Most of our Members joined to share the companionship of like-minded individuals in enjoying many aspects of the outdoors at home and abroad, and as a result many have developed life-long friendships; see Activities and the Meets Calendar for more information on our diverse range of interests and future opportunities to engage with Club members. Members get an annual printed copy of the YRC Journal and a Club Handbook.
Members also benefit from use of the Club’s two properties in the Dales and Lake District, access to a range of Reciprocal Rights huts operated by our kindred clubs at preferential reciprocal rights rates, other BMC-affiliated clubs’ huts, and the three BMC – Mountaineering Scotland national huts.
Members may also borrow items from the extensive Club library of mountaineering, walking, caving and other outdoor books and journals, expedition accounts, guides, manuals and maps etc. housed at our Lowstern hut.
The Club is affiliated to the British Mountaineering Council and Members benefit from various services including numerous training courses and discounts of up to 15% at a wide range of outdoor shops nationwide and a wide range of other benefits. This includes free access to the BMC Summit Magazine magazine via the Summit app.
As a Club Member of the BMC, you are also covered by the Clubs’ Combined Liability Insurance. This protects you from negligence claims for injury, financial loss or damage to property, arising from the club’s activities and for individual Club Members when they are participating in mountaineering activities, whether on a club event or individually anywhere in the world other than the USA and Canada.
If you are a member of multiple BMC clubs you can claim a refund of your BMC Club Membership fee.
You are also able to upgrade to full membership of the BMC at a reduced rate for additional benefits, such as Personal Accident insurance and all copies of Summit magazine.
Additional insurance cover for personal accident, travel and medical expenses can be arranged through the BMC at member’s rates.
The Club is also affiliated to the British Caving Association which fulfils for caving and potholing what the BMC does for mountaineering and fell walking, and is recognised by the UK Sports Council as the governing body for caving in Great Britain. It is a federation of Regional Caving Councils, national bodies with specialist interests, caving clubs and individual members. For many years the YRC has also been a member of the Council of Northern Caving Clubs (CNCC), one of the main functions of which has been to negotiate agreements with landowners to permit access by caving clubs to caves on private land. In particular, it organises permits to control access by cavers to the Leck Fell area, which includes the Easegill system, the longest system of cave passages in the UK. The CNCC is now subsumed into the BCA structure.
As a Member of the BCA, the Club also becomes a member of the British Cave Research Association (BCRA), which is a charitable organisation aimed at promoting the study of caves and karst by encouraging the exploration of caves both in the UK and overseas.
Like the BMC, the BCA also operates a Public Liability (PL) scheme. However, unlike the situation with the BMC, PL cover is not a compulsory component of BCA Group Membership and at present the YRC has opted out of this. Visit their websites to find out more about the BCA and BCRA and CNCC.
For more information about joining the YRC and to receive an a Application Form for Prospective Membership please contact the Membership Secetary.