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.

Mount Logan, the second highest peak in North America, a ski ascent. 

 

 
By Cathy O’Dowd 
 
Mount Logan, the second highest peak in North America, sits hidden from the sight of tourists on the Alaska / Yukon border. Where Denali now gets well over 1000 climbers a year, Logan attracts less than a hundred.
 
It is also notorious for high winds, very cold temperatures, and climbers getting trapped on the eight mile long plateau which sits at 5000 metres. It sounded like a fine objective for an Eagle Ski Club - Alpine Club undertaking.
 
Six of us went over, taking skis and sleds, flying in to the glacier below in a tiny wheel/ski plane. Our route - the Kings Trench - is as prosaic as it sounds, a long snow ramp hemmed in by high ridges, the only reasonably easy access to the plateau. Given the distance and the height gain - over 3200 meters, we had to move double loads. Skiing back down between carries provided some surprisingly good turns.
 
The only technical challenge is an icefall just above Kings Col at 4100 meters. An heavy snow winter provided good crevasse cover and allowed for a fairly easy passage. On the steeper ground above, the sleds hung behind us like sulky deadweights, sliding sideways on every zig-zag. Our reward was the opening of the view, across the broad Seward glacier to the picturesque Mount Saint Elias and the Pacific ocean beyond.
 
We hired a Delorme Inreach (satellite 2-way text device) from the Alpine Club and powered it with Goal Zero solar panels. We were getting custom weather reports from a meteo professional in Vancouver. 
 
Three other teams gave up while we hung on at camp 4, at 5300 meters, waiting for a weather window that never came. Finally two of us, sick of cold and altitude, decided to descend. The other four pushed on, making use of a slender gap of better weather to enter the notorious plateau.
 
The next morning we were racing the weather to the summit, racing very slowly. The winds rose as we shuffled our way higher. By the time we swopped to crampons, the mist had enveloped us. The final lump of snow at 5959 meters was a frustrating summit, without views, too cold to stay long - a poor recompense for the many days of work. 
 
Once back on skis, we found the cloud had swallowed up all signs of our track, the slope, and the mountain. Progress slowed to a wobbly snow-plough, the GPS used to work out a bearing, the compass to follow that bearing. The hard-edge, ice-topped sastrugi, undetectable in the greyness, caught at ski edges poorly controlled by thighs shaking with fatigue. We collapsed into our tent nearly twelve hours after we left, exhausted but elated - we’d done it!
 
Team: Phil Jardine (leader), Chris Allan. Summit team: Matt Horlor, Iona Pawson, David Williams, Cathy O’Dowd
Dates: 8 to 27 May 2016