Hi,

The machine that controls the weather is broken; it hasn't rained for six days now, or is it more or less than that? I don't know I'm so stunned I've lost track. Nick Steen may have the right idea over-all, he's made a snap decision to escape to Alicante for a weekend.

Footnote ...at the beginning, time flies ...life get's in the way. Apols.

Footnote (sic.?) #2 - do your gremlins gang up on you? I hate it when that happens!!

Contents

1. Events Diary for the next two months
2. Alicante - July 14/15
3. Course - Introduction to Leading
4. Committee heads up - incl. agreed minutes for April
5. NMC Climbing Competition, December '07
6. Free tickets to talk by Dave McLeod, the "New Traditionalist", in September
7. Club Meet - Kalymnos September '07
8. Winter meets '07 - '08
9. Costa Blanca February '08

1. Events Diary for July and August '07

The machine that makes the weather is broken, it's not rained significantly for five days now, or is it six? My head is spinning with the shock that I can't think anymore.

Here's the full list for July and August, note tho' that ad hoc meets and such are likely to be going on all the time so keep an eye on your web site at thenmc.org.uk

Note: * The DWS Fest meet was originally pencilled in for 3rd-5th August
but the Event organisers changed their date to this earlier weekend.

2. Alicante July 14/15

Nick Steen has posted in the club's forum that he's given in to the constant downpour and has made a snap decision to go to Alicante for a weekend; flying from Leeds/Bradford. Nick has invited others if it appeals to you and you can make it, get in touch with Nick. (Hope you don't mind me mentioning this Nick?)

3. Course - Introduction to Leading

The Introduction to Leading course that Richard Pow pulled together ran last Sunday at Bowden Doors (and it didn't rain!). The course proved very popular (and was eventually oversubscribed) and went very well. It went so well that the girls who attended it (yes it was all-girl, what does that tel you about motivation? ;-) ) have already set about organising round #2 for themselves in the Lakes, sometime in August I think was the time they were thinking about.

As I mentioned this first course was over-subscribed. Richard is setting about organising a second course for those we could not fit in last Sunday and anyone else who's interested. It's likely to be in the Lakes in September.

4. Committee Head's UP + agreed minites for April '07

Peter Bennett has a short paragraph in the current Quarterly Magazine (or QM as the cognescenti are calling it ;-) ). Details about the "under 18's" situation can be had directly from him if you're desperate for an update or the agreed minutes for that meeting when they are published (September, after the next Committee meeting).

The agreed minutes for April '07's Committee meeting are available online at the club's web site, in the NMC-members-only area of the forum. You have to be registered with the site and flagged as an NMC club member (which I do manually - so can miss some) to see that area of the forum because it's marked as private. As always, if you are logged in and can't find that area of the forum drop me a line.

5. NMC climbing Competition December '07

Not many people know this but we're scheduling a climbing competition for our members to be held at Burnside College on a Saturday prolly in December. Again not many people know this but it is being "organised" by Ben Gilbert (Benge to his friends ;-) ) - Ben is "organising it" but there's no way he can do it all on his own - partly because of the amount of work involved but also because it's totally new to him. There are already a couple of folk are going to help out and it's only fair that a good few other people help out as well. If you want to help then get in touch. I can also see some people being "encouraged" to help out as well ;-) ...all in a good cause!!

6. F ree tickets to talk by Dave McLeod, the "New Traditionalist" : 7th September, Percy Hedley School, South Shields

Did I say "free"? Oops sorry - they're not strictly speaking "free", but as near as damn it!!

The club is lucky enough to have been offered a free ticket by the Rock Solid North East Youth Climbing Club to a talk by Dave McLeod on the 7th of September. The committee have suggested the ticket is offered to a lucky member and the way we're going to do it is as follows:

Dave McLeod, E11, Dumbarton Rock, John Dalrymple - all often said in the same breath (well, OK, a bit of artistic licence on my part there, although John Dal does have a proud link to Dumbarton Rock, ask him over a pint). If I can nick someone else's snippet of a biog. for Dave McLeod:

"MacLeod is at the forefront of modern climbing, a true all rounder, he boulders Font 8c, sport climbs 8c (Devastation Fr8c at Dumbuck was Scotland’s first 8c), is a leading Scottish winter climber and is the author and repeat ascensionist of some of the hardest traditional routes in the UK both onsight and headpoint style. Highlights in the last year include a winter ascent of The Hurting XI,11 on Coire an t-Sneachda, Anubis E8 6c on Ben Nevis's Comb Buttress, repeating Markus Bock's boulder problem Armstrong (F8c) in Frankenjura and the third ascent of John Dunne's test-piece Breathless E10 7a on Tophet Wall."

The fairest way to do it seems to be to raffle the ticket; The raffle tickets are going to be available as "virtual tickets", meaning if you commit to a raffle ticket then you've got to pay up but we're not collecting the money immediately. The tickets will cost £2:00 each. Ben Gilbert is going to be keeping the list of people who've said they want to be part of the raffle and the proceeds from the raffle are going toward prizes for his "Crimp For Crimbo" competition in December.

If you're interested drop Ben a line immediately on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

7. Club Meet - Kalymnos September '07

The details for the club meet to Kalymnos in September have been finalised: Sam Judson ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) is organising it for 15th - 22nd September, flying from Newcastle.

Hmm, bit of a problem with this one tho' in that since Sam finalised his planning (as posted in the fourm) the air fares have, well, taken off and it now seems stupidly expensive to make the flight at this time :-(

Maybe the Costa Blanca trip we've tentatively spoken about for Feb or March of next year should be planned pretty soon???

8. Winter Meets '07 - '08

The meets for '07 - '08 winter season are not yet scheduled and prolly need some thought so that they can be agreed at the August Committee meeting (Aug 28th) and published in the September QM. Do the folk who organsied winter meets last year want to run those meets again? Does anyone else have an idea for a winter meet that they would like to run? If so drop me a line, I'll compile the info for the committee meeting.

Update: Still getting feedback on this one but Glencoe/Ben Nevis, Aviemore (ski-ing and climbing) and somewhere else are perhaps on the cards; nothing cast in stone yet.

and then of course there's always:

9. Costa Blanca February '08

Date(s)
Sat 23rd Feb - Sat 29th Feb (not school hollies), or
Sat 16th Feb - Sat 23rd Feb (school hollies)

With an initial straw-poll is very much in favour of 23rd-29th.

Venue:
Fly from Newcastle to Alicante, drive to Calpe

Accomodation
Apartment or villa (self-catering)

Other considerations
car-hire to be shared.

Cheors,

Steve