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
 

Exhibitions

The Club is pleased to be able to use its premises and resources, along with its renowned archive of mountaineering reports, books, art and artefacts to host and curate exhibitions that celebrate mountain history and culture. As well as spotlighting the work of contemporary artists and academics, the Club has also worked to mark key mountaineering anniversaries; bringing together records of the past to keep our history alive and engaging for climbers and the wider community alike.

Individual exhibitions may vary, but most take place at our Charlotte Road Club House.

A full list of past and upcoming exhibitions is shown below.

What Would Lucy Say?

‘What would Lucy say?’ is an exhibition which marks two key anniversaries in the history of the Alpine Club, namely the 50th Anniversary of the AC voting to admit women and the 50th Anniversary of the merger of the AC with the Ladies’ Alpine Club.

The ‘Lucy’ in question is Lucy Walker, the first woman to climb the Matterhorn who, despite this achievement and having already had, by 1870, many successful alpine seasons, could not be elected to the Alpine Club because of her gender.

The exhibition title could equally have been asked of a number of Walker’s contemporaries, women who climbed seriously in the second half of the 19th century and before the founding of the Ladies’ Alpine Club in 1907. The exhibition highlights a number of these women and their climbing achievements.

A 19th Century Edward Whymper engraving showing AC members in Zermatt - Note Lucy Walker watching on from the doorway.

It is interesting to note that there was no official Alpine Club rule against the admission of women, applications from women candidates were simply not welcomed on account of their supposed physical and moral deficiencies in the matter of mountain climbing. The exhibition places these attitudes in context, with comparisons made with other alpine clubs, organisations and societies.

The lead up to the vote, and its eventual passage, are explored, including details of the women who joined prior to the vote and the rather embarrassing tale of Tschingel, the mountain-climbing dog who was reputedly the Club’s first female member.

With the admission of women to the AC, a merger with the LAC had a sad inevitability. The exhibition deals with the history of the LAC, its founders, key members and their achievements over the lifetime of the club.


Aubrey Le Blond, founder and first president of the LAC

Sally Westmacott, the first woman to be officially admitted to the AC, shown here climbing in Iceland

The final section of the exhibition is a celebration of where we are now: the place of female AC members within the club and in the wider mountaineering community.

In curating this exhibition, as with all remembered anniversaries, we hope to prompt discussions of the past and a fresh evaluation of the present. What would Lucy say, indeed?

 

The exhibition is housed at the Alpine Club's Charlotte Road premises. It will run from 12 November 2024 to 13 February 2025 and is open to visitors from 10:00 – 16:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as on London lecture evenings.

Visitors are kindly asked to book in advance using the form below so that we can ensure the necessary level of staffing. Failure to do so may lead to you being turned away.