Trainee Volunteer Rangers

Nevis Landscape Partnership is currently managing 19 projects over five years to conserve and enhance the heritage of the Nevis area. Brilliant things are being done so that we can all enjoy this wonderful area and will continue to be able to for years to come. One of these projects is to train people who want to learn land management and conservation skills in order to further their own careers in this field. These Trainee Volunteer Rangers also give a huge amount of their time and effort into hard work in the area. Today it was my pleasure to spend a day with the latest TVR's; Eve, Rob, Louise and Sarah.

After getting a few things in place such as checking the weather forecast and putting together an activity sheet and late back procedure we went to walk through Steall Gorge. There are three paths on the Ben Nevis side of the gorge and we took the lowest which is really quite tricky and requires people to look after each other. This path joins the main path a short distance before Steall Meadows and we went there and then on to the scramble up the south side of Meall Cumhainn.

Working in broken and steep areas of mountain sides requires some simple rope skills and scrambling ability which is what we looked at on the cramble. By this time it was snowing and the rocks were wet. The mica schiest here is slippery at the best of times so today it was particularly testing! The team did very well looking after themselves with the rope for security. We went back down to Steall Meadow to get back to the van in heavy showers of snow and graupel even down at the meadow. However, sunshine in between the showers showed off the mountains beautifully. They really do look brilliant right now with snow on top.