As The Mountain Club celebrates its 70th anniversary, the back catalogue of magazines, reports and historical materials is being added to the club website for all to read.
Please take a look at the ARCHIVES and ADDITIONAL STORIES as they become available – we already have some journals and stories published. Over the coming months, we hope to be able to upload most of the available materials. Try these as a taster:
The range of documents and images will give a powerful insight into how the club has developed over its 70-year history.
Moving forward, we can record the club's activities by publishing The Mountain Club newsletters and meet and trip reports on this website to secure our history.
The Mountain Club Journal
In 1952, when The Mountain Club was set up, the founder members were a disparate group of ramblers, cavers and folk music enthusiasts who worked in Stafford. Rationing had only just ended after the war, and money was tight so sharing a charabanc to Snowdonia was as exotic as it came for club members.
There was no social media, so members began to produce a magazine recording the club's exploits.
The club found an abandoned old mine building in the Aran mountains of mid-Wales and began rebuilding it into what we now know as Bryn Hafod, our much-beloved base in the hills.
By the early 1970s, members were active on every continent, from hard climbing in the Alps to an overland expedition exploring the Hindu Kush in Pakistan.
In the magazine's last edition in 1986, there are accounts of climbing at the Roaches, a wet weekend in the Peak District, some serious stuff in the Alps and even a poem by Wendy Goulstone. The magazine recorded it all.
The club archive includes photographic and film records from 'the hut' created by members over the years.