Category: Featured Meets

120th Anniversary Celebration: Dom put together a tremendous evening for us to celebrate another significant milestone achieved by the Club…and what better way to celebrate than with our first ‘live’ meeting at Heatons Sports Centre since 2019, including a Zoom link for those unable to attend in person. The evening started with a canter through the first 100 years of the Club courtesy of John Beatty, which was a very personal and insightful review by one of the senior member’s of the Club delivered in his usual eloquent style. After a break, there were short presentations by current members outlining activities undertaken over the past 20 years. Fittingly, the whole evening was videoed and is now available to view via this link. A very big thank you to all involved but particularly Dom and John for the significant contributions they both made. Andy

The 2023 Rucksack Club Charity Calendar in support of Climbers Against Cancer is on the shelves now! Thanks to the generosity of The Club, every penny of the purchase price will go to support Climbers Against Cancer in funding research around the world. That’s right – think of it as making a £10 charity donation and getting a free calendar! Fifty photos taken from the equivalent month of the previous year feature members enjoying the whole gamut of Club activities: climbing, mountaineering, bouldering, fell-running; ice-climbing and via ferrata among other things. From The Matterhorn to The Ben; Gogarth to Georgia; and Cornwall to Chamonix, there’s something for everybody! Through the worldwide climbing community, CAC https://www.climbersagainstcancer.org/ aims to increase awareness and raise funds for research in the continued fight against a disease that affects so many. Climbers Against Cancer is a non-profit organisation, with all proceeds donated directly to cancer research facilities throughout the world. Last year, with your support, we raised over £5,000 for CAC – let’s see if we can go even further this time! The calendar is available online directly from the CAC Shop: https://www.climbersagainstcancer.org/shop/rucksack-club-cac-calendar/ and from Climb-Europe: https://climb-europe.com/rockclimbingshop/rucksack-club-2023-calendar.html and will also be on sale at local climbing walls. A[…]

Don’t forget to join us to celebrate 120 years since the founding of the Club with John Beatty and Volunteer All Stars (that’s you!) – Heaton Moor Rugby Club (and on Zoom) Like all the best birthday parties it will feature cake, candles, beer and some photos from when the “Birthday Person” was growing up! This will split into two parts: – John Beatty will take us on a whistle stop tour of the first 100 years, based on the centenary publication: This Mountain Life, for which he was the driving force. – We’ll then hand over to you, the Club members, to fill in the most recent twenty years! Please email me with your favourite photos which capture the essence of being a ‘Rucksacker’ (no more than 5 each please!) and we’ll share these for the rest of the evening (and great if you can be there just to say a few words). email to dominic@oughton.uk.com. If you can’t join us ‘in the room’ there’s plenty of space on Zoom (and you’d still be very welcome to share some photos). Meeting ID: 828 0738 1553 – Passcode: The year of founding of the Club (do the maths!) Entry is[…]

The Hut Warden for Craigallan writes:   Craigallan Working Meet   Due to a recent change of plans for the autumn, I will now be away over the time of the working meet.  Following discussion with others who would have been involved I have decided to cancel the meet for this year.  Thanks to those who had volunteered to help.  This will not affect facilities at the hut for the rest of the autumn and all will be well for the winter climbing season.     John Patrick     

We are returning to the Cumbria Grand once again after a very successful weekend last year. As well as the options for walking, climbing and biking, this year the Dinner coincides with the Kendal Mountain Festival, giving even more options! I am very pleased to say that Finlay Wild has agreed to be our principal guest and he will speak on “Fast, light and loving it” on Saturday evening prior to the dinner [as last year], whilst on Friday evening Jeremy Windsor is going to speak on “It’s nothing serious…a tale of injuries and illnesses in the mountains” after a buffet dinner. The rates are as per last year, that is at a bed-and-breakfast rate of £55 per person sharing a standard double room (there is a £10 supplement for a single room if available) and £10 extra per person for a superior room. Please quote the Rucksack Club when booking (phone 015395  32331). More information can be found at https://strathmorehotels-cumbriagrand.com. I will provide more details about the walks on Saturday and Sunday in October’s Meetstaff and on the website. So, get a room booked, send me your Booking Form [click here for Form] for Friday and Saturday evenings, and[…]

After a recent short climbing trip to Cornwall with Parminder I decided it was time to arrange a Meet there. The obvious thing to do was to arrange a joint Meet with the CC based out of their hut at Bosigran, the Count House.  Thanks to fellow RC members who are members of the CC this has been arranged very quickly with the following on the CC website: “The Count House at Bosigran is the perfect base for rock-climbing and other activities in Cornwall. Joint meets with our kindred clubs are always well-attended and enjoyable, this one with our friends the Rucksack Club should be no different. An opportunity for all sorts of climbing and non-climbing activities on the fantastic sea cliffs of Cornwall with pasties, cream teas and BBQs guaranteed.” The CC Post went live 24hrs ago and there are a number of bookings already! There is camping and van space too, but if you would like a bed in the Count House you’d better get it booked as spaces are limited and, as a joint Meet it looks as if it will be very popular. Would anyone who would like to secure a space please contact me by[…]

The Craigallan 25th celebration weekend finally occurred after Covid put it back two years and was combined with the President’s Meet. 38 members and guests visited at some point over the 10 days, to make the most of what Craigallan has to offer and enjoy the amazing weather too! Activities included walking, rock-climbing, road and mountain biking, running and kayaking. Special mention has to be made of Andy Llewellyn and Helen Pritchard’s Scottish 4’s crossing in 44hrs and Joe Fisher’s traverse of all 10 Mamore Munros in 7.5hrs (car to car). Social highlights included two BBQs (one each Saturday) and the dinner at the Ballachulish Hotel on Wednesday evening, which was followed by a fascinating talk from Gordon Adshead and Geoff Edge on how Craigallan was found, purchased and renovated! A special thanks goes to John and Pam Patrick for overseeing it all and ensuring all ran so smoothly. A longer report will appear in Meetstaff. Below are some of the photos taken during the Meet.BBQ first Saturday evening. Photo: Andrew Beckett Late evening first Saturday BBQ. Photo: Mark Hatton Tim Taylor on Spartan Slab, Etive Slabs. Photo: Andy Tomlinson Gordon Adshead speaking at the Craigallan celebration dinner, Ballachulish Hotel.[…]

Neil Goldsmith, the journal editor, writes: The Journal is a record of what the Club gets up to in a year. The last two years have been disrupted by Covid and we have lacked articles on current activities. Now that the holiday season has started and Covid is no longer affecting travel, many of you will be doing lots of interesting trips. It’s also time to think about writing up your climbing/walking/running/canoeing adventures for the Journal. We always want good quality photos and portrait photos with people in them have a good chance of making the cover.

This will be a walk of about 10 starting at 10 from Brocton carpark (WS15 2UA) and visiting The Broc Hill, Ancient oak wood, Shugborough Park, Coalpit Coppice, WWI shooting butts, Bremen 25 stone, German Cemetery,  Commonwealth Cemetery, Katyn Memorial, Glacier Bolder, Freda’s grave and two trig points. Devised and co-ordinated by Jill Sumner. More details in attached pdf.