It was a real pleasure to open the 1964 Journal, although choosing one article was a challenge! I hope the contents list below will help explain this dilemma:
The article I finally chose was A Journey in Peru by Alfred Gregory. He was the photographer on the successful 1953 Everest expedition, reaching 8500m in support of the successful assault and took many of the best known pictures from that expedition including one of Hillary and Tenzing as they left for the summit. He was also a Rucksack Club member. He describes a journey through Peru in a bygone era wonderfully and I cannot recommend it highly enough. He has certainly made me think I should try and get to the Andes at least once! Click here to read the article. Below are two photographs that accompany the article.
There is much else in the Journal to read, including the first article entitled ‘Forget Giant Groundsel’ by Vin Dillon, someone I never met, but I know someone who knew him well (Andy Llewellyn). He has kindly provided some background to the article: Vin Dillon was one of the Clubs greatest storytellers. Whether he was talking, singing or writing you never really knew where reality merged with fiction. Some of the older members may well remember Tunstead, which as Vin Dillon describes it ‘was at the birdsong level, just where Kinder slows in its rush down to Hayfield’ but the vast majority of the current members will not. So read this superb, humorous article and learn about a key aspect of the Clubs life from many years ago. And then when you next pass Tunstead you can look and wonder at ‘Brockbanks stride’ …..could you do it?
So please read this, and other articles too, by clicking this link to the 1964 Journal and below is ‘Brockbanks stride’:
Finally, as a sign of how things have changed over the last 60 years, the final pages of the Journal included adverts for the ODG and Clachaig. I wonder how much they had paid for the pleasure! Some of you may also have noticed that the front cover also included ‘Six Shillings’ at the bottom of the photograph.
