Joe Brown sadly died on 15th April 2020 aged 89. His legacy will last forever through the numerous fantastic new routes he put up over many, many years…he was, and remains, a true legend and gentleman. Our thoughts go out to his family at this time. Click the link to see what Ed Douglas has written on behalf of the BMC https://www.thebmc.co.uk/legendary-climber-joe-brown-dies
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“On the hill with…” a series of short interviews with members of the Rucksack Club continues this week with another Past President, John Llewellyn [1984/85] who has been a very active and influential member of the Club for over 60 years. John heading for Pabbay in 2014 How did you get into walking and climbing? I was a schoolboy during the war. My father worked at Metrovick and was able to have just one week’s holiday a year so we were able to have a short holiday staying at Rowarth, the little village a mile or two north of New Mills. After some short local walks my father and I got to the top of Lantern Pike – wow! We could see a long dark hill some way away. I was told it was called Kinder Scout and you couldn’t go on it because it was a private moor only for shooting parties. I was only eight but that is a vivid memory and it gave me a strong desire to investigate. Subsequently I became a boy scout and very fond of camping, walking and then climbing. We firstly climbed on Windgather and Castlenaze. Later, the Rector of Llanberis opened[…]
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In 1987 the Rucksack Club published an Anthology compiled from articles published in the Rucksack Club Journal over the years. The Preface notes that the first edition of the Rucksack Club Journal was published in 1907 and that “it was a handsome affair bound in a now familiar dark green cover. It was hoped to ‘blazon forth’ to a waiting world ‘the deeds heroic of the Rucksack Club’.” This article, written by George Milner entitled With Rucksack Men to Beckfoot, Easter 1906, was published in the first edition of the Rucksack Club Journal in 1907 [he was 76 at the time of writing]. Please click here to read the full article…savour it as it takes you back to a completely different, as well as style of writing. Mike Dent, one of the Club Archivist’s, has kindly sent the following information [and photograph] about George Milner… George Milner was a distinguished member of the Club in its early days. At the first full meeting of the recently elected Committee on November 10th 1902, 16 men were elected on the basis of their written applications, including George Milner, aged 72. At the next meeting on November 19th, John Hobbins and Edwin Roberts pointed out[…]
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Beginnings (a surfer’s tale): Sam Salmon Rock climbing, eh? Funny old game! What’s the point? For me, it all started many years ago in the seas off West Cornwall. Way back in 1976 I was living just up the road from Land’s End and generally having a good time. I had left the Fleet Air Arm a couple of years earlier and was by now fully engaged in a surfing lifestyle – this involved hanging out at the beach, getting in the water as much as possible and relaxing in the pub talking about waves. In order to live I was working on a local farm and my accommodation was an old caravan overlooking one of the best surfing beaches in Cornwall. A couple of years earlier I had met an interesting bunch of guys who told me they were rock climbers. The names of Mike White, Owen Smith and Jim Cotton may sound familiar to some older members of the club (Owen, of course, is still an active member). We met through Owen, who at the time was selling surfboards in Ellis Brighams’ climbing shop in Penzance. I was fascinated by climbing, but thought it a very odd[…]
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A new venture for the Website entitled: Classic RC Journal articles The first chosen is ‘The History of Moss Ghyll Grooves’ by HM Kelly [please click on link], which appeared in the 1927 RCJ, the year after his first ascent. His list of first ascents also includes such classics as Rib and Slab [Pillar] and Tophet Wall [Gable] and he was President of the Club for 1930/31. This article also appears in “From Kinder Scout to Kathmandu; A Rucksack Club Anthology 1907-1986” published by The Rucksack Club in 1987. It is a classic article about one of the great climbs of the Lake District. I first became aware of it when Classic Rock was first published in 1978 and, in the arrogance of youth, determined it would be a climb to do when I got older…sure enough I finally climbed it in 2018!
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If you’d like a bit of light relief, how about this! https://www.climbing.com/news/search-and-rescue-groups-urge-people-to-stop-climbing-cabinetry-during-pandemic/
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Our “On the hill with…” series of interviews with members of the Rucksack Club continues with Parminder Chaggar who is now based in the far South West. Parminder having fun in the Alps How did you get into walking and climbing? Having grown up in a ghetto in inner city Birmingham, the great outdoors was a completely different world and one that was not easy to engage with. I remember climbing Crib Goch on a school trip when I was a young teenager and being completely out of my depth, even on the easier terrain, resulting in a teacher having to hold my hand most of the way. I think Snowdon may have been first ever ‘big hill’. My introduction into the outdoors in earnest was via pure serendipity as a young adult when I moved to Sheffield to go to medical school. Like most city kids, I was into drinking and clubbing, but by chance my housemate started dating a lad that climbed; we got on so he took me out to Stanage one day and I was hooked. From there I was lucky to get in with a circle of friends that climbed regularly, informally known as the[…]
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Please see the BMC latest advice at the following link I copy a particularly relevant section if you have doubts as to the advice: British Mountain Guide and anaesthetist Jon Morgan said: “Do everything in your power to minimise both risk and social contact. Be scrupulous about hand hygiene and spread the word. Your own personal actions may save the life of a relative or someone you know. I am writing this as an anaesthetist who will be keeping people alive with ventilators. All the signals are we will be overwhelmed like Italy. Please help out by taking this as seriously as possible.”
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From Dave Woolley, President of The Rucksack Club. The Rucksack Club has closed all outdoor and indoor events and all huts until further notice. This is in line with government advice and is to protect us all. I ask all members to respect this decision.
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It is difficult to keep up to speed. We decided to close the Huts and you should have seen Steve Beswick’s note on the website to that effect a couple of days ago. We pondered about day meets and their viability. Yesterday the ground moved and we feel obliged to respond to “social distance” “over 70s ” (40% of us) and “unnecessary journeys” by suspending all Rucksack Club activities until the crisis is resolved. It’s clear that mountaineering huts provide ideal conditions for the virus to multiply. Ours are shut. Please keep out. Day meets don’t pose as great a threat but to organise them runs counter to government advice and there is a considerable reputational issue should we seek to continue to do that. Plainly individuals so far are only being advised not coerced but if you go out you are not going out under the auspices of the Club. Just been listening to the Chief Scientific Officer answer questions from the parliamentary Health Select Committee when the issue of fit over 70s popped up. Yes, of course they could go off by themselves for a walk in the country – social distance is what really matters.[…]
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