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! 

Becoming a Member
 

Symposia

Below is a list of Alpine Club Symposia.

Organised by members of The Alpine Club, events focus on the mountains of a particular area, or on a specific aspect of mountaineering. Each symposium runs for a whole day and is typically held at a weekend in the Lake District, North Wales or the Peak District. During the day experts on the subject, including top mountaineers from around the world, give a series of illustrated presentations, creating an event that is both informative and inspiring. Take a look at the impressive list of speakers at recent and forthcoming symposia to see why these events are so popular. The symposia are usually open to members at a discount, as well as non-members.

Symposia are particularly useful for anyone planning an expedition or looking for new places to visit. Many expeditions have started in the bar after a symposium; but be warned: these events can be dangerously inspirational!

Events Calendar

Jim Milledge: Stanhope T. Speer, Alpinist and Physician.
Tuesday 14 June 2016, 07:30pm
Contact Derek Buckle
Tuesday 14 June 2016

 

 In 1853, First Description of Mountain Sickness: Jim recently unearthed a hitherto unknown early publication on mountain sickness (MS) and has subsequently published a paper about it in the High Altitude Medicine journal. In this talk he will recount the story of Speer’s pioneering research. Speer qualified in Edinburgh, and started climbing as a student. He made the first ascent of one of the three summits of the Wetterhorn, the Mittelhorn, in 1845. He had various medical jobs, including 3 years as Prof. of Medicine in Dublin. Later he was in General Practice in Cheltenham and retired at the age of 37! In 1853, he published an excellent paper on Mountain Sickness. This was 60 years before the two papers usually regarded as the first modern descriptions of MS since Speer’s paper was unknown to Mountain Medicine at the time. In 2014, Jim found a reprint of Speer’s paper in the AC library, where it must have languished for the past 161 years!

 

Location London
55/56 Charlotte Road
London
EC2A 3QF
Uk