LMC Awards 2022: Nominations Now Open!

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Lindsay M
Active Site Member
Posts: 1032
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:49 pm
Location: Whitkirk, Leeds

LMC Awards 2022: Nominations Now Open!

Post by Lindsay M »

The Annual Dinner booking is in full swing and with almost 50% of places gone in the first 2 weeks, it's time to turn our attention to the much coveted LMC awards!

They are:
1 Contribution to the club (Keith Waddell award)
2 Mountaineer of the year
3 Most Improved

Do you know someone you think deserves to be considered? Just contact me (bulletin board pm, email (leedsmc@gmail.com), text, facebook, carrier pigeon...) with their name, the category and a brief explanation for your nomination. You can make as many nominations as you like.

Nominations close on 11th November 2022 and the winners will be decided by anonymous vote at the Annual Dinner. The prizes are a £10 voucher from an approved outdoor supplier (ie whoever gives us the best raffle prizes) each for Most Improved and Contribution to the Club and a trophy and fizz for Mountaineer of the Year. Don't say we aren't good to you.

For inspiration, here is a recap of last year's nominations and winners.

Most Improved
Tayah Hopes:Tayah started trad leading in earnest this year setting herself lofty goals of happily leading severe but instead has been smashing out Yorkshire grit VS leads left right and centre and even got in a cheeky HVS lead before the end of the season. Boom!

WINNER Helen Burns: Helen spent lockdown training hard and putting the rest of us to shame. She set herself the goal to lead E1 before turning 30 and not only did she smash it, she’s also been cranking out VS, HVS and E1 leads on every day out. Exposed sea cliffs, committing multipitches, sandy terror quarries, Almscliff… There’s nothing she’s set her sights on that she hasn’t crushed, including the spirit of any second that dares to follow.

David Short: Having joined the club last year primarily as a boulderer, David took the plunge and invested in a trad rack for 2021. Following some stairway anchor practice (we’ve all done it) and his first lead back in March he has now led several VS routes and one HVS. Not bad for a first trad season!

Contribution to the Club (Keith Waddell Award)
Penny Newell and Will Smith: Not content with just being mega wads, these two also generously volunteered their time to share their combined experience with some of the newer club members early in the trad season to help them build their confidence and experience with gear placements, building belays etc and the club can now boast several more trad leaders as a result of their contribution.

WINNER Lindsay McMorran: I nominate El Presidente Lindsay McMorran for writing the best trip report this year spanning a whole week of Gower shenanigans and being organiser extraordinaire: self rescue courses, merch, lady crusher events, warnings of not walking on the wall at Almscliff, warnings not to park like a dick at Almscliff ;) etc etc. THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME!

Joey Talbot: I nominate Joey’s emails and wild curfew-breaking games.

Luke Jones: A couple of years ago, the previous committee (of which Lindsay was a member) agreed to update the website, from something which had been very good indeed (thanks Mike), but needed a bit of an overhaul to make it more responsive, shiny and fit for future purpose. Luke volunteered his time and knowledge, and build the LMC website as you see it today. Marvellous. The website, (whilst acknowledging was built a couple of years ago) has contributed this year to the significant increase in club members, has allowed the club to go strength to strength, and presents a great picture of the club in 2021 (so I feel this nomination is valid!). Luke has never had recognition for this sterling piece of work!
Yet again Luke has sacrificed large chunks of his free time to keep the website running smoothly, cater to Lindsay’s many website related whims and implement Karl’s “HAMBUS” vision (in English, that’s the online hut booking system). The fact that things run smoothly most of the time* means that the work put in often goes unnoticed!
*unless someone uses an em dash in a bb post title…

Mountaineer of the Year
Keith Tilley and Ian Ashman (just pipped to the post): This year the Old Man of Hoy was conquered by the “Old Men of the LMC”. Keith (56) and Ian (61) along with their friends Graham (62) and John (72) took on the famous sea stack. It took five hours of climbing via a testing E1 5b route with plenty of falling off and just barely clinging on to the sand blasted rock, followed by one hour of the all important summit selfies and a further one hour to descend by abseil. Thankfully the fulmars and puffins were not around to contest the ascent since the rock was proving troublesome enough! Most importantly, the summit book was located and signed, leaving a permanent record of their ascent in case anyone else would like to pop up and verify it.

WINNER Helen Burns (by a single vote): For Mountaineer of the Year 2021 I would like to nominate Helen Burns, for the below reasons: This year Helen seems like a different climber. With a clear-headedness and exacting strategy that is not often apparent behind all of the positivity and psych, she studied guidebooks and UKC and made lists of routes to push herself with. (She progressed to E1 5b in trad as a consequence.) Her strategy on this has been incredibly smart, and her success is down to her attention to detail and her knowledge of herself - not easy qualities to realise as a climber yet crucial to success. Early in the season, she trained how to fall on trad gear - seeing this was holding her back. With commitment, she trained physical weaknesses as well as mental barriers. She used her scientific mind to structure her training to push herself to just the limit, refusing to listen to anyone telling her “you can’t do that”.... “you can’t do that” is a hard thing to hear as a climber, but it’s what you often hear as a woman attempting to push yourself physically and mentally. I have been so impressed by Helen’s defiant acts of self-appraisal this year - she doesnt need anyone to tell her how well she’s done; she’s got her strategy and she’s on her journey. What makes a mountaineering act an “above average act”? When I think of the great mountaineering acts of history, I don’t think it was about who could suffer the most, or who could physically hurt the most, or who could go the highest. I think what makes a mountaineering act above average is undwindling self-belief, clear strategy and unwavering determination. Helen has shown these qualities more than anyone this year.

Will Hunt (who will be doing a bunch of Stanage VS's next year): For the second year running, Will has “achieved an above average act” (literally the handbook definition of Mountaineer of the Year) by redpointing a F8a sport route - Main Overhang at Malham. Perhaps next year he will climb a proper F8a like Raindogs, but for now I suppose it counts.
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