Page 5 - 2009 AMA Winter

Foreword
AMA Chair Lt Col Cath Davies MBE
Welcome to another fantastic edition of the Journal, which our being invited to host the European Military Sport Climbing
is going from strength to strength. Articles in the Journal
highlight the wide range of activities our members are getting up to all over the world, as well as covering some interest- ing technical subjects and articles with influential climbers. Do read the article on the much delayed final expedition in the AMA 50th Anniversary project, the big wall climb on Lotus Flower Tower (only two years late, but better late than never!); I think the aims of AT were definitely achieved!
On the other side of life, the sport climbing team, under the ener- getic supervision of Vice Chairman Sport Climbing, Maj Pete Skinsley, has had a magnificent year of achievement. Read the arti- cle for further detail, but I will take this opportunity to congratulate Maj Mike Smith on winning the Veteran class at the British Lead Climbing Championships, a great result and one that puts Army climbers in the public eye.
A further sign of our greater visibility on the sport climbing scene is
Competition. This we will do in October 2010 at the impressive wall at Ratho near Edinburgh. We will need volunteers to assist in the running of the large (350 climbers) and prestigious event and if you feel you could make the time available, get in touch with Pete.
It is not too late to apply for either AMA Chamdo Dragon, headed up by our new General Secretary, Maj Matt Hing, taking place next year or the Joint Service expedition to Antartica in 2012, being organised by Vice Chairman Mountaineering, Maj Paul Edwards (or both, to take the belt and braces approach!). Remember, if we all adopt the approach of ‘I don’t know who my boss will be then’ or ‘I may be on ops’, we will achieve nothing. I am relying on leaders who take on a project and then if question number 4 arises ‘Has the situation changed?’ they hand it on to the next volunteer. Involvement in these expeditions guarantees great training opportunities and a chance to network with other AMA members during the run up, even if eventually you cannot participate and I urge members to come forward.
There have been a few changes to the committee since the last edition of the journal and I would like to welcome Matt Hing to the post of General Secretary and to personally thank TK for the hard work and support he gave to the pro- duction of this, the association’s magazine. Matt is a very keen mountaineer and one of whom I am sure we will be reading much about in future issues.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank those people who have submitted material for this edition, particularly repeat contributors such as Stuart Macdonald, who, despite now liv- ing and working hard in Chamonix, continues to advise, inform and entertain us.
It gives me great pleasure to steer the publication of ARMY MOUNTAINEER and to put it together twice a year, but it truly is your magazine; if you have something you wish to say, adver- tise or write about then do get in touch. You won’t get an eas- ier chance to see your work in print.
In an attempt to make the magazine more ‘user friendly’ and to be able to use more time sensitive material that you would like to read about, I have moved the publication dates slightly to the left; this will result in an Autumn and Spring edition open to both winter and summer mountaineering materials and will hopefully make better use of features such as the diary. I welcome your feedback.
I look forward to meeting you all on the hill or a crag sometime soon.
Regards,
Sven amajournaleditor@armymail.mod.uk
The Editor on Shishapangma 2007
Editorial
PARTICIPATION STATEMENT
The AMA recognises that climbing and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 3