Featured Meets – Page 4 – The Rucksack Club

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[…]

Gallery photos April-June 2025

2nd August 2025 Andy Tomlinson Featured Meets

The latest set of photos [April-June 2025] showing Club and individual members activities has now been posted on the Gallery, accessed by clicking here. Thank you to everyone who submitted photos. Please keep them coming, as it is only you sending them in that we can document activities undertaken by the Club and its members. As a reminder, please send High Resolution pictures to photos@rucksackclub.org and include the following information: month taken; title; who took the photo. I am now collecting photos for July to September so please send any as and when they are taken! Andy

Veterans in Sefton at Craigallan this summer

26th July 2025 Tim Taylor Featured Meets

John Patrick, Craigallan Hut Warden writes: Veterans in Sefton at Craigallan this summer. Most Club Members will be aware of the valuable work undertaken by this charity and that our Club is pleased to be able to support them in allowing use of the huts. Over the next couple of months the Veterans will be based at Craigallan for the first time over two separate weeks. I normally let Members who need to use Craigallan at short notice during a visit to Scotland to do so without booking if they cannot contact me in time. This helps with sudden weather or transport issues and there is normally space at the hut. However, the priority is to allow the charity to work with the Veterans without disturbance so, during the following dates Craigallan is not available for un-booked “drop ins” and no other bookings will be taken. Craigallan is not available on the following nights: Monday 4 to Thursday 7 August (Friday night, 8 August is ok as usual) Monday 15 to Thursday 18 September (Friday 19 and Saturday 20 are also fully booked by another group) I will leave a notice in the outside[…]

Clive Lane

6th July 2025 Tim Taylor Featured Meets

Carole Smithies writes: Regret to say that Clive Lane died on the 6th June; his funeral took place on the 30th June. Clive became a Rucksacker on the 1st January 2021, when the Liverpool based Anabasis MC merged with the Rucksack Club.

On the Hill with … Peter Edgerton

3rd July 2025 Tim Taylor Featured Meets, On the hill with

Welcome to “On the hill with…” a short interview with (current vice president) Peter Edgerton! How did you get into walking and climbing? A teacher at school, as is so often the case, took us out in the sixth form onto the local hills around Bury during our sports afternoon and one year helped us to arrange a trip around the Lake District in winter conditions which was a memorable experience. I had a school friend who did climbing and caving but a few days with him seemed to be about cold and discomfort! It was sometime later after university that a student friend got me out to climb at Froggatt as well as taking me on a trip to the Cairngorms for Munro bagging in some superb weather one Easter. I was well and truly bitten by the bug by this stage and started to do more trips with him, subsequently being introduced to Ski Mountaineering. Waiting for the Fuente De cable car with RC members Tony Cuddy, Gerry Goldsmith and Mary Edgerton Who has had the most influence on your mountain experiences? Lots of people stand out as being influential in my love of the hills and the[…]