October has been a busy month for Northern Mountain Sport. The main news is that Tim Blakemore has passed the summer element of the British Mountain Guide Training and Assessment scheme (www.bmg.org.uk) along with fellow candidates: Rob Jarvis, Hannah Burrows Smith and Matt Heliker.

The test was in the first week of October and held in North Wales. We climbed at Gogarth, Tremadoc and the Llanberis Pass in mostly good weather (but with the obligatory rain on expedition). The assessment consists of personal climbing at E1, rescues and problem solving on two day, the expedition element (including bivvying and climbing at VS in big boots), a guiding day and finally a teaching day.

The next element is the Scottish Winter Training and Assessment.