The Alpine Club, the world’s first mountaineering club, was founded in 1857.  For over 150 years, members have been at the leading edge of worldwide mountaineering development and exploration. 

With membership, experienced and aspiring alpinists benefit from a varied meets programme, regional lectures with notable guest speakers, reduced rates at many alpine huts, opportunity to apply for grants to support expeditions, significant discounts at many UK retailers, extensive networking contacts, access to the AC Library and maps - and more! 

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Expeditions

The Alpine Club, the world's first mountaineering club, has members from around the world. Since it was founded in 1857, members have been at the leading edge of worldwide mountaineering development and exploration. We aim to be the club of choice for all mountaineers, providing a forum for sharing experiences and information.

Alpine Club members are constantly researching, organising and participating in expeditions to mountains around the world, so it will come as no surprise to find that amongst our members there is a massive wealth of knowledge about remote areas and expedition organisation. The Alpine Club provides a number of resources that will be useful for those planning or researching expeditions. This page provides links to these resources, and to other sites that are invaluable to expedition planners.

The Alpine Journal is a substantial annual record of mountaineering achievement, if you are planning an expedition it should be on your reading list.

Alpine Club Expeditions

The Alpine Club organises annual expeditions, which are often to remote and little-known mountain areas. These expeditions are open to all members, subject to qualifying criteria and numbers. They can be subsidised by the Montane Alpine Club Climbing Fund. This fund also supports expeditions privately organised by club members. .

Read more about Expedition Reports

The Himalayan Index is a key resource, it has been compiled from journals, magazines and books in the Alpine Club Library

Many expeditions will have been awarded Mount Everest Foundation grants and provided reports. There are some details on the MEF website but the MEF does not hold actual copies. These are distributed to the AC and the organisations listed below (but not the Kew archives).

Royal Geographical Society

The RGS holds copies of all MEF reports as well as many others. Searching is very straightforward and summaries are provided. Reports cover the period 1965 onwards and are very comprehensive. They can be consulted by visiting the RGS library, or copies can be e-mailed.

National Archives at Kew

Not the easiest source of information. The National Archives holds many older documents deposited there from multiple sources.

British Mountaineering Council

This is still in beta form but has some impressive features. It is easy to search although not comprehensive. It includes summaries, and you can download many complete reports as PDFs. The BMC is currently the only readily available source of this information.  The AC is working towards publishng a comprehenve expeditions database which will be be available on-line in due course.

Alan Rouse Sheffield Library

Sheffield library holds a comprehensive archive of mountaineering material, including copies of MEF and other expedition reports. There is a PDF catalogue which can be searched; one of the best ways of quickly identifying peaks and leaders. At present it is up to date only to 2010.

British Koyo Zom Expedition 2019. 31 August - 10 October. Koyo Zom (6877m), Yarkhun Valley, Hindu Raj, KPK, Pakistan

Will Sim, Uisdean Hawthorn, Ally Swinton, John Crook, Tom Livingstone

Agent: Jasmine Tours

The team arrived in Islamabad on 1st September and travelled to the Yarkhun valley via Chitral, arriving at their base camp (3500m) on 6th Sept. They spent three nights acclimatising at 5040m from 9th to 12th.

Will and Uisdean were ill on the following days, so Ally, John and Tom slept at 5040m again, and then at 5880m on the ‘right hand skyline’ of Koyo Zom. This was effectively the north-west face. They returned to BC on the 18th.

On the 20th, Uisdean and Will spent another night acclimatising by sleeping around 4800m, and on the 21st, Will climbed to the summit of a 5500m peak above BC. This is believed to be the first ascent.

On the 24th, Will, John and Uisdean began climbing the left hand skyline of Koyo Zom. This was the north-east ridge. Tom and Ally also began climbing on the right hand skyline.

After four days of snow, ice and mixed climbing, Will, John and Uisdean bailed due to expected bad weather and illness. They had climbed complex ridges and their highpoint was about 6000m. They returned to BC on the 28th.

Tom and Ally spent five days climbing the north-west face, enjoying steep (at times, overhanging) mixed, ice and rock, to reach the summit of Koyo Zom (6877m) at 1pm on the 28th. They descended the east face (the line of ascent in ’68 by Austrians (the first ascent of Koyo Zom) and Brits in ’77(?)). On the 29th, whilst walking down the Pechus glacier back to BC, Ally fell in a crevasse and sustained injuries to his head and leg. Tom and Ally were rescued by Pakistani Army helicopters on the following day (30th September).

The team reunited in Islamabad on the 2nd October.