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
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 this episode, recorded as an audio file in April 2007, Harish interviews the renowned Japanese explorer Tamotsu Nakamura. Tamotsu shares a potted history of Japanese alpinism, before going on to discuss his travels, with a particular focus on his time in Tibet.
In this sixth episode, recorded in February 2013, Harish interviews former Alpine Club president Tony Streather. The pair discuss Streather's army career, his famous first ascent of Tirich Mir (with no prior mountaineering experience), the 1955 first ascent of Kangchenjunga, the 1957 epic on Haramosh and his leadership of the 1976 British and Nepalese Army Expedition to Everest which successfully put two British climbers on the summit.
Episode 5 in this series is an interview with Devidutta Panda, a mountaineer and Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force. Harish and Devidutta discuss Wing Commander Panda's Air Force expeditions (including some first ascents in the Himalaya), his work for the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and some of his other climbs around the world.
For small sections of the recording, including the close, the video briefly drops out. There is also one short segment where the audio is less clear. We apologise for any inconvenience these issues may cause to your viewing experience.
This interview, conducted in February 2020, features Yangdu Goba and, for some of the time, her husband.
Yangdu is the daughter of Nawang Gombu, the first person in history to climb Everest more than once. Yangdu discusses her father, his passion for education, his concerns regarding commercialisation in the mountains and her family's role in the mountaineering industry. The interview also covers her youth in Darjeeling and her own expedition experiences.
For a small portion of the recording, the video is lost, but the audio continues. Please forgive the inconvenience. The video does return after a few minutes.
This interview, conducted in August 2022, features Masato Oki who, over two separate recording sessions, discusses his expedition experiences and Japanese alpinism at large.
The second interview we are releasing from the Kapadia Interviews Archive features British mountaineer Stephen Venables and was conducted in February 2012. Among many other topics, Harish and Stephen discuss Stephen's youth in the UK, his early expeditions to Afghanistan and his famous ascent of Everest's Kangshung Face.
In a wide-ranging interview, conducted in March 2008, Sir Chris discusses his personal journey into climbing, his 1970 expedition to the south face of Annapurna, the evolution in Himalayan style from siege to alpine and his experience of managing mountaineering teams in a leadership role.