Category: Member Posts

Oops – Guy Fox-Kelly has booked 2 spaces for 23rd to 26th February, not the weekend. My mistake.

Here’s how its looking over the next couple of months – This coming weekend (22nd/23rd January), bookings have been made by Karen Rose (2), Mike Zeidan (3), Parminder Chaggar (2) and Simon Rogers (1). The following weekend 29th/30th January), the hut is at full capacity with a long standing (from 3 years ago!) booking from the YRC. In February, Sarah Crilley and Andy Wood have booked all the available spaces for the weekend of 5th/6th, Chris Alston and family have booked 7 spaces for Saturday the12th. Elizabeth Wilson has booked 2 spaces for the 24th to the 26th and Guy Fox-Kelly has reserved two spaces for the 26th to the 28th. Apart from Elizabeth Wilson’s booking for 2 places on the weekend of the 5th and 6th, March is all yours. As ever, please let Steve G or myself know if you want to make a booking.

Episode 1 of the latest season of the Rucksack Club Virtual Slideshows is now available to view on ‘catch-up’ in case you missed it – a Moroccan Double Bill featuring multi-pitch Big Wall sport climbing in Taghia and a chance to Rock the Kasbah on Trad Quartzite in the Anti Atlas. You’ll find it along with the whole of Season 1 & 2 in the Virtual Meets Gallery or you can just click this link to view on Vimeo The next episode is on January 25 at 7:30pm (doors open at 7:15) with a trip up the North Face of the Matterhorn (a.k.a. Le Grand Toblerone) with Dave Sykes and Stan Halstead Zoom Meeting Link (the same for the whole of Season 3): https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89427013616 Meeting ID: 894 2701 3616 Passcode: The Year of Founding of The Rucksack Club Meanwhile, in a change to the provisional program, Episode 3 on February 8 will feature Route to the Sky – The Rollercoaster Ride of an Adaptive Athlete with Michelle Mudhar …and in case you are worried about missing out on the the Desert Climbing action, this is now scheduled for 22 March – Desert Climbing in SW USA featuring the iconic Moonlight Buttress along the way with Jane Gallwey[…]

Over New Year, I re-read Alan’s book. I cannot recommend it more highly to you. For those of you that know him, you might know what to expect. For those of you who don’t, it is a memoir covering his life and times. Part climbing history, part social history, with politics never far from both. For more details, go to https://alanhubbardauthor.co.uk – all profits are going to charity, notably Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Gareth Llewellyn [who had taken over coordination of the Meet] waited until 8.05am incase any ‘doublers’ appeared for breakfast or other takers for this annual Meet pitched up, but there were none.  So, showing true Rucksack Club spirit he set off alone in heavy rain. Over Black Hill on an iced-up Pennine Way slabbed path was tricky [though helped navigation!], followed by careful micronavigaton across Crowden Meadows and on to Crowden where a support team met him. The usual ways onto Bleaklow via Lawrence Edge were steep grass filled waterfalls so he was very wet once on the plateau! The streams down Hern Clough were torrents ensuring all below the knee remained wet! Another respite awaited at Snake Inn and as he set off for the short crossing, the conditions finally improved [although the crossing of Fair Brook was a challenge…in spat it was knee deep and very fast flowing]. Relative calm greeted him as he descended Ringing Roger to Edale. A contender for the best ‘worst M-E’?! I met him as he arrived outside the Ramblers and he looked as if he had returned from a gentle stroll! Great effort Gareth and all in just over 8hrs…I’d wandered around Kinder for 7hrs,[…]

The bad news; Regretfully I have decided that the risks inherent in a group of us sharing eating, sleeping and breathing space in the limited confines of Beudy Mawr just cannot be justified with the current levels of Covid infection throughout the general population. In common with a lot of people, I too have friends and family who really need protecting. So the planned weekend has been cancelled. The good news; Instead, I will be coordinating a walk on the Saturday. Parking in the layby on the A624 just below The Grouse Inn (Grid Ref SK 033 908) we will head over Mill Hill and circumnavigate Kinder in a clockwise direction, maybe getting as far as Madwoman’s Stones, maybe taking a short crossing earlier in the day depending on weather and inclination. Be ready for a 09:00 start and names in advance if you are intending to come along please. Contact as in the handbook. Gareth L

May I remind everyone that before you go to Beudy, please check with me or Steve Gregory beforehand. There have been instances recently where Members have been in the hut without our knowledge. In these Covid times, it is vitally important that we are able to maintain some degree of control, so that when a Member wants to make a booking, both Steve and I know that, to the best of our knowledge, the hut is ‘clean’. Thanks. Bill.

Gareth Llewellyn’s Meet at Beudy is not taking place now, so the hut is available on the weekend of 22/23 January. Please let me know if you wish to book. Bill

Unfortunately the Introduction to Caving meet planned for this weekend has had to be cancelled due to Covid. If anybody can step in and organise a meet for this weekend (Jan 15th or 16th) please contact the Outdoor Organiser ASAP.      

I’m going to pull together some of the pictures you sent in last year to create a ‘Best of 2021’ gallery, which will highlight the many activities Members have been involved in, despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic. I’d like to include some from last month (at present, I just have a couple of pictures) I’m quite happy to include some other pictures – maybe ones you have posted elsewhere or just left them in your phone. I’d like to go to press mid January, so let me have any contributions as soon as you can. Thanks Bill