At the March AGM the Climbers' Club (CC) elected Smiler Cuthbertson as its new president. Smiler's enthusiasm for the CC and climbing remains as strong now as it was 30 years ago when he lived in Llanberis and was part of the group of talented climbers who were responsible for the second wave of development at Gogarth, Cloggy and the Pass in the late 60s and 70s. He fought hard to find a working compromise with Ground Up over the production of the new guide to Gogarth, and although unsuccessful, is determined that the Climbers' Club's almost one hundred years of successful definitive guidebook publishing should be continued.
Smiler now heads a committee with a number of new appointees equally committed to revitalising the Climbers' Club. Laetitia Sterling and Fiona Sanders are Vice- Presidents along with Pete Finklaire, and Mark Vallance (Wild Country Founder) has taken over as Chair of the Publications Sub-Committee, to help the likes of Ian Smith, Bob Moulton and John Willson complete one of the most comprehensive publishing programmes in guidebook history.
Despite the unfortunate delays in the production of the Gogarth Guide, and the move by the climbers involved, over to Ground Up, the CC will be publishing Southern Sandstone, Portland and the Lower Wye Valley this year, with Ogwen/Carneddau, and Swanage not far behind. These have all been completely re-designed by Ian Smith in full colour with superb photography and crag illustration.
The CC website is currently being re-modelled by Tony Scott, including a New Routes and Route Information database open to all.
Smiler and the Club are going to be busy over the next few years.
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