Here is the December Newsletter.
Contents
- President’s Message
- Membership Update
- Tony Penny’s Ashes
- Huts News
- 2024 AGM
- 2025 Handbook
- 2025 Meets Programme
- Information about Corsica
- OS Mapping for Huts and Meets Pages
- Next Committee Meeting
President’s Message
By way of introduction, especially for those who don’t know me, I’ve been around the YRC for quite some time. My journey with the Club began at the annual dinner in 1976 at the Cairn Hotel in Harrogate, where the illustrious Peter Boardman was the guest speaker. Fresh from his success on the South-West face of Everest, his inspiring delivery made a lasting impression. The following day, the no less legendary Alan Linford took me caving in Sleets Gill and Dowkabottom Cave. While Alan might not remember that trip, the whole weekend left an indelible mark on me. Despite my initial doubts about having the credentials to join YRC, numerous visits to the old Lowstern, a couple of meets, and marrying a Yorkshire girl eventually got me in!
Now, here I am as your newly installed President and honoured to take up the challenge. Reflecting on the past year, club members have been as active as ever. The meets program was brimming with variety, featuring activities from less demanding ventures in the Yorkshire Dales to scaling the dizzying heights of the Cordillera Real in Bolivia. Special mention goes to Wendy and Steve Richards, Michael, Richard and Fiona Smith who summited peaks over 6,000m. Personally, one meet that stood out was our visit to Elphin in the Scottish NW Highlands. I had always wanted to climb the iconic Suilven, and with favourable weather and good company, I finally got round to it.
Outside of organised meets many individual members have been active overseas, noteworthy mentions include Fiona Smith summiting Mera Peak in Nepal, Imogen Campion rock climbing by the Mekong River in Laos, Mark Rothwell pushing the grades in Morocco, Michael Smith and Kjetil Tveranger crossing the Jotunheimen on skis, Mick Borroff, Peter and Jennifer Tennant climbing peaks in the French Southern Alps, Conrad Tetley and Bev Eastwood backpacking the Laugavegur trail in Iceland and Dave Williams making first descents of deep caves in Albania … and they’re just the trips I have heard about!
Speaking of caving nearer home, Curtain Pot on Fountains Fell has been one of the most significant discoveries in the Club’s recent history and I’m delighted to announce that the survey has finally been completed and thanks to the work of our Editor Michael Smith, will appear in this year’s club Journal.
At the AGM, I outlined several priorities that I and the Committee aim to address during my term as President:
- Clarifying the future of LHG: With only seven years left on the current lease, we need to initiate a timely, informal approach to the National Trust.
- Starting alterations and building work at Lowstern: Despite a few years of false starts, we are determined to find the right contractors to begin work early in 2025.
- Increasing hut usage by members outside of club meets: Acknowledging demographic barriers, we need to explore ways to boost usage. We’ve already made progress at LHG by modifying sleeping facilities, installing a wood-burning stove, and planning to refurbish the drying room in 2025. Alterations at Lowstern will hopefully encourage more use by members.
- Attracting younger members to join the YRC: Encouragingly, some existing young members are already inviting their friends to apply for PM. We hope to see many new faces at the Scottish winter meet.
- Reinvigorating caving within the club: With our rich history of exploration, I hope to initiate new exploration projects. A successful caving trip on the Xmas meet has already sparked interest.
- Addressing diversity and inclusivity: We seek to expand membership by considering these important issues.
- Encouraging members to lead meets and join the Committee: This is part of our succession planning to develop new officers to help run the club.
Finally, back to our organised meets which constitute the lifeblood of the club. The program for 2025 has been published and is available on the website. (click here). It’s a varied programme with something for everyone. We are returning to Spain and then the Alps for our overseas trips so get signed up early. For 2026, we are currently organising the meets programme, so if you have any suggestions, it’s not too late to let me or Tim Josephy know.
That’s probably enough from me for now. I look forward to seeing many of you at the meets or around our huts.
Very best wishes
Ged
Membership Update
New Members
We welcome Carol and Peter Baker as new Members.
Honorary Members from Norway
As previously mentioned, two eminent Norwegian mountaineers Knut Tønsberg and Nils Hagen were elected to Honorary Membership of the YRC at the AGM.
 Knut Tønsberg | Knut said: “I am speechless – it is undeserved. I am proud – and feel it as a great honour – and a tribute to my father and grandfather as well. My grandfather had the pleasure of knowing Wm Cecil Slingsby. My father and grandfather climbed with Eleanor Winthrop Young on the 50th anniversary of her father’s first ascent, to the top of Store Skagastølstind. This also brings to mind when I was there together with Michael Smith, 90 years later.” (Image credit Hans Eidstuen) |
 Nils Hagen | Nils message to us was: “I am honoured to be an Honorary member of Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club! My sincere thanks. It is a special honour for me since Wm. Cecil Slingsby was an outstanding member of the Club, and I have a special interest in him and his glacier work in Norway. A famous Slingsby-saying goes as follows; «Snow craft is still the highest branch of mountaineering». Slingsby, and other British mountaineers like E. B. Trotter, rediscovered the routes across Jostedalsbreen (the Jostedal glacier) used by traders and locals visiting relatives on the other side of the glacier, routes which had been forgotten for decades. Slingsby’ describes climbing down Kjenndalsbreen (the Kjendal glacier). I think this is one of the most risky glacier expeditions in Norwegian alpine history. When I was in Yorkshire last autumn and took part in your Annual Dinner, I spent a couple of days at Lowstern reading Slingsby-documents from John Snoad. Sitting there in the dining room looking out on imposing stonewalls and lots of sheep, I tried to imagine how Yorkshire was like about 1890, when your club was started and Slingsby played around on the hills. Besides glacier work I enjoy skiing. Looking out of the window this morning in Oslo I see the first thin, white layer of snow on the lawn. When December comes I usually ski from the threshold into the forest. Skiing was also my first connection to YRC. When I arrived at a small hut in the Norwegian mountains in the evening some years ago, there was a group of skiers making dinner. Guess who they were! I hope I can take part now and then in your activities.” |
A Date for your Diary
 | Tony Penny’s ashes are to be scattered down Gaping Gill on the weekend of the 5th July 2025. Lowstern is already booked and there’s going to be a barbecue open to all who knew him. More information will be available from Val Penny nearer the time. |
Huts News
Lowstern
A small gas leak around the stop valve of the drying room heater has been fixed while the gas combi boiler celebrated its first birthday with a service. There is an issue with the flue for the gas fire in the dining room which is being investigating and it should not be used at the present time. The external woodstore has been removed and its contents put in the sluice room so the ground is clear to install the concrete shed base. We have finally received one estimate for the washrooms refurbishment project, and a second contractor has just undertaken an initial site visit.
Low Hall Garth
Further excavations by NT did not find any lead piping and so an NT plumber has replaced the fittings under the kitchen sink in case these contained lead solder. The results of the Council’s annual water testing last month found a lead level well inside the regulatory control limit, so we hope this was the root cause of the problem.
2024 AGM
The draft minutes of the 2024 AGM are available to download from the website here. All the meeting papers are still available as usual on the Members’ Downloads page. The committee was asked to look at hut usage and consider to whether to widen the circle of users and look at the possibly of adding new kindred clubs to enjoy reciprocal rights might drive up usage and revenue to our benefit.
2025 Handbook
 | The 2025 Handbooks are going to be mailed out in the New Year, together with the 2024 Journal in one envelope. For PMs and those opting to have a digital Handbook (and any other members wanting a PDF version), this is now available from the Members’ Downloads page here. |
2025 Meets Programme
As previously mentioned, the meets programme for next year has been finalised after a lot of hard work by Tim Josephy our Meet Secretary and a PDF of this can be downloaded here.
Information on Corsica
David Handley has an extensive literature on Corsica available for members to borrow, so please contact him if you are thinking about taking on the challenge of the GR-20 or visiting for some shorter mountain walks.
OS Mapping for Huts and Meets Pages
We are now using Ordnance Survey mapping on the website to help hut users more easily find Lowstern and Low Hall Garth. In future all UK meets information will have OS mapping to locate our accommodation, but you will have to be logged-in to see the premium 1-50k and 1-25k mapping, and print maps. We can now upload GPX files to the website for members to download and this will be a feature of the Long Walk Meet information for example.
Next Committee Meeting
The next Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday 9th January. If there is anything you would like to bring to our attention, please contact the Secretary, Mick Borroff.
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