The Hillwalker’s Guide to Mountaineering - Essential Skills

The Hillwalker's Guide to Mountaineering features the techniques, gear and approaches that the active and ambitious hillwalker needs to be equipped with to competently tackle Britain’s classic mountaineering challenges. Covers the use of the rope to abseil, belay and protect ascents and descents, placement of protection, gear selection, navigation, survival, scrambling and first aid skills.

There was a time when climbing and walking were completely distinct activities. But as the number of people getting out to enjoy the wonders and challenges of Britain's mountains has grown, the definition of a mountain 'walk' has changed. The Hillwalker's Guide to Mountaineering features the techniques, gear and approaches that the active and ambitious hillwalker needs to be equipped with to competently tackle Britainís classic mountaineering challenges, from the tricky step of Broad Stand on the traverse from Scafell Pike to Sca Fell, to the mighty Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis.

The Hillwalker's Guide to Mountaineering guides the hillwalker through technical terrain where the unaware can all too easily fall off – awkward grade 1-3 scrambling territory. Use of the rope to abseil, belay and protect ascents and descents on steep ground, the placement of protection, gear selection, navigation, survival, scrambling and first aid skills are all dealt with in a highly practical manner, as are the basic skills required for safe travel by the winter hillwalker.

The guide goes on to feature a dozen great British mountaineering routes, such as the spectacular objectives of the Aonach Eagach in Glen Coe, Pinnacle Ridge in the Lake District, the Cneifion Arete in Snowdonia, and a big day out on Skye's wonderful Cuillin Ridge. The routes are often characterised by an increasing level of difficulty. Here the practical skills focused on may, in the context of a thorough and systematic mountaineering apprenticeship, be successfully applied when (but not before) the techniques, abilities and confidence, essential to tackle each route safely, have been acquired and practised.