rs and the era of development promised by it's ascent disintegrated. Climbing and war seem odd things to parallel, yet there are undoubted parallels, questions. Enough to drive a generation away from the crag, and in other times to galvanise them back. The FRCC bought 1184 acres of the Lakeland fells as a commemoration of those lost, dedicating the mountains to the memory of men of the land. Last Sunday was the 90th anniversary of Geoffrey Winthrop Young's dedication on the summit of Great Gable in front of five hundred people in 1924:
"Upon this mountain summit we are met today to dedicate this space of hills to freedom, upon this rock are set the names of men - our brothers and comrades on the cliffs, who held with us that there is no freedom of the soil where the spirit of man is in bondage, and who surrendered their part in the fellowship of hill and winds and sunshine, that the freedom of this land, the freedom of our spirit should endure. By this symbol we affirm a twofold trust that which only hills can only give their children, the discipline of strength in freedom, the freeing of the spirit through generous service, that these free hills shall give again and for all time."
Among the exhibits at the Mountain Heritage Trust Exhibition at Keswick Museum are Herford's letters describing his attempts on Central Buttress, with stick-man 'beta' drawings of the crux. Also included is the camera belonging to the Abraham brothers, the first climbing photographers, which was carried up Scafell this April by Henry Iddon, Simon Gee and Adam Hocking as part of a live heritage project to mark the C.B centenary. The exhibition articulates the real dynamism of this generation of climbers, and the way their community made sense of the confusion of a justified war. If it's raining in the Lakes, or even if it's not, it's worth a visit.