Mountain Guides have been around pretty much since the beginning of time. The great armies of the world have always used guides to lead them through the valleys and over the mountain passes; a time when few maps existed; a time when guides could perhaps be described as walking maps. Explorers, scientists, engineers, travellers, authors and many others have used guides over the centuries; local men and (not so often) women who knew their local area intimately, so when the golden age of mountaineering came in the mid 1800’s it was these folk who became the Mountain Guides of the modern era, combining their local knowledge with climbing and mountaineering skills. Initially, under the aegis of the British Mountaineering Council, British Mountain Guides became a separate organisation in 1975, and were affiliated to the International Federation of Mountain Guides (IFMGA) in 1979 meaning that they could guide pretty much anywhere in the world. Founder of SMHC, Mick Tighe, was a Mountain Guide from 1979 until he retired in 2016. The badges and carnets we have here in the collection belonged to him and his good friend Allen Fyffe.