Called in to the CC hut, to see if Huw needed a hand catering at the BMC international meet, hopefully it dries up for them as it is pissing down here at the moment!

Unfortunately I am working until 9pm at Pen Y Pass, so I don’t expect to see any of you up here!

If you are local, and climb at this crag then this is a perfect opportunity to put something back into the areas development.

The crag is one of the first in the new ogwen guide that had a new topo, so has literally been pushed kicking and screaming into this new decade. It is a lovely place, and before teh guide was published I don’t think I ever saw anyone climb there. Today there were 10 people at the crag!

However I did find it interesting that both here and on its neighbouring crag there were several errors in the topos and grades. HOALT for instance is never HVS 5a, the moves low down would warrant 5b or even 5c, and it would still be a tough E1. The topo line is way off on the top section. Direct Route HS is also undergraded, I climbed the crux on another route and it was a good VS move, interestingly the topo line for Zig-Zag the VDiff that goes up and across the crag is shown going up this step!

There are similar problems with the neighbouring crag with the VDiff being drawn on the topo going up the VS! It seems that whilst the CC guidebooks might be moving towards the 21st Century with colour topo’s, it is a shame that the lines seem to have been drawn in at random., and perhaps the route checkers were far better climber than they think they are. Despite this the crag is worth visiting, although it is the first time I have had to use the new ogwen guide, and I found it a complete disappointment to have to be adding my own correction.

Topo lines drawn at random isn’t just a CC problem to be honest. Jack’s guidebook has a couple of corkers in it. In particular you have got to check out where he drew the original top pitch of Christmas Curry going, I had to stop reading it there. Although the main reason was I did have to give my copy back to the friend I robbed it from, as I have yet to receive my free copy for supplying images for the book. To be honest I haven’t checked whether I have been paid yet either (maybe I should shut up!).

Back to slagging the CC, there latest plan, after being told by the BMC national Council that using the BMC £1 million cash surplus to loan climbing clubs money to repair their huts wasn’t a good use of money came back with a proposal that would see us lend the CC money to buy a new hut (well one they have been leasing) with BMC money. Will BMC individual member be able to stay there? Apparently not. It was one guy that has come up with this idea, he happens to be the treasurer of both the CC and the BMC, if any of you are into conspiracy theories! Someone needs to tell him its BMC not HSBC. Hopefully the national council will vote this idea down. However due to the amount of wasted volunteer time spent discussing these proposal, I am proposing that there is a fee leveed to anyone proposing to use the BMC’s money as a bank, of 50p per individual member, as I don’t want to hear it anymore!

Happy climbing any errors in guidebooks i would love to hear them. My personal favourite was the last Slate guide which saw Poetry Pink downgraded from E5 to E4, but the intro text still saying ‘Low in the Grade’.

The obvious answer is Dave Turnbull the CEO of the organisation, however underneath this public face of the BMC lays the true answer. As a council the policy decisions are made by believe it or not a national council of representatives from across the various geographical areas of the UK, as well as honorary presidents. Each of these areas has two voting members on the council who attempt to represent the views of the people who turn up to area committee meetings to discuss proposed policy decisions and local points of interest.

So theoretically you, the near 60000 members of the BMC steer the ship in the direction you choose and poor old Mr Turnbull has to command the staff in the mother ship (BMC office and other volunteers) towards those policies and decisions. In reality around 300 members make it to the 9 different area meeting, meaning that less than 0.004% of the members of the BMC are actively involved in what can be very important decisions.

None more so than some issues that are on the agenda at present, in particular through some very good budgeting from the finance team, and a profit sharing scheme set up with insurance company that provides BMC travel insurance means that the BMC has £200000 to spend at present, for which there are several suggestion as how spend this cash.

* Including ski mountaineering