Category: Member Posts

The annual working meet at Beudy, scheduled for the weekend of 31 May/1June, will now take place on the weekend of 14/15 June. This is due to a clash of dates.

The Rucksack Club Completions List aims to record the success of Club members in a variety of mountain activities – currently Alpine mountaineering, hill walking and hill running. I was bequeathed the list by the late Gordon Adshead, who made valiant efforts to record the significant achievements of members, particularly in documenting completions of hill lists such as the Munros. I have taken his list and added a few new categories, mostly hill running, as well as separating the completion records for each list into separate spreadsheet pages. Unfortunately the lists are far from complete, partly because they were begun quite recently in the history of the Club, partly because they have concentrated on just a proportion of Club activities and partly because not all events, even in recent years, were recorded. I therefore appeal to anyone who knows of significant achievements that are not included to let me know, so that I can add them. Clearly it would take a large amount of research to extend the records into the early years of the Club; that is an open opportunity. But for more recent years please just tell me what you’ve done! You might ask: why do this? Whilst[…]

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Here are a few photos from Gareth Llewellyn’s meet at Beudy Mawr last weekend.  Saturday was one of the most spectacular days I have ever experienced! Gareth, Charlie Brown and myself set of from Beudy and ascended Crib Goch via Cwm Glas Mawr and the North Ridge.  It was cold and frosty going up from Beudy and we expected a somewhat windy and icy day.  When we broke out onto Crib Goch everything South and West of Snowdon (or Yr Wyddfa – your choice) was covered in cloud up to 3000ft and litteraly pouring over the ridges. Crib Goch itself was nearly always in the sun and strangely warm.  Anyway, here are a selection of photos: All in all, a fantastic day and a fantastic weekend!

Hi Everyone, Our good friend and member, Paul Shearman, has handed me a pair of almost unused Grivel G12 New-matic crampons which he can no longer use. He wants nothing for them, which is extremely generous. But, at circa £130 plus for new, could I ask for a modest donation to Climbers Against Cancer of £30 for them. Let me know if interested.

The 2025 MEF lecture will take place on 27 March at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London and will feature a special one-off talk by Mick Fowler and Victor Saunders, newly returned from making a first ascent in Pakistan at the ages of 68 and 74, respectively. In the summer of 1987 Fowler and Saunders travelled together to Pakistan, where they made the first ascent of the ‘Golden Pillar’ of Spantik (7027m), a landmark mountaineering achievement. Nearly four decades later, not only are they still climbing together, they’re still achieving first ascents in Pakistan! For one evening only, they will give a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) to discuss their latest climb (the 2023 first ascent of the spectacular Yawash Sar (6258m) – “the Matterhorn of the Khunjerab”), their enduring partnerhsip and their future plans.  Further details on the MEF website here. If any RC members are up in London that day, then Tickets can be booked now via Eventbrite with proceeds going to the MEF’s continuing work of supporting mountaineering and scientific exploration in mountain regions.  

Who’s Up for a Winter Weekend in North Wales? Yes, don’t forget to book in on my Beudy Mawr Meet on 18/19 January for fun, frolics and food. (In fact, even if you think you’ve already booked in, please book in again as several people have asked to book on the Meet at a time when I didn’t have anywhere to write it down, so unless your name happens to be Charles B or Ian H I’m not currently planning to cater for you. Apologies, the little grey cell – singular – has been struggling to keep up recently!) But I am confident there are a limited number of places left. So don’t delay, do it now, commit to 2 days of fun at everyone’s favourite Welsh hut, owned by The Rucksack Club, with the initials BM! Contact details as in the Handbook.

Many of you will know that I’d like to see more people use Beudy – it’s a wonderful place but often lies empty ( sometimes for weeks on end). Midweek and family usage is minimal. It got me thinking of ways of improving that situation. So – to that end, you may have seen in Meetstaff that there is a proposal to install Wifi at the hut. I am putting together a paper for the Committee to consider at the next meeting on 17 February. So that the Committee can be fully informed, I would like to ask Members for their views so that I can incorporate them into the paper. If you have a view please let me know as soon as you can by emailing me direct (billdeakin@yahoo.com). It would be helpful if you could indicate whether you actually use Beudy, or would/would not use it if Wifi was put in. I know many Members will have strong opinions but I would like to try and get a feel from those who are currently active in the Welsh mountains. Hoping to hear from you.

Heads up for anyone planning to leave a car in Edale for after their Marsden to Edale hike: unfortunately the new manager of the Ramblers will not accept overnight parking there (only for residents). I explained we would pay and that this is a longstanding thing etc, but they wouldn’t budge. Doublers will have to use the main council car park, which I believe is £6 for the chargeable period 8am to 6pm tomorrow. I’m inclined to finish and celebrate my hike at the Nag’s Head rather than the Ramblers now!