The upstairs room at the Briton's Protection was packed on 11th February for Duncan Lee and Alan Little's "Desert Rock" slideshow. About 45 people turned out to hear about Duncan and Alan's adventures climbing and trekking in the southwestern US desert country in Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Several of the audience weren't KMC members, which is a tribute to the effort that went into publicity and advance ticket sales.

The proceeds from the show, £50 after expenses, will be donated to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). Southern Utah is one of the world's great beautiful and remote wildernesses - "The public land surrounding Utah's prized national parks is characterized by intricate canyons, arches, buttes, vast expanses of slickrock, red and salmon colored pinnacles, a variety of form and color unparalleled anywhere else on the planet ... and immense solitude and silence. Southern Utah harbors nothing less than a landscape of magic". SUWA exists to protect this wonderful place from threats like mining, oil drilling, road and reservoir building.

SUWA led the campaign for the new Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, which protects over 2,500 square miles of land between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks. This area, including the fantastic sandstone landscape of Escalante Canyon and the very remote Kaiparowits Plateau, is only crossed by a handful of dirt roads. SUWA is now campaigning for protection for the San Rafael area further east, which would protect most of the land between Capitol Reef and Canyonlands national parks.

More information and some very fine photography can be found on SUWA's website at www.suwa.org