Whilst interfering in the workings of independent organisations, instructors or guides which are not members of the British Mountaineering Council, the BMC has supported the autonomous Association of British Mountain Guides (now BMG) financially. This was confirmed in a letter from Kate Hoey, the then Minister for Sport. Additional support has been provided with office space and with advertising.
Even though at least 13 BMG clients have been killed since 1990 in avoidable climbing accidents there has never been a word of condemnation from the BMC or High Mountain Sport (the official magazine of the BMC) or The Sports Council/English Sport.
The problem [too many avoidable BMG accidents] may stem from a situation, which was the subject of a comment made by Peter Livesey in May 1998 regarding the BMC:
"The wasteful and vitriolic mountain leadership wars of the mid-70s fought for control of mountain training in this country...has resulted in the most appalling set of low level courses and examinations in subjects tenuously titled Outdoor Pursuits which must have traditional mountain users squirming with discomfort".
Peter Livesey was one of our most respected rock climbers during the 1970s and is not the only person to have remarked upon this issue
Regardless of this view, it is my view that these formal qualifications remain inadequate and I believe this is supported by the poor accident record of those people who have secured these qualifications.
In 1984 the then general secretary of the BMC criticised Plas-y-Brenin expressing:
"a real sense of moral indignation at the waste, at the disproportionate spending of public resources which could have been better spent and more needfully employed elsewhere".
He thought that the then £300,000 paid annually by the British taxpayer to the National Mountain Centre at Capel Curig, North Wales was a complete waste of public money. Today, the BMC run Plas-y-Brenin, the National Mountain Centre, a multi-million pound building, which, as I have referred to earlier, they picked up for a song. The complex provides the BMG with a nice office from which to peddle their wares along with free access to the site's facilities and they benefit commercially from PyB's £27,000 per annum advertising bill.
With so much support it is no wonder that the BMC/BMG can get away with what I see as their cavalier attitude. A "fatal" attitude that, in my view, has no place in modern society.
My investigation continues...
