Number in series 59; Year of publication 1966 - Fell and Rock ...

252 LAKE DISTRICT MOUNTAIN ACCIDENTS, 1965
to the expert, but it contains 70 Very Severes, and only one
Difficult. I shudder to think of this being bought by the
beginner who fails to find a copy of the 'ordinary' guide. It
might be difficult to find new good moderate routes in our
well-explored Lake District, and it would require courage to
ask for their publication in the New Climbs section of the
Journal, but what a rewarding and useful exercise it would be.
Would it not be possible to collect the classic easier climbs
from the existing guides, add some new ones, and publish it in
one volume—'Rock Climbs in the English Lake District'. It
would be a best-seller, and it might encourage visiting climbers
to reach a certain standard before proceeding to the more
specialised climbs and guides. It would also afford an opportunity
of upgrading the classification of some of those earlier
climbs whose original holds have been well-nigh polished off
by the feet of several generations of pilgrims.
The report includes a reminder that rescuers themselves
occasionally suffer injury while out on a call. This risk must
be stressed and one must realise the increasingly heavy
expense of the insurance of men, and of the purchase,
maintenance and insurance of rescue equipment, vehicles and
radios. At the same time one must be wary of the attempts of
reporters of the less scrupulous press to trap tired and dispirited
rescuers into diatribes against the follies of the rescued
and into suggesting that some penalty should be exacted. I
have yet to hear a genuine grumble from a team member.
What the schoolmaster said to the doctor, regrettably in the
presence of the parson, as the search-line stepped into a High
Street bog on a dark and dismal winter's night was not so much
the expression of an opinion as the explosion of an illsuppressed
personal discomfort. Whatever the reason the
teams turn out—and the cynics may put glamour, excuse to
leave work, and charity, in that order of importance—they
respond to a call with an enthusiasm that amounts at times
almost to competitive rivalry. They are grand people to work
with.