South Wales Mountaineering Club

Clwb Dringo De Cymru

www.southwalesmountaineering.org.uk

Newsletter, December 2001

Notes from the editor

As I've said previously, the political machinations of the club are the stuff of Jeffrey Archer novels. Obviously I mean Jeff Archer who works in the Co-op in Maesteg!

Several people who gave their apologies for this year's AGM have of course been voted onto the committee, as they were not there to propose somebody else.

The coming years committee is made up as follows

Please remember those named are elected officers of the club and have agreed to give up some of their time for the benefit of the club. They represent you and your views. If you have any issues you need to raise about the club and how it conducts its self, contact the most relevant or friendliest sounding person. The committee meets about every six weeks, and will discuss and hopefully resolve anything brought to their attention.

Although not SWMC committee members, the below offices are held by

Reports from the Annual General Meeting

Below are the "highlights" of the AGM minutes, a full copy of which can be obtained from the Club Sec.

The Annual General Meeting of the club was held at Llandaf Rugby Club, Cardiff, at 1930hrs, Wednesday 14^th November 2001.

The meeting was not sufficiently well attended to be corate, so it was proposed that it should proceed on the basis that all decisions reached were subject to ratification by the membership. All decisions would be published in the Newsletter and, if not objected to within 7 days, would be deemed ratified by the membership.

The Committee offered its apologies to John Custance for any embarrassment caused by its mistaken belief at last year's AGM that the post of BMC Access Rep was within its power to grant. For the record, this post is a matter for the BMC Committee for Wales and not SWMC's Committee/Officers.

The present state of the club finances is healthy. After the recent improvements on the Barn, we still have £35K in the Building Society for further improvements/ Guide Book development.

A full breakdown with the usual balance sheets etc is in preparation and will be available from the treasurer.

The following Officers resigned from the Committee and are thanked for the time and effort they have put in on behalf of the club.

1. Gary Lewis Membership Secretary, Cardiff

2. Tim Hoddy Ordinary Member, Swansea

3. Jo Morley Treasurer (effective from October 2001)

The new committee was elected subject to the agreement of club members.

It was further agreed that, if possible, the Newsletter should be e-mailed in the lowest possible format, as certain members were having difficulty downloading it on their PCs, which were Windows 98 or lower. All members should forward their email address to their membership secretary. Hopefully, we can widen e-mail circulation of the Newsletter, which saves considerable cost and effort for the club.

Next years AGM will be held in the Swansea area on a November day to be fixed.

Reports from the committee

The committee last met on the 16^th October 2001 and finalised details for the AGM and Annual Dinner. The following matters are also reported.

The guide book is still plodding toward it's slowly approaching goal. The sections on access details are to be given to a climber not familiar with this area who will "test drive" the guide and endeavour to see if he can find crags and routes from the descriptions given.

Hut fees are to be increased by 50p per night. This is to reflect the excellent improvements made recently and to do away with the electricity meter, which didn't ever meet it's costs and was a prime target for a burglary waiting to happen. Other "hut" matters were discussed and are included in the usual letter from Kim Collis.

The committee were informed that there are moves within the BMC to examine the possibility of establishing a "Welsh Mountaineering Council." This will be reported on as it develops.

Other matters were discussed which will be reported upon as they develop.

The committee will next be meeting on 17^th January 2002

Goings on at the Annual Dinner

The sumptuous venue on this occasion was Sketty Hall, Swansea. No alarms were set off, no interlopers wanted to fight club members, no pirates or fire fighters appeared and no scandal has been reported to the editor.

Alun Richardson, a former club member who now climbs professionally, presented an excellent talk with slides. Personally, I was glad I had eaten the profiteroles before the "Arse" picture!

The evening finished with "Dad dancing" and protestations of undying love. Next years bash will be in Cardiff and will have to be good to top this one.

Letter from the barn warden

Well, it's been an exciting time up at the barn and I hope you got a slice of the action. At the end of September, our chairman formally inaugurated the new internal toilets by ritually throwing up in each one, that's to say we had a party. But there was also some serious climbing done and some more epics to add to the club annals. Gary and Haydn competed with Pete and Rachana to stay out latest, but Pete and Rachana won the competition by a cow's length. Haydn won the prize however for dislodging the largest block and still staying attached to the crag (and this on an E3). Mere mortals like Stuart, Elaine, Mike, Guy, Dave, Anne, Kathryn and myself were content to do various classic routes. Verdict on the weekend contained in Chris's comment to his son on Sunday morning; "You're going to have to play quietly this morning Sam, because a lot of people in this room have headaches."

At the beginning of November we had another party, this time a bonfire party at which your barn warden maniacally threw everything in the barn that would burn onto a big fire and called it bonfire night (NB not the log book). Pity we weren't organised enough to buy any fireworks, but here Lincoln MC filled the gap.

The bonfire party also signalled the closure of the barn for the next five weeks while the septic tank was being repaired. It is due to reopen on 7 December with a big outside booking for that weekend so if you get this before then, it will be full that weekend.

Lincoln MC are celebrating New Year up at their cottage: as far as I am aware, nobody from SWMC has declared interest yet in using our hut at that date.

Although a fair bit remains to be done, I hope you will give the barn a try this winter. If you are going up as a group from Cardiff, it would help a lot to prevent double booking if you could tell me first. Contact me on 01792 527237 (0777 992 1382) or kim.collis@ntlworld.co.ukWe are getting more outside bookings nowadays, particularly where groups are booking both our hut and the Lincoln MC hut. If you want to have exclusive use of the barn for SWMC members for a particular weekend, give me some advance notice.

If you have any ideas about the barn or are prepared to help out, get in touch. I am hoping we can get enough people together to have a work weekend in February.

Kim Collis

Club Meetings

Some club members have signed up for a winter mountaineering course in Scotland, running between 17^th and 20^th January 2002. Anyone who wants to attend or share transport to Fort William should contact Pete Bennett or Nigel Lewis.

The venue for the Club's Scotland weekend is likely to be Achintee farmhouse near Ben Nevis, as the Climber's Club Hut was not available as required.

Put these dates in your diary today!

Cardiff Slide Shows.

Thanks go to Andy Rees, John Goodwin and Don Hillman for slide shows in November and December. The following slide shows will take place at Llandaf Rugby Club as per the usual format.

There will also be a slide show at WICC on 29^th January 2002. Tony Penning will be showing shots from Colorado and will start around 2100hrs. There will be a charge of £1.00 for viewers to cover his costs.

Swansea members still meet about 2130hrs every Wednesday at The Rhyddings, where the weekends activities are planned.

BMC Dates and Info.

And of course everyone knows, ACW means Area Committee for Wales!

Letters from members

SWMC Facts

In August 1971 the Club became the owners of Llety Llwyd. After shovelling the sheep shit out of the cottage it was eventually turned into habitable premises. It was always the intention that the Barn would become the Club's main base but climbing got in the way of the work and so very little materialised, apart from the then shining beacon, the toilet block. As Dennis Gray said at one of the dinners, it became a target for the low flying aircraft in the North Wales area, a bit like the Day-Glo Saracen tank on Range East.

In 1980 the Treasurer, Dave Williams, became concerned at the state of the Cottage. He commissioned a survey which showed that major works were required if the buildings were to be kept weatherproof and usable.

Guy Richardson took over as Barn warden and using his organisational skills and contacts, obtained grants, which meant that we received £1.50 for every £1 we spent!! In 1982 the Barn was opened as the Club's base.

Subsequent committees progressively improved the Barn, adding a bunkroom above the lounge, central heating, piped gas and a shower.

In 1997 the cottage was looking very much the worse for wear and there didn't seem to be much interest in work weekends. A heated AGM eventually agreed that the Club could put it on the market and our current neighbours, Lincoln Mountaineering Club moved in.

In the last few years, under Steve Lewis' stewardship, further improvements have been made, lagging and cladding the ceilings to keep that expensive heat inside the building and fitting smoke alarms so that we don't fry in our beds even if they do go off when we are frying the bacon.

In the last year Kim Collis has pushed the Committee to spend money on further internal improvements. Inside toilets have been fitted. One for the girls and one for the boys, so there's no need to fertilise the nettles during the night. We also have two showers and separate washrooms and sunlight in the kitchen courtesy of two new skylights.

The next phases are to ensure that while the bullshit will no doubt continue to be poured into the air, the more physical products are properly dealt with. We may also be able to park cars in the Orchard area.

These are just my recollections from 25 years use, has anyone got more juicy anecdotes to flesh out the story of Llety Llwyd?

Gwyn Evans

For Sale
"Scarpa Vega" plastic boots with "Berghaus Yeti" gaiters, size 10 to 11 very good condition. Ideal for step in crampons. £90

Tel: Haydn 029 20251265

Coming soon

The next newsletter will be published in March 2002. Please submit any items, requests or pictures by 1^st March to n.and.l@ntlworld.com

All submissions will be considered for publication and almost definitely printed.

Remember, the submission date means the date for inclusion in the next newsletter. Any item can be sent to me at any time for future publication.

Note from Editor: Apologies for the delay in sending out the newsletter but I've been trying to fix an email virus that arrived as an early Christmas present. If anyone has unexpected emails with blank notepads arriving in their inbox they probably have a dose of

"w32badtrans@mm"

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