REPORT ON WINTER LECTURES 2013/14

Heather Morning: Mountain Safety

Heather is the Mountain Safety Advisor with the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. She gave an interesting and entertaining lecture. As an experienced member of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team and the Search and Rescue Dog Association she gave excellent advice on preparation and equipment required for winter mountaineering. Heather warned of the dangers of reverse polarity in compasses which can be caused by proximity to magnets in mobile phones.

Nigel Williams: Compass, Contours and Digital Mapping

Nigel is Head of Training at Glenmore Lodge. Following on from Heather Morning's lecture Nigel also highlighted the dangers of magnets causing reverse polarity in compasses. He emphasised how important it was to navigate using a map and compass using a GPS only as backup. As a keen orienteer he explained how by using large scale maps, map reading could be easily explained to beginners. A lively question and answer session followed this interesting and informative talk. Not everyone agreed that a GPS was a secondary part of navigation.

Murdoch Jamieson: A Climbing Apprenticeship in the NW Highlands

Murdoch Jamieson, one of the new generation of rock climbers currently breaking new ground, gave us an enthusiastic presentation of what had lead him into rock climbing and how he had progressed through the various stages to the point he was at now. He not only covered what he had managed to achieve in the Highlands particularly showing his affinity with Beinn Eighe but also told stories, at times very amusing, of mishaps along the way when he was not as successful as he would have liked. The talk was well supported by climbing colleagues from quite a large area of the North East Coast.

Chris Townsend: Mountain Ski Touring

Chris Townsend gave a presentation to a packed audience of his experiences ski touring, mainly in the Western National Parks in America but also of some in the Highlands of Scotland. Of special interest was his use of snow igloos as overnight shelters and he spent some time talking about their construction, advantages and disadvantages (especially in Scottish snow conditions) Some of the views he showed of his American excursions were particularly spectacular. It should also be acknowledged that he held the audience with an impromptu question session when problems occurred with the projector at the start of presentation and was still in the bar at 10.00pm discussing ski touring with some of the audience.

Manny Gorman: The Corbetts in 70 days (without motorized help)

Manny Gorman gave a presentation to another packed room of his journey using foot, bicycle and boat across all the Corbetts in 70 days.
Although already known in the fell running community as a mountain runner of international standing this was an incredible physical feat and his pictures of some of the injuries he had to cope with along the way would put a sensible person off trying to improve on it. The detailed planning that had to be carried out (mainly by his wife) and the pacing support given along the way by friends and unknown supporters was clearly much appreciated. His pictures of some of the Corbetts will also have attracted the interest of some of the mountaineers present who might not have considered them before.

Jules Lines: Tears of the Dawn

Jules Lines took us on an autobiographical journey from his starting to be interested in hill walking at primary school to his current level of extreme solo rock and deep water climbing. He had clearly enjoyed a physical adventure from a very young age and had been fortunate enough to be at schools that encourage it. His modest description of the mental and physical challenges that he had overcome to climb at the level he now achieves was, I suspect for many of the audience, not easy to truly understand. Some of his slides were quite breathtaking and his plans for new climbs should provide excellent source material for a future lecture

Brian Heaton & Maureen Stuchbury

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