MCSA NATIONAL NEWS, JANUARY 2017
In this bulletin:
- Contributions for 2016 Journal
- Annual Memorial Service – 26 February 2017
- BMC International Summer Climbing Meet 2017: Apply by 16 January 2017
- UIAA: Roaring success of UIAA MEDCOM paper
- Membership of the Austrian Alpine Klub
- Nepal’s Ang Tshering Sherpa honoured with Belgium’s highest award
- 11th Annual National Mountain Guide Day observed – 28 December
- Facebook and web pages
- Section News
- Snippets
- Any newsworthy items
1) CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 2016 JOURNAL
This is a call for contributions for the 2016 Journal. These can be sent to the Editing Team to: jennyapaterson@gmail.com. Please refer to the Guidelines and Style Sheet on the national website before you submit any contribution. http://bit.ly/2j4HDsv
As this will be a special edition, it being our 125th anniversary year, we will be including a bit about the history of the MCSA.
2) ANNUAL MEMORIAL SERVICE – 26 February 2017
The Annual Memorial Service will be held at Maclear’s Beacon on Sunday 26 February 2017. The service will be conducted by the Reverend Anthony Ryan. This is a non- denominational service and commemorates members of the club who have died in the past year.
3) BMC INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CLIMBING MEET 2017: Apply by 16 January 2017
The 2017 BMC International Summer Climbing Meet will be located at the Count House in Cornwall, a 200-year-old building perched above Cornwall’s finest granite cliff, Bosigran. The MCSA has been invited to nominate two (one female and one male) experienced trad climbers from your country. Preference will be given to climbers who have not attended a BMC International Meet before.
Please note that if the meet is oversubscribed, places will be reduced to one per country.
BMC’s Becky McGovern will email all applying Federations by 30 January to inform them of the outcome. Please do not make any bookings (flights, trains etc.) until you have had confirmation from the BMC.
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
- We will team you up with a UK host climber each day and they will take you out climbing.
- Partnerships will be changed every few days so that you get to climb with different people.
- There will be an optional trad clinic (placing runners, building belays, belaying with two ropes) on the first morning.
- There will be several evening presentations throughout the week.
EXPERIENCE
Visiting climbers must have at least two years’ experience of traditional lead climbing (experience with the placement and removal of protection).
VENUE & DATES
- Venue: The Count House, Bosigran, Pendeen, Penzance, Cornwall, TR20 8YX.
- Dates: Saturday 13 May to Saturday 20 May 2017.
- Arrival evening: Saturday 13 May (no climbing on this day).
- Departure day: Saturday 20 May (no climbing on this day).
TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATION
- You are responsible for making your own travel arrangements to the UK.
- Travel details will be sent to you at the beginning of February when places are confirmed.
- The hut offers ‘alpine hut’ style accommodation with shared rooms and bathroom facilities.
COST
The fee is £150 per person and includes:
- Seven nights’ accommodation
- Three catered meals per day
- Nightly presentations
- Six days’ climbing with experienced host climbers
- Optional trad clinic
- Transfer from Penzance train station
HOW TO APPLY
Interested parties should contact MCSA secretary at secretary@mcsa.org.za for meet details and for the required forms to be completed as soon as possible. Deadline for applications is 16 January 2017.
4) UIAA
4.1: ROARING SUCCESS OF UIAA MEDCOM PAPER
The UIAA Medical Commission is delighted to report the overwhelming response to its paper ‘Drug Use and Misuse in the Mountains: A UIAA MedCom Consensus Guide for Medical Professionals’ which was published in 2016. http://bit.ly/2i64FRq
5) MEMBERSHIP OF THE AUSTRIAN ALPINE KLUB
Charles Edelstein writes: As part of the ongoing commitment to improving the quality and safety of trad climbing I strongly urge individual climbers to sign up as Members of the Austrian Alpine Klub (UK). There is nothing quite like it as a rescue insurance for Rock and Mountain Climbing that I am aware of. Membership is initiated in January every year so if you sign up after that you still pay for a full year but lose the benefit for the months after that.
My membership for my whole family is under 100 pounds or R1700 per annum. I wish I had membership earlier this year as I paid R66 000.00 for a chopper ride in Nepal when Margaret and Duncan got ill. Individuals born after 1957 are £500
The benefits far outweigh the costs and to put it simply rescues are covered to €25000 (over R400,000.00), anywhere in the world if under 6000m. It also allows for discounts in the various huts and refugios around Europe!
I know of two individuals who have benefitted directly from this service. Inform yourselves and ensure you next chopper ride when you snap your ankle or worse. http://bit.ly/2iRcn0t
6) NEPAL’S ANG TSHERING SHERPA HONOURED WITH BELGIUM’S HIGHEST AWARD KATHMANDU:
President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association Ang Tshering Sherpa has been honoured with one of the highest awards of Belgium for his tireless effort to support survivors of the 2015 devastating earthquake.
Ambassador of Belgium to Nepal Jan Luykx conferred ‘Officer of the Order of the Crown’ on Sherpa, who is also an honorary consul of Belgium to Nepal. http://bit.ly/2iq6JkU
7) 11th ANNUAL NATIONAL MOUNTAIN GUIDE DAY OBSERVED – 28 DECEMBER
Nepal National Mountain Guide Association (NNMGA) organized a special program to mark 11th Annual National Mountain Guide day on 28 Dec 2016. President of NMA Ang Tshering Sherpa was chief guest for the program. Certificate of completion of mountain guide was also given to participants and Nepal has now 42 mountain guides certified by International Federation of Mountain Guide Association (IFMGA).
Nepal is the second nation after Japan in Asia to get recognition from IFMGA. NNMGA also announced that the general assembly of IFMGA will be organized in Nepal from 28 Nov – 02 Dec 2017. http://bit.ly/2iqh7ZZ
8) FACEBOOK AND WEB PAGES
National: http://bit.ly/2j4MZnI
Links for all sections’ web pages are on the national webpage.
9) SECTION NEWS
There is no section news.
10) SNIPPETS
10.1) JONATHAN NEWMAN AND ANDREW PORTER HAVE REACHED THE SUMMIT OF KWA DUMA
Jonathan Newman and Andrew Porter reached the summit of Kwa Duma on Sat 10 Dec. In doing so, they have thus summited all of the non-technical khulus (peaks in SA higher than 3000m), and are presumably the first people to do so.
10.2) CLANWILLIAM CEDAR COULD BE EXTINCT WITHIN 21ST CENTURY
A study by University of Cape Town researchers, published in BioMed Central Ecology in November, has confirmed a decline in the iconic conifer, the Clanwilliam cedar (Widdringtonia cedarbergensis), which gives the name to the Cederberg Wilderness Area (CWA) in South Africa. The trees appear to be susceptible to a greater frequency of fires and higher temperatures at lower elevations. The study investigated three main focus areas: population dynamics of the trees; environmental correlates with these dynamics and recommendations to conservation management.
The study was conducted by Joseph White, Samuel Jack, Professor Timm Hoffman, Associate Professor Edmund February, James Puttick and Daniela Bonora – all of the Department of Biological Sciences at UCT; and Vernon Visser of the Department of Statistical Sciences. http://bit.ly/2iQ2jqu
10.3) VIDEO: THE NEWEST US NATIONAL MONUMENT – BEARS EARS
President Obama declared a new national monument in the form of Bears Ears in Utah. Stretching out over 1.3 million acres, the landscape there is utterly beautiful, and contains not only great opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts, but is rich in culture and history for the Native Americans that once lived there. http://bit.ly/2iVB6D2
10.4) AFROMONT
Please consider attending the AfroMont-Mt Kili mountain research meeting early in the year. There is a website now to register and send abstracts. http://www.afromont.org
11) SUBMITTING NEWSWORTHY ITEMS
Newsworthy items for inclusion in MCSA National News can be sent to the Editor, Bridget Carrick: bridget.carrick7@gmail.com
QUOTE: “A sense of solemn aspiration comes upon us as we view the mountain. We are uplifted. The entire scale of being is raised. Our outlook on life seems all at once to have been heightened. And not only is there this sense of elevation: we seem purified also. Meanness, pettiness, paltriness seem to shrink away abashed at the sight of that radiant purity.”― Francis Younghusband
“explore – discover – connect – protect”
“verken – ontdek – ontmoet – bewaar”
“phonononga – fumanisa – qhagamshela – khusela”
