"In the same way, the RMC
is entering a new season and the same changes serve to renew
and reinvigorate our club. We have built the Stearns Lodge and
completed quite a task. Much of the club’s time and energy
has gone into the construction effort. Our continuing challenge
is to keep the RMC healthy and vibrant for the future."
Reports
from Committees By Bill Parlett, Storm Schott,
Doug Mayer, Dave Salisbury, and Mike Micucci
With Stearns Lodge now completed,
it's natural for those of us involved in the project to find
ourselves reflecting upon the endeavor, what it says about the
RMC, the club's many volunteers and friends, and the act of coming
together to accomplish a substantial community goal.
"The Randolph Mountain Club,
nearing its 100th anniversary in 2010, has been a mostly volunteer
operation from the very beginning. Rather casually organized
at first, the Club has evolved in response to the needs of the
time. Let's take a look at several periods in the RMC's history,
beginning with the highly structured outfit of today."
"The world knows Brad Washburn
as a mountaineer, aerial photographer, cartographer, and Director
of the Boston Museum of Science. Less known is that Brad spent
some childhood summers in and around Randolph. So we also remember
Brad (an honorary RMC member, with his wife Barbara) in more
personal ways."
"The lives of two middle-aged
hikers who became disoriented while descending Mt. Adams on January
10, 2007 in whiteout conditions above treeline were saved by
the combined efforts of two volunteers from the Randolph Mountain
Club and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, and four state
Fish and Game Department conservation officers."
"Today a significant proportion
of RMC trails crossing private lands lack adequate legal protection.
Why would they require legal protection, one may ask? Having
allowed their construction in the first place, why wouldn’t
Randolph landowners continue to allow the RMC to maintain trails
on their properties?"
"Early in the summer it
was learned that the arrival of the Crag Camp caretaker would
be delayed, and I was instructed to get the hut ready for visitors
in his stead. Up the Spur Trail I went with what gear and provisions
I could carry, feeling quite ill-equipped for the task. In hooking
up the water supply from the nearby spring, I discovered that
a section of pipe had burst during the winter..."
President's
Letter
Reports
from Committees
Managing
the Randolph Mountain Club
Bradford
Washburn, 1910-2007
Two
Lives Saved by Search and Rescue Effort