The Rucksack Club

Tuesday 20th October: Nicky Spinks – Fell Runner

Nicky Spinks is going to explain how she got into fell-running.  She will describe doing the Marsden-Edale race and other classic routes, many of which are also popular with Rucksackers, either running or walking.  She will also cover the attraction of endurance events, which have become longer and longer.  For more information check out her website www.runbg.co.uk. Doors open from 7pm and the link is:  https://zoom.us/j/95350269193 Meeting ID: 953 5026 9193 Requires a password (year of founding of The Rucksack Club)

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45th Anniversary screening of Everest the Hard Way + Exclusive Q&A

45th Anniversary screening of Everest the Hard Way + Exclusive Q&A It’s been forty-five years since Dougal Haston and Doug Scott stood as the first Brits on the summit of Everest, and the first ever team by the south-west face. To celebrate this incredible record-breaking achievement, we are pleased to announce a very special screening of Everest the Hard Way, followed by an exclusive Q&A with some of the original members of the team. Join Sir Chris Bonington, Pertemba Sherpa, Paul ‘Tut’ Braithwaite, Martin Boysen, Charlie Clarke and Mike Thompson, as we watch this truly raw documentary following the monumental feat to climb ‘Everest the Hard Way’. After this very special screening, stay tuned to watch Julie Summers lead a conversation with the Everest heroes as they reminisce the events on the mountain. You will have exclusive access to their memories and camaraderie as they recall this truly incredible adventure. We are also delighted to inform you that the Lead Sherpa from the 1975 expedition, Pertemba, will be joining the conversation live from Kathmandu. Pertemba was one of the very few team members who summited during the expedition, whilst also leading and managing 120 other sherpas and porters, at only[…]

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The Rucksack Club

REMEMBER OF A ALPINIST

Geoff Gosling writes:   Received this article from our friends Tony & Di. Interesting reading.   Mirella Tenderini Yesterday at 04:02  · REMEMBER OF A ALPINIST “” I had read about him and I had heard so much about him that I already felt like I knew him, but when I first met him in Buxton in 1984 I confess that I was intimidated. It has never happened to me with a mountaineer; that same day I met Chris Bonington and other British mountaineer Olympus characters and I found myself, as always with the mountaineers, in good comrade company. Don had a singing expression in his celestial eyes and mouth folding in the corner free from the gum and he didn’t seem to take me seriously when I asked him to interview him. ′′ It’s already written everything in my book,” he said. But his book – this, which we now publish in Italian – was now exhausted and untraceable. I had searched for it in vain in London in all the Oxford Street books and English friends who owned a copy were reluctant to separate it even for a short time. ′′ I wish he would tell me about[…]

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High Camp 2020 Update

Carole writes: High Camp 2020 Total HASL 16,138 feet Can confirm 2 cats & several dogs, plus 35 intrepid members and guests equipped with an assortment of tents, bivvy bags, 2 vans, 3 chairs & a sofa, successfully yomped to the top of Mont Blanc on Saturday night.  Weather good, air thin, alcohol potent and views amazing. All have now safely returned to base camp.

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High Camp 2020

Carole Smithies writes: Pleased to report we have amassed a total virtual HASL of 11,932 feet.  So 25 intrepid members & guests are preparing to camp on Aneto tonight, which at 11,168 feet, is the highest point in the Pyrenees.   We are coming from far and wide; Austria, Switzerland, Corsica & France, to say nothing of Bristol, Bangor, Bakewell & Broadbottom.   It’s not to late to join us, just send me an email, or phone and say where you will be camping/bivvying. There will of course be wine at nine by the  leader’s tent. Carole

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The Rucksack Club

Club activities and Covid-19 update: Wednesday 5th August 2020

A number of the Club’s officers have been working through the problems of accommodating to the circumstances in which we now operate, what adjustments there need to be to recognise those and how we might begin to have a programme of activities.  That the ground shifts constantly is well illustrated by the announcement last Thursday of added restrictions in Greater Manchester and parts of Yorkshire. An adjustment unaffected by that is a change in Club admission requirements. Given the suspension of all Meets, the Committee has agreed that the three Meets rule should be waived for the foreseeable future. As a result, potential new members need to find two current members who will propose and second a Membership application. More information and the application form can be found at https://test.rucksackclub.org/who-we-are/join-us/. With that adjustment a number of new members have been recruited since lockdown occurred…we look forward to further appropriate applications coming in. The Club’s Hut Wardens, Andy Llewellyn, Andy Tomlinson and John Farrow met – virtually – Monday evening to look at the issue of day Meets and reopening the Huts for albeit limited use. After considerable discussion, they concluded that the current policy of suspending the meets programme and[…]

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The Rucksack Club

Covid 19 and the Rucksack Club: a message from the Presidency, update 12 July 2020

  The Committee has considered what to do about opening the huts and starting up the meets programme.   At the present time, the huts remain closed and the meets programme suspended.   If you want to know why, John Farrow (the secretary) has prepared a note which appears below.   We all want a return to some kind of normality but, just right now, the Committee do not feel it is the right time.   For the moment we feel obliged to double lock the hut access doors to prevent unauthorised entry. The situation is under review all the time.   We will keep you posted.    Thank you for your understanding.   John Farrow writes: Here is my view of where we are with the huts and is supported particularly by the Wardens.   I think the most important question to be resolved before we do anything is what cover the policy we buy through the BMC – Combined Liability Insurance – provides – or doesn’t – where a Club hut is the vector for Covid-19 and an individual is damaged, possibly permanently, or indeed dies. If one of us drops a rock on someone’s head we are[…]

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The Rucksack Club

Covid 19 and the Rucksack Club: HUTS update 25 June 2020

The Secretary writes: [An update] Or rather a re-statement of the current position which is that the huts are closed, buildings and car parks, until the Committee has concluded how they may safely be brought back into albeit limited use in line with the three English, Welsh and Scottish governments’ differently expressed rules and guidelines. Two reasons for that, one less obvious, one not.  The buildings have stood empty long enough for the possibility of legionella bacteria to have accumulated in the water systems which need appropriate cleaning.  Any unregulated use of the buildings will continue to carry the risk of transfer of the Covid-19 contagion.   The BMC has just issued guidelines for re-opening huts.  The Committee must digest those before coming to a conclusion about allowing a level of use of the huts, certainly restricted for the foreseeable future.  Each of them, designed as they are as communal areas, presents its own problems.  Anyone wishing for a copy of the BMC paper should email me. [Or use this link.]  

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