p8 HORIZONS Magazine No 61 Does MOUNTAINBIKING have a place in MULTI-ACTIVITY PROGRAMMES? by Graham French I was recently asked by one of my students, “Why do I need to do my mountain bike leader qualiicaion anyway? I mean most centres don’t do mountain biking do they?” I was struck by the statement and ater a short discussion on the merits of mountain biking, transferable skills and boosing one’s CV, sat down to ponder the quesion. It occurred to me that in many years working in the outdoors in both centres and schools I had rarely encountered mountain biking as part of a typical week-long muli-acivity course. What follows are my thoughts on how mountain biking its in muli- acivity programmes, looking at the availability of mountain biking as part of muli-acivity courses, and the reasons for this. Rich Marin’s aricle in Horizons 28 (12) looked at the past and future of mountain biking, and am seeking to revisit some of his points while asking quesions about it’s educaional validity, along the same lines as Simon Beames in Horizons 57 (1) did in relaion to rock climbing. However, I am approaching the issue from a diferent direcion to Simon who was challenging the oten far reaching claims made for personal development and itness through introductory climbing, I want to look at what the beneits of mountain biking are, and why it is not more oten included in programmes. p8 HORIZONS Magazine No 61