Welcome to The Rucksack Club Archives. The Club has been at the forefront of British Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Long-distance Walking and other challenging oudoor activities since 1902. The archives provide an extensive collection of material available for searching, browsing or downloading covering some 120 years of the Club’s activities. The archive is comprised of a number of Libraries and is being constantly expanded:
The latest editions (2021 onwards) of Meetstaff and the Journal are only viewable to logged-in members. Members click here to log-in.
Note: the archives have been primarily designed for viewing on devices with a large screen (such as a laptop or tablet). If you are viewing this page from a smartphone or mini-tablet you will automatically be directed to a simple listing of the archives where you can choose to view or download the documents.
The Rucksack Club Journal library:
The Rucksack Club was founded in 1902 and has been at the forefront of British Mountaineering for over 120 years (a brief history of The Rucksack Club can be found here). The Club published it’s first journal in 1903 (the first three editions were called Annual Reports) and has continued without a break right up to the present day. More than 100 of the Club’s journals are now available on-line for either searching, browsing or downloading and cover the activities of the Club and it’s members over the period from 1902 – 2020.
The Journals from 1904 contain high quality photos and provide a facinating insight to the development of British Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Long-distance Walking and other challenging oudoor pursuits.
Members of the Rucksack Club can also access the most recent Rucksack Club Journals by logging into the site.
Browse the Journal Library here
Meetstaff library:
A less formal quarterly “magazine” with Meet Reports, the Upcoming Meets Programme and Notices from the Club President & Officers is published under the title of Meetstaff (originally called Quarterstaff, the name changed when the strict quarterly publishing changed to a more relaxed 3 or 4 issues per year). Currently, the archive contains Meetstaff published in the last 20 years but this will increase as more issues are digitised and added.
Browse the Meetstaff Library here
Other archives:
Additional archives are to be added as more material is digitised. It is intended to add material of interest to Members and the wider public such as Photographs, Hut logbooks, Committee material etc. Currently in the “Other Archives” are:
- Hut Log Books. These contain very personal hand written accounts of exploits by Members and Club Guests from The Rucksack Club’s huts covering some 100 years. Currently there are log books from the Club’s Welsh huts from 1926 to 2022.
- “On the hill with…” interviews with notable Club members collated into a number of volumes.
- The digital archive of the Anabasis Mountaineering Club which was formed in 1961 and disolved 60 years later. It’s members transferred to The Rucksack Club and so the digital records of the Anabasis Club are hosted here and are avialable to browse or download.
- Members documents. This contains material only available to logged-in members.