Club News

Club News

2023 AGM & Annual Dinner

Date: Saturday 25 November 2023

By popular request of members, we are returning to The Castle Green Hotel, Kendal, LA9 6RG. The hotel is 2.75 miles from Oxenholme station.

The order of events is:

15:00  AGM in the Kendal Suite.

16:30 - 17:30  Presentations on the 2023 Photograph competition and on the Development of the Aspirants’ Meet 2015 – 2023.

18:30  Cash bar open in the Function Suite (where the dinner is taking place. Cumbria's finest real ales will be available.

19:30  Dinner.

 

Our principal guest at the dinner is Fay Manners who is one of Britain's finest young alpinists. In 2022 she made the first female ascent of the Phantom Direct route on the south face of the Grandes Jorasses. Fay has climbed the North Face of the Eiger, American Direct of the Dru and the Walker Spur, and this year climbed difficult new routes in Norway, the Karakorum and Greenland.

 

Fay climbing in Pakistan's Trango Group - Photo: Hermanos Pou

 

Tickets for the three course dinner are £40.00 per person, reduced to £25.00 for those under the age of 40 on the date of the dinner.

I have been able to negotiate favourable B&B room rates as follows: £145 for a double/twin room for one night, and £245 for two nights. £115 for a single room for one night, £210 for two nights.  These discounted rates will be held until the end of October, so you are encouraged to book soon. Call 01539 734000 and quote Alpine Club.

Members can now buy dinner tickets for themselves and their guests, and book bunkhouse accommodation, paying in either of the following ways:

  • By cheque, made payable to Alpine Club, and sent in the post to the Honorary Secretary at 55 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3QF

  • Or online by logging into the AC website, navigating to the 'Events' tab and selecting 'AGM & Dinner Booking' from the drop-down menu.

When applying for tickets, please specify any dietary requirements.

Tickets will be posted to members in the two weeks before the event. 

Further details of the event will be circulated in due course on the website, in our next Newsletter and by Alpinet.

 

- William Newsom, Dinner Organiser

 

 

 

2023 Boardman Tasker Award Shortlist Announced

2023 Boardman Tasker Award Shortlist Announced

The judges of the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature have announced the shortlist for this year's competition.

© Boardman Tasker Charitable Trust

The shortlisted titles are: Sherpa by Pradeep Bashyal and Ankit Babu Adhikari, Unraveled by Katie Brown, The Hidden Fires by Merryn Glover, British Mountaineers by Faye Latham and Closer to the Edge by Alpine Club member Leo Houlding.

The Boardman Tasker Award, now in its 40th year, was set up in memory of Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker who were tragically lost while climbing on the north east ridge of Mount Everest in 1982. It continues its efforts to pomote mountain literature through this annual award and associated monetary prize. 

The winner(s) will be announced on 17 November as part of an event with the shortlisted authors at Kendal Mountain Festival.

 

 

 

Alpine Club Statement on the Death of Mohammad Hassan

Alpine Club Statement on the Death of Mohammad Hassan

Recent events on K2 have prompted several members to contact the Club to express their concern at the fate of Mohammad Hassan, a Pakistani high-altitude porter who died high on the mountain in late July.

While the circumstances of Mohammad’s death are still not wholly clear, the Club wants to express its condolences to Mohammad’s family and its concern to the Pakistani authorities at how K2 is being managed. From what we do know, it seems clear that Mohammad was ill-equipped for such an environment and that no serious rescue attempt was made, with many climbers continuing to the summit while Mohammad remained in a perilous position.

It can never be right that a local porter should be abandoned in this way if something could be done and there are vital questions to be answered about how this situation could be allowed to occur.

We share the concerns of those in the guiding world who have expressed their alarm at what happened on K2 and await with interest the promised enquiry from the Pakistani authorities.

 

 

 

Simon Richardson Accepts 2023 Pelmo d'Oro Award on Behalf of the Alpine Club

Simon Richardson Accepts 2023 Pelmo d'Oro Award on Behalf of the Alpine Club

On 29 July 2023, Alpine Club president Simon Richardson was in the Provincia di Belluno, Italy to accept the 2023 Pelmo d'Oro Award on behalf of the Alpine Club.

The Club was nominated for the award by the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site to mark the link between the region and the first president of the Alpine Club, John Ball, who made the first ascent of Monte Pelmo in 1857.

In a speech during the ceremony, Simon commented that Ball had chosen to climb the mountain because he considered it to be the most beautiful of all of the peaks in the Dolomites. Having climbed the peak the day prior as part of the Pelmo d'Oro celebrations, Richardson commented that he could "only agree" with Ball's assessment.

He was also keen to highlight the link between the province, the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Alpine Club who all share the goal of protecting mountain environments for future generations to enjoy. As a symbol of this, he presented Roberto Padrin, the President of the region and Vice-President of the Dolomites Unesco World Heritage Site with a print of an Elijah Walton painting of Monte Pemo. Walton was a friend of John Ball and the the print was produced from an original painting from the Alpine Club's collection.

               

The Alpine Club would like to thank the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site for the award and the Club Alpino Italiano and Provincia di Belluno for their hospitality. We hope that this event will rekindle a strong and lasting relationship between all four organisations.