Just a reminder for everyone that the North West Area meeting is happening tonight at 7.30 pm at the Belmont Bull.
The full agenda is available on the BMC Community pages. Most important item is likely to be the prospect of renewed climbing/restoration at Hoghton Quarry:
The latest news from our intrepid access man, Les Ainsworth, is that the Hoghton Estate have agreed that the climbing season for 2011 will now run from the date the peregrines fledge (round about 7/8th June last year) to the end of August. Although we'd still like to get year round access (and discussions will continue to try to secure this in the future) the situation for 2011 is now significantly better than it has been for many years.
Hoghton has probably the finest single rockface in Lancashire with many absolute classics that are as good as the best Millstone can to offer. However, the crag is set in woodland and is prone to over growing. Attempts to clean up have been made in previous years with limited success - with a very short period of agreed access the level of traffic on the routes has not been enough to keep them clean. Inevitably, because of the limited access, people have also been discouraged from really going to town on cleaning the crag.
But this year is different!
The North West Area Meeting on Monday May 23rd, 7.30 pm at the Belmont Bull will be making plans to get Hoghton back to its former glory. We want as many people as possible to get involved and everyone, whether BMC members or not, is invited.
Free chips and butties as usual.
Hope to see you there
Colin Struthers, NW Area Chairman
