For those of you haven’t heard the exciting news, I am very delighted and very proud to inform you that the BUMC has been named the Sports Association Club of the Year!  The news came at the Blues Awards ceremony on Wednesday night when the club was named first place before Badminton and Trampolining in this hotly contested and most prestigious of prizes handed out on the evening.  The award recognises the success and substantial achievements of sports clubs attainable when they function effectively as a whole.  It demonstrates the success that the club has seen this year and the valuable contribution of members both new and old in ensuring that the club has developed and remains something that we are proud to be a part of.  This is the second time the club has won this award in three years, which in itself speaks for the exceptional nature and fucntioning of the club.  I would like to thank everyone who has contributed this year and made it such an enjoyable experience for all involved.

Look out for photos of our trophy and snaps from the Blues Awards coming soon!

Jo

Club Secretary

Last night the club hosted its 3rd annual photo competition, we had 77 entries in 3 categories: Club Trips, Non-club Trips and Comedy. The club voted a shortlist in each category then Chris the VP sport and David VP activities and development decided on the final 3. The winners in each category were.

Club Trips

1st Alice Loudon

2nd Craig Perl

3rd Jon Ridley

Non-Club Trips

1st Tom Barrett

2nd Jon Ridley

3rd Nicola Bannister

Comedy

1st Dave Clare

2nd Owen Tomlinson

3rd Jon Ridley

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone else who entered!

Club Trips

Non-club trips

Comedy

Whatever dominion you choose to believe in the one thing that they have in common is that they are a climber, why would they have otherwise designed such a perfect bouldering area? Once again the BUMC headed to Fontainbleau in France for a week long trip that is in stark contrast to the preceding weeks locked inside a grey and soulless computer room. The sandstone blocs scattered amongst the forest are as filling for the soul as a 800g petit brie is to your stomach.

The club was lucky enough to be entertained by Michel Macintyre on the first day, well not Michel Macintyre in person but a German look-a-like. The support act the all too familiar rain had followed the comedy road show from Britain but did not dampen spirits and was soon booed off by sunshine, slacklining and the new sport of freestyle hammocking.

Despite everybody’s skin and muscle fibres being sacrificed on the stone alters during the day there was enough energy left for the evenings to sacrifice our modesty on the stone floors of the gite where we were staying with games such as ‘ratchet screwdriver’ and ‘sock wrestling’. The greatest sacrifice to modesty was provided by Owen, I’ll spare you the tiny details but several members were left feeling cold and was the experience was as tasteful as durian cake.

Jon Ridley beautifully summed up yet another fantastic Font trip:

“Rad.”

All those involved in the organisation of the trip require a big thanks for such a great trip and providing us with good memories to see us through the next couple of months of hard grind.

Saturday March 17th saw a team of six boulderers and two judges from the club head to The Works in Sheffield for the annual BUCS Climbing Championships. Dave, Paul, Andrew, Alice, Corinne and myself had two and a half hours to gain as many points as possible. Points were awarded for successful attempts of 25 problems ranging in difficulty. A maximum of three attempts was allowed, with the most points being possible for a successful first attempt. Each competitor received an individual score, which was then accumulated to give a team score.

With over 300 students competing throughout the day, there was some great talent from those taking part. Our team placed 42nd overall, with individual placings within the top 40 in the female competition and the top 100 in the male competition. We all had a lot of fun participating and the atmosphere was very relaxed, with everyone seeing it as a great opportunity to challenge themselves and have fun in the process!

Overall winners were Leeds Uni, followed by Edinburgh and Sheffield. A massive thank you goes to our judges Mungo and Lydia who did a great job! And thanks to everyone for making it a very enjoyable weekend!

The team outside The Works                   The team & judges

Jo, Club Secretary

Following last weeks voting, all the ballots have been counted and we can now reveal your brand new BUMC Committee for 2012/13!

CHAIRMAN – Robbie King
TREASURER – Alice Loudon
SECRETARY – Adam Griffin
CLIMBING SECRETARY – Paul Poudevigne-Durance
WALKING SECRETARY – Tom Barrett
GEAR SECRETARY – Beth McKendrick
WEB SECRETARY – George Stevens
VOTING MEMBER – Will Pope, Geoff Pyatt, Jon Ridley

Congratulations to all!

Owen
BUMC Chair (no more…)

So the start of March saw the club’s first ever outing to the Forest of Dean. 14 of us took a minibus across the bridge and wended our way through Wales until we got back to English soil and could breathe easy again. It was officially the first weekend of spring, and the weather did not dissappoint! When we emerged from the minibus most people stripped down to tshirts to begin the walk, and we set off into the woods.

The first part of the walk was an excercise in avoiding mountain bikes, with all the trails criss-crossing the forest being a popular destination for people who like to move a bit faster than us. We headed over to a sculpture trail, where there was much excitement over an adventure playground (which was unfortunately covered in little people) and where most people bought their first ice-cream of the year. The trail itself was a bit of a wild goose chase, while some of them were giant and impressive structures, a few seemed to be too well hidden for our eyes and we ended up going for a bit of an off-path stomp through the woods instead.

After having lunch looking out over the forest from one of the sculptures, we set off south to a viewpoint. The viewpoint gave a great look at the expanse of the forest, although we had to tiptoe around some birdwatchers who were taking advantage of the dry weather. We then dropped back down to an interesting geology lesson about the area and some info about its history which was just below.

From there we made a beeline for the minibus, going past a place on the map called ‘Burnt Log’. We couldnt see a burnt log. Anyway it soon became apparent that we had some time to spare so we added an hour to our walk by taking a trip through some old quarry works, and then seeing some rather eyesore-ish modern quarrying too.

All in all it was a great day, it was good to see some of the more elusive club members present, even if their minibus singalong participation left something to be desired!

Thanks to all who came along, I had fun running it

Dave

With a poor weather forecast but high spirits the club headed up to North Wales for its first weekend trip of the semester.

On the Saturday one group did the Snowdon horseshoe and another did main gully on Glyder Fach. After enduring a first hour of torrential rain and high winds a brilliant day was had by all in cold but clear weather.

The Sunday brought a fresh layer of powder snow on the ground on the higher fells, adding extra excitement to a scramble up Tryfan by the North-East ridge. Another group headed up on to the Glyders before making a quick escape to Pete’s Eats, for a pint of tea and a large lunch!

Overall a brilliant weekend!

Owen on Crib Goch

This year was the third consecutive winter skills trip to Scotland in the inter semester break and as ever it has been a great success. We will let the photographs and the comments below from our participants do the talking. Firstly however we would like to thank the Bough family who have financed the winter skills course though a donation on behalf of our late chairlady Sarah Bough.

The BUMC Committee

“The ISB trip to the Cairngorms was fantastic. The weather was great and there was the opportunity to try some challenging climbs. It was great to be able to push my ability level climbing, both with the guide, and with more experienced members of the club. Having the climbing course at the start of the week was especially useful, as a way to gain some confidence and knowledge of the area before going out without a guide. I would reccommend the trip to any club member.”

- Strachan McCormick, BUMC member & 1st Year Chemistry Student

“The winter skills course exceeded all my expectations. We had a fantastic guide who was interesting and informative and the skills we learnt proved to be invaluable during the rest of the week. I feel confident that I could keep myself safe winter hill walking thanks to the skills I learnt on the course. I can build on them in forthcoming seasons and would like to eventually branch out into winter climbing and ski mountaineering. I feel privileged and very grateful I was given the opportunity to go on the course and hope that I can pass those skills on in the coming years.”

- Beth McKendrick, BUMC member & 1st year Pharmacology Student

Will Pope has also been writing up his experiences of this years ISB trip on his blog:

http://apopenotthepope.blogspot.com/2012/02/start_16.html

Our last club trip of the year took us all the way ‘oop-north’ to the wonderful and snowy Lake District for the annual Christmas trip. This is always an amazing trip and this year certainly didn’t disappoint.

Saturday saw several groups hit the hills, each making the most of the fantastic conditions. One group went to Coniston, one up Helvellyn and two groups making the most of their winter skills training and completing Sharp Edge on Blencathra. On Saturday night, the whole group gathered back in the hut for a massive black-tie Christmas dinner with all the trimmings cooked by the big-man himself. Several rounds of pudding, after eights, quizzes, gin pong and sing-songs promptly followed to round off a fantastic night.
Sunday witnessed the obligatory hangovers, fry-up, food comas, mass snowball fight and sledging mayhem before the drive back to Bath and onwards to home for Christmas.

A massive thank you to everyone that came along and especially to the committee, drivers, cooks and the infamous ‘barmen’.

So we headed to Dartmoor in the last weekend in November, stubbornly ignoring the fact that of all the places to walk at this time of year, Dartmoor is probably the boggiest and with the best chance of pissing rain!
Fortunately we lucked out with the weather and although there were many wet feet and a freezing wind there wasn’t any rain on either day. On the saturday some nav practice was had and the short walk gave all the people new to Dartmoor a nice flavour for the place. We also headed to one of England’s most cut-off pubs in the evening, after some of us discovered that you shouldn’t play monopoly with economists.
On sunday we set off from the old club favourite, Meldon reservoir, and headed over Yes Tor before walking back across the viaduct and past the old quarry.
This trip introduced a lot of new people to club trips, and I hope everybody enjoyed it and will be coming back for more!