Summit 2011
Following the sad loss of Tony Joyce recently, it seemed fitting that I should say something about Summit this year. Tony re-invented Summit in the mid 1980’s when I was a member of his Venture Unit. We had a good core of members who were keen to get into the mountains so there was plenty of enthusiasm – I remember infuriating my boss when I told him that I’d quit my job to go to Wales if he didn’t give me the weekend off! Luckily he let me go to Wales and didn’t give me the sack.
The weekend has evolved over the years but essentially, it still aims to give our young people a taste of mountaineering and a taste of adventure. We use Yr Hafod as our base as it’s location is perfect and it is now a really comfortable place to stay – heating, hot showers and comfortable beds, what more could you ask for?
The Leaders that have kept Summit going are mainly ex Venture Scouts that grew up in a culture of mountaineering. We’re starting to gain a few new faces from different backgrounds – Scout Leaders, Explorer Scout leaders etc. and I’m hoping to improve our links with Network and encourage their members to advance their skills to take up leadership roles in the future.
This year we had 18 Explorer Scouts and 3 Network members on the trip. We had a good spread of 15 – 18 year olds and it was particularly satisfying to see several familiar faces amongst the older Explorers, some of these guys were on their 3rd or 4th trip. The weather was kind to us so pretty much everybody managed a decent walk on both days. The atmosphere (noise!) was as good (loud!) as I can ever remember which is a great thing to see, the Explorer Units clearly combine well. Sam Chapman from Network treated us to a slide show of his exploits in Nepal a couple of years ago. His slides made many of us jealous but it will hopefully inspire the youngsters to take on similar challenges.
So, we had another successful weekend and I think Tony would have been happy to see this part of this legacy in such good shape.
YIS
Ian Rutherford