Executive News
- New Exec member
- Mountain Article Competition:
2004 Winners
2005 Competition entries invited - Expedition Grants 2005 – applications invited
- Ben Nevis Way Marking - Consultation Report
Your New Executive Committee members
One new face was missing from the line-up of nar’ do wells elected onto the MCofS Executive Committee in the last issue as she was off on an expedition to Kyrghistan. Here’s a short CV:
Susan Jensen
Susan grew up around Alaskan mountains but only started climbing after moving to the UK. The concept of deliberately bagging and counting Munro’s is one that has subconsciously triggered a desire to hill walk in horrendous weather, rather than sensibly thinking of something to do below 900-odd meters, and so developed a profound appreciation of Scotland in all its moods. Susan has a day job in front of a computer at the Royal Bank of Scotland, allowing good access to weather reports for weekend climbing plans.
Mountain Article Competition Winners 2004
We had a good selection of prose this year for the judges to ponder over, although the number of entries to the poetry category was well down on previous years.
The Prose category saw a range of articles from factual descriptive walks and climbs in remote parts of the world, Alpine peaks, and in Scotland, to more philosophical pieces exploring the nature of our sport. Just missing out on winning in third place was Dave McVey with ‘Looking for the Blue’, a tale of a lifelong quest that becomes an obsession – we can all relate to that! Others close behind included Iain Davison’s re-telling of a friends encounter with wolves which captured the absurdity of our primeval fears; John Allen’s climbing of The Dragon on Carnmore was a recollection of youths adventurous spirit; whilst Liz Bibby nicely described an unexpected epic on a small hill entitled ‘The Fence’.
The poetry category saw 4 entries all very similar in style, but Iain Davidson’s piece won out for its eloquence and simplicity.
The winners were:
PROSE
First place (winning £100) is Joe Brown with ‘Breathe’, an excellent description of an accident situation where panic takes over and this was perfectly captured by the pace and style of the writing.
Second place (winning £50) goes to Dave Coustic with ‘The Future of Himalayan Climbing’, a futuristic tale of virtual climbing that is not all it seems.
POETRY
Winner (receiving £50) is ‘Lomond Equinox’ by Iain Davidson.
2005 Competition
We are now ready to receive entries for the 2005 competition.
There are two categories:
PROSE - 1st Prize : £100; 2nd Prize : £50.
POETRY - 1st Prize : £50
Prose entries should be a maximum of 2,000 words long. Poetry entries can be as long or as short as you like. All should be preferably typed (or supplied as a word or rtf document on disc), but otherwise clearly written on single-sided paper. The closing date is the 30th of June 2005. Send your entries to the National Officer at the MCofS Office (or email to: kev@mountaineering-scotland.org.uk). Members should quote their club name or individual membership number. Enclose an SAE if you wish the article to be returned and the winners will be announced in the September edition of Scottish Mountaineer. The MCofS reserves the right to publish the prize-winning entries. Past winners have been published either in the MCofS newsletter, Annual Report or in magazines or Journals. We also intend publishing all the winning entries since it started on the website as part of a Mountain Writing forum.
Expedition Grants 2005
Applications are now invited for the MCofS annual grant awards to expeditions for 2005. Remember the ‘expedition’ can be those
“…whose objective is one of excellence and adventure, whether they be first ascents or first free ascents of routes in the greater ranges and little or unexplored mountain areas of the world, or similar pure rock or pure ice climbs in less remote settings but which are nonetheless worthy of international recognition”.
Please note that members also applying for grants to the Mount Everest Foundation will be asked whether they wish to also apply for a grant from BMC or MCofS. If they indicate yes to this, then they cannot gain an additional grant direct from MCofS. The criteria for grants from the MEF, BMC and MCofS are all slightly different.
Applications should be in before the end of February 2005, with full details of the proposed trip and any supporting information. Full details of the grants and an application form is on the website or can be obtained by contacting the office.
Ben Nevis Way Marking
The debate at the Annual Gathering and subsequent written responses show that there is a wide range of views with no clear consensus.
In order to base a decision on the views of the membership, the MCofS Executive Committee has taken into account the wide range of views which have recently been expressed, the accident statistics and the pre-existing policies which have previously been endorsed by the membership (and which have not been rendered invalid by recent responses) e.g. “Self-reliance is the most important quality for those venturing into the hills” and “The use of waymarks, cairns or other intrusive features, other than those traditionally established on summits and path junctions, will be discouraged.”
The MCofS supports: -
(a) The retention of the summit shelter.
(b) Minimal waymarking on the mountain track by removing unhelpful cairns and increasing the size of a limited number of natural cairns which lie on the 231 and 282 degree bearings between the summit and the 1200 metre contour.
(c) A policy of gradually phasing in the removal of other existing artificial structures so that there is not a sudden alteration to the status quo and of making an such changes after any action is taken regarding the cairns on the mountain track.
