I have ranted on here in the past about the Mountain Heritage Trust, and how they have seemed to take the BMC, and in a way the members of the BMC’s money and not really given much back to climbers in return. After I blogged on this a while back I was contacted by someone who knew of Phil Kelly’s project to put on line as many new routes books as possible online.
The site is called the Rock Archivist and what he has achieved in his own time and at his own expense is a simply wonderful. A site that has a total wealth of climbing history. The actual pages of several key new routes book from around the UK. As well as some great personal accounts and photos from various sources.
The news of the site was announced today on UKC, and I have to say it will hopefully turn into a great new resource for anyone who wants to look at the history of our great sport. What I really hope is that the people who are involved with teh Mountain Heritage Trust look at what can be achieved, and use the £15000 a year of BMC members money to put those archive materials they have online.
The site at the moment is just egtting going. I know Phil has a few things planned, inparticular a search facility, and seeing that the route name, area and ascentionist are all stored in a database linked to the appropriate page(s). It will really set the site on fire for looking at specific routes or climbers. At the moment though the site almost invites you to browse, and just explore some of these historic books.