Author: Dominic Oughton

The prospects of face-to-face Club activities picking up early in the New Year are not looking too promising, so we’re kicking off the Virtual Slideshows again in January – A dose of Zoom to help lift the Gloom! We’ll be running fortnightly shows with the same format as last Spring: 7pm ‘Doors Open’ for 7:30 ‘Kick Off’ and approx. 40mins ‘Show’ followed by 20mins Q&A and optional ‘breakout pub chats’ at 8.30pm. Here are the dates and provisional topics: • 5 Jan – Bill Deakin & Dominic Oughton – The Diamond & The Black; Climbing in Colorado       • 19 Jan – John Beatty – Islands         • 2 Feb – Joe Fisher – Winter Cuillin Traverse         • 16 Feb – John Warburton – Gouffre Berger         • 2 March – Andy Tomlinson & Andy Llewellyn– Rolwaling, Nepal           • 16 March – Another once-a-year Weekend Adventure – Phil Smith, Mark Jenneson & Richard Clegg           The Zoom details for ALL OF THESE SHOWS are: https://zoom.us/j/91271240405 Meeting ID: 912 7124 0405 Passcode: The year of founding of The Rucksack Club[…]

The 2021 Rucksack Club Calendar has just arrived, hot off the press! We’ve had a tremendous response with photo submissions featuring more than 50 Rucksack Club members (either in front of or behind the lens) – Many thanks to everyone who has contributed. It’s a great reminder of the vitality of The Club that most of the photos were taken in the last year, and we’ve managed to “Get Out There!” despite the circumstances. This year we are raising funds for Urban Uprising https://www.urbanuprising.org/about who support young people from diverse, disadvantaged backgrounds to discover climbing and use it to help improve their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. In their words: Elevating and Inspiring Young People Through Climbing As The Club won’t be publishing a Journal this year, the Committee has agreed to send a copy of the Calendar to every member instead – Keep an eye out for your posty in the next few days – I hope you enjoy it! It would be great if you would consider making a donation to Urban Uprising anyway (maybe a tenner or whatever you feel is appropriate) at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/dominic-oughton The calendar illustrates the great good fortune we all enjoy in our appreciation[…]

We’re a bit over a month into the “Climbing WhatsApp group” experiment and it has exceeded my expectations – 80 members and loads of ad hoc gatherings (not “meets!”) that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. A wet Wednesday (aren’t they all!) a couple of weeks ago was a great example of spontaneity – lashing down in Manchester in the morning, real-time conditions reports from Tideswell during the day, and a bunch of intrepid optimists setting out for Stoney on the strength of the Met Office prediction of a sunny evening. In the end a dozen of us (two groups of no more than 6 of course!) managed to snatch a few enjoyable routes from what would otherwise have been a washout (duly celebrated outside in the beer garden at The Moon). The Wednesday before, WhatsApp had come in handy in convening at shady Staden in the heatwave, but more importantly enabling John to warn of a rampaging cow on the approach – real-time objective danger updates! Saturday again saw the triumph of optimism over common sense when a few of us met up at Bamford. Great to catch up with Will (our most recent member), Alice and Ted and kudos to[…]

Following the success of the 2020 Rucksack Club Calendar (we raised over £1,500 for The BMC Access and Conservation Trust as well as generating great publicity for The Club) we’ve decided to go again for 2021. This year we are raising funds for Urban Uprising https://www.urbanuprising.org/about who support young people from diverse, disadvantaged backgrounds to discover climbing and use it to help improve their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. In their words: Elevating and Inspiring Young People Through Climbing More than 50 Rucksack Club members contributed photos last year (either in front of or behind the lens) which is a brilliant advert for vitality of The Club – Many thanks to everyone who took part (and of course to those who bought one!) We need your photos again this year. Ideally these will feature a Club Member or Associate Member in a relevant outdoor activity (last year we covered climbing, mountaineering, hill-walking, fell-running, MTB, skiing, ski-touring and wild swimming – let’s have a few caving shots this year and maybe a parapent!) I’m hoping to keep the spirit of last year and feature photos from the relevant month, but I’m open to a bit of flexibility in light of the[…]

Hi Everyone. With “official” Rucksack Club meets on C19 hold, I’ve set up a WhatsApp group to help people organise ad-hoc C19-safe climbing outings. I’ve started the ball rolling with a few of the “usual suspects” but if I’ve missed you then it’s easy to join the group – drop me a note with your mobile number to dominic@oughton.uk.com and I’ll add you 🙂 I should also just confirm that this is NOT an official communication channel for The Rucksack Club and any gatherings are NOT taking place as official Club meets. Covid-19 Statement – stay safe out there and follow guidance – as the BMC says: “Be cautious in your actions, respectful of local communities and vigilant in avoiding transmitting the virus” Hopefully catch up soon on a crag (at an appropriate distance!) Cheers, Dom

7:30pm on Tuesday 7 July ’The Six Great North Faces’. In Part 2, we are hosted by the Alpine Club to tick the remainder of The Big Six: the Petit Dru, Cima Grande di Laveredo, and Piz Badile, with Alpine Club speakers James Thacker and Ian Bryant, with me bringing up the rear. Check your emails or the Club Facebook page for zoom details, or you can watch the livestream at the following YouTube Event link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGT8dgjXI0Y& This is the final episode of the Club’s Virtual ‘lockdown’ slideshows before a break for the summer (we’ll be back in the autumn), so come along and enjoy the show. Meanwhile, I’ve set up a JustGiving page to support the charity Urban Uprising who help young people from diverse backgrounds have the opportunities that we’ve all had, to get involved in the outdoors and climbing. In their words: Elevating and Inspiring Young People Through Climbing The Virtual Slideshows have made me appreciate what we’ve all been missing during lockdown: the importance of the outdoors to our mental as well as physical health, and the great companionship that comes from enjoying these with like-minded people. The idea to support Urban Uprising was to help[…]

For this Tuesday’s show we’ve got three brilliant and contrasting talks: Jack Helliwell on Alpine Adventures Steve Smith on Ski Touring Clair and Ian Wilson on Ecuador Peaks You can join via the usual Tuesday Zoom details: Doors open from 7pm and the show starts at 7:30pm. The link is: https://zoom.us/j/93547263254 Meeting ID: 935 4726 3254 Requires password (year of founding of The Rucksack Club) Meanwhile, I’ve set up a JustGiving page to support the charity Urban Uprising who help young people from diverse backgrounds have the opportunities that we’ve all had, to get involved in the outdoors and climbing. In their words: Elevating and Inspiring Young People Through Climbing The Virtual Slideshows have made me appreciate what we’ve all been missing during lockdown: the importance of the outdoors to our mental as well as physical health, and the great companionship that comes from enjoying these with like-minded people. The idea to support Urban Uprising was to help open up access to these for young people who otherwise might not get the chance. If you’ve enjoyed the shows so far, or simply want to support a great cause, why not donate now? https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/dominic-oughton Cheers, Dom

The Rucksack Club and Alpine Club, two of Britain’s oldest mountaineering clubs, combine to take you up the classic six great north faces of the Alps, with accounts from 6 different members. As ticklists go this is short, sweet and an easy one to remember, but containing formidable and historic routes, it’s not such an easy one to complete and has become the benchmark for the serious alpinist. It’s the Matterhorn, Eiger, Grandes Jorasses; the Petit Dru, Cima Grande di Laveredo, and Piz Badile. In Part 1, we are hosted by the Rucksack Club to celebrate what has become known as “the trilogy”: Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses, and the Eiger, with speakers Andy Kirkpatrick, Martin Cooper, Nick Wallis, Bill Deakin and Tony Rhodes. As usual, we will finish with a Q&A. Club members can participate directly in the Zoom discussion – watch your email for the link or check the Rucksack Club Facebook Group post [NOTE This is NOT the same link as the usual Tuesday evening session] We’re also opening the event to the whole climbing community. You can watch the livestream at the following YouTube Event link: https://youtu.be/VKy9HKhFwTU and also pose questions to the speakers via the comments function.

Every June, for almost 20 years, Helen and I have organised The Gogarth Meet. Despite my best efforts, and the climbing on The Best Crag In The World, this has become known as the Barbecue Meet! Due to the Covid crisis, 2020 was a bit different, with gatherings of more than 6 people banned, and no one allowed to drive more than 5 miles in Wales. Still, it takes more than a mere global pandemic to dampen the enthusiasm of The Rucksack Club, and the meet was reconvened from Port Dafarch Beach into back gardens and front rooms across cyberspace. More than fifty of us got together on Zoom to enjoy Burgers, BBQ, Beers, Bonfire and Banter – you could argue that’s all the best bits, without the carbon footprint or the terror of Main Cliff! Thanks everyone for joining us for such a fun evening – with the banter flowing and fire crackling it was almost like the real thing. Special thanks to John Beatty, Dave Crilley, Adam Bowman, Gareth llewellyn, Rob and Mike Ferguson, Martin Cooper and Alan Firth for sharing their pics and tales, and to Jim Burton and Bill Deakin for chipping in with stories from[…]