As most people know Mark, Helen and Jessica will soon be leaving the UK to move to Canada.

Mark has been one of the most consistently active members of the club for a number of years and has also served on the committee, as has Helen who he met through the club. While we all wish them well in their new venture it is worthwhile considering the legacy that they leave us.

Mark first joined the club over 10 years ago and soon showed himself to be a an adept climber. There are many people who are adept at climbing but very few who managed to throw themselves so whole heartedly into the club’s activities.

Whether it be the normal climbing meets in the UK, Scottish winter climbing, alpinism, ice climbing or winter sport climbing in Spain, Mark would be always be one of the usual suspects. The very fact that he has acquired such a well known nickname is testament alone to his ubiquity.

I first met Mark on my first meet in North Wales in 1998 which incidentally was Helen’s first meet too. We went climbing at the slate quarries where he immediately demonstrated and enthused about his tri-cams, a tendency that seems to have been repeated on every trad climb that I have ever done with him. Having said that I have never seem them placed in a decent setting and have never seen fit to equip myself with a set. Another quirk of his has been his selection of climbs. At any particular crag nearly all the climbs will be rejected as too hot, too polished, too easy, too hard, done it before, been downgraded, too damp etc etc. This will mean that even at an enormous crag there will be very few climbs worth doing. Having said that he has still managed to do a vast amount of routes and built up a very impressive climbing CV.

Another one of his quirks has been his tendency to thrift. I long remember him emerging beaming from a motorway service station bearing a cup of coffee. ”That’s how you do it” he said, “you use a medium sized cup but press the large button, that way you only pay for a medium!” Having said that his parsimony only really extend to himself and he was never slow in getting a round in or paying his due. Also he never let anything get in the way of him doing things. If there was a trip going somewhere and he wanted to go he would never let the cost get in the way. He rightly valued the experience of the trip far above whatever the financial cost was. Of course this did lead to problems at times, noticeably with his old Honda which he piloted stoically over the Alps and up to Scotland regardless of its lack of roadworthiness. On one New Year meet the sun roof famously managed to blow off in a downpour which then soaked the interior and required all the occupants to wear full waterproofs until the venerable bus eventually dried itself out.

It was symptomatic of Mark that he managed to laugh this incident off as a triviality (irrespective of other’s discomfort) and this attitude to life generally has been his trademark. Boundless optimism, not taking life too seriously and a determination to seize any opportunity going are qualities that we can all learn from. When he parked a car halfway in a river in the Ailefroide campsite there was never a hint of embarrassment, merely a laugh about the situation generally and hearty effort to drag the car back out of the ditch.

Helen too will be sorely missed. The cheery New Jersey twang has greeted many a camper over the years. Indeed Helen’s life has been completely changed by the MMC even more so than Mark’s. She initially came to the UK on a temporary work posting and had already returned to the US when Mark managed to woo her back to the UK where they married and settled. So not content with one transatlantic move she is now moving back across the Atlantic to Canada all ultimately as a consequence of the MMC and Mark. They have also been joined by Jessica, on of a clutch of “Foot and Mouth” children, conceived coincidentally when all the climbing in the UK was banned.

So later this month they pack up their lives into a big container and off they go to Canada. No doubt the lifestyle will suit them and they are bound to make a success of it and we all wish them well. Many people have come and gone from the MMC but somehow it seems that Mark and Helen will leave a bigger hole than most. It is not just their general friendliness and good humour that will be missed but something more. They made the Club worth belonging to. And so we say bon voyage and wish them all the best. But many of us will be saddened by their going as without them our lives will be just that bit poorer.