November 22nd, 2009, 00:47
So still no nearer finding a website or any details of this mysterious organisation.
[quote="Gone Fishing":q3ocit3i]The BMA is an association of British climbing clubs and affiliates, governed like others by the British Mountaineering Council".[/quote:q3ocit3i]
It would appear that they don't have their own website but that doesn't disprove its existence. A Google search brings up 5 pages of references, including a mention in the Guardian (hardly a fly-by-night paper).
When I first started climbing 45 years ago the British Mountaineering Council was still in its comparative infancy and climbing in Britain was very loosely "administered" by a number of clubs and societies, foremost among them the Alpine Club which was very much a "gentleman's club" which required its members to have completed a number of "alpine" peaks (in the Alps).
Climbing, and particularly mountaineering like most "adventurous activities" or "dangerous sports" (the two are effectively interchangeable) was still considered primarily an activity for the "privileged" classes, as were a number of other sports. Even today certain activities (for Brits) are still dominated by a "certain class", such as Polar exploration where the best known living Briish explorers are Old Harrovians (Pen Hadow and Tim Avery) and an Old Etonian (Ran Fiennes). Harvey Smith was only just entering the show jumping scene and proving that it was the horse that had to be bred and not the rider, and cricket was very much a public school sport and it would be more than a decade before Ian Botham proved that the best cricketers could come from a comprehensive school.
Climbing and rambling, however, were becoming increasingly popular and when Don Whillans came on the scene a number of the climbing "establishment" had to accept that social background was as irrelevant to technical climbing ability as it was to alpine or Himalayan style climbs. At the same time it was clear that there had to be some sort of safety code for those climbing in the UK as well as a formal system of mountain rescue. The British Mountaineering Association which had hitherto been a loose association of clubs and individuals (of which I was one) was not in any position to do this as it did not have a broad enough base, so the role was taken on by the British Mountaineering Council into which the BMA was absorbed, becoming one of 25,000 clubs, associations, schools and other groups governed by the BMC through their membership or affiliation.
The BMA is still widely referred to within the climbing fraternity, however, while the BMC is generally simply referred to as "the Council".
While this may be confusing (particularly to those who want it to be), as MLomker correctly points out the absence of a website "doesn't disprove its existence". Just because an organization, an individual or an event cannot be found on the internet by a search does not mean it does not exist or did not happen, just that it is either not detailed on the internet as one would expect it to be, or that one does not have access to that information.
I did try to warn anyone reading this that it would be boring.
[quote="Gone Fishing":q3ocit3i]The BMA is an association of British climbing clubs and affiliates, governed like others by the British Mountaineering Council".[/quote:q3ocit3i]
It would appear that they don't have their own website but that doesn't disprove its existence. A Google search brings up 5 pages of references, including a mention in the Guardian (hardly a fly-by-night paper).
When I first started climbing 45 years ago the British Mountaineering Council was still in its comparative infancy and climbing in Britain was very loosely "administered" by a number of clubs and societies, foremost among them the Alpine Club which was very much a "gentleman's club" which required its members to have completed a number of "alpine" peaks (in the Alps).
Climbing, and particularly mountaineering like most "adventurous activities" or "dangerous sports" (the two are effectively interchangeable) was still considered primarily an activity for the "privileged" classes, as were a number of other sports. Even today certain activities (for Brits) are still dominated by a "certain class", such as Polar exploration where the best known living Briish explorers are Old Harrovians (Pen Hadow and Tim Avery) and an Old Etonian (Ran Fiennes). Harvey Smith was only just entering the show jumping scene and proving that it was the horse that had to be bred and not the rider, and cricket was very much a public school sport and it would be more than a decade before Ian Botham proved that the best cricketers could come from a comprehensive school.
Climbing and rambling, however, were becoming increasingly popular and when Don Whillans came on the scene a number of the climbing "establishment" had to accept that social background was as irrelevant to technical climbing ability as it was to alpine or Himalayan style climbs. At the same time it was clear that there had to be some sort of safety code for those climbing in the UK as well as a formal system of mountain rescue. The British Mountaineering Association which had hitherto been a loose association of clubs and individuals (of which I was one) was not in any position to do this as it did not have a broad enough base, so the role was taken on by the British Mountaineering Council into which the BMA was absorbed, becoming one of 25,000 clubs, associations, schools and other groups governed by the BMC through their membership or affiliation.
The BMA is still widely referred to within the climbing fraternity, however, while the BMC is generally simply referred to as "the Council".
While this may be confusing (particularly to those who want it to be), as MLomker correctly points out the absence of a website "doesn't disprove its existence". Just because an organization, an individual or an event cannot be found on the internet by a search does not mean it does not exist or did not happen, just that it is either not detailed on the internet as one would expect it to be, or that one does not have access to that information.
I did try to warn anyone reading this that it would be boring.