Eric Ellis, International Journalist, 8th April, 2009: http://www.spectator.co.uk/business/the-magazine/connoisseur/3524271/everest-a-risky-business.thtml

Apparently, there is some controversy regarding the ‘reporting of climbing accidents’ and who should be ‘responsible’ for collating the material. Interestingly, the BMC who publish by far, the most pictures of young people climbing; being introduced to climbing whilst not wearing protective gear has become involved. The forum is accompanied by an interesting picture of a climber sitting at the bottom of, and close to, a crag. The ground around him is littered with various sized rocks that have fallen from above, his safety helmet, tucked away somewhere - safe. http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1099 brings a whole new meaning to - Chance, Risk and Accidents - still waiting to happen.

On January 8th, 2009, Argentine mountain guide Federico Campanini and one of his clients died on Aconcagua in a sudden storm. Whilst off route, the client apparently fell into a crevasse.

The BMC still advocating the use of the ‘overhand’ knot (British Death Knot) whilst abseiling: ‘The overhand knot is less prone to jamming when being retrieved, when in fact, it will jam in small cracks too small for the bulkier ‘double-fishermans’ to enter. Apparently, that there are cases of the ‘overhand’ knot unravelling when the ‘double-fishermans cannot, is of no consequence when it comes to - Chance, Risk and Accidents… http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=1736

17 June, 2008: Patrick Monzat (58), Chamonix Independent guide and ex PHGM was killed in the Gouter Couloir when he and his two mountain clients were avalanched. Fortunately, the two clients survived.

20 June, 2008: two missing climbers have been found dead after falling in the Ecrins.

23 June, 2008: A British climber fell and was killed on the Pic Coolidge in the Ecrins.

Liam Costello fell and was killed whilst climbing on Snowden in October, 2007, and a High Court Judge has pronounced that the accident was ‘bad luck’.? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/7498803.stm Liam, just 11 years of age, would still be alive today if he had been ’short-roped’ to one of the adults climbing / scrambling with him.

11 killed on K2: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0806/p06s01-wosc.html?page=1  after an avalanche, has apparently been confirmed in the early days of August, 2008. Eleven, climbers, mountain guides and their clients were swept away when a wall of ice collapsed. As many climbers no longer climb ‘roped together’ in high mountains, some were apparently trapped after the avalanche as ‘fixed ropes’ were destroyed; torn away. In 1964, 14 climbers; five mountain guides and nine aspirant (mountain clients) guides were killed; slab avalanched down the Cordier Couloir on the Aiguille Vert above Chamonix in the French Alps.

Climbing Leeches: Whilst yes, leeches are very good climbers, the kind being refered to in a BMC Summit article are the kind of climbers who seek litigation after an acident at indoor climbing walls. That the vast majority of indoor climbers are allowed to tie incorrectly into their climbing harnesses in reality shows not only a scant disregard for safety at indoor walls but also climbing wall owners are leaving themselves wide open to - litigation.

I

“It is common to tie them (2 ropes) together with an overhand knot as this is less likely to jam in cracks.” The British Mountaineering Council http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=1736 The overhand knot (which has been known to unravel, or, the British Death Knot) rather than the 100% safe double-fishermans

‘It [the BMC] exists to further the interests of mountainering as a whole, and it will succeed in this only in so far as it receives the full support of each and every mountaineer… It should be needless to add that their will be no attempt to introduce anything so foolish as a qualification scheme for ‘mountain leaders’.‘ G. A. Dummett, Pembroke College, Cambridge. To date in 2008, the BMC still only represents just one percent (of climbers / mountaineers / hill walkers / ski mountaineers) its membership standing at just 50 - 70,000? 

‘The wastful and vitriolic Mountain Leadership wars of the mid-seventies, fought for control of mountain training in this country, were but an outward sign of the widening gap (between educationists and mountaineers; a widening gap that was inevitable because of decreasing mountaineering values - step forward - the British Mountaineering Council).’ Pete Livesey, climber & Hillwalker, May, 1998.

‘Is mountaineering today sick and polluted? Certainly. Is there hypocrisy in the world of the mountains? Undoubtedly.’ Walter Bonatti (2000).

‘Bolts don’t grow on trees’, according to a BMC advert for its Bolting Fund (apparently there is a finacial cost involved). And yet, Kelly College, Tavistoke, Devon, have in fact drilled and bolted some of its ancient trees as part of one of its Adventure Courses…

A grieving relative writes:   ‘The world depicted in your magazine (Climber - Nov, 1996) seems to be a macho affair, where it is appropriate to set out the achievements of individuals when faced with the challenge of the most inhospitable cliff faces. I note that the cover of your September issue features a climber not wearing a helmet, and that inside the issue there are four pictures at Los Mallos de Riglos featuring climbers not wearing any protective headgear. My son Mike lost his life on Los Mallos following a head injury caused by a rockfall. may I ask why your article and photographs encourage youngsters to disregard basic safety precautions? How many parents such as myself have to watch their children die after you encourage them to take unnecessary risks?’  R A Pinson, Helsby, Cheshire.

Climber magazine of course was / is not alone in encouraging young climbers to disdain the use of correct safety equipment. The so-called British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the foremost organisation to encourage such an attitude both in print and via climbing photographs in its publications. If the BMC had put as much money into safety procedures as it has wasted in the promotion of bolts - so many young lives would have been saved and many more parents would be looking forward to a life with their children / grandchildren. Many parents, wish that their offspring had never heard about the - BMC.

The Times, March 17, 2000: “Is Chris Woodhead the most learned education expert in Britain, or just an anti-socialist climber?”  Was the caption to a half page picture of the top educationalist, rock climbing whilst not wearing a safety harness. One would have throught that someone with, supposedly, more than half a brain would want to protect it - apparently not. Just one month earlier (The Daily Telegraph, Feb 6, 2000) this ‘expert climber’ castigated the book: ‘White Death’, by McKay Jenkins a book about avoiding avalanches thus avoiding injury and possible death. Some how, I do not think Mr Woodhead to be qualified to comment as he did on the book, given his own blinkered attitude to climbing; outdoor safety.

Two Very Lucky Climbers

The tall, sun tanned person standing on the narrow topped pinnacle infront of us was resplendent the bright sunlight glinting on his UIAGM badge. He was stood there, unbelayed, lowering his female client down a short vertical rock wall on the Cosmiques Arete. The drop the left, 3,000 feet; the drop the right 700. The lady disappeared down the wall and traversed to the left, out of sight.

Whilst this was going on, I lowered a rope down the side of the wall to be used as a fixed rope, when our turn came. As the guide prepared to follow his client I motioned to him to use the already fixed rope. He looked at me, down his nose and waved me away with a solitary finger. Stepping forward, he tripped over his crampon; fell the full length of the wall disappearing fortunately as it turned out, to the right down a steep, snow filled gully. Fortunately, his female client had taken a belay (two turns around a rock) which eventually brought the guide to a shuddering stop. he fell at least eighty to ninety feet.

After a period of silence, the guide could be heard climbing back up the gully to finally join his client. He was totally unscathed considering that he was not wearing any head protection; he was not wearing a helmet. If his client, who likewise was not wearing any head protection, had not taken a belay, she would have been catapulted out from the mountainside and both of them would have been killed on the jagged rocks below. Ineptitude on a grand scale. Of course, had the guide been seriously injured then once again, we would have been involved in another (we had in fact already been involved in rescuing 30 other climbers only one of whom subsequently died) avoidable accident.

In a somwhat belated attempt to ’stop-the-rot’ in climbing / mountaineering (it has been left to the BMC for long enough) The Alpine Club has stated: http://www.normancroucher.co.uk/alpine_pdf_text/alpine_text

Talking about stopping the BMC rot: http://www.safercliffs.org/code/photos.html

A MOUNTAIN GUIDE whose decision to ignore a warning of a “considerable hazard” resulted in the death of four scout leaders in one of Scotland’s worst avalanche tragedies in December, 1998, defended his actions yesterday. Roger Wild, 47, one of the country’s most experienced mountain guides, was in charge of a group of six people when they ventured on to the mountain. At the opening of a fatal accident enquiry into the tragedy yesterday, Mr Wild said that on the day of the accident he did not have a “greater feeling of risk” than on any other day.

He told the hearing he had looked at the forecast the night before and although some areas were graded category three, indicating a considerable avalanche hazard, in other areas the snow was reported to be generally well-bonded and stable. Mr Wild said: “Regarding the hazard outlook for the day, it is normal practise to go on to the mountains when there is a category three or higher. It would not be unheard of to go out on a category five day and go to areas that weren’t identified as very high risk.”

But when the avalanche (the snow/ice cornise above the group probably collapsed) swept down 4,000ft-high Aonach Mor on 29 December, 1998, Mr Wild was entombed in snow for 16 hours with two other survivors of the party of six Venture Scouts from Kent, who were being led by him in a training exercise. At the time, Mr Wild was director of a mountaineering school based in Fort William.

The four who died were Emma Ray, 29, her boyfriend Paul Hopkins, 28, both from Wilmington, Kent, and Matthew Lewis, 28, and Ian Edwards, 30, both from Dartford, Kent. Mr Wild told the enquiry, at Fort William Sheriff Court, that he had visited the area where the avalanche occurred half a dozen times previously, when the risk had been graded category three or four, to carry out similar training, and had not had any problems.

Mr Wild said that on this occasion he assessed the snow conditions on the slope. “The conclusion that I came to was there was no avalanche risk in that immediate area,” he said. Mr Wild told the hearing he started to instruct the group on how to use an ice axe. He said he slid about five or 10 metres and when he came to a stop he was aware of a thin layer of snow coming down and covering his boots. He said: “In a matter of moments this became a heavier force and I was pushed forward so I was lying face down on the snow. I immediately tried to stand up … but I was unable to move.”

Mr Wild and the two survivors, Sarah Finch, 27, and Steven Newton, 26, both from Dartford, were rescued by the Lochaber Mountain Rescue team. The hearing was expected to last three days.

Copyright 2000 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Footnote: Mr Wild was found - not at fault - and went on to become Scotland’s Mountain Safety Officer. The Judge thought that it would have been sensible to have: ‘left a message of the groups intended route and destination with - someone.’ Really!

And another, excellent legal decision for members of the Association of British Mountain Guides (BMG): A fatal accident inquiry report (Climber, March, 1996) into the death of a climber in an avalanche on Llathach has reiterated the principle that accidents will always happen in climbing. The report has been - welcomed (by some) as ‘another excellent legal decision’ for guides (BMC). It follows soon after the unsucessful attempt by a (another BMG client) client to sue his instructor (guide) following an accident, reported in last month’s Climber magazine.***

Dr Katherine Herd died from injuries suffered when she and three were avalanched from Trotter’s Gully in January, 1994. At the time she was taking part in a course run by British Mountain Guide Martin Moran from his mountaineering school at Strathcarron. In his report Sheriff Principle Douglas Risk stated: “At the end of the day, the sobering fact, which was acknowledged by all of the (pro BMG) climbers who gave evidence, is that there is always an element of danger in climbing Scottish mountains in winter conditions. The possibility of avalanche can never be totally excluded. “For so long as people choose to test their skill and endurance by winter mountaineering, it is, unfortunately, inevitable that accidents will ocasionally occur. The likelihood of accident can be reduced by taking of sensible precautions but the occurance of an accident does not ipso facto establish that such precautions were not taken. That is my feeling (the opinion of just one man called Risk) about the present case. It seems to me that the tragic death of Dr Herd (who was reppresented by whom; who’s expert witness was?) was a misfortune which cannot be attributed positively to any human cause.”

Commenting on the decision Mountaineering Council of Scitland president Nick Kemp (BMG) told Climber: “This was a tragic accident and of course our sympathies go out to Dr Herd’s parents and other climbers (injured) involved. However, following on from December’s High Court judgement in London, this is another excellent legal decision for climbers (especially guides). It confirms yet again that climbing is a risk sport whatever precautions are taken.”

One aspect of the above report that has brought criticism is the length of time between the inuiry in march, 1995 and the report being published, a matter Charles Kennedy MP for Ross, Cromerty and Skye, said he would be raising with Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth. Tom Prentice.   

One Year Later… Cameron McNeish, who, according to the Guardian (whilst covering the Anoch Mor tragedy in which four BMG clients died on Dec 31st, 1998) is a: ‘…the well-known Scots climber and broadcaster’, in January, 2000, made a very interesting analogy about the Royal Marines: ‘After reading a report of a fatal accident in which a soldier (Marine) slipped on Ben Nevis and fell 1,000 feet, I’m not surprised that Prince Edward decided that his future (the Prince failed the Royal marines Commando Course) would be a better one without the Royal Marines.’ Apparently, Mr J. Gibbs, the solicitor for the MOD told witnesses at the Inquiry: ‘Remember, you are talking about Marines who fight in warfare and who have Arctic training’, McNeish: ‘That sir, does not make them mountaineers, and more to the point, does not make them mountain leaders.’

This was not the first time that McNeish has opened his mouth and out his own foot in it:  When one considers the number of Royal Marines; servicemen under instruction, be it in weaponry or during mountain training, their accident rate is very low - when compared to the ratio of clients taken by members of the ‘elite’ association of British Mountain Guides (BMG). Since McNiesh’s disgraceful editorial, the BMG, of whom, he has written not a single derogatory word, have ‘lost’ in avoidable climbing/mountaineering accidents at least - twelve clients. In the twelve months leading up to the year 2000, the BMG ‘lost’ four Venture Scouts and two other clients. The British Military and certainly the Royal Marines, have a far higher ’safety record’ than the BMG, who’s ‘badge’ does not make them safe mountaineers; certainly, it does not make them - safe leaders. Likewise, being an editor of an ‘outdoor pursuits magazine’ doesn’t make one an authority on - mountain safety.

‘PyB - A Pig in a Government Poke or, the Mountain Trough’: ‘Faced with a loss of moral the Advisory Committee of Plas y Brenin lobbyed the government in order to block the transfer of PyB to - Glendale Leisure…’: Dirty Tricks in High Places. ‘As a centre of sporting excellence Plas-y-Brenin is a failure. For the Sports Council to class it as a centre of excellence, was a piece of bureaucratic stupidity.’, so wrote Chris Mellor, in his article (OTE April, 1995): ‘PyB - a Pig in a Government Poke.’ He went on to write: ‘The Sports Council ran the place at a tremendous loss - £450,000 a year…’ What he did not write; mention, was that PyB at the time of those substantial losses, was in fact, already run by members of the Association of British Mountain Guides (!) - BMG (a succession of them). The Sports Council were so ‘pleased with that tremendous loss’, apparently, that it decided to award the same BMG / and now bolt loving BMC (MTT Date of Incorporation - 17/09/1996) with a rolling contract (means keep changing the goal-posts) that includes a annual grant of £450,000 per annum of taxpayers money.

And yet, the original adverts (in 1995) from the then Sports Council were quite specific - ‘The Sports Council is tendering a management lease for the operation of Plas y Brenin. Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced operators for inclusion on the select list of tenders to manage the Centre. The lease will be for a fixed period from the - 1st April, 1996. Operators should apply in writing by 12 noon September 1995. The lease will be let in accordance with EC Directive 92/50 (CPC reference number 96413). Financial tenders must be submitted in pounds sterling.’

‘Top Tips on Bolts’: http://www.pyb.co.uk/information/top-tips/top-tips-lowering.php PyB’s, the MTT’s involvement; contribution to the insidious practise of bolting a practise that flies in the face of the centre’s - Enviro Diary…

This meant that contrary to the normal safeguards required when dishing-out government con-tracts, apparently, no rigorous checks were made into the cobbled-together Mountain Training Trust (MMT) to ensure that the British tax-payer’s were getting value for their money (nothing new there then).

And yet, Plas-y-Brenin still went on to publish: ‘A New Beginning for PyB. On the 1st of January 1997 (two years late), the Sports Council awarded the management contract for PyB (originally to Glendale Leisure in 1995) to the Mountain Training Trust (MMT). MMT is a registered charity (of course) set up by the pro bolting British Mountaineering Council, the Mountain Leader Training Board and the United Kingdom Mountain Training Board. For the first time ever (?) the National Mountain Training Centre is under the direct management of the key National Representative Bodies (but would be governing) involved at Plas-y-Brenin. This is our first full brochure since we took over and I hope that you agree that we have continued where the Sports Council left of…’ !?

Fifteen years previously the then General Secretary of the British Mountaineering Council, Dennis Gray wrote: ‘PyB was a needless waste of money that could well be spent elsewhere. People learning to climb did not need such palatial premises from which to train.’ He went on to talk about vested interests etc., etc.

The way in which the contract was awarded is curious and yet typical. In 1995, the PyB contract was advertised to the highest bidder in pounds sterling, the deadline, September, 1995. The BMC / BMG failed to meet the requirements needed and the contract lease, was awarded to - Glendale Leisure. But then ’something happened’. That ’something’ cut right across the EC Directive: ‘Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced operators for - inclusion on the select list of tenders to manage the centre.’ The Mountain Training Trust, the final (somehow new) management at PyB was made up of individuals who had been ‘managing’ the centre for the previous twenty years at least - at a tremendous loss… People in the climbing Establishment were told to ’shut up (one magazine states: by Ian MacNaught Davis)’ whilst ‘delicate negotiation’s were taking place - no, not between The Sports Council and Glendale Leisure (the preferred bidder initially) but, the now cobbled together, Mountain Training Trust (BMC / BMG / MLTB: ‘Faced with a loss of moral at Plas y Brenin, the Advisory Committee of PyB took the step of lobbying the government in order to block the transfer to - Glendale Leisure (page 50 of the booklet: ‘This Splended Enterprise’).’ The Sports Council advert was originally offered under the guidance of an EC Directive when in fact, it was a farce… Nothing new there then. The PyB booklet also irronically, makes reference to: ‘less scrupulous operators’ and ‘weeding out the unscrupulous’… 

There is of course another version of events - the 69 page booklet: ‘This Splendid Enterprise’ - The First Fifty Years of Plas-y-Brenin The (so-called) National Mountain Centre”, by Lyndsay King (2006) ISBN 978-0-9554675-0-9. Publishers: The Mountain Training Trust er, Plas y Brenin. Price: 9:99p. PyB, This Splendid Enterprise, sponsors the bolting of UK cliffs and crags under the guise of: http://www.safercliffs.org/code/photos.html Yes, the BMC and the MTT are both - Charities: ‘Just what does the Charity Commission do with the 30m pound sterling - plus it receives each year from the government? presiding as it does over a 39bn pounds sterling sector of 190,000 charities surely requires a strict watchdog to protect all those ‘well-meant’ donations - financial shenanigans suggest otherwise.’ Private Eye, issue 1161, 23 June, 2006, issue 1161…

‘Learn to climb through your letterbox.’?
Learning to climb through your own letterbox may not have occurred to potential clients of the Association of British Mountain Guides (BMG) and their latest PyB advert, but it may well have whetted their appetite. Some kind of dietary instruction prior to this climbing course is obviously essential. Similar misleading full and half page (PyB need to waste £27,000 on advertising in order to survive on an annual grant of £450,000) advertising has emanated from Plas-y-Brenin (PyB) in recent years certainly since it was given £450,000 (£4,000,000 since 1996) to waste annually.

‘We liked the place (PYB) so much - we bought it’?, was another misleading half page advert in specialist magazines. The advert is not true! PyB, was given away for nil consideration (the Sports Council maintained - via letter - that the Mountain Trust’s bid was almost as high as Glendale Leisure’s - the amount, if this is true, has never been published to the public - the taxpayer) by the then Sports Council. Potential clients considering taking a climbing course at PyB (that Pillar of learning) might be interested in some of the back ground to the multi-million pound centre. Some principled people, may not wish to be trained by a centre that does not have a perfect safety record. Certainly, you may be interested in the attitude of the people who acquired the management lease of PyB in 1997 (as usual through the back door)and how they accomplished it.

In 1984, Dennis Gray the then general Secretary of the British Mountaineering Council criticised the waste, the disproportional spending of public resources which would have been better and more need fully employed elsewhere than on PyB. Fifteen years later, that waste of public money is still being accepted by - step forward - the British Mountaineering Council now a member of the newly and hastily formed Mountain Training Trust (MTT). Today, the public contributes, and the MMT takes, £450,000 per annum towards supposed subsidised training courses at PyB. In 1985, the then Sports Council stated on more than one occasion: that it did not support the ‘commercial activities’ of the BMC and the supposedly autonomous - BMG.

In 1985, Plas y Brenin played host (invited by the Association of British Guides) to the ex-Nazi climber and UIAGM guide who was on the first ascent of the North face of the Eiger - sponsored by the German Nazi regime in 1938 (all Jewish climbers had by this time been banned from German / Austrian climbing clubs).

Dennis Gray: “The socio-enconomic groups which chiefly make use of PyB are middle-class; comfortably off, there are also people who have a vested interest - who work at PyB (members of the BMG and members of that other commercial organisation the Association of British Mountaineering Instructors (AMI) and those who have enjoyed their subsidised holiday at the place, will defend the status quo.” He also thought PyB to be a very extravagant, large, unwieldy institution which catered for far beyond what is necessary; a centre that goes against the whole background of climbing. He, like many others, knew that people wishing to learn to climb did not/do not need to have subsidised, state-sponsored instruction from luxury accommodation.

According to the BMC’s 1976 ‘Future Policy Document’: ‘…it is inappropriate for the BMC as a supposed, representative (but-would-be-governing-body) to actively seek increased participation in the sport.’ And yet, the Sports Council and the BMC almost immediately, started to advertise; enticing young people to (PyB) participate (thus deliberately creating a multi million pound market - for themselves) in a potentially dangerous sport. It mattered not, that young people would die prematurely. Even after the introduction of the Young Persons Safety Act in 1995, that enticement continues.

After a court-case in 1999 it was effectively held by the judge that those bodies who govern sport must take full responsibility for the safety of that sports participants. The fact that is was a non-profit making organisation did not absolve that organisation from responsibility (Law Gazette). On the 14 Dec, 2002, The Daily Mail highlighted the multi million pound compensation claim against the Welsh Rugby Union by an injured player.

In the BMC’s book: ‘The First Fifty Year’s, on page 77, the BMC quite clearly considered itself to be just that (the sports governing body): ‘The plan was presented to the Sports Council in early 1990 at a time when grants to governing bodies were supposedly being cut back, we considered ourselves fortunate to be offered (another) £110.000 (of taxpayers money) per annum for the next four years…’ Since 1990, far too many young climbers have been killed and seriously injured both members and none members of the BMC alike. Included in that number (the true number may be never be known due to a wall-of-silence) are numerous mountain clients four of whom, were killed in a multiple BMG fatality (the guide of course and as usual - survived) under a Scottish avalanche on the 28 December, 1998.

Regardless of Dennis Gray’s supposed view of PyB, it became quite obvious in 1995 that the BMC had been watching PyB with envious eyes… How did the BMC, who thought that PyB was a needless waste of public money that could be more need fully spent elsewhere, finally manage to acquire it? How did a BMG guide; an ex Director of Plas-y-Brenin, manage to loose three clients in an avoidable mountaineering accident in 1992? Many questions - but no answers.

In 1995, the Management Lease for PyB was advertised in several specialist magazines. The tender, was offered under an EC Directive and Tenders were supposed to lodged by a certain date and in - £ Sterling. The initial ‘tender’ from the British Mountaineering Council was rejected. By the designated time, The Sports Council had chosen - Glendale Leisure of Preston, Lancashire. It was then that the BMC’s ‘dirty tricks’ started (a page of other dirty tricks is being compiled) against Glendale. Glendale Leisure was castigated in print - they did not have enough experience. A perfect safety record but, not enough experience. So why did the Sports Council originally choose them? Once again questions but - no answers.

An article in High Mountain Sport included comments from - Roger Payne (BMG - of course) the then General Secretary of the BMC: ‘What we seem to be getting (Glendale Leisure managing PyB) is a company with experience in gardening and running gymnasa.’ The same Roger Payne, who after being involved in ruining Glendale’s chance of running PyB along with £450,000 of governments grants, has since left the BMC and, furthering his own - career, has become the first Sports and Development Director of the UIAA. Glendale Leisure were treated with total disregard as have many other organisations offering services to - climbers. This pattern of BMC officers ruining; interfering in, damaging other peoples prospects; careers, whilst ‘feathering their own nest’s is typical of the BMC and the BMG who run PyB with government assistance -

to the tune of at least £450,000 per annum, £4,000,000 since 1996.

Plas-y-Brenin’s/BMC’s commercial, financial assistance was improved upon at the English / Sports Council’s, 6th September, 1999 meeting where, the members discussed and then approved - a rolling contract until the year - 2006 for the Mountain Training Trust. No doubt, this has since been extended thus allowing PyB to compete quite nicely in the outdoor pursuit industry for the foreseeable future.

That elderly people are dying on hospital trolley’s, severely disabled people are not receiving proper care and attention, their care cut and carers being allowed to become prematurely ill and die and the government, can ensure that the MTT - will receive at least, £450,000 per annum…beggars belief!

Whilst Ryanair, the low price airline is to loose its European subsidies (24 August, 2003) whilst the governments financial support for the MTT continues the latest Pig in a Government Poke.

The ‘fledgling’ Mountain Leader Association (with apparently 800 members joining since February 2006) apparently had a very successful meeting in November, 2006, at Plas-y-Brenin (between 40 & 50 pounds sterling per head) apparently there was nobody there to represent Mountain Leaders customers - mountain clients…                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plas_y_Brenin
To be continued…