From the cloudburst:

One of the main purposes of the FMC is to facilitate communication between clubs whose members enjoy non-motorized (i.e. self-propelled) outdoor recreation in the backcountry, for example; mountaineering, hiking, backpacking, backcountry skiing and snowshoeing. Communication between clubs with similar interests has many advantages, an important aspect being able to assist in resolving disagreements between disparate user groups in the backcountry. These disparate groups include the extraction industries of logging and mining, and other backcountry recreationists, for example; snowmobilers, heli-skiers, off-road vehicles operators, large backcountry resorts etc. Relying on the local knowledge and expertise of its members, the FMC can negotiate with these other user groups and government agencies in an informed manner and present a unified position reflecting the interests of its approximately 3500 members. The FMC strives to be democratic and responsive to the requests of the member clubs, and to be efficient and effective in responding to backcountry issues. The above functions takes a great deal of effort and time of our dedicated group of volunteers who serve on various committees of the FMC, and we are always looking for more volunteers to help in these important functions.

On a less serious note, another aspect of the FMC could be to encourage member clubs to arrange joint trips with other clubs. One way of doing this is for members of a “host” club to invite members of a specific “guest” club (or any clubs) to join them on a particular backcountry trip. The host club would normally be familiar with the access and vehicle requirements for the particular trip, and so could easily organize the trip, which considerably simplifies the work of the guest club(s) which would otherwise have to arrange a trip in an unfamiliar area. Obviously, at a later date the guest club(s) could reciprocate with an offer to the original host club to organize another joint trip in the original guest club’s area. In this way both clubs would benefit from this simple low cost arrangement of trip exchanging. Another way of arranging joint trips would be to advertise the desired trip on the FMC listserv. This could be a simple request that some members of club A wish to visit a particular area and are looking for help from members of the local club B (or other clubs), members of which would presumably know the area. This would open up the lines of communication and hopefully all parties concerned could agree on dates and the specific area. There are clearly several variations of these two general approaches, and the FMC would be a useful organization for this type of arrangement.

An example of a joint trip occurred in August 2007 when members of the Kootenay Mountaineering Club (KMC, the “hosts”) and the BC Mountaineering Club (BCMC, the “guests”) arranged a joint week-long trip in which 10 members traversed a southern portion of Valhalla Provincial Park. In this way the BCMC members did not have to concern themselves about car shuttles or other trip logistics, and the KMC had an opportunity to “showcase” their magnificent local park. After initial bad weather, the trip worked out well and new friendships were made. Next summer some members of the BCMC will invite members of the KMC to participate in an extended trip in one of our areas, most likely Garibaldi Provincial Park. It is added that in this year 2007 the BCMC celebrated its Centennial, which coincided with the Centennial of the first ascent of Mt. Garibaldi. The BCMC was also instrumental in having the area around Mt. Garibaldi designated as a provincial park, and so this park is very important to the BCMC.

As an aside, for this Valhalla trip we signed onto the first or pilot of the “Big Wild Challenge”, which is an initiative of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and the Mountain Equipment Cooperative (MEC). This initiative is a means of fundraising to help protect our wilderness areas by having self-propelled backcountry “challengers” compete in raising funds for conservation while qualifying for MEC gear prizes. There are two types of challengers, and for an extended trip, “Epic Challengers” can post a record of their trip and photographs on the CPAWS website: www.bigwild.ca. This posting helps to publicize our park systems and wilderness areas, and while some folks are against publicity of their favourite wilderness areas, many folks feel that publicity is often the only way to attain, and to maintain, protection for them. The main idea for fund raising is to find sponsors who will donate towards wilderness protection, and the donations are listed on the website. In our case we were a little late getting started and so merely made our own donations, which were fairly insignificant compared with the efforts of some challenge teams. You can find details of our trip on the website above, by going to “big wild blogs” and finding “A Valhalla Adventure” reported by the team “Valhalla Venturers”. This blog provides a link to www.flikr.com for some of our photos.

FMC members are encouraged to participate next year in this worthwhile wilderness conservation fund-raising project, as well as in trip exchanging between member clubs.