Club Dinner – Jan 27/28

As of Monday, 8 Jan, 10 places in the main building remain plus 5 in the bunkhouse.

I’ll bring along 2 copies of the latest GMC Tables (draft 10) along for your amusement! For those new to the club, this is a list of members’ outdoor/mountaineering achievements (We’re not counting swimming certificates here!). Quite a few people have not yet seen even the early drafts and their entries would be most appreciated. Many new categories have been added (and many entries) since draft 9 was shown to a large audience at the Yorkshire Dales weekend last March.

Colin & Judith’s trip to Spain

Information supplied By Colin Powell

As mentioned in the current programme Colin and Judith Powell are travelling out to Spain in February. They have friends flying out to join them for walking and climbing on weeks starting Sat Mar 3 and Sat Mar 10. I understand that at least two club members are going so far, Roy Silverthorne and Martin Skinner. Week commencing Mar 17 is a possibility also. Apartments are easy to find upon arrival. Please contact Colin and Judith for further details if you’re interested.

Kirby Stephen weekend - Mar 3/4

£14 for two nights. Linda is taking money now.

~~~ WHAT’S HAPPENED ~~~

Navigation day – Jan 7

Photo and words supplied by Susan Dyson, edited from her article “A first day out with the Gwent Mountaineering Club”

Sunday morning dawned bright, clear and very chilly. Not what Peter Jackson had hoped for at all for his Navigation Exercise and Refresher Course. Peter’s opening chat set the scene for the day and his teaching style! We were going to have to be technically very accurate, with minds like razors and a sharp vitriolic wit to even get out of the car park!

We were paired off into “items”. I’ve not been one of these since I got divorced so this was at least novel. I was going to have to get to know my partner (Ian Tucker) fast as I drew the short straw to lead the first leg! We consulted our maps and compasses over the bonnet of a car. Then we were off. Ian and I agreed on our objective and bearing but almost as quickly had a trial separation as I chose a high route and he stayed in the valley! However, we were amicably rejoined as we waited for the pack to catch up and eventually join us at Point 1. A successful leg; Peter and Alex almost complimentary, but that would have been a bit much this early in the day.

So the day progressed with each pair in turn leading a leg. The rest of the group were not unchallenged though, as they had to ‘keep in contact with the map at all times’ and were often sharply asked ‘Put the corner of your compasses on the location you think we’re at now’ and then inspected. Very worrying!

Many aspects of navigation were covered on the day including:

· Adding/subtracting magnetic North adjustments – compass to map, map to compass.

Which way round do you think it is?

· Relating the mapped features to the actual ground.

· Setting the map to the ground.

· Timing routes and using intermediate navigation points.

· Back bearings – do you know what they are and why they’re useful?

· and many more…

Unfortunately one pair did make a classic navigational assumption and hence miss their eight-figure location. A useful reminder to all: that even on a clear day we always have to treat remote country with respect. Had Peter had the low cloud, driving rain and wind he’d hoped for such an error would be far more difficult to recover from.

I think all agreed it had been a very useful and enjoyable day. Very great thanks to Peter for the obvious care, attention to detail, planning and effort he put into this event. Thanks also to Alex for providing the softer interface and supportive coaching to all, throughout. A valuable foil to Peter’s rigour! As for me? Well I thoroughly enjoyed it. I met 13 members of the GMC and enjoyed the company of you all. I think I managed to chat to all – whilst of course ‘keeping in contact with the map’! I discovered, Julie, one of our climbing members - so may have solved my introduction to this part of GMC as well. Having been an ‘item’ with Ian, I look forward to my discount on my new member subs – what d’you mean no! GMC may indeed be the club for me, and you!

“Bradford and Bingley” trip to Scotland –Dec 26/Jan 1

Bradford and Bingley, aka Richard Bradford and Dave Bingham took a short break up to Scotland driving up on Boxing Day and coming back on New Year’s day. In search of snow and ice, we found plenty of the former on the morning of Dec 28; 10 to 15 inches of powder snow in the grounds of the Crianlarich youth hostel car park! The following day we waded through deep powder snow (up to the waist on several occasions) taking 5 hours (!!) to reach the nearby Munro, Cruach Adrain. At this point, referring to his toned muscles (I think) Richard announced that after this trip he “would have buttocks to die for”. I hastily swam across the nearby snow drift to safety.

Further details of the trip in the next issue of the club journal, “The Pinnacle”.

~~~ OTHER NEWS ~~~

Words supplied by Susan Dyson.

'Vertical Limit' is a movie about a climb of K2. Its cert. PG-13. Climbing party led by woman gets stranded above 8000M and brother and wily old-climber-hero-type has to go and rescue them. The action was filmed in New Zealand so K2 doesn't actually appear! Its Cardiff run starts on Fri 19/1/01 at Odeon, Cardiff Capitol.