Issue 15 December 2002
COMMENTHelping Tomorrow's ClimbersThe last issues' “ Comment “ from our President Pete Hill was entitled “Into The Fire” so I suppose this piece should be called “ From The Fire Into The Pan” as it was one thing that I never envisaged I would be asked to do, to follow in such august footsteps as some of our previous contributors. However if there is one thing that I have learned during my eighteen months of involvement with the MCofS and that is: be flexible and prepared to give a helping hand in any direction. So who needs the helping hand of the MCofS? There are many causes and fronts on which we could campaign. However, due to available resources of man (and on behalf of our administrator Pet Thomas) woman power, finance etc, being very much limited commodities we have to concentrate our efforts to where we feel they will have the greatest effect. One area that needs a serious review is where are tomorrow's users of the mountains coming from. Of course there are organisations out there that cater for the youth of today extremely well and there are a lot of training programmes in place. However, how do they make the transition from “youngsters” with an interest, been to the climbing wall or completed some form of introductory course, to safe, self-sufficient and competent mountain users? For many reasons most of our mountaineering clubs do not accept people under the age of sixteen (this is not meant as a criticism), similar conditions apply at many climbing walls when they are unattended by their parents. In many ways tomorrow's users do not have a signposted way to make the necessary transition. Currently there appear to be more hurdles than gates on the path. The Executive Committee of the MCofS decided last year that this is an area where some of our limited resources could be used. We now have a Sport Development sub committee who at their inaugural meeting decided to concentrate their first efforts towards developing an organisation and structure of continued youth development which will provide the youth of today with the encouragement and facilities to develop into tomorrows mature mountain users. Talking to people from across the country I constantly hear “That our membership is getting older. We are not attracting young new members” Maybe this is an area that all of us associated with being participants of the great outdoors should become involved with. Hopefully the new sub committee will provide some guidance. However, to achieve lasting success it will probably take a lot of effort from, and some rethinking of policy by, a lot of our existing clubs and organisations. We have made a start, and this months magazine begins a dedicated section to our sports development that will cover the work of this committee on youth development, as well as climbing walls and competitions, international issues and expeditions, personal skills and coaching, women's mountaineering and equity issues. Fred Belcher
This issue included the joint winner of the Prose Section of the 2002 Literary Competition Rhapsody in Grey by Thomas Dunstan This issue included the feature Walking Wild in The Borders by Irvine Butterfield. This issue included a Climb Through History report Jug Rib by Chris Murray |
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