Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife has welcomed the work being undertaken by 12 UK mountaineering groups to help improve avalanche messages and mountain rescue. Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife said: “A cross-border approach to improving avalanche messages and the information available to mountain rescue teams is to be welcomed. "As everyone knows, it has been a particularly difficult winter in the Scottish mountains, not least because of the frequency of slab avalanche conditions, and so anything which can be done to improve information and awareness about the risk of avalanche has to be a good thing. "On my recent visit to the Perth offices of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, I was very impressed by the collaborative work that is being done to improve education about about mountains and especially about winter conditions. This work is hugely important and of significant benefit to the mountain rescue teams across Scotland which work so hard on a voluntary basis to ensure our walkers and climbers are brought back off the mountains safely.”