Author: Ian Helliwell

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[…]

Here are a few photos from Gareth Llewellyn’s meet at Beudy Mawr last weekend.  Saturday was one of the most spectacular days I have ever experienced! Gareth, Charlie Brown and myself set of from Beudy and ascended Crib Goch via Cwm Glas Mawr and the North Ridge.  It was cold and frosty going up from Beudy and we expected a somewhat windy and icy day.  When we broke out onto Crib Goch everything South and West of Snowdon (or Yr Wyddfa – your choice) was covered in cloud up to 3000ft and litteraly pouring over the ridges. Crib Goch itself was nearly always in the sun and strangely warm.  Anyway, here are a selection of photos: All in all, a fantastic day and a fantastic weekend!

Most of you will have seen Dan Calverley’s post “Who’s up for the M2E double?”. This has resulted in a team of three doing the double on Friday/Saturday. It’s not too late to join them (or the singlers) and the forecast is good!.  The problem they have is no support. Dan has added a comment to his post asking if anyone could take a bag of supplies round to Marsden on Saturday (most people won’t have seen his comment). So far there have been no volunteers. I just wanted to give this a little more of a push to the RC membership. But wouldn’t it be really great if we could give Dan’s intrepid doublers a bit more support? Maybe somebody with a campervan could be at Marsden in the morning (around 7am) with a steaming kettle and a bubling pan of porridge?? If not, could somebody with car bring a flask and give the team somewhere warm to have a brew before starting back?? If not, any other offers for how they can be supported?? Please get in touch with Dan – he is not in the handbook as he is a new (and really keen) member but his[…]

The Marsden-Edale was dead – to begin with! So starts our uplifting tale of Rucksack Club redemption. Are you are one of the Ebeneezer Scrooge “Marsden-Edale, bah humbug!” members? If you could work your will, would every idiot who goes about with ‘Marsden-Edale’ on his lips be boiled with his own boots and buried with a walking pole through his heart? Are you are a tight-fisted hand to the grindstone Member? A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel has ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster? Then beware, over the next week you may be visited by the spirits of Marsden-Edales past, present and future. Yes, you have but seven days to redeem your lives and commit to honour the Marsden-Edale in your heart, and try to keep all the year (or at least next Saturday). Completing the Marsden-Edale will leave you as light as a feather, as happy as an angel, as merry as a school-boy. Possibly also as giddy as a drunken man (it does, afterall, finish at a pub). Ok, enough mangling of that great work of Dickens.  A reminder[…]

Forget 9 Lessons and Carols, what better way to prepare for Christmas, New-Year and the Marsden-Edale than 5 Trigs and Trods. You are welcome to join me for a blast round 5 local trig points (well, local to me).  Three of the trigs are on the Pennine Way – Blackstone Edge, White Hill and Standedge – and by adding two lesser-known West Yorkshire delicacies of Cupworth Hill and Dog Hill, you get a circular walk of some 17.5 miles and 2850ft of ascent. Meet at the layby at the summit of the A672 just a few hundred yards from Junction 22 of the M62 (grid ref SD983142) – it’s a Godless place but convenient for travel. Starting at 8:30, if we keep up a good pace we should be back before 4 on what is the shortest day of the year. The basic route is south following the Pennine Way over White Hill and along to Standedge, down Thieves Clough, up over Pule Hill and down via Hey Green before ascending to Cupworth Hill. Down to cross Deanhead Reservoir via the dam and up over the Saddleworth Road then down under the M62 to cross the valley just below Booth[…]