Category: Featured Meets

Carole Smithies writes: Sad to report Allan Redfern died last Saturday the 4th November.  Allan who lived in Llanfair PG on Anglesey joined the Club in 2013.  Allan’s funeral will take place at the Crematorium in Bangor on Thursday 23rd November at 130pm.  Lesley and family would like everybody to join them afterwards at the Royal Anglesey Yacht Club in Beaumaris for “a cuppa or maybe something stronger, and a chat”.  [Allan was a member of the Beaumaris Rowing Club which is based at the RAYC.] Lesley has particularly asked me to say on her behalf: “Please wear what you are comfortable in – whatever that is.  If you feel best in black, that’s great- but if you would prefer to, then please feel free to wear a woolly jumper!” Please let me know if you will be at the funeral and/or the get-together, so I can let the family know. Contact details in Handbook.  

I know, I know, I promised no more posts.   However, a Rucksacker booked into one the club hotel rooms for the annual dinner can no longer make the dinner.   So we have classic double room available.     So if you missed the boat earlier you have one last chance.   The cost is £84 for two people sharing or £77 for single occupancy including breakfast.  The room is available Friday night, or Saturday night or both. Please email or WhatsApp if you are interested.

Actually lots of good news. 1 – this is the last time I will ever post about the 2023 Annual Dinner, I promise! 2 – the long range weather forecast looks great, a perfect weekend for walking, cycling and climbing 3 – there are 100 people coming to the dinner, and the really good news is that there is still time to sign up.   Although the final deadline is rapidly approaching and I need to know by next Friday (27th) at the latest.   No need to scan forms etc. if you want to come just drop me an email and I can get you signed up. The final details For those attending on Friday evening there is no fixed time for dinner in the hotel, but we will be aiming to sit down in the restaurant between 7 and 7:30. On Saturday night, the plan is as follows From 6:00 – Pre-dinner drinks in the main bar 6:45 – Start to take our seats for dinner 7:00 – Talk by Jon Morgan 7:30 – Dinner will be served The picture on the left is based on the 1929 RC dinner menu by Arthur Burns.

The Rucksack Club 2024 calendar is on the shelves now! It features 50 photographs of Club Members in action on crags, hills, and mountains, participating in a range of activities from climbing and mountaineering to kayaking and yoga. The calendar includes a broad range of photographs from The Peak to The Picos, and Chamonix to Cornwall. It’s a great record of a year-in-the-life of climbers and mountaineers, and people who enjoy the great outdoors. It would be a fitting addition to your kitchen wall at home, as well as a great stocking filler. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed photos this year – the quality of the pictures has been outstanding (we could easily have filled a couple of calendars!) Apologies if your shot didn’t make the cut and please get snapping ready for next year! The best part is that, thanks to the generosity of The Rucksack Club and its Members, every penny of the £10 purchase price of this calendar will go to support Climbers Against Cancer (Charity no. 115818). Through the worldwide climbing community, CAC aim to increase awareness and raise funds for research in the continued fight against a disease that affects so many.[…]

Franco Cookson is one of Britain’s most accomplished and boldest trad climbers, with a string of first ascents up to E11, and an uncompromising philosophy recently captured in the acclaimed Brit Rock film Fall Theory. Join Franco as he agonises in the quest for the perfect objective. Where is the boundary between the ideal hard route and the lunacy of the impossible? What does ‘impossible’ even mean these days? And will any route ever be enough? Franco’s doomed quest will take him from the farthest corners of the United Kingdom to the mythically remote Mirror Wall in East Greenland. Failure is guaranteed, but will there be any success? We will also be launching the 2024 calendar, which as always will feature some great action from the last year. Your MC for the evening will be our President, Mark Jenneson. Doors open at 7pm with the show starting at 7.30pm. Admission is free for Members and Associate Members, and open to everyone for £10 on the door (£5 concessions). As ever there will be a raffle (please join in to help offset the costs) and a bar (up to you whether you join in with that!) If you can’t make it[…]

Carole Smithies writes: Further to Gordon Adshead’s Thanksgiving Service. Came back from holiday to find a note from Judy posted earlier this month, in which she says she could have never imagined so many Club members would come to say goodbye to him, he would have been amazed. She has asked me to pass on this message to you all. “Judy and Gordon’s whole family want to thank Club Members for all their cards and kind messages and especially their presence at the Service.  It means such a lot to us all.”

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.

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 ..[…]