As this year moves on, we are now back to 1935. Whilst the writing style is very different from that of today, the articles cover the diverse activities undertaken by Club members in a very different era. There is a very poignant article entitled The White Mountain by Frith Burton looking back on his first sighting of Mont Blanc in 1919 when he ‘escaped’ his duties to a Prisoner of War Company near Calais and, instead of returning home, managed to get to Chamonix, which was strictly out of bounds for UK service personnel. Another article that caught my attention was entitled ‘Suilven’ written by the then Journal Editor, Robin Gray, in which he describes, amongst other things, soloing an unclimbed route on this iconic mountain. A quick search on Rockfax Digital shows it graded at V. Diff which did not surprise me after reading his somewhat understated description of the route!
Ultimately, I have chosen an article entitled ‘A Tropical Traverse’ by Harold Wootton in which he describes the ascent of a 12,400ft [3780m] mountain called Cameroon Peak in Nigeria. Now you may think I have an African fixation, as the article I chose from the 1955 Journal was about the Mountains of the Moon! I find the descriptions of travelling through Africa in the early to middle part of last century fascinating and, what’s more, I had no idea that there were such high areas in Nigeria! I hope you also enjoy this article, which can be accessed here.
Finally, the whole 1935 Journal can also be accessed here.