Chair’s Report to 2018 AGM

Another year over & a new one about to begin. We’ve got 70 members, three less than this time last year. Farewell to all those who have moved on and welcome to all those who’ve joined us I hope we offer what you are looking for. After all we’re just a bunch of friends who enjoy the hills!

First of all I’d like to thank a few people: the current committee: Gill, Jason S, Kent, Martina, Peter C and Shane. Thanks for your assistance organising trip as well as the running of our club. Kent and Jason are stepping down tonight after serving on our club’s committee for as long as I’ve been a member. Thank you for all you have done for all of us. Also thanks to:

Lizzy for organising the Cheddar trip;

Stuart for organising the Welsh 3,000s weekend; Ang for making trip reports look pretty & distributing them; Flick for a behind the scenes overhaul of our website; Gill & Malcolm for their cultural organisation, more of that later; Malcolm, or should I say Mr spicy pasta! Not sampled it myself but I’ve heard good reports about your pasta dish cooked on a couple of trips; Finally, I remember something Bob Stones said at the AGM where you elected me to our committee – thank you to everybody who has replied to an all members emails it’s nice to know they are read.

Now what have we been up to since our last AGM?

Trips, both formal and ad-hoc:

December – Xmas dinner at Hathersage in The Peak District. Oh yes and some walking to burn off those turkey based calories! Circular walks from Grindleford to Burbage, Stanage and back. The group going from Castleton did get a tad muddy, but it December in The Peak District! Those present would like to thank Alan M for organising the food, and all his elves who assisted with the cooking. Not forgetting Malcolm who warmed everyone up with the mulled wine. Two more walks on Sunday including a return to Stanage finished off the year’s trips.

January – Burns trip to Chester MC hut in Llanberris. There was some snow on Snowdon & five summited on Friday before the wind & rain arrived on Saturday. Saturday evening was our traditional Burns night dinner – thank you Alan M for arranging and acting as head chef with your willing kitchen full of peelers, choppers, chefs & pot washers. I even managed to get the pipes & drums of The Royal Tank Regiment to pipe the haggis in!

February – Yorkshire Ramblers Club hut, one of our favourites, for a weekend of walking. Five different walks over three days ranging from waterfall walks to 20 plus miles over the moors. Malcolm cooked for the group doing his spicy peanut pasta on the Saturday evening. The majority went for the waterfall walk but not Shane he ran up and down Pen-Y-Ghent before heading home on Sunday.

March – Gwydar Hut in North Wales with not the best weather. Our brave members did venture out for walks but with the conditions they stuck to lower walks in the area. Saturday evening Malcolm cooked his speciality pasta. Snow came overnight and limited ambitions on Sunday one team followed the canal in Llangollen while the others went up the hill behind the hut.

April – Hardhurst Farm the first camping trip of this year also introduced real rock to indoor climbers. Thanks to Jason S & Stuart (and you thought I’d forgotten to mention you at the start) for spending time introducing outdoor newbies to real rock.

May – Two trips, the club meet to Cheddar George saw a wet start to the weekend with some climbing in the afternoons and to good walks. One finishing with handling a snake – yuck – and eating ice cream, much more my style! On Sunday we provided entertainment for the passing tourists when proving that we climbers cannot always beat gravity.

There was also the Welsh 3,000s attempt. Stuart & Shane went for it and were beaten after nine peaks in the Ogwen Valley. Be careful when Stuart says a 5am start, he may be referring to the start from the top of Snowdon, which means 3am, yes 3am from the campsite in Nant Peris! But I did get to see the ISS ‘flying’ over the Lanberris valley- amazing. On the Saturday MKMC did manage all the Welsh 3,000s Peter C & Kathy went from Ogwen to Foel-Fras.

June – Cheddar Gorge was the destination for both trad & sport climbing.

July – Great Langdale. Four of us shunned the weather forecasts, the ones that had been incorrectly predicting wet weekends previously. Unfortunately, it was right this time. Lizzy & I had been excitedly eyeing up Pavey Ark on Friday evening. Saturday we couldn’t even see it! Two wet but enjoyable days followed: walking to Angle Tarn on Saturday and a very short day on Sunday.

August – Pembrokeshire for sea cliff climbing over the long Bank Holiday weekend.

September – Scotland for the official trip with 8 of us heading to the Alex Macintire hut for climbing & walking in Glencoe.  It took 4½ hours to do Castle Ridge on the Ben despite the conditions.

Peter W, Gill, Adam & my family headed to Alpkit’s Big Shakeout festival in The Peak District with two families from Big Rock’s Academy for a weekend of outdoor activities & fun. I think it may become a regular event.

November – Lancashire Mountaineering Club hut in Beddgellert. 13 of us who climbed, outside (Windgather on way up) & indoors (Beacon) as well as walked & ran. David did an excellent lasagne on Friday evening and ‘Mr Pasta’ did the group proud on Saturday with his classic spicy pasta. Oh and not forgetting the swimming in the lake on Sunday morning!!

December – Yorkshire Ramblers hut was the destination for this year’s Xmas meal meet. From the emails I saw I think it was a resounding success & a real team effort to prepare, cook & clean up the Xmas meal. Oh the walking wasn’t bad too with some new routes explored.

We also visited, or attempted to visit, a few film festivals. The less said about the Banff Film Festival in St Albans the better! However, Gill, Michelle & I did get to the second programme in Abingdon. The was also Dawn Wall at Milton Keynes. A first by my recollection was a trip to the theatre to see a stage rendition of Touching the Void- very powerful. Gill also did her annual dash up to Kendal for that film festival.

We do do some serious stuff; this year saw the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations thanks to all on the committee who read and commented on our data privacy policy drafts as well as Andrew who cast his professional eye over them. Thanks to Andrew for mentioning he was doing GDPR work for a bank – and not running a mile when I said, “Andrew, would you mind . . .”

Even as a group of friends who do Mountaineering GDPR applies to us. We won’t sell your details on, allow others to use our mailing list. It’s for us to arrange trips, days & evenings out, inform you about MKMC events. If you do run your own business please don’t use our mailing system to promote it or for anything that isn’t MKMC, BMC, or directly related to hillwalking, climbing or mountaineering.

Too serious!  Finishing off with another success the second Thursday of the month social climbs have had a good support & it really is great to see non climbers dropping in for the social side at cake o’clock!

Finally, I hope this has brought back fun memories for those who were there, and, inspired those who weren’t. Hopefully confirmation to new members that they made the right choice joining us.

Ladies & gentlemen thank you for allowing me to be your chair. It’s fun, hard-work and rewarding. It can’t be that bad as I’m willing to carry on next year, that is, if you’ll have me?

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2 Responses to Chair’s Report to 2018 AGM

  1. Alan Mountford says:

    Thanks Alan for an excellent round-up of last years events – and you and the rest of the committee have made an excellent start to 2019. Thank you.

  2. Peter C says:

    Thanks Alan very good summary. I think it was 8 of us who ended up in Glencoe – and managed Castle Ridge on the Ben despite the conditions. Although it took a good 4.5 hours to do the climb 🙂

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