Category: Member Posts

Hi everyone, just an update on the alpine summer meet. Sadly due to unforeseen circumstances I won’t be able to make it out to Zermatt any more to run this meet. If anyone is keen to take this over and was planning on going let me know but otherwise if you are still going out have a great time. My plan is run this meet next summer instead. Apologies for any inconvenience caused!

A quick update and a reminder – The hut is busy this coming weekend (23/24) – there are only 4 bunks available. Much more room after that until Steve Gregory’s Club Meet on 6/7 August (contact Steve for details). Phil Sorrell and the Veterans in Sefton have booked all the spaces at Beudy from Tuesday 9th August until Thursday 11th August inclusive. Mike Hartley has booked 6 spaces from 16 to 18 August and Colin Spencer will be there with his 2 kids on 22/23 August. As usual, let me or Steve G know if you want to make a booking. The Beudy Hut Bookings Calendar on the website shows availability up to the end of this year. The reminder is that Covid has not gone away and anyone wanting to make a booking needs to acquaint themselves with the Club guidance on Covid to be found in the Huts section of the website. Enjoy the summer! Bill

Members may interested to see this picture of what to me is a surprisingly snowless Matterhorn, its south-east side taken from the Breithorn by my daughter Katie. That would be the Hornli Ridge on the right, I think. Apparently there is less snow each year and consequently an increasing risk of rock fall.

Sometime High Moss warden, Tom Anderson, has been scanning his slides, these from his time as warden at the Glen Brittle hut.  It runs as a slide show, looks best as full screen … and you may want to have your finger on the mute button 😉 Tom writes further: The photos were taken during a stay, wardening the Glen Brittle hut, I had a lot of good weather as you can see.  Camera used was a old SLR (Pentax) using slides which I downloaded  onto a film scanner and onto my computer!  This has been a good way to transfer slides and negatives into slideshows with music supplied by the computer.  I am a great fan of the coolins of Skye, but Skye weather can be a problem! I first visited the winged isle in the early 1970s and have been a devotee ever since.  I  have been able to get my fix most years by going on John Farrow’s [now Gary Bunting’s] Skye meet, with my old sparring partner Pete Addinel for company!!  Always an interesting week.  Trust members enjoy the video and remember some of their own days in the coolin. Tom Anderson.  

Wednesday Evening’s venue is Stanage Popular – looking like the perfect forecast, with temperatures moderating and a gentle breeze. I’m afraid I can’t make it but Wilf / Ian has kindly taken on the onerous responsibility of Meet Coordinator (a.k.a. choosing the pub) and it should be a fab evening. Here’s a couple of pics of a recce yesterday. Cheers, Dom

I have been advised that a Member staying at Beudy tested positive for Covid this morning. The Member has now vacated the hut after cleaning and sanitising/sterilising all items used. Any people that the Member has come into contact with since arriving at the hut have been or will be contacted, as will people who have booked in this week and for this coming weekend.

A musical appendix to my OTHW. It is a playlist of 5 mountain songs, lasts a little over 18 minutes, so just time for the pot to brew and a couple of cuppas. Click on the words ‘Music of the Mountains’ (not the play symbol) top left of the screen to open the full playlist. Then you can hop around and choose your listen if you prefer.

After the “virtual” zoom version in 2020, and the reduced capacity affair last year, the Gogarth Meet was back to it’s full octane, face-to-face fun this June! No more “you’re on mute”; no wait-lists and waivers; just a huge bunch of Rucksackers and friends assembled at the best crag in the world topped off with a gigantic beach BBQ. We had a bit of catching up to do so it was great to see around 75 Rucksackers and friends plus Pinnacle Club members on the beach! This was something of a triumph for blind optimism in the face of a somewhat dodgy forecast, but we were rewarded with wall-to-wall sunshine throughout Saturday and into the evening. Very blustery conditions made for a moderation of aspirations, but despite this people were able to enjoy wind-swept world-class climbing, not to mention choppy paddling, blowy pedalling and breezy sandcastle-building. Over on Castell Helen, the day started with a bit of a log-jam as some helpful Rucksackers rescued a young climber who had found a first taste of seacliff climbing to be a bit too atmospheric. Probably not a bad thing as it allowed a rather sploshy sea a bit more time to head[…]

My wife Jackie and I are just back from 7 weeks in Canada where we stayed with daughter Amy in Vancouver – and got Covid. The featured image shows a beuatiful mountain which I cannot name! It is in the Assisinboine area, I asked the purveyors of ‘levitational assistance’ gifted to us by Amy and sister Katie but they did not know. I am awaiting a response from the Alpine Club of Canada but perhaps there is a RC Member who knows……… It was interesting to find at Lake Louise the statue commemorating the Swiss Guides brought across to develop mountain tourism. The link persists in the little town of Field which came into being as a base for workers building the rail route over the Kicking Horse Pass. They lost a couple of trains because of the gradient and Spiral Tunnels were constructed to reduce the incline. Two other photos show Jackie suspended below the Garibaldi Peaks above Squamish (I climbed there back in the day) and Sulphur Mountain above Banff which has an intersting history as the site of a Weather and Cosmic Ray Station. I wonder if admission of ‘levitational assistance’ could lead to Club disciplinary proceedings……?Anyway,[…]

Here we go for the next month or so. This month – Phil Sorrell and Veterans in Sefton are in from tonight until Wednesday. You might find Gareth LLewellyn in residence from then. Jen Scottney has booked Thursday night. In July, Bill Rowntree and Gerry have booked from the 13th to the 15th. John Jefferies meet is on the weekend of 16th/17th. Book direct with John for that. Alan Winn has 3 places booked for 19th /20th and the Peak Climbing club have 11 spaces booked for 22nd to 24th. Sam Salmon has booked 4 spots from the 26th to the 1st of August. In August, don’t miss Steve Gregory’s Club Meet on the weekend of 6th/7th. Phil Sorrell is back with veterans in Sefton from Tuesday the 9th until Thursday the 11th. So, still plenty of time and space to book your stay in the best hut in the world (in my humble opinion)!