ABC of Mountaineering News Feed

Campaign to Save Outdoor Education Centres

A petition has been launched calling for the government to protect outdoor education centres from imminent closure. One in three local authority centres are threatened and closures could deny millions of children the opportunity of potentially life-changing experiences.

The petition calls for the government to create a fixed-term transition fund and provide business training, which would enable Local Authority centres to survive long enough to become self-sufficient. It is thought that many of the threatened centres would then be able to remain open. If they are forced to close now, many would never reopen.

Leading education organisations including the Field Studies Council, Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres, English Outdoor Council, Institute for Outdoor Learning and National Association of Field Studies Officers have launched the campaign and are asking people to support it by signing the petition. If the petition receives 100,000 signatures this year the issue will be considered for debate in the House of Commons.

Dr Steve Tilling Director of Communications at the Field Studies Council said: "The potential loss of these opportunities comes at a time when health, physical activity and contact with nature are all declining. It will also impact the most on children from poorer and more disadvantaged groups who have little or no other opportunity to share an overnight experience away from home and visit places they would not otherwise see. The FSC is constantly working to ensure that everybody has the chance to get outdoors to learn and be inspired by the environment.�

source: www.thebmc.co.uk

Surgeon's Skills Prepare Alex for Arctic Adventure

When Alex Parker fell from the roof of a house, fracturing his back and badly injuring two discs in his neck, it would have been reasonable to assume that, at the very least, his days of sporting adventures were over.

But the lifelong sports fan is now back to full fitness and preparing to walk to the North Pole to raise �250,000 for charity. This follows a successful climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro last year as well as a London to Paris cycle ride! And, as he completed another gruelling training session in preparation for his icy adventure, Alex,talked of Birmingham-based neurosurgeon Andre Jackowski, whose skill and expertise he says "made everything possible�.

Alex, managing director of Leicester Company AMP Electrical Distributors, lost his memory in the accident and can remember little about the fall, which happened two years ago. When he came out of hospital after treatment for his neck injury and fractured back he was forced to take painkillers on an almost constant basis.

Then, while on a recuperation holiday cruise to Miami, Alex, who was coverd by Private Medical Insurance, found himself in excruciating pain and unable to move his arms as fragments of the discs that had been injured during the fall pressed on his spinal cord.

He spent the entire cruise under sedation and, on his return home, began his search for an operation that could end his agony and give him back the full use of his arms.

That is when he met Consultant Neurosurgeon Andre Jackowski at BMI Priory Hospital in Birmingham. Recently named in The Times Top Fifty British surgeons list, Mr Jackowski is one of the few people in Britain to carry out the procedure of anterolateral foraminotomy - a microsurgical procedure where the surgeon enters through the front of the neck to reach the damaged area at the back.

This meant he could remove the trapped fragments while preserving the remaining discs thereby avoiding a painful bone graft or the need for artificial disc implants.

"It was amazing,� explain Alex, who lives with wife Alison in Rothley, near Leicester. "I had been told by other consultants that I faced a major operation to fuse my discs. At the very best it would have taken me many months to recover and would certainly have restricted my life style.

"Mr Jackowski just went in at the side of my throat and removed the fragments that were causing the problem in my neck. I was up and about in next to no time, the pain had gone completely and both my arms were in full working order.

"I've always been a keen sportsman so I was keen to get back to full fitness after my enforced lay-off,� he said. "My first big test was the London to Paris cycle ride and then, last year, I followed that up by climbing Kilimanjaro.

"Now my biggest task awaits � the North Pole trek will be a tough one but, thanks largely to Mr Jackowski, I am confident we will get there and raise �250,000 for children's medical research charity Sparks.�

Mr Jackowski explained: "When I first met Alex he had been told that he needed an operation to completely remove two of the discs in his neck followed by bone grafting and a metal plate. "Instead I performed a two level anterior foraminotomy that removed the painful pressure on the two nerves to his arm and yet still allowed him to keep the two discs. This was highly important for such a keen and active sportsman.�

Alex will join a team of five, all funding the trip themselves, plus two guides and a team doctor as they ski and haul sledges for 90 miles, facing temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees, blinding whiteouts and storms, and even polar bears, over their eight-day trek.

"It is a charity I have supported for a long time but this is the most ambitious total we have ever set. We have some great fund-raising events set up and have already been promised quite a lot in sponsorship so we are confident we will hit our target,� Alex said.

Anyone wishing to sponsor the team or learn more about the expedition should visit www.6ordinarymen.co.uk

Wild Country Bought by Salewa

Wild Country is pleased to announce that it has joined the Italian SALEWA group of companies. The move sees the mountain sports specialist from South Tyrol and the UK's leading rock climbing equipment manufacturer put the seal on a synergy of rock climbing expertise. The SALEWA name has been synonymous with alpine expertise for over 75 years. Bringing Wild Country into the SALEWA family enables it to add the UK company's in-depth specialist climbing knowledge to its own many years of mountain sport experience.

The SALEWA Group is the new owner of Wild Country. The link-up looks set for great success given that the mountain sports brand from Bolzano and the Tideswell climbing specialist share more than just a passion for climbing. Like SALEWA, Wild Country is an owner-managed company. It's no coincidence that both have their headquarters right in the shadows of the mountains. Wild Country will return to the centre of UK climbing, the much loved Peak District. SALEWA's HQ is in the heart of the Italian Dolomites.

Both firms trace their histories way back and are renowned for their innovative product ranges. They share a common ethos based on a commitment to clean climbing. Through the merge, the mountain sports specialist from South Tyrol continues to develop and grow its business. Wild Country brings an unparalleled heritage and technical knowledge to the mix and will reap the benefits of being part of a larger group.

Wild Country was the brainchild of climbing enthusiasts. It specialises in high-quality, technical rock climbing products. The product range encompasses gear for all climbing disciplines � trad, sports, bouldering, indoor and alpine. The English climbing specialist's products will continue to be proudly marketed under the Wild Country brand name.

"With the merger, we have combined two companies who speak the same language. It marks the realisation of a dream to have this genuine climbing gear brand on board", confirms Heiner Oberrauch, President of the SALEWA Group.

The Wild Country brand is, with immediate effect, a member of the Salewa Group portfolio alongside the brands Salewa, Dynafit, Silvretta and Pomoca.

For more information, visit www.ukclimbing.com.

Dave MacLeod, Andy Turner To Give Longhope Lecture

At a lecture sponsored by GORE-TEX®, Dave MacLeod and climbing partner Andy Turner will present their first free ascent of the Long Hope route at London's Royal Geographical Society on February 8th. The lecture will cover all aspects of their first free ascent of the Long Hope route, St John's Head, Hoy last year and be followed by a screening of the Longhope film - already winner of last years People's Choice award at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival.

At 1150 foot St Johns Head is the tallest sea cliff in the UK. It was first climbed in 1970 by climber and poet Ed Drummond together with Oliver Hill. They took 7 days to climb the cliff, sleeping on ledges and in hammocks along the way. 40 years later, Dave MacLeod and Andy Turner set out to climb the cliff in a single day.

The lecture, which is also being supported by GORE-TEX® brand partner Mountain Equipment and specialist retailer Cotswold Outdoor, will be followed by a special screening of the Long Hope film presented by Filmmaker Paul Diffley/Hot Aches Productions.

Tickets cost �12 and are currently available from Dave MacLeod's blog.

For more information, visit www.ukclimbing.com.

2012 Piolets d'Or & Lifetime Achievement Award

The 20th Piolets d'Or, a celebration of noteworthy mountaineering ascents during 2011, will take place in Chamonix and Courmayeur from 21st -24th March.

Currently, a small steering panel has selected more than 80 ascents from last year that for a variety of reasons are deemed to have made a significant contribution to mountaineering.

This is shortly to be reduced to a collection of 20-25 that perhaps best upholds the spirit of the Piolets d'Or, as outlined in its charter.

This shorter list will be presented to the 2012 six-member jury, who will nominate up to half a dozen ascents for this year's awards.

The jury is presided over by well-known American mountaineer and magazine editor Michael Kennedy. Amongst his many notable first ascents are the Infinite Spur on Foraker, Wall of Shadows on Hunter's North Buttress and the North East Face of Ama Dablam during the Nepalese winter. Long time editor of Climbing Magazine, Kennedy is now chief editor of Alpinist.

Joining him on the panel are: the noted Russian alpinist, now living in Canada, Valery Babanov, whose resume includes the first ascent (solo) of Meru Central and the North West Pillar of Jannu; German Ines Papert, well known for her success in world ice climbing competitions and recent hard ascents in the Greater Ranges; Alberto Inurrategi, a legendary Spanish Basque, who has climbed impressive new routes around the globe, as well as all 14 8,000m peaks without oxygen; Liu Yong (a.k.a. Daliu), a Chinese mountaineering guide from Chengdu who recently made the first ascent of Yangmolong and is one of the new breed of Chinese climbers making technical ascents in alpine style; and Alessandro Filippini from Italy, who works for the major magazines, Tuttosport and Gazzetta dello Sport.

Since 2009 the Piolets d'Or has presented a career or lifetime achievement award. The first, Walter Bonatti, was followed in 2010 by Reinhold Messner and in 2011 Doug Scott.

This year the award is being presented to one of the great icons of French alpinism, Robert Paragot. Born in 1927, Paragot's greatest achievements are probably: the first ascent of the south face of Aconcagua, one of the first really major, technically difficult, high-altitude walls to be climbed; the first ascent of Jannu; first ascent of the north face of Huascaran; and leading the expedition to Makalu that broke new boundary's in technically difficult climbing at the highest altitudes with its first ascent of the elegant west ridge.

Many of Paragot's ascents took place with the late Lucien Berardini, and this famous partnership paralleled that of Joe Brown and Don Whillians at the time.

The Piolets d'Or has evolved considerably in the 20 years since its creation, though the spirit of today's nominees generally remains the same. In 1992 the first climbers to receive an award were Marko Prezelj and Andrej Stremfelj for their alpine-style ascent of a long, hard and bold new route up the south ridge of Kangchenjunga South.

The "long list" of 2011 ascents is still being updated, but is available to view at www.pioletsdor.com.