This Thursday 21st the prestigious 21st CMC Mountaineer if the Year was awarded to Paul Rogers in an evening presentation at the Christchurch Girls High Auditorium.
Macpac gave an introduction to Paul's contribution to mountaineering and climbing, which has been extensive over the years.
Paul spoke of his background from growing up in the poorer suburbs of London in his youth, through his varied experiences in the New Zealand alps, the Himalayas and Antarctica. He made it clear that he has adopted New Zealand as his home based on the quality of the experiences he has lived here, through a great variety of climbing, the peace and tranquility our uncrowded spaces provide, and the people he has climbed with.
Paul Rogers on the right receives the 21st CMC / Macpac MOTY Award.
His talk was inspirational, backed by astounding photography - many taken from incredible viewpoints, hanging off places he calmly described as having "significant exposure". It was clear from his talk that his philosophy on climbing and life in general was not just mountaineering to achieve personal goals, but was very much about the interaction with others and the way they learned and lived through meeting their challenges.
Paul works in the mountains, training and guiding people in all parts of the world, and is clearly very good at this, taking on challenges as large as getting a blind person up the major icefall on the route to Everest.
His work in developing rock climbing in the Darrens in Fiordland is a major part of his gaining the award, and here again he has been instrumental in bringing others to routes he found, and generally adding a lot of top class climbing in world terms to the New Zealand scene, as well as doing high grade climbs himself.
The Canterbury Mountaineering Club commends Paul on behalf of the New Zealand climbing community for his major contribution, and thrilled to be able to present this award to such a well-rounded achiever and ambassador of the sport. We know many young climbers will be led by his example.
We thank Macpac for their continued sponsorship of this valued award.
The CMC Committee
