Author: Ian Helliwell

Forget joining a gym, giving up alchohol or even going vegan, the only resolution for 2026 that is worthwhile is to complete the Marsden-Edale on the 10th January! The annual winter challenge of 22 miles across the finest of the Dark Peak, pioneered by The Rucksack Club around a hundred years ago, has been a yearly event for the last 80+ years! Now is your chance to continue this tradition, to stretch those legs and burn off the Christmas & New Year excesses. The last couple of years have been done in perfect weather and in great company – let’s make the 2026 M-E another one to remember. No more making excuses to yourself that it’s just too complicated to get to/from the start/finish – get on WhatsApp or the phone and talk to each other, organise lifts, share taxis… If you can get to/from the airport for your holidays, then you can manage to get to Marsden and back from Edale!  Here are a few photos from last year: The details: Start – 7:45 at the end of Wessenden Rd (GR SE048107 OS South Pennines OL 21 map) – finish at The Ramblers in Edale. The route I’ll be[…]

Well, my inbox has been inundated with Black Friday offers over the last few days (I know, it was actually last week, but the emails still keep coming!), and so in the spirit of the times here is my offer: The 5 Trigs and Trods walk next Saturday (6th December) contains not only 5 Trig points – White Hill, Standedge, Cupworth Hill, Dog Hill, Blackstone Edge 5 interesting stone pillars 2 ancient bridges 18 miles of the South Pennines best moorland Possible Christmas tree and snowman (there was last year!) but, I’m willing to add, at no extra cost, the first of the 6 Stanza Stones – a wonderful poem on the theme of rain.  Those of you who came on the Ilkley Moor walk on the Annual Dinner weekend will already have visited 3 of the 6 Stanza Stones (2 for the shorter variants) – here is a chance to tick off another. Last year’s outing was exciting to say the least in the gale force winds, the forecast for this Saturday looks nice and calm. Here are a couple of photos to give you a taste for it… The details can be found in the calendar on the[…]

On 8th November – the Annual Dinner weekend – I have arranged walks of varying length on the magnificent and mysterious Ilkley/Rombalts/Burley moors (don’t forget your hat!).  The walk(s) are not just for dinner attendees, feel free to come along as any normal Rucksack Club meet. The start of the Ilkley Moor walk(s) has changed to the White Wells car park (free) off Wells Road, Ilkley: SE115470  What3words: thumbnail.breakfast.helpful  There is lots of parking on the lane there as well if needed. For dinner attendees it’s the same 35min drive from the hotel. Start time is 10:00. This change of car park is due to the Burley Moor Run (fell race) which goes over the east part of the moor on Saturday but will be long gone by the time we get there. So, the routes (A, B & C) now run anticlockwise and can be summarised as: A: 14.5 miles. 3 trig points, 3 Stanza stones, an ancient cross, a stone circle, various carved stones/crags and a Georgian spa pool. Coordinators Ian H/Andy L. B: 10 miles. 2 trig points, 2 Stanza stones, an ancient cross, a stone circle, various carved stones/crags and a Georgian spa pool. Coordinators Gwyn[…]

The A walk this coming Wednesday is the Saddleworth Nothern 5 Trigs.  It’s an 18 miler so we’ll need to set off at 8:30.  The starting point is the Delph car park off Millgate (A6052) SD986077 – additional car parking is on the main road in front of the wollen mill. My version of the route follows some interesting local paths to link Bishops Park and Crompton Moor trigs, then via Ogden to the Blackstone Edge trig (passing the enigmatic Dry Mere and Sun End) and then via the Pennine Way to White Hill and Standedge trigs and via other local paths back to Delph for a celebratory pint in the White Lion. Please let me know if you are coming along (my details in the Handbook).

Rucksack Club Alpine meet Ailefroide, Dauphine Alps, France 2-16 August 2025   The Rucksack Club Alpine meet takes place this year in Ailefroide from 2nd – 16th August 2025. We’ve had club meets there before which were well received, most recently in 2023. It is an awesome family friendly site with Alpine Mountaineering, walking, climbing (valley single and multi pitch alpine routes), via Ferrara, cycling, running, bouldering, canyoning etc… Ace pizza van near the site, and a number of bars & a hotel in the village. Besides camping there is other accommodation available in the village. About 20 minutes away is Briancôn, a small walled  city. The Mediterranean is 2.5 hrs south. For those interested it could also be worth stopping on route a Fontainebleau for a spot of bouldering to break the journey.   We will based at the municipal campsite details -> https://ailefroide.fr/camping   Further info on area on http://www.ailefroide.com/english/html/location_ailefroide.html     Please contact me for further info, details in Handbook. Jez Nasse

The Wednesday Evening Climbing meets are now being added to the meets calendar – so Get Out There while the weather lasts… Here’s the list for quick reference: 02/04/2025 Hobson Moor Quarry 09/04/2025 New Millls Torr The Rock 16/04/2025 Castle Naze The Beehive, Combs 23/04/2025 Bamford Yorkshire Bridge Inn 30/04/2025 John Henry Quarry Bulls Head, Tintwistle 07/05/2025 Horsethief Quarry The Moon 14/05/2025 Wilton 1 21/05/2025 Staden Quarry 28/05/2025 Castle Naze The Beehive 04/06/2025 Stoney Middleton The Moon 11/06/2025 Pule Hill The Gate Inn, Diggle 18/06/2025 Heptonstall Quarry the Cross Inn, 46 town gate, Hebden Bridge, HX7 7NB 25/06/2025 TBD 02/07/2025 Lawrencefield 09/07/2025 TBD 16/07/2025 Harpur Hill Parks Inn, Harpur Hill 23/07/2025 Rivelin Edge 30/07/2025 Stanage Popular 06/08/2025 Agden Rocher The Old Horns, High Bradfield 13/08/2025 Froggatt The Grouse 20/08/2025 The Roaches Ye Olde Rock Inn 27/08/2025 New Mills Torrs 03/09/2025 Hobson Moor Quarry

The new Rucksack Club meets calendar is now published via the website.  This is driven from a public google calendar which can be edited by the coordinators of the various programmes of meets (outdoor, indoor, Wednesday Walks etc) ensuring that the details on the website are always up to date. This is a great technical improvement on the proprietary calendar we have been using for years (and is no longer supported).  The other great thing is that any member can, if they wish, “subscribe” to the google calendar and view the meets in their own personal calendars. This will work whatever app/software or webmail service that you use, and is applicable to laptops, mobiles, tablets etc.  This means that you can always have the latest details at your fingertips. Note: to “subscribe” in this context is a technical term, there are no costs involved and you are not committing to anything. It just refers to you receiving updates from the meets calendar automatically. A few more details about the website: On the home page (and many other pagesof the website) you will see a list of upcoming meets on the righthand menu and clicking on any of them will allow[…]