Chronicle

eing done in the Wasdale Head area to help alleviate the people pressure and
hopefully this will soon be sorted out. I would like to thank especially John Barrett
for the work he has done in this area.
The old Gable plaque is now back from the Imperial War Museum and
currently at the Armitt Museum. Thanks to Chris Sherwin and the Archive Team for
arranging to display the plaque in various locations in celebration of the centenary
of the First World War. Chris and Peter Lucas gave an interesting talk at the
“Friends of the Armitt” AGM. I would recommend that members (and friends) visit
the Museum where our Libraries now reside. Contact details p 27.
We are looking at rebolting and cleaning the new Gable plaque – and also at
trying to reduce the amount of poppies and crosses left on Great Gable – a rather
difficult and sensitive matter.
Don’t forget the FRCC Memorial Walk over the 12 summits – please contact
me for details. Surprisingly very few have done this so far – it can be done either in
one day or over two days staying in either Salving House or Brackenclose overnight.
The crack at the top of Castle Rock is slowly widening – I would like to thank
Dave Bodecott for monitoring this. I recently spoke on Radio Cumbria to highlight
the imminent demise of the top pitches of OB and North Crag Eliminate – though
no one knows just how imminent it is.
I would like to congratulate Sir Chris Bonington for receiving the Piolets d’Or
Lifetime achievement award in April. As we know Chris is a huge person in the
mountaineering world and this is well deserved.
I am sometimes seen away from this computer and I enjoyed the Club trip
(joint with EVMC) to Pabbay in May – amazing being on a British island with no
email or phone (we had a satnav) and some fantastic climbing – that’s what it is all
about.
Ron Kenyon
The Secretary
It was good to see a crowd of FRCC people at Ron Townsend's funeral in
Sheffield as well as others from the Peak Climbing Club of which he was a founder
member. Warm tributes were paid to Ron noting his achievements over 95 years.
We had very full and productive meetings of the various sub-committees and
the main committee at the beginning of May. The time that members put in to
thinking, writing and working for the Club must be worth thousands of pounds a
year, and it is all done voluntarily.
As I write I am looking forward to the Coniston meet which Brenda has
organised again. On the same weekend the latest production from our talented and
dedicated Guidebook writing team will be launched. Lake District Rock will contain
more than 1500 routes and from the images I have seen on-line looks great. Work
is also going on to make our website as useful as possible for members, for which
Philip Powell is taking the lead. Hatty Harris produced a comprehensive report on
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