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
Malcolm Bass and Guy Buckingham have just made the first ascent of the beautiful NW Ridge of Gangstang in the Himachal Pradesh Himalaya. They reached the summit on the 9th June and descended to base camp the next day completing a five day round trip.
Alpine Club members Ben Silvestre, Pete Graham and Will Harris have recently left the Central Alaska range. After encountering dangerous snow conditions on the little-visited Thunder glacier they flew to Denali base camp on the Kahiltna glacier. After acclimatising to 5200m on Denali's West Buttress they made the first British ascent of the Infinite Spur on Mount Foraker in a five and a half day round trip. They found mixed conditions on the 2800m high route, with time consuming snow low down on the route and technical cruxes up to scottish grade VI. After summitting late on May 28th they spend a day and a half descending the Sultana ridge, with their rare window of good weather coming to and end as they descended Mount Crosson in typically Scottish conditions.
News from Andrew Houseman on his attempt with Jon Griffith on the north spur of Chamlang (7319m) in Nepal supported by the Montane Alpine Club Climbing Fund. But not a totally wasted trip for Jon and Andy: their acclimatisation was an ascent of Ama Dablam.
By Andy: Chamlang wasn't to be this year. Even the initial easy snow slopes were going to be difficult to access as Jon found out here on the first of only two pitches we climbed. Looking across from Ama Dablam we knew the route wasn't in the conditions we need, the whole Everest region was exceptional dry this spring. All we found was loose rotten rock and not a single bit of usable névé. The climbing was going to be too slow and the thought of dangerous, loose rotten rock for pitch after pitch once/if we got into the meat of the route higher up wasn't exactly motivating or what we were after. Back in base camp later that day as the usual afternoon snow started and the sounds of thunder echoed around the valley we were pretty relived we'd bailed rather than carrying on higher just to have a look like we'd briefly contemplated.
Expedition: Nov 2015 Khumbu Valley - supported by Climbing Fund
Jon Gupta and Will Harris have recently returned from a five week trip to Nepal’s Khumbu Valley. After acclimatising on Lobuche East they unsuccessfully attempted new routes on Kangshung (6061m) and Kyajo Ri (6186m).