The Rucksack Club
View from Fox Hill

A Walk at Frodsham

Tempted out by sunny October weather, I took myself out for a walk at Frodsham. It was my first ‘proper walk’ since having an ankle fusion operation last December, so in its small way it was a big thing. I went alone but I was in the company of remembered times and people every step of the way. I found this once before when I climbed the Cwm Glas Ridge, so strikingly seen from Beudy Mawr, on my own, and hearing voices then was a delightful kind of madness. Back to Frodsham, I eventually found my way to the spot we know as Derek’s seat – erected in memory of one-time BMC President Derek Walker who, though never a Member of the Anabasis, was integral to our gatherings at Frodsham and nearby Helsby. Things seemed further apart than I expected, perhaps because the paths were usually run and today I was in plod mode. The focus was Thursday evenings, climbing on the sandstone crags in the summer months, while winter sport was running in the darkness at Delamere Forest– another kind of madness – and sometimes a climbing wall. All this was central to the lives of the Cheshire-based Anabasis[…]

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The Rucksack Club

The Anabasis in Fifty Objects…………….

A little treat awaits at http://www.anabasismountaineering.org.uk/ where you will be able to view and download pdfs of ‘The Anabasis in Fifty Objects’ series. For those who find this kind of thing no better than superficial artifice, you will also find downloadable pdfs of 25 years of Anabasis Newletters and Journals – a window into a vanishing cluture perhaps, but nevertheless a joyous romp through the way we were……it has little treasures like these (of Eliminate ‘A’ on Dow): ‘We definitely roped up because I remember taking my wellies off’ and ‘Not often you get peace and quiet in the Hut these days: too many hard climbers reading guide books out loud’ and of a pot-holing trip ‘The portly members of the party did experience some difficulty, but were speeded on their way when a knotted rope was applied vigorously to their rear ends.’ The Rucksack Club might consider an Objects adventure – perhaps someone has one of Fred Pigott’s pebbles………..

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Anabasis farewell to their Hut at Garth Farm

On 30th June, the Anabasis Club’s lease of their Hut at Garth Farm ended. Although the Club itself formally came to end end when are Members voted to take up the offer of Membership of the Rucksack Club, this was the final letting go. Nothing formal, just a happy gathering on what we came to know as the ‘Sun Terrace’, as indeed it was on this day. A welcome part of our migration to the Rucksack Club has been the intent that the Anabasis History become part of the Rucksack Club’s history, so it is right to share this with you now. Our Hut was always known to us as the Peter Llowarch Memorial Hut, but a happy curiosity is that the owners have always known it as Beudy Isaf – Lower Cow Shed. Now we migrate to Beudy Mawr – Big Cow Shed. Onwards and upwards!  

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