led to mountain rescue teams mounting a search operation on Skiddaw.

The curious case took place on 26 November last year as the county suffered the worst floods ever recorded. The 12 volunteer Lake District mountain rescue teams were deployed widely, helping police, fire and rescue and ambulance crews save lives and rescue stricken residents and visitors. Two days earlier, police had pleaded with walkers to stay off the fells because the teams were so stretched.

As grough guest contributor Dave Hewitt reported on the Caledonian Mercury,  Keswick Mountain Rescue Team’s account of the callout said: “We received a report from someone who said she had met a party of walkers who had come off Skiddaw, reporting a man with a broken leg near the summit at 2pm.We made investigations but it turned out to be a false alarm.”

Andy Simpson, writing in the Mountain Rescue magazine, reported on “a spurious call from a journalist who said she’d heard a report of someone injured on Skiddaw.

“The Keswick team were suspicious from the start but that didn’t stop them deploying thirty people to the hill before the woman admitted she was just testing the system to see if mountain rescue could still respond to the mountains despite their commitment to the floods.”

The incident happened a week after PC Bill Barker lost his life when the Northside Bridge in Workington collapsed and he was swept away.

A spokesperson for the police confirmed a woman had been arrested. A statement said: “A 27-year-old woman from South Shields was arrested on 26 November on suspicion of wasting police time after Cumbria Constabulary received several calls alleging that people were stranded on the fells.

“Enquiries by police and mountain rescue teams suggested that the calls were deliberately false. She has been placed on police bail until 18 March 2010 pending further police enquiries.”

No-one has yet been charged over the alleged incidents.

A walker on Ingleborough's frozen summit, with Pen-y-ghent in the distance

Macbeth and his lady wife have notched up a milestone for a major outdoors project.

In this case it’s walker Kevin Macbeth and his spouse Barbara rather than the Thane of Cawdor who have made the news. The couple, from Rodley, Leeds, signed up as the 100th and 101st members of the Friends of the Three Peaks, launched last August by Calendar Girl Angela Baker.

The scheme offers fans of Yorkshire’s Three Peaks to support the Yorkshire Dales national park’s work in the area, one of the Dales’ most popular destinations for walkers.

Mr Macbeth, 70, said: “We have done the Yorkshire Three Peaks in 12 hours – although it was in 1998 – and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

“The reason we joined the Friends of the Three Peaks is that we are both members of the Yorkshire Dales Society and it was featured in the magazine.

“We would like to see the footpaths maintained so the younger generations in the future will be able to do the route.

Angela Baker at the August launch of the project last year

“I think the Three Peaks Project is great – the paths have to be maintained and this encourages people to help look after them.”

Steve Hastie, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Three Peaks Project manager, said: “The Friends are steadily growing in numbers in terms of individuals, businesses and organisations and, hopefully, numbers will rise as our staff and Dales volunteers get out and about during the summer and our corporate members spread the word.”

Malcolm Petyt, the YDNPA’s member champion for recreation management, said the footpath network covering the Three Peaks receives about 250,000 visitors a year and needs constant attention to keep it good condition.

“For example, so far this year, 19 organisations have let us know they will be using some or all of the Three Peaks to raise money in coming months,” he said.

“The Friends are a vital way of raising money that will be ring-fenced just for path maintenance in this iconic area of our beautiful National Park.”

Angela Baker, famous as one of the Rylstone Women’s Institute members who posed nude for a charity calendar, and whose story was turned into a Hollywood film, launched the project in August. Her late husband John set up the original Three Peaks Project in 1983 in his role as assistant national parks officer.

The Three Peaks walk, a 24-mile route taking in Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough is a popular challenge and the route also hosts an annual fell race in April.

One of HMS Gannet’s three Sea King Mark IV helicopters on exercise in the Scottish mountains

Rescuers gathered this morning to celebrate a record-breaking year.

Crews from the Royal Navy’s search and rescue helicopter base at HMS Gannet have mounted an unprecedented number of missions to rescue people in distress, about half of which have been on mountains. 378 people have been rescued and crews have responded to a total of 447 callouts.

The crew members are regularly called to walkers and climbers who come to grief in the Scottish Highlands. The figures make the base, at Prestwick in Ayrshire, the busiest search and rescue operation in the UK – with 20 per cent of the total callouts of the UK’s military search and rescue aircraft – most of which are to civilian incidents.

The figures show an increase in 2009 of 65 on the previous year, during which the base’s 24 aircrew flew the fleet of three Sea King Mark IV helicopters on search and rescue missions covering 253,800 sq km (98,000 sq miles) stretching from Northern Ireland to the West of Scotland and northern England – more than 12 times the size of Wales.

The men and women flying the helicopters are supported by 79 ground crew who keep the aircraft flying and assist in running operations.

The helicopter crews respond regularly to request from mountain rescue teams for help in getting teams to remote positions, assisting with medical emergencies on mountains and winching casualties from mountains.

The unit has broken its callout record three years running and last year topped the 400 mark for the first time.

Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Debdash Bhattacharya, said: “This is an extraordinary achievement. I am immensely proud of each and every individual who is a part of the close knit team at HMS Gannet.

“From the aircrew to the engineers, weather forecasters, office staff, ground crews and support staff, absolutely everyone plays their part in ensuring that there is a search and rescue helicopter ready to respond 24 hours a day to whatever the call may be.

“It’s a phenomenal sustained effort aimed at supporting the people of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, who can feel a little safer in the knowledge that we are ready to help at a moment’s notice.”

Petty Officer Marcus ‘Wiggy’ Wigfull

Two of its crew members have also broken personal records. Petty Officer Marcus ‘Wiggy’ Wigfull has notched up 700 callouts in his 13-year search and rescue career. He is a senior aircrewman with the unit and a fully qualified paramedic. Observer Lieutenant Commander Martin ‘Florry’ Ford has amassed 600 call outs, 288 of which were with HMS Gannet in the last two years.

The grey and red Sea King helicopters are currently featuring, alongside the RAF’s yellow craft, in the Channel Five series Highland Rescue.

Petty Officer Wigfull, 38, is from Unstone in Derbyshire and now lives in Troon, Ayrshire. He joined the Royal Navy in 1989 and is married with two children. He was originally a weapon engineering mechanic before moving to the Fleet Air Arm. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in the Air for his part in a 2008 rescue of three people from a yacht at Ardrossan.

Lt Cmdr Ford is 46 and was born in Havant, Hampshire. He lives near Redruth in Cornwall but is based at HMS Gannet. He joined the Royal Navy as a caterer in 1979 and moved to the Fleet Air Arm as an aircrewman in 1983, gaining a commission in 1987 and moving to search and rescue 16 years later.

Lieutenant Commander Martin ‘Florry’ Ford

He was awarded the Air Force Cross in 2005 for his part in rescues during the Boscastle floods and a Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in the Air for a rescue in a blizzard on Ben Nevis during which three climbers were rescued.

A spokesperson for the Royal Navy said: “For some of the aircrew who have returned from serving in Afghanistan, whether with the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines or on exchange with the other services, it is an ideal environment to maintain skills used in operational theatre, while for others the terrain offers an excellent training ground in advance of deployment.

“The sometimes extreme weather, harsh mountainous terrain and the skills involved in not only operating the aircraft and equipment, but also in conducting rescues and saving lives within a hostile environment, combines to make it an exceptional preparation ground for serving alongside their forces colleagues in the skies of Afghanistan.”

HMS Gannet’s crews operate to save lives on the mountains, at sea, on the roads and also supply specialist medical evacuation from Scotland’s Hebridean islands.

Which way now? A new Government could take the outdoor world in a different direction

The last budget day of this parliament has been fixed; the Government will be deciding which important bills will be put into the wash-up period after dissolution, and 646 Westminster MPs will be pondering their future.

The only certainty in all these activities is that there must be a general election by 3 June. So where will the world of outdoor activities stand in the wake of the election.

Britain has changed considerably since Labour swept to power in 1997 and a whole generation has grown up knowing only a Labour administration. That could all change on – the most likely date being touted – 6 May.

The party has listed 50 of what it views as its greatest achievements under first Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown. Understandably, the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, the introduction of the minimum wage and devolution of some power to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are touted as prime examples of the changes for the better resulting from a Labour administration.

Hunting: at the heart of both parties' outdoor agenda. Photo: Mark Robinson CC-BY-2.0

Curiously, there is only one outdoors issue mentioned: the outlawing of foxhunting. While it may not be at the core of walkers’, climbers’ and mountaineers’ worries when they step out into the British countryside, it is undoubtedly a totemic activity. It would appear that the right of a few moneyed men and women to ride about the countryside willy-nilly, making funny noises accompanied by a pack of dogs intent on ripping to shreds an unfortunate reynard is as important to the soul of the Conservative party as the right of the great unwashed to walk the hills and moors of Britain is to Labour.

And so, it is highly likely that, should the Conservatives gain a large enough majority, they will hold a free vote on the repeal of the Hunting Act 2004. Given that shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert once worked for the British Field Sports Society, which morphed along with two other groups into the Countryside Alliance, and that David Cameron himself has ridden with hunts, it’s hardly surprising that a return of legal hunting with dogs is likely under a Tory government.

So, come a Conservative government in May or whenever, expect the Queen’s Speech to include a legislative two fingers to the oiks and a raised stirrup cup to the reintroduction of foxhunting.

If hunting pinks are central to the old county view of the countryside, then surely the right to roam had as much pedigree among the Left? Which makes the omission of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 from Labour’s hit parade mysterious. Perhaps it’s a sign of the metrocentric Islington worldview that many say has permeated New Labour’s psyche that one of the most important pieces of outdoor legislation in decades is conspicuous by its absence.

Benny Rothman addresses ramblers at Bowden Bridge quarry before the trespass

Yet access to the mountains and moorlands is, if you’ll pardon the pun, as old as the hills as a lefty’s war cry. Even before the headstrong young Communist Benny Rothman and his co-trespassers took on the Duke of Devonshire’s gamekeeping staff, the proletariat was battling for the right to breathe the clean air on the Peak District hills and the mountains around Glasgow.

Is the right to roam at risk if the Conservatives win the election? I put a few questions to Richard Benyon, the shadow minister for agriculture, fisheries and wildlife. Would the Tories go ahead with the planned review of the areas mapped as open access areas under CRoW? There was an unequivocal ‘yes’ via the minister’s researcher Charlotte Jenner.

Now, that review could, of course, result in a diminution of the right-to-roam areas just as easily as their expansion, but the fact that a Conservative administration would continue the process indicates there is no will immediately to revert to the situation where the only way to access the hills and moors was to stick to the dotted green lines.

So, would a Tory government seek to repeal or alter any sections of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, in particular the so-called ‘right to roam’ in England and Wales?

“We have no plans to do so,” replied Ms Jenner. Fans of Yes Minister semantics will notice the careful use of language. Having no plans to do so is not the same as not doing it, but the indication is, at least, positive. It’s likely Cameron’s cadre would have bigger fish to fry in its first session, such as wielding the big axe on public spending, whereas Gordon Brown and his (for now) Chancellor have said they would wait a while before the scythe was fully sharpened.

It’s fair to say that the CRoW Act has, by and large, been a success. The predicted desecration of huge swathes of England and Wales’s bucolic splendour has not transpired and apart from a few glitches, the act has simply allowed the adventurous walker and climber – for it is only they, not cyclists, who benefit from the legislation – to leave the beaten track and explore the wilds, or perhaps joins two footpaths to make a more logical excursion.

Moorland access: at risk from new trespass laws?

Yet there is a little cloud on the moorland horizon. Mr Cameron has indicated he would introduce a new criminal offence of intentional trespass. Ostensibly, this is aimed at tackling the perceived problem of travellers setting up on land and then proving difficult to move on. Trespass is, largely, a civil tort, but this proposal would land any intentional trespasser with a criminal record. Echoes of Benny Rothman?

Laws have a habit of hitting the wrong target; witness Walter Wolfgang’s ejection and detention from the Labour Party conference in 2005 under the Terrorism Act, or architectural photographer Grant Smith’s search under s44 of the same act for taking pictures of a church. And then there was the notorious use of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 to seize the assets of those dangerous insurgents, the Landsbanki Islands.

So let’s suppose Mr A Walker wants to get to that enticing yellow-shaded access land with a grand view at the top. But there’s a problem: that 50m-worth of white-mapped field standing between him and his right to roam. If he crosses it, he’s an intentional trespasser. All it would take is a stroppy landowner and an overenthusiastic plod to set back the rights of walkers 80 years.

The CRoW Act also led to another piece of legislation lauded by countless outdoor groups: the Marine and Coastal Access Act. The result: a proposed coastal corridor round England which walkers could walk and climbers could climb. It’s a massive project, estimated to cost £50m and take 10 years to implement.

Natural England is about to lay before the minister the results of its public consultation on how it goes about setting up the route. The Government’s view is clear, but there is doubt the project will survive a new administration or the public-sector axe.

The Liberal Democrats’ spokesman on outdoor issues Lord Greaves – Tony to his mates – pointed out the precariousness of the English coastal path in January. He said: “The framework is there in the legislation but the implementation will at best take 10 years. The way the project is set up means that it will require the continued commitment of the Government, and sufficient resources for Natural England working with local authorities to bring it about on the ground.

“While we were passing the bill through Parliament the Conservatives sometimes seemed both partial and lukewarm in their support for this part of it. The Ramblers would do well to ask their members to press their local Tory candidates on this matter.

“In addition, a Government looking for billions of pounds of cuts may find this important scheme to be an easy option. A battle has been won but I suspect the campaign for access to our coast is not yet over.”

So we asked what the Conservatives policy was on the coastal path. The reply was: “Conservatives campaigned for a Marine Bill and worked hard to improve the legislation before it became law.

Will coastal access be pursued with the same vigour after the election?

“We recognise the benefits of increased access to the coast of Britain and see the act as a means of making that happen. However, we do have concerns about what certain impacts of the path – in particular spreading room – might have on some rural businesses.

“Many coastal communities have suffered in the recession so the priority for the implementation of any new path should be areas where it will bring the most benefit for tourism and the local economy, with the minimum of disruption.”

Leaving aside the fact that the act concerns only England’s coast and that Scotland’s devolved government has already implemented a far superior coastal access regime, there is that lukewarm feeling to the response. One senses that it will be a long way down Cameron’s list of priorities.

And then there’s a further caveat. Mr Benyon’s spokeswoman told me: “The £50m funding was set out by Defra [the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] during the passage of the bill but ministers have given no detail about how this has been budgeted for beyond 2011.

“Any coastal path will need investment but no government can make guarantees of funding over a 10-year period, especially during these difficult economic times.”

Perhaps Lord Greaves had a point.

One other important issue for those who set out into the British countryside is the national mapping agency. Ordnance Survey had a surprise sprung on it in November when Gordon Brown and World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said they wanted OS to free its data, including mapping.

Although confused messages blurred the issue, it soon became clear that there was a strong possibility HMG wanted to offer walkers free maps at their favourite scales: 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 – a bonanza that potentially would save keen outdoors enthusiasts a small fortune and, in the process put the cat among the map-retailing pigeons.

The consultation documents give a strong hint that Mr Brown wants to give walkers this Easter gift. The exercise ends in a few days and the Government and OS will have to get its finger out if its wish is to be granted before the election, but it is just possible.

So I again contacted the Conservatives about their attitude to Ordnance Survey.

Which of the three options (or any others) does the Conservative party favour? Reply came there none.

Would the Conservatives put a stop to any outcomes if an election is called before the decisions are implemented, and would it consider reversing these decisions? – Silence.

Does the Conservative party favour full (or part) privatisation of Ordnance Survey? You guessed it; we’ll just have to keep guessing because there was no answer.

What is the Conservative attitude to the Making Public Data Public, including the impact this will have on existing commercial partners of OS, who may be put at a financial disadvantage by these proposals? – OK, that’s enough potshots at an unresponsive shadow minister. Despite repeated requests to Caroline Spelman, shadow Communities and Local Government secretary, we received no reply.

The Conservatives were silent on the future of Ordnance Survey

Perhaps the Tories don’t have any policy towards OS – after all, none of the major parties has yet published its election manifesto. But it’s an important topic for walkers and mountaineers and deserves some attention, not least because quite a few jobs in Southampton could be in the balance.

Mountain rescuers have mounted a vociferous campaign to get tax relief on their vehicles, fuel and equipment, particularly in view of the huge amount of work their volunteers provided during the Cumbria floods and the severe winter, operating well beyond the public’s perceived role of MR as plucking climbers from mountains after they push their luck too far. Westmorland and Lonsdale LibDem MP Tim Farron has done a lot of the running.

Poor briefing of ministers is perhaps behind the obfuscation and Euro-excusing of the issue by Treasury ministers; Tories just don’t seem interested in the issue. Perhaps Alastair Darling could just squeeze in a little Budget gift to the men and women who put themselves into some of the most hazardous situations in the outdoors without question or payment?

This piece has, by necessity, been a little England-centred. The summer election will be for the Westminster Parliament. As mentioned, the laudable Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which gave the country some of the best access legislation in the world was a product of the devolved Holyrood administration and there are no Scottish Parliament or Welsh Assembly elections until next year.

Although Ramblers Scotland’s Dennis Canavan has done his best to make the Beauly-Denny power line a UK issue, arguing that strategic power decisions are a matter for MPs, it is unlikely Cameron, Brown, or any combination of minority or majority government in the Palace of Westminster would intervene in what they see as a largely Scottish issue.

And the same goes for Wales. The British Mountaineering Council is pressing hard for a better deal for the Wales coastal path, but this will be a decision for Cardiff. 2011 is the crucial year for those administrations.

The Countryside Alliance makes a lot of noise for a minority interest and other campaign bodies are lobbying hard. The British Association for Shooting & Conservation has already told its members to quiz parliamentary candidates on shooting and report back their findings.

There doesn’t seem to be a parallel campaign among outdoor enthusiasts. The Ramblers and British Mountaineering Council have a combined membership close to 200,000 and there are many more walkers, fellrunners, climbers, mountaineers, paddlers, mountain bikers and cyclists who carry a vote.

Perhaps it’s time they made some noise too and put outdoor interests into the electoral equation.

The scene on Ben Nevis's summit, where heavy snow accumulations have virtually buried some of the cairns

A mountain expert has warned walkers to take care on Britain’s highest mountain after prolonged winter snows left important navigation aids virtually invisible.

Heather Morning, mountain safety adviser with the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, said cairns erected recently have been almost buried, prompting the need for extra vigilance to avoid Ben Nevis’s 700m (2,300ft) cliffs. The safe route off the mountain plateau involves a dog-leg course around Gardyloo Gully, a precipitous drop just 20m from the main path.

Ms Morning said: “The three cairns which mark the change in bearing around the top of Gardyloo Gully are now virtually buried in snow. Careful attention should be paid to judging distance by pacing and walking on a bearing in poor visibility to descend off the summit plateau safely.”

A further complication for summit navigators in bad visibility is that a natural tendency to walk to the left to avoid the drops of the north face can lead unwary mountaineers close to Five Finger Gully, an equally perilous drop to the South-West near the top of the main path zigzags.

Gardyloo Gully in summer, with the summit cairn to the right

There is detailed advice on navigating the summit plateau on the Mountaineering Council of Scotland website.

Included in the advice are the words: “If you become disorientated during the ascent of Ben Nevis, consider whether it may be best to turn back.

“Ben Nevis will always be there – the important thing is to make sure you are too.”

Last week, Sport Relief celebrity Three Peaks challengers Kate Silverton and Phil Packer were praised by mountain rescuers when they took the decision to abandon their attempt on Ben Nevis’s summit despite being only 100m from the top of the mountain when conditions defeated them.

The BMC headquarters in Manchester

Membership of Britain’s representative mountaineering body continued to climb last year.

Of course they did, that’s why they join the British Mountaineering Council – but actually the numbers signing up to the Manchester-based organisation rose to a new record: more than 70,000 – five per cent up on the previous year’s total. The figures are revealed in the council’s annual report, which was published today.

In the last 19 years, the number of people joining the BMC as individuals or climbing club members has almost trebled. In 1990 there were just short of 26,000 members; in the last quarter of 2009 the number reached 71,000. While club-member numbers have remained fairly flat, the number of individuals signing up to the organisation has increased almost sevenfold in that time.

Rab Carrington, elected president of the BMC in April last year, said in the report: “The item which has made me feel proudest is the growth in membership of the BMC. This is a great reminder that a lot of what the BMC does is very important and relevant to those whose life is hillwalking and climbing.

“All we have to do now is convince the other 150,000 who walk and climb that they too should join the BMC.”

During the year, the BMC worked with parliamentary representatives to ensure its views were represented during the passage of the Marine and Coastal Access Act, which will set up a coastal path round England. It said it laid down several amendments to the coastal-access clauses of the bill and produced a series of briefing papers for MPs and Peers during the committee and report stages of the bill. The BMC also attended several meetings with Natural England and other key stakeholders.

It is now lobbying the Welsh Assembly Government to develop framework powers and a statutory approach to wider coastal access as soon as possible, so they can be delivered by the current Welsh Government alongside the scheme in England.

The BMC also backed the inclusion of climbing as an Olympic sport, appointed Elfyn Jones as access and conservation officer for Wales and agreed to support a coaching award covering indoor climbing, sport climbing and bouldering.

There was also an awareness that many of the council’s members are hillwalkers rather than climbers and mountaineers. The national council began a discussion about the BMC’s work and services for hillwalkers and how this work could be developed given the proportion of hill walkers within the BMC’s membership.

It held its first hillwalking meet for young people in Yorkshire, part of a move to try to ensure all sections of society are included in its work. There has been a conscious effort to include more women, ethnic-minority members and young people in its images, and a low-income discount for entrants to the BMC’s youth climbing series.

The council is also working with Mountain Leader Training England on a future publication Hill Walking For All, with practical guidance on hill walking for people with a wide range of disabilities.

Through its work with the Mountain Heritage Trust, it has secured various artefacts, including an oxygen set, boots and clothing worn by Doug Scott on Everest and the Ogre during the 1970s, equipment used on the 1975 Everest expedition by Dave Clarke and a piton found by Joe Tasker on the Eiger North Face.

The BMC’s finances are also in sound order, according to its treasurer David Lanceley, due in part to good insurance sales, and the council coffers had a surplus of £129,000.

The full annual report can be downloaded from the BMC’s website.

David Gibson

Scotland’s mountaineering chief is urging the hillwalking and climbing community to back two MSPs fighting against unsightly tracks on the country’s mountains.

David Gibson, chief officer of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, says the response to an online petition so far has been ‘pathetic’. MSPs Sarah Boyack and Peter Peacock are seeking the support of outdoor enthusiasts to put pressure on the Scottish Government to curtail the right of landowners to drive tracks across unspoilt Scottish wilderness areas.

The MCofS’s access and conservation officer Hebe Carus prompted the move and enlisted the support of the two Scottish Labour MSPs. Ms Boyack is the shadow minister for the environment.

The two parliamentarians have now pleaded with each person who signed the petition to enlist the support of five more ‘outdoor friends’ to add their names to the petition after only 400 signed up in the first week.

David Gibson said it was time for hillwalkers and climbers to make a stand. On his blog, he said: “What a pathetic response from the hill-going community. As usual, hill-goers seem content to sit on the sidelines and wait for others to do something on their behalf.”

As grough reported last week, the current legislation allows the laying of these tracks under permitted development rules, but a promised review of these arrangements still hasn’t materialised.

David Gibson points out that there are an estimated 200,000 Scottish adults heading for the hills each month, so 400 signatures is on the paltry side. Referring to the petition, he said: “If it is to have the maximum impact as many people as possible need sign up over the next few weeks and show that thousands of Scots take this issue seriously.”

Details of the petition and examples of the desecration wreaked by some of the tracks are on the Hilltracks campaign website.