Featured Meets – Page 3 – The Rucksack Club

A Dip into the Club Journals 1925: A Long ‘Day’ in the Highlands by W. E. Richards

31st October 2025 Tim Taylor Classic Journal Articles, Featured Meets

The 1925 journal shows the club active at home and abroad, and includes excellent photographs, see below. Not an easy choice, from a fast traverse of the Cuillins, Alpine adventures and Welsh and Lakeland rock, however for continuity with later years I’ve chosen an early ‘day’ out on the Scottish 4000s, with the President (Eustace Thomas) driving between the two groups (condsider the roads in those days …). Thirty years later Brockbank and Williamson completed the expedition unaided, and in 1980 Chris Dodd was the first to get round in under 24 hours. The challenge retains its popularity with a successful traverse in 2022 by past president Andy Llewellyn and current president Helen Pritchard. You can read the article here. And the whole journal in the archive pages of the website here. Photos from the journal follow below: Just a minute – is one of those chaps really a chap! Equality on Alderley Edge …

Saturday Activities – Annual Dinner Weekend

31st October 2025 Ian Helliwell Featured Meets

A number of activities are planned for the Saturday of the Annual Dinner meet – 8th November 2025: Climbing, Cycling and Walking. The details are as follows: Climbing: coordinator Richard Clegg. Richard writes, “We plan to go to Almscliff again. I should be there by 11am and it will be good to see others there too, weather permitting. I will also post in the climbing Whatsapp group.” Cycling: coordinator Karen Hosford. Karen writes, “The plan is to meet outside the hotel at 10:00. The ride is 36 miles (58km) long with 1440ft (439m) of ascent. The route goes to Knaresborough using the Beryl Burton Cycleway, then on to Marton Cum Grafton. Lunch will be at Tancred Farm (The Tancred Farm Coffee Shop), which has a good selection on the menu. The route then continues south west to Cowthorpe and Spofforth, before returning to the hotel before 15:00.” Walking: coordinator Ian Helliwell. Ian writes, “There are options for different length walks on the magnificent Ilkley Moor. A great place, open and craggy with mysterious carved rocks, great views, hidden poems by the Poet Laureate and so much more. Multiple route variations possible as weather/enthusiasm dictates. The ‘A’ walk is a 14.5[…]

Slideshow 7.30pm Tuesday 4th November – Winter Climbing, the perfect antidote to a comfortable life!

30th October 2025 Dominic Oughton Featured Meets, Virtual Meets

Join us at Summit Up climbing wall in Oldham for the first in our 25/26 season of winter evening Slideshows. Andy Stewart will be regailing us with tales from the COLD face – Winter Climbing in all its glories (and attendant suffering). The show is FREE to everyone, regardless of whether you are a Rucksack Club member or not. We will be holding a raffle and also taking voluntary donations in aid of Every Step for Dave to support Club member Dave Palmer. https://gofund.me/696f907ba Doors open at 7pm and the show starts at 7.30pm. If you like your slideshow accompanied with a little refreshment, you can bring your own booze. There will also be a sale of CAC goodies – the ideal Christmas shopping opportunity. If you can’t make it in person, the show will also be on Zoom so you can enjoy it from the comfort of your sofa. Zoom details:Meeting ID: 848 3102 3967Passcode: 1902Link:https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84831023967?pwd=n3w8wX4Fn2Ni0thEYtqAEfiC9QT0cy.1 Here’s a few more pics to get you in the mood. See you there!

2026 Rucksack Club Calendar in support of Climbers Against Cancer

4th October 2025 Dominic Oughton Featured Meets

The Rucksack Club 2026 calendar features 50 photographs of club members in action on crags, hills, and mountains, participating in a range of activities from climbing and alpinism to ski-mountaineering and bouldering. Exploits cover five continents, from Aconcagua to the Alps; New Zealand to the Sierra Nevada; and the Himalaya to the High Peak. The 28 page full-colour calendar is A4 landscape (folds out to A3 when hanging) and has a feature image from activities by club members in the same month the previous year. There’s plenty of space for notes and appointments. The production and printing of the calendar has been funded entirely through the generosity of The Rucksack Club and its members, so every penny of the purchase price of this calendar will go to support Climbers Against Cancer You can learn more about some of the projects that CAC has funded over the last year or so – donating tens of thousands of pounds to fund research and support for those living with and beyond the disease. Read highlight here about training for doctors in Nepal ; Radiotherapy in Uganda; Groundbreaking research in Arizona ; Nutrition for kids with cancer in Tanzania ; support for ‘the Big Four’ (Breast/Prostate /Bowel /Skin cancer) in UK; and our Climbing Beyond Cancer programs to use our wonderful activity[…]

October Meets

30th September 2025 Tim Taylor Featured Meets

As autumn takes charge of our weather, the Rucksack Club has a programme of October meets to get us out onto the hills in like-minded company: We begin (4th October) with a moorland walk over the peaceful Howgill fells, including the spectacular Cautley Spout waterfall and the high point of the Howgills, The Calf, before returning to Sedbergh. Over the long weekend of 17-20th we have one of the jewels in the crown of our outdoor programme, the Island Meet. This year we’re off to Rum, with its fantastic Rum Cuillin ridge rising steeply above the sea. Then we have a meet (24-26th) at our well-appointed Duddon Valley hut, High Moss, that is aimed at encouraging Associate Members and recently-joined members to get to know one another and to experience the joy of a weekend hut meet. Finally (31-2 November) we have another in our series of hill running meets, this time based at Beudy Mawr, our Eryri (Snowdonia) hut. An objective of the meet is to help Peak and Pennine runners to step up to the rougher terrain of the mountains. The photos are the Tryfan cannon on a past running meet and the Rum Cuillin. Best wishes[…]

A Dip into the Club Journals 1935: A Tropical Traverse by Harold Wootton

30th September 2025 Andy Tomlinson Classic Journal Articles, Featured Meets

As this year moves on, we are now back to 1935. Whilst the writing style is very different from that of today, the articles cover the diverse activities undertaken by Club members in a very different era. There is a very poignant article entitled The White Mountain by Frith Burton looking back on his first sighting of Mont Blanc in 1919 when he ‘escaped’ his duties to a Prisoner of War Company near Calais and, instead of returning home, managed to get to Chamonix, which was strictly out of bounds for UK service personnel. Another article that caught my attention was entitled ‘Suilven’ written by the then Journal Editor, Robin Gray, in which he describes, amongst other things, soloing an unclimbed route on this iconic mountain. A quick search on Rockfax Digital shows it graded at V. Diff which did not surprise me after reading his somewhat understated description of the route! Ultimately, I have chosen an article entitled ‘A Tropical Traverse’ by Harold Wootton in which he describes the ascent of a 12,400ft [3780m] mountain called Cameroon Peak in Nigeria. Now you may think I have an African fixation, as the article I chose from the 1955 Journal was[…]

A dip into the Club Journals 1945:
My Highest by Dr. Jakub Z Bujak

31st August 2025 Tim Taylor Classic Journal Articles, Featured Meets

This month’s choice of article is taken from the 1945 journal, the end of World War II is imminent, however, the wartime feel is present, especially in the Proceedings of the Club. A concise journal with fine articles and illustrations, including: * PE Brockbank on the Marsden to Edale, almost a pub crawl in those days! * Frank Kiernan on a leave trip to Kashmir while on service in India; * a report on the newly formed BMC, ever controversial; * and a sobering In Memorian, of the eight tributes four were lost inaction, three were original members, the last joined in 1910; * and a lapsed tradition, on the Easter meet the President gifted a nine gallon cask of Tetley’s mild, followed by the gift of a firkin of ale on the President’s meet. My choice is a reflective account of the Polish ascent of Nanda Devi East in July 1939 by Jakub Bujak. This a personal and honest account of high altitude mountaineering. Here’s a link to the article. And a link to the Himalayan Journal expedition article reproduced in the Alpine Journal, more immediate and factual and with excellent photos, worth a look for those alone. Here’s[…]

September Meets

28th August 2025 Tim Taylor Featured Meets

As the heat and languor of high summer subside, the Rucksack Club steps up to offer a busy programme of mountainous activities: We begin (6th September) with another episode of our long-running series of High Camps, but this time on a quiet hill on the edge of the Lake District, Whinfell, which offers extensive views over central Lakeland, the Howgills and maybe the Isle of Man! A week later we have two simultaneous events: a joint meet with the Wayfarers and Yorkshire Ramblers in the Robertson Lamb hut in Langdale and a do as you please meet in our Welsh hut, Beudy Mawr (12th-14th). On Saturday 20th, members will attempt to complete the orienteering challenge created by the late renown climber, Joe Brown, whilst he taught at the White Hall Centre near Buxton in the 1960s. Succeed or otherwise, it’ll be an invigorating day out around the Goyt Valley. We end the month (26th-28th) with another visit to Beudy Mawr to enjoy the last of the summer sunshine – or the first of the autumn frosts. A communal dinner is on the agenda! The photo is from an earlier High Camp. Best wishes Andrew Beckett Meetstaff Editor

The Journal Needs YOU

26th August 2025 Tim Taylor Featured Meets

The Neil Goldsmith, Journal Editor, writes: The Journal Needs You Now that the summer holidays are coming to an end, it’s time to submit your tales of adventures, or just rattling good walks or climbs. Please send articles as word or pages documents in .doc or .docx format, and not as pdf format please. Remember, pictures make for more interesting articles. Please submit pictures in as high a resolution as possible. Photos that make the front cover, back cover or frontispiece are chosen on photographic quality and are usually, but not always, in portrait orientation and have people in them. Please send the photos as separate files with files names – pic1, pic 2 etc.. in the order they go in the article. Put the caption in the place in the article where you intend the photo to go. You can paste the photos in the article with a caption, but remember I can’t use those as they have too low a resolution for me to use in print. Send articles to me, either at journal@rucksackclub.org, or to my email address as shown in the handbook. Neil Goldsmith Editor

A dip into the Club Journals 1955: A short visit to the Ruwenzori by HJ Cooke

8th August 2025 Andy Tomlinson Classic Journal Articles, Featured Meets

This month [well, it should have appeared at the end of July, my apologies for the slight delay!] we return to 1955 and a very different era. There are fewer articles in the Journal, which should make it easier however they were all interesting! The article I have chosen is entitled “A short visit to the Ruwenzori”, an area also known as the Mountains of the Moon. It gives real insight into the exploration of such areas and includes interesting references to Kilimanjaro [or ‘Kibo’] noting there were “enough climbing opportunities to occupy anyone for a long time, on untrodden ground unspoilt by a litter of guide books and their like”; how things change! There are some interesting editorial decisions too, with a photograph unrelated to the article positioned in the middle…and the cost! I commend the article entitled “Climbing Memories” to anyone interested in the history of the development of climbing in the UK; it was written by the then President of the Club who had climbed with the pre-Second World War members who were at the forefront of developments at that time. The Thumbnail is a pen and ink sketch of Chamois was one of several excellent drawings[…]