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.
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
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.
Events Calendar
To Sunday 03 March 2024
This is a very popular weekend meet for winter climbers and mountaineers based at two venues just south of Fort William.
The majority of members and their guests generally plan to enjoy the wealth of winter climbs to be found on Ben Nevis, in Glen Coe, and in other areas accessible from the accommodation. The grade range of those attending varies, with the majority happy in the Grade II to V bracket. Some may prefer easier routes of a mountaineering flavour, but these require the same basic skill sets and minimal requirements as set out below. In suitable conditions, some people may choose to ski mountaineer, but primarily this is a climbing meet.
Photo by Charles Stupart
Accommodation
The two venues, the Corran Bunkhouse (£30pppn) and the Alex MacIntyre hut (£20pppn) are approximately 2.5 miles apart. In total 30 places are available. The accommodation is self-catering.
Competency Requirements
In order to attend, attendees must meet all the competency requirements. This is not a meet for beginners or walkers (although conditions may dictate that a walk is a better idea).
Aspirants and Full members who meet all the competency requirements are very welcome to attend.
You should therefore be able to demonstrate a solid winter mountaineering CV, that shows that you have both the necessary technical climbing skills, but all of the other skills necessary to climb in Scotland during the winter under good or bad conditions with safety and responsibility. In reality, this experience will therefore have been built up over a number of winter seasons and over multiple days during those seasons.
Allocation of places
The majority of places will be retained for those applying as part of a climbing team.
A number of places have been reserved for those applying without a partner. These will be released once the process of matching up with a partner has been completed. The aim is to complete this before the 31 December 2023, if not earlier.
What next
If you are interested in attending, please contact the Meet Co-ordinator, who will forward the meet information sheet. Amongst other things, this will detail information regarding the competency requirements as well as more information for those applying as a single and looking for a partner.
In recent years this meet has been extremely popular and despite increasing the number of places available, the meet continues to be oversubscribed. Please note that payment is therefore required to secure a place.
Meet Coordinator: Charles Stupart - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
