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 4th November 2023 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
Will Smith: After puntering around the E3 mark for years, Will has given in to the headpoint and improved with an impressive ascent of Scar Wall (E5 6b) this year.
Tom Cheyney: According to UKC, up until 2022 Tom had done a total of 18 sport routes. This year, he successfully completed over 100 sport routes including a 6c (2nd attempt), 7 6b+ (3 onsight) and 10 6b (mostly onsight).
Maddie Nowak (WINNER): We often measure improvement using grades, or completing a certain objective, but it seems silly to focus on these things when they don’t always give the full picture of the hard work that goes in behind the scenes to make those things possible. Maddie has put in a huge amount of work and improved massively this year both in general fitness and in her mountaineering skills - taking on winter conditions (when they could be found), going from a cycling novice to cycling a 100 mile route and taking her running to the next level with an ultra marathon in the Bavarian alps.
Contribution to the Club (Keith Waddell Award)
Luke Jones (WINNER):
First Nomination: It has become a bit of an unofficial tradition that each year we nominate Luke for this award for creating and maintaining the website, and each year someone else wins. This year, however, saw the roll out of our shiny new online booking system, allowing us to finally ditch the 19th century relics (cheques) and step into the 20th century (21st was a bridge too far) while maintaining our overly convoluted hut booking rules. Once again, this wouldn’t have been possible without Luke’s efforts so please, unless you’re some kind of cheque loving wrongun, can we give him the award now??
Second Nomination: I'd like to nominate anyone and everyone who helped put the new booking system together. I absolutely loathed the old system!
Will Parsons: An unsung hero of the LMC, Will has patiently and meticulously audited our club accounts each year for longer than I can remember. He’s even stuck with us through the “teething issues” surrounding the new accounting system and made sure that the treasurer has only been paying for BMC subs, huts and other essential things, rather than a new yacht.
Mountaineer of the Year
Only one nomination so the vote was in favour or against giving the award
Dan Ahearn and Jez Salmon (Joint Nomination) - WINNERS
On the 2nd April 2022, snow atop the mountains, and with a decidedly 'Welsh' weather forecast, Dan thought it would be a fantastic idea to run the Welsh 3000's. Off he went in search of a partner, and found a fellow nutter by the name of Jez. On the eve of their venture, Jez, keen to get his helicopter mates involved, got their food supplies repelled into drop zones (kidding, they used cars like normal people
). After a kip at the Cae'r Fran hut, and having scrounged a lift off a sleepy mountaineer, off they went. I can't offer many details on the adventure itself, but I understand that many of the descents utilised the 'sliding technique' and that many of the ascents were powered by bananas. I can however confirm that Jez was waddling like a penguin by the time they returned to the hut and that Dan nearly fell asleep on his falafels.15 mountains - 48km - 3670m elevation - 11:41 hours - winter conditions.
And yes. They did go for a bike ride the next day.