In reply to PaulJepson:
> I feel your pain, as if I had a weekend in the mountains, going for a long walk would be some way down the list of preference. Saying that, you use exactly the same skills to get to say Bowfell to do a route as you would for a walk up Scafell. You use careful planning, navigation, you're out all day, adverse conditions may be encountered, and you're up in the hills. To be honest, if there is any doubt about whether a day would count because you did a climb yet it would count if you just walked up the same peak and back, I would probably just omit the graded climbs from my DLog and consider it a QMD.
> A walk up Great Gable and back is not building any better preparedness for the hills than going and climbing Tophet Wall.
Sorry Paul, but I can't agree with that at all - if a long walk in the mountains is some way down the list of preference then maybe you should question your desire to be an ML.
I'm just back from five days working in the Lakes with a group of direct entry Gold DofEers and, despite feeling fit after lots of recent hill days, I've found it quite challenging.
First day involved seven hours of walking with the group teaching micro nav - not a skill you're likely to learn from walking along footpaths into crags imo.
On the second day, after seeing my group off Hellvelyn I needed to stick around on or near the summit for 6.5 hours in case I was needed to help another group who were having epics around Thirlmere. The visibility was 20m and the windchill somewhere around 3 or 4 degrees. Again, not the type of conditions likely to be faced with on a typical rock climbing day.
Day three involved two ascents (one via Gray Crag and the other up The Knott) of High Street - one to see my group and the other to collect the bag from a member of another group who had hurt her knee. Probably 1800m of ascent that day - more than twice that of the approach to Bowfell Buttress for example.
The fourth was an easy one with just an early morning gallop up Place Fell and back to Glenridding.
I know that not every ML works on DofE expeditions but I would argue that as an ML it is your responsibility to be more comfortable walking for long days in the mountains than your clients. I'd also argue that it's essential to be fit enough to go out looking for clients after you've already done a full hill day.
Maybe I'm doing you a disservice and you already possess such good fitness and experience that the odd top-up gained from walking into Lakeland crags is enough to maintain your skills; I haven't read you profile so I don't know. If that is the case then I apologise for the lecture - but I'd still have to say that that wouldn't be enough preparation for me or, I suspect, most others.
Post edited at 10:26