Winter Skills Courses

Make the most of winter in the mountains.

Comprehensive winter skills courses designed to boost your skills, experience and confidence for walking in the mountains in winter conditions.

Our winter courses run over four days in order to give you the best chance of experiencing a wide range of weather and conditions. They include learning on winter movement techniques, navigation, understanding the snowpack, weather and avalanche forecasts. They are a mixture of theory sessions, skills based practice and mountain journeys putting everything learnt together. Therefore, ensuring you leave feeling able to confidently use these skills independently.

Based out of Fort William we are well placed to visit a variety of different areas over the course duration, these may include for example; Ben Nevis, Nevis Range, Glencoe and Creag Meagidh.

Winter Skills & Weather

- a collaboration between Wild Roots & MWIS

A unique winter skills course offering you the chance to learn how to negotiate a winter mountain environment underfoot as well as getting to grasp with what’s in the sky.

  • There is one thing certain about winter in the mountains and that is that the weather will play a major role in determining the success of your day! Understanding it and learning how to plan with it is a key winter skill.

    This unique course will be Led by Winter Mountain Leader, Anna Danby of Wild Roots Guiding and Meteorologist, Garry Nicholson of the Mountain Weather Information Service.

    Over the four days you will learn all aspects of how to safely approach the winter mountains and understand their complex weather. Opening up a whole new world of opportunity for great days in the hills at this challenging time of year.

  • The course will be based out of Fort William and you will get the opportunity to visit a diverse range of beautiful locations in the local area. Fort William can be reached via public transport and lifts can be arranged from there.

    The maximum group size is 6, ensuring plenty of time for everyone to benefit from 1:1 support and guidance. You do not need any previous winter experience to participate. You will get the most out of the course if you have a good level of hill fitness and some previous experience of summer mountain walking.

    The four day course costs £385 per person which includes transport from Fort William if required.

    • Winter movement techniques including use of Boots, Ice Axes and Crampons

    • Winter navigation including map and compass skills

    • Understanding and interpreting snow conditions and hazards

    • Understanding and interpreting avalanche forecasts

    • Interpreting weather forecasts and comparing to real time observations on the mountain

    • Meteorological charts and winter weather patterns

    • Effective and safe mountain route planning based on weather and snow conditions

    • Mountain journeys putting all of the above into practice

  • Monday 9th - Thursday 12th February 2026

    Course will run from approximately 8:00am - 4:00pm each day

Winter Skills

Comprehensive four day winter skills and winter walking courses in Fort William, Scotland. Designed to give you all the skills required to safely, efficiently and confidently move through the winter mountains in Scotland and beyond.

  • Join our experienced team of Winter Mountain Leaders for a comprehensive winter skills course in a friendly and supportive environment. This course is aimed at this with little or no experience of winter mountains but who are keen to develop the skills and confidence to safely enjoy hill walking year round.

    Winter in Scotland is very varied with weather and snow conditions changing dramatically from day to day. This is why we offer longer courses to give you a good chance of experiencing the full spectrum of Scottish winter mountains.

  • The course will be based out of Fort William. Over the four days you will get the opportunity to visit a diverse range of beautiful locations in the local area. Fort William can be reached via public transport and lifts can be arranged from there.

    The maximum group size is 6, ensuring plenty of time for everyone to benefit from 1:1 support and guidance. You do not need any previous experience of winter walking. You will get the most out of the course if you have a reasonable level of fitness and some summer hill walking experience.

    The three day course costs £335 per person which includes transport from Fort William if required.

    If you do not own B2 Boots, Crampons and Ice axe these can be hired from Ellis Brigham in Fort William. Please arrange this in advance of the course.

    • Winter movement techniques including use of Boots, Ice Axes and Crampons

    • Winter hill walking equipment

    • Winter navigation including map and compass skills

    • Opportunity for some night navigation

    • Understanding and interpreting snow conditions and hazards

    • Understanding and interpreting avalanche forecasts

    • Interpreting and understanding weather forecasts

    • Effective and safe mountain route planning based on weather and snow conditions

    • Mountain journey putting all of the above into practice

  • Friday 2nd January - Monday 5th January

    Thursday 29th January - Sunday 1st February

    Thursday 5th March - Sunday 8th March

    Courses will run from approximately 8:00am - 4:00pm each day

“‘I’m just back from a 4 day winter skills and navigating course with Anna, which I thoroughly enjoyed - I feel so much more confident and ready for winter adventures now! The days were full of great advice and fun and I learned a lot without it being overwhelming. Anna is very friendly, knowledgeable and made sure that the days fitted our experience - just a great attitude all around! I would happily go on any other of her courses again and can’t recommend her highly enough”

— Juliane Friedrich