This week is the last chance to secure a room at the Cairn Hotel, Harrogate for the Annual Dinner at the RC negotiated price. We have already sold out of twin rooms for Saturday night, and only have two ‘classic’ doubles left and half a dozen or so superior rooms. Dinner tickets themselves will remain on sale until towards the end of October. I am currently in China so please drop me an email if you would like a room.
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For many years the club has run a successful programme of Wednesday climbing wall meets in the Manchester area, currently run by John Jefferies. This year the club has decided to experiment with a Sheffield based Winter Walls programme in addition to the Manchester meets. Initially we will run these until Christmas, if they prove popular we will extend them, and if not we won’t. For the initial run I have organised them how I like my indoor climbing, with repeat trips to the same wall to have a second attempt on all the things I failed on the week before. Along with a mix of route climbing and bouldering. If they prove popular, and we extend them into spring I’ll seek feedback on what people prefer. I have also only selected a couple of pubs for now, as there is no point choosing a pub on the west side of Sheffield, if everyone who comes lives on the east etc. and the Depot and AW both lack nice pubs in the vicinity. Date Venue Pub 27/09/2023 Depot Shakespeare, S3 8UA 04/10/2023 Depot The Crow Inn, S3 7BS 11/10/2023 Awesome Walls tbd 18/10/2023 Awesome Walls … 25/10/2023 Climbing Works ..[…]
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John visited Craigallan recently for a routine working visit and to investigate a report of a broken bed slat. The bad news is that the bed slat has been infested with woodworm and, on closer inspection, there are holes in other slats and at least the slats on one other bed. The problem needs to be dealt with and John is unable to make another visit in the near future. Paul Riley, with help from other Members, built the bunk beds is also away in France and so unable to help. So, we could do with a volunteer or small group of volunteers to help out. Paul as offered advice and John has provided a provisional task list: Lift off mattresses in one bunk room at a time. Remove all bed slats which show signs of infestation ie holes Burn the affected slats. Check bed frames for any signs of holes (less likely as they have been varnished). Obtain suitable timber to replace any slats removed and cut to length. A visit to Oban will be needed to obtain the timber. Purchase suitable treatment fluid. Replace all slats which have been removed. Treat all timber on bunks, including varnished frames[…]
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A quick reminder that its Everest for Elsie this weekend and there are some fantastic prizes up for grabs and a great weather forecast for climbing, running, cycling or even caving some metres. https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/premier_posts/everest_for_elsie_do_some_up_get_sponsors_maybe_win_totem_cams-758145
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After a very productive six years as Hut Warden at High Moss, Boece has decided it is time to step back and let somebody else take up the mantle. During this time Boece and team have driven through a series of major improvements, including changes to the upstairs layout, four new bathrooms and most recently a full set of new windows. HM was 55 years old last week, and these changes have given it a fantastic refresh and put it in a great position for providing another 55 years of service to the club. HM works on a dual warden model with Steve Beswick handling the booking side of role and Boece handling the more practical side of looking after the hut. Steve is happy to continue to handle bookings. So if you have ever fancied getting involved in one of our key club roles, this is your opportunity. Please get in touch with either myself, Steve or Boece and we can arrange a call to talk through exactly what the role involves and answer any questions you may have.
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I am in the early stages of planning a two week trip to Mount Kenya in 2025 with Richard Clegg. We have our eyes on one of the longer routes on the mountain and so will spending the full 11/12 days on Mount Kenya itself to allow time for acclimatisation, warm up routes and a suitable weather window for a three-day epic. Mount Kenya being on the equator has two climbing seasons depending on which side of the mountain you want to climb, we will be heading out sometime during the Dec to March season which is summer conditions on the south side of the mountain and winter conditions on the north side. Dates to be decided but I suspect the trip will be sometime around February 2025. The purpose of this post is to gauge if any other members are interested in heading out to Mount Kenya at the same time. There are many different routes on the mountain, ranging from simple trekking routes up Point Lenana (4,985m), classic rock routes at above 5,000m, through to rarely climbed hard aid routes and even more rarely formed ice routes. If you didn’t want to spend the whole time on the[…]
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In the recent survey we asked a series of leading questions Have you ever organised a Rucksack Club meet? If not, would you like to? And if you answered yes to the last question what is stopping you? The responses to this last question where wide ranging, but a number of people responded along the lines of ‘I don’t know what’s involved’ , ‘Nobody knows me’ or ‘I feel out of my depth’. So the purpose of this post is to highlight that there are no right or wrong ways to run a meet. The outdoor programme includes all ends of the spectrum, from legendary Rucksack Club expeditions like Aber – Barmouth or Colne – Rowsley to local day walks. From hugely popular staple meets like Gogarth and Marsden – Edale with over 50 attendees to my recent Laddow Bivvy meet with just 3 of us braving the famous cave. It is this variety that makes our outdoor programme so good and one of the stand out benefits of the Rucksack Club. Helen, the outdoor organising will soon be pulling together the 2024 programme, so don’t be shy. If you have never organised a meet before or you haven’t done[…]
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The results are in and they have been overwhelming positive. As well as answering the survey questions you have provided over 650 comments in response to the survey. The committee will be analysing these in detail over the coming months but we wanted to share some high level results with you as soon as possible. Here is some high level information on the responses. Total no of respondents: 176 Average Age (173 Responses): 62 years (Range 22 – 90) Average Length of membership (174 Responses): 22 years (Range 1 – 62) Gender Split (173 Responses): 143 Male / 30 Female Click here for full details – RC Survey – Initial analysis for membership
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It’s Annual Dinner time again. This year we will be based at the Cairn Hotel in Harrogate. I recently visited Harrogate for the first time and it’s a beautiful, interesting town with easy access to the Dales. This, year in addition to the usual dinner walks we aim to make it a true multi-activity weekend and plan to have climbing, cycling and running meets over the weekend. If none of these take your fancy, then don’t worry there are plenty of other attractions in Harrogate to while away the day before the main event. In a change from recent years the Club has had to take a block booking of rooms in order to secure the best prices. This should help address some of the difficulties people have had in previous years securing a room but it also means we need to start earlier to ensure any unused rooms can be released back to the hotel. It is also a lot of extra work for me, so early booking will be very much appreciated. We have managed to secure 40 classic rooms bedrooms (20 double / 20 twin) at a Bed & Breakfast rate of £42 per person per night[…]
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We have had a fantastic response so far and the survey closes at the end of the month, so if you have not already completed it, you still have chance. https://forms.gle/KviQrttSgg6Wcwzt8 Apologies to all the members who are also on Facebook and WhatsApp who will have seen this message multiple times.
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