John Horscroft takes a regular look at the world of BMC volunteers. This issue he’s collared Dave Bishop. Dave is the éminence grise of the Peak District access world. His knowledge of the western edges is encyclopaedic and he works tirelessly to secure and maintain access. He’s been climbing since 1964, and is still as keen as ever.

What’s your favourite climbing area?
That’s a toughie after 40 odd years of climbing. Because I like to be in quiet areas with fascinating wildlife, parts of Spain would figure highly, as would some UK mountain crags. But the area that really rekindles the fires is the Cascade Mountains of Washington State and British Columbia. Stunning - go see.

How did you first get involved with the BMC?
About 15 years ago I was working in Cheshire and happened to phone Kath Pyke (the BMC Access Officer) about a policy. During our conversation she mentioned an access problem at Baldstones and asked if I knew anything about the area since the local rep had just resigned, and she herself was quite new in the job. I did know the area and offered to find out more. Together, over the next few weeks, we resolved the issue and access was saved. When I went to my first Peak Area meeting to report the outcome, bingo - I was asked if I would take on the southern area as Access Rep. I’ve been involved ever since. Serendipity can be a great midwife in life, sometimes.

What do you do for climbers on behalf of the BMC?
Right now I’m doing three voluntary jobs for members. Is that greedy or what? As Access Rep for western grit - basically all the crags in the new superb Staffordshire guide. As a member of the Access and Conservation Group (ACG) with responsibility for co-ordinating the training and support of Access Reps in England and Wales. And lastly, if that wasn’t enough, I also help look after the Whillans Memorial Hut as chair of its committee. Where would the BMC be without its grey wolves with attitude?

What do you enjoy about access work?
I really like the creative challenge of reaching workable agreements with landowners and conservationists that help maintain and gain access whilst meeting their needs. I also enjoy meeting and getting to know other climbers and people from a variety of backgrounds and interests who are all involved in some way in looking after the countryside. It’s amazing what you learn sometimes, and some of it is in the new Staffordshire guide. To many non-climbers we are a strange lot and our needs and interests are not easily understood by outsiders, so explaining what we do and what we need can be a daunting dialogue on occasions.

What do you dislike about access work?
I certainly don’t enjoy coming up against the aggressively anti-access landowner, though this is rarer since Foot and Mouth. It’s not that they frighten me, although one or two have come close, it’s more the restriction on not being free to tell them what I think of them. Very frustrating!

What are the greatest challenges currently facing climbing?
On the access front I believe there are several. The internal challenge for the BMC is to educate and inform members about the real impact that their climbing actually has on the environment and in particular growth areas such as bouldering and group use. We need to ensure that climbing develops in balance with the needs of nature and doesn’t just turn the countryside into a playground of outdoor climbing walls. The John Muir Trust has got it about right, “to do something for the wildness and make the mountains glad.” Externally this is linked to working ever more closely with landowners and conservationists to ensure that climbing and wildlife can co-exist in the countryside.

Humans need recreation but we also need biodiversity. If one destroys the other we are all losers. We also need to safeguard what remains of our countryside and wilderness from the consequences of narrow, short-term, and destructive business interests out for profit and not protection. Quarries, golf courses, power lines, roads, theme parks, housing, all threaten, and now wind-power stations. Oh! OK wind-farms if you must. Twenty seven 400ft high “beautiful windmills” at Whinash right on the border of the Lake District National Park is the latest proposal since the government relaxed its planning requirements this year. They need countersinking into hundreds of cubic metres of concrete, access and service roads, and high-tension lines to carry away the power. They’ve got plans for another 234 on the Isle of Lewis! It’s been likened to taking a knife to a Constable painting. Mark Twain once said, “Buy land son! They ain’t making it no more.” They surely ain’t making it, but if we’re not careful and vigilant they will alter and destroy even the little that is left to us whilst we’re looking the other way and just enjoying ourselves.

Why should a climber join the BMC?
For all the above reasons and because access for the sport needs a co-ordinated view nationally to protect its interests. Without that national voice it’s quite likely, for example, that the recent Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 might not have included climbing as a quiet recreation for open access, and we need to keep up the pressure with government to extend these “citizens rights”. We also need a singular voice to talk to nationally important bodies like the RSPB and the National Trust to ensure that our opinion is listened to, respected, and does not vary.

How can we improve the BMC?
The BMC is healthy. Any organisation that can open itself up to self-analysis and criticism the way the BMC has done over the last year is both self-confident and open-minded, and if you didn’t put in your two-pennyworth of advice at least you had the chance. The BMC doesn’t tell you how to climb, or when to climb, or where to climb. Nor can it bar you from climbing. It represents you but doesn’t govern you. That’s about as good as it gets. A light hand guided by consensus, it can be no other way with climbers. And if you don’t believe me then go and join the local golf club or play football.

What has been your favourite climbing experience?
There are so many. My first lead in 1964 starting from a snowdrift, at Stanage. The first VS in ‘65 with Goliaths Groove, with a small bored out engineering nut for protection. Heart of Darkness at Pembroke, one cold and crisp Boxing Day with the swell licking at my boots. Long run-outs on the granite slab routes at Squamish. But, in truth, my heart belongs to gritstone and to those peerless slabs at the Roaches that are so tasty. Thin air, Piece of Mind, Chalkstorm, Elegy, Smear Test, Kicking Bird - can any piece of rock anywhere offer such concentrated challenges and delights in so short a space? Technique, balance, coolness, confidence, all the world distilled in the move, the next smear or pebble, nothing else exists. When it works it’s nearly as satisfying as you know what. When it doesn’t, you’d be better off at the flicks. And they’re all in my patch. What a surprise!

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