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!
Harish Kapaida is a renowned Himalayan mountaineer and author. He has written extensively on the Himalayas as well as being an Editor of the Himalayan Journal. In 2023, along with a substantial collection of images, Harish donated an archive of video interviews to the Alpine Club Library. These interviews, which feature notable figures from the world of mountaineering, will be released weekly on the Alpine Club YouTube channel from December 2023 onwards and will also be available to browse via this page.
In our 25th episode, Harish talks with legendary British mountaineer and former Alpine Club president Doug Scott. The pair discuss many of Scott's expeditions to the greater ranges, starting all the way back in the 1960s with a trip to the Hindu Kush and including his unplanned bivouac on Everest which Scott insists was "No problem for a man from Nottingham". They also cover Scott's mountaineering philosophy, his work with Community Action Nepal and the enormous mental benefits he felt he gained from mountaineering.
For this audio-only recording, Harish sits down with Japanese mountaineer Hiroshi Sakai. They discuss the 2002 Indo-Japanese East Karakoram Expedition alongside Sakai's other expeditions, his experiences climbing in the Alps and his family life.
The image of Nanga Parbat used to illustrate the video was taken by Daniel Martin and is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license. The image has not been altered from the original, but it has had a waveform placed on top of it for the video.
In this audio-only recording from 11 April 2007, Harish sits down with Japanese mountaineer and fellow Himalayan Club member Yuichi Matsuda. The pair discuss Matsuda San's early experiences of hill walking during the Second World War, his various expeditions to the likes of Manaslu, Himalchuli (pictured) and Everest, and how he met his wife through the Japanese Alpine Club.
Here, Harish speaks with journalist and mountaineer Manik Banerjee. They discuss Mr Banerjee's introduction to mountaineering, his family life and his various expedition experiences.
Harish interviews one of the most important figures in Indian mountaineering, Jagdish Nanavati (1928-2011).
In Part 1, the pair discuss Jagdish's early experiences of the mountains, his first expeditions, his involvement with the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and the associated Climbers Club as well as his work dealing with controversial summit claims in the Indian Himalaya.
In Part 2, they move on to discuss Jagdish's work ratifying summit claims from Himalayan expeditions and his memories of key developments in the Himalayan Club.
In episode 19, recorded in February 2008, Harish interviews Indian bureaucrat, politician and writer Manohar Singh Gill. The pair discuss Gill's youth, his work in the Indian Administrative Service, his enduring love of the mountains and his work as a writer.
In 2007, Harish interviewed renowned Japanese mountaineer Yoshio Ogata. In this audio-only interview, the pair discussed Ogata san's numerous expeditions to the Himalaya, his infamous ascent of Himalchuli, which saw him temporarily banned from Nepal, and his family life.
In October 2010, Harish interviewed writer, artist, filmmaker and general "renaissance man of climbing" Jim Curran. They discuss Jim's early life, his discovery of filmmaking and the many expeditions in which he participated and/or documented. These include trips to the Trango Tower, Everest and K2. Jim also reflects on his memories of key mountaineering figures such as Chris Bonington (who he gently teases for his tendency to misplace things), Paul Nunn and Al Rouse, whose death on K2 is also discussed in this interview.
In this episode, recorded on 17 February 2008, Braham discusses his early life in the UK and India, his first trip to the Himalaya and his numerous expeditions over the course of several decades, including the famous 1954 Kangchenjunga reconnaissance which helped pave the way for the 1955 ascent. He also discusses his personal life and his work as an author.
In this episode, recorded in February 2015, Harish talks with Lindsay Griffin, a man sometimes jokingly referred to as "world mountaineering's brain" because of his encyclopaedic knowledge of mountain history.
They discuss Lindsay's first experiences of climbing, his early expeditions and trips to the Alps and his infamous epic in Mongolia. The start of the Mongolian story was sadly not recorded. Lindsay's leg became trapped under a boulder while descending a remote peak. His teammates managed to extricate him from the boulder, but getting him back to civilisation was still a significant challenge, as Lindsay explains. You can hear one of the rescuer's (Julian Freeman-Attwood) side of the same story here.
