Author: Dave Atkinson

A musical appendix to my OTHW. It is a playlist of 5 mountain songs, lasts a little over 18 minutes, so just time for the pot to brew and a couple of cuppas. Click on the words ‘Music of the Mountains’ (not the play symbol) top left of the screen to open the full playlist. Then you can hop around and choose your listen if you prefer.

My wife Jackie and I are just back from 7 weeks in Canada where we stayed with daughter Amy in Vancouver – and got Covid. The featured image shows a beuatiful mountain which I cannot name! It is in the Assisinboine area, I asked the purveyors of ‘levitational assistance’ gifted to us by Amy and sister Katie but they did not know. I am awaiting a response from the Alpine Club of Canada but perhaps there is a RC Member who knows……… It was interesting to find at Lake Louise the statue commemorating the Swiss Guides brought across to develop mountain tourism. The link persists in the little town of Field which came into being as a base for workers building the rail route over the Kicking Horse Pass. They lost a couple of trains because of the gradient and Spiral Tunnels were constructed to reduce the incline. Two other photos show Jackie suspended below the Garibaldi Peaks above Squamish (I climbed there back in the day) and Sulphur Mountain above Banff which has an intersting history as the site of a Weather and Cosmic Ray Station. I wonder if admission of ‘levitational assistance’ could lead to Club disciplinary proceedings……?Anyway,[…]

Another shout-out for this…..so far, no what-I-call ‘full blood Rucksackers’ have put their hands up for this one just the ‘half-blood’ ex-Anabasis. It will be great to get together after too long and better still if we can introduce some newcomers to ‘Our Manor.’ Meeting time/venue for all will be 10.30 am at Beacon Hill (Frodsham Hill) car park WA6 6BG. Walk distance 7-8 miles, climbing standard Exceptionally Severe (perhaps). Afterwards, a pub, and weather permitting, with a beer garden. Probably be 2.30 pm or later by the time we get to the pub so bring some hill food. Climbing host Rob Hastings, walk host Dave Atkinson. It would be appreciated if you could let me know if you are planning to join us, for either the walk or the climb (or just the pub, it’s allowed, you’ll still get your Meet attendance mark). Contact: Please Email me dave.atkinson27@gmail.com OR phone/text me on 07878481541 Thank you😊.

Information for the Day Meet on 18th June. Meet-up time 10.00 am. Walking and climbing options are planned and as the walk passes the climbing venue it will be possible for participants to ‘swap codes’. The walk is 11.0 Km (6.9 miles), 356 metres of up, 4 hours with stops, so very much a ‘B’ walk. There is one steep section which we can easily work around if that is preferred. Among the walk’s delights are a glacial erratic all the way from the Lake District and 3 well-sited seats including one for a much-loved friend and one-time BMC President, Derek Walker. No-one so far has volunteered to re-create the 1903 Meet walk – from Helsby to Hatchmere and back in period costume – which would be around 15 miles. I plan to ‘accompany’ the walk (‘lead’ overstates it really), which we will follow in an anti-clockwise direction starting at Helsby Quarry Car Park, WA6 9PU, GR 490749. The climbing venue will probably be Frodsham, conditions are more reliable than at Helsby and it is a lovely place with its own special charm. Many times I’ve been there just to climb my heart out for an hour and would come[…]

Below, details for joining a social gathering for ex-Anabsis members, but ‘pure bred’ Rucksackers are all very welcome too. It would be great to meet up. Thank you David Nightingale for setting this up for us. Start 7.30 pm, on Tuesday 19th April. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83932746938?pwd=NWZKbEpJV0s1UDNvU3ZKZjNaRDNqdz09 Meeting ID: 839 3274 6938 Passcode: 370594

Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86719559839?pwd=MlhLOFBKbURPeE9OUmQxWnhnMHREdz09 Meeting ID: 867 1955 9839 Passcode: 537688

On Wednesday March 16th at 7.30 pm there will be an additional ‘Zoom to lift the gloom/Indoor Meet’ solely for the purposes of meet and greet and chat. There’s no agenda or planned presentation. Following the Anabasis History presentation on February 24th, the best bit of the evening was just that – ex-Anabasis catching up with each other and engaging with other Rucksackers. So, please join us for more of the same. I’ll post the link later. Thanks.

Thank you to everyone who came along to last weeks’s Zoom when I warbled on about the Anabasis for 35 minutes. Excellent chat afterwards I thought. A couple of errors in my presentation – First, the Porkies came along in the 1980’s, not, as I said in the talk, 1969. Don’t know when that came from. Second, in addition to Stan Eccles, and Mike and Margaret Hart, our Pete Simpson and Simon Rogers are also Munro Completers. Apologies to Pete and Simon for omitting them on the night, and to anyone else of the Anabasis whose completion was not acknowledged. There were probably other mistakes in my presentation but I had watched more than enough to find these.