The family of Jonathan Conville established the Jonathan Conville Memorial Trust (JCMT) after he died on the Matterhorn in the winter of 1979/80, aged 27.  He was a sound, ambitious climber who had been to school at Marlborough, spent some time in Australia, been in the Army and taught at the Outward Bound School, Loch Eil.  He identified strongly with the outdoors where he constantly found challenge.  The Trust’s aims are to encourage and assist individuals to train for and pursue outdoor adventure in the spirit that Jonathan followed during his life. 

In view of Jonathan’s great interest in Alpine Mountaineering, the Trust wishes to assist more mountaineers to enjoy the Alps in greater safety.  The Trust is aware that many mountaineers, when visiting the Alps for the first time, do not always have knowledge of good practice skills to use on the mountains and glaciers. The Trust is also aware that many mountaineers find the high cost of many courses prohibitive.  The Conville courses are aimed at those who have not previously undertaken a training course in the Alps.

In 2010 the Trust is offering a number of subsidised 3-day Alpine courses in Chamonix, co-ordinated by Plas y Brenin and the Mountain Training Trust.  The intention is to provide a top class introduction to Alpine mountaineering at the lowest posssible cost.  It is not possible to cover Alpine mountaineering in great detail over three days, but an introduction to the basic considerations, like use of equipment, glacier travel, crevasse rescue can be provided.  In order to provide the optimum learning experience these courses are run at a ratio of one guide for every three trainees.

Each course place costs approximately £200, yet trainees are charged only £70. This year the Jonathan Conville Memorial Trust will provide over £13,000 to subsidise the courses, and the BMC and the MCofS provide additional financial support. The Mountain Training Trust will absorb costs associated with delivering the courses, which are not passed onto trainees.The minimum age for applicants is 18 years and the maximum age is 30.
Please note that the cost of £70 is for the 3-day course only. Successful applicants must cover travel, accommodation, food and insurance costs themselves .

Please Note: Places on these courses are only available for 18-30 year olds

The main criteria for selection are as follows:-
a)    You are a keen mountaineer/climber with experience in the UK and intend to do some graded Alpine routes (‘F’ or above).
b)    You intend to benefit as a result of increased knowledge of good and safe Alpine techniques.
c)    This will be your first Alpine season, or you have been before but are still unaware of the best techniques.
d)    It may only be possible to accept one or two participants from larger groups so that more places can be made available to others.  In that event the Trust is keen for some of the essential information from the course to be fed back to other members of the group.  A final year student at a university, for example, may not have the opportunity to feed back if they are leaving during the summer.  If you are a member of a group, will you have a good opportunity to pass some of the course material on to friends/fellow club members after the course?

Closing date and selections

The closing date for applications is 17th April .
Applicants will be informed by email on the success of their application by the end of April.

PLEASE NOTE: Emails do not always reach their destination and it is therefore applicant’s responsibility to contact PYB if email notification has not been received by the end of April. Successful applicants will be expected to confirm acceptance of the place and provide prompt payment.

Due to the high numbers of applicants for each place, it will not be possible to answer individual requests for feedback regarding why a particular application has been unsuccessful.

Notes for online form
The form must be filled out in one sitting. It cannot be saved and then retrieved at a later date.
All data will be lost if the form crashes. We therefore recommend that any long answers are written in another computer application such as Microsoft Word and pasted into the form.
If your application is successful we will ask for prompt payment.

Preparation in the UK
It is recommended that you do some preparatory reading or undertake some form of training prior to attending the course. This could be increasing your aerobic fitness, familiarising yourself with new equipment such as mountain boots, attending one of the Alpine Essentials lectures or watching the Alpine Essentials DVD.
View the trailer here:

For more detailed information please read the course notes