In Wales people are saying "It must be the BMC International Meet again." and when asked why they say, "Because the weather in North Wales is absolutely fantastic at the moment!"

The BMC International Meet 2008 is being held in Plas y Brenin - the National Mountain Centre, near Capel Curig.  It kicked off on Sunday 11th May when the international guests from 24 countries arrived at the centre.  In total, there are 44 guests attending the meet along with 46 hosts from the UK who have volunteered to be on the meet and climb with the guests.

There's a fantastic atmosphere on the BMC International Meet with people doing masses of routes from severes up to on sight attempts on E8s. 

Notably, BMC Vice President, Pat Littlejohn, who made the first ascent of The Axe on Cloggy 30 years ago, climbed the route for only the second time in his life.  He seconded Ben Lepesant from Luxembourg and said it felt ten times harder than when he did it last time.  We'll put that down to first ascent adrenaline then!

It's probably fair to say that most of the iconic classic routes in the area have had ascents already after only two days. 

Some notable ascents include: Gerber Cucurell (Spain) with a ground up on sight ascent of Lord of the Flies (E6).   Nicolas (Nico) Favresse (Belgium) onsigted Authentic Desire (E7), fellow Belgium climber Sean Villanueva-O'Driscoll onsighted A Midsummer Night's Dream (E6).  The previous day Nico took a 50 foot fall during an on sight ground up attempt on Nightmayer (E8)!

In addition to climbing, guests and hosts give presentations in the evenings.  So far there's been Pat Littlejohn  showing climbing on the Lleyn peninsular, David Sharratt (USA) on rock climbs in South America, Anna Piunova (Russia) on climbing in the Crimea,  and Rolando Larcher (Italy) showing a video of climbing first ascents in Turkey.

There are numerous photographers buzzing excitedly around the meet - including Ray Wood, Alex Messenger, and Alistair Lee, so hopefully there will be some good shots and footage appearing in the media in due course.

The BMC International Meet is open to climbers of all levels.  The next one will be a winter climbing meet and will be held at Glenmore Lodge in February 2009.  If you would like to be a volunteer host keep checking the BMC website for more details.

For more information on BMC International Meets please click here. 

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