The inaugural meeting of the Mountaineering section of the Malta Climbing Club was held this week on the 28th September at the premises of the German-Maltese Circle in Valletta.  (Many thanks to the GMC Committee and Director General Victor Sammut for letting us use their wonderful main hall).

The formation of this sub-section of the MCC falls in line with the aims and objectives of the MCC as defined in the statute ie. to promote all  forms of climbing including alpinism and mountaineering.  Clearly, since the club was set up the main focus has been on rock-climbing as this is the most popular climbing activity amongst its current members.  In fact, membership has spiralled and we now have over 120 paid-up members including about 12 different nationalities!

A chance meeting with former Kilimanjaro expedition leader Josef N. Grech while on a business delegation overseas led to the decision to move ahead with the plan to set up a subsection of the club dedicated to Mountaineering.  I couldn’t do this myself simply because I’m up to my neck already with the MCC and am already finding it hard to cope with both professional and personal interests.  Josef agreed to take the bull by the horns and lead this section himself…which brings us to the meeting held on Wednesday this week.

The meeting started with a brief introduction by myself about the background to the formation of the section and then Everest summiteer Marco Cremona delivered an excellent presentation entitled “A Personal Journey” which really captured the imagination of those present.  He spoke at great length about the climbs and mountains he tackled prior to the Everest expedition, systematically going higher and higher until the could make that final step onto the highest summit.  A fascinating and exciting  journey at great personal cost and effort.

The everest trio of Marco Cremona, Robert Gatt and Greg Attard have declared their support for this initiative and have offered to support the section in terms of providing advice and contacts to facilitate the organisation of expeditions overseas.

Section leader Josef Grech then gave a second presentation focusing on the aims and objectives of the section and launched the new logo which has been kindly designed by graphic designer and hard climber Mars Cutajar of  http://www.signit.com.mt/.

He also invited interested persons to come forward in order to form a sub-committee which would plan and organise future initiatives and activities on a regular basis.  As a result of this meeting, the sub-committee has now been formed.  Its made up of 6 members, namely:

• Josef N. Grech
• Maria Vella Galea
• Fabrizio Valente
• Paul Falzon
• Mark Gladwish
• David Gladwish

The committee is expected to meet soon to start making plans.  Join the group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/234573769897104/