7 April 2016
Dear fellow adventurers,
It is a pleasure to be writing these lines once again. When speaking a few weeks ago with our honorable Editor, Alexander Turcan, about the importance of maintaining the LIONS TIMES, you probably have seen some “old” issues of the magazine over the last few weeks, and as I see them it brings to veteran Lions very good memories of those previous expeditions. For this reason, I am very grateful to our Editor for this task.
In just over a month we will be meeting again at the Barcelona Airport for the start of the 2016 Lions Pyrenees Expedition. I am glad to say that this year we will be a large group of adventurers. This brings with itself some logistics challenges, but with the help of all we will handle them in the best way we can.
As veteran Lions know, it is a great feeling, not only when one receives the initial approval to join the Lions in the democratic tribunal that we hold in Barbastro, just before the “Survivors Dinner” on the last day of the May expeditions. But also when one’s name is mentioned at the Oriental Club and goes forward to receive the decoration (the Lions medal) from the hands of a Lord, Lady, Sir, Ambassador or Admiral during the traditional Lions Annual Dinner in London each November.
We go away from our work and our families for a few days to overcome the various difficulties and challenges that the organizing team has prepared for us, with the knowledge that we can and will overcome them all, even if they throw at us: snow, hail, avalanches, flash floods, etc. The Lions of the Pyrenees, with the help of the great professional Mountain Guides, have been known to grow in determination when difficulties arise.
We all know that these days of adventure are much more than a few days where one does crazy and risky activities; it is much more a team effort of endurance and collaboration, so that very ordinary men are capable of doing great things. Camaraderie and friendship is very much part of those days. We try to help others to have a good time and as a consequence we have much greater time together, making a real group of brothers in arms.
It is also an opportunity to give thanks to God not only for the beautiful nature we see: mountains, forests, landscapes, wild life, etc., but also for the fact that we are there once again and we give thanks for our own families, for our jobs, for the challenges that the last year has brought to us, and for the friendships that we develop during those days. For all this it is easy to give thanks to God anywhere in the Pyrenees, or in the last day when we visit the statue of the Virgin Mary in the Shrine of Torreciudad, and where we dedicate ourselves and our families to her at the very end of the Expedition. This in itself is a moving experience.
For all the above, and with the encouragement that we all keep training until the end, so that we arrive in good shape to the Expedition, as we all know that if there is a lot of soft snow or water, it can be very tiring to advance, swim or raft. But again those are normal challenges for these tough men. Forward men! To the top!