YRC members enjoy a wide variety of outdoor activities both on Club meets and outside of the formal meets programme. These include:
- Hillwalking
- Trekking and backpacking
- Scrambling
- Via ferrata
- Climbing
- Mountaineering
- Ski-touring and ski mountaineering
- Snowshoeing
- Caving and potholing
- Mountain biking
The following will give you some idea of what you could get involved in, particularly on our meets.
Hillwalking
Mountain walks are undertaken in small parties throughout the year and in all weathers. One individual may navigate the route but members often take informal turns in route finding. The Club has some expert navigators and a number of GPS/digital mapping enthusiasts, so there are opportunities to polish or develop skills in these areas. You can read many mountain walking accounts in the Meets Reports pages.
The YRC organises one Long Walk meet a year where members can test their fitness, endurance and navigation skills in a leg-stretching hike. Recent routes have included a longer 55 km variant of the Ullswater Way, a 36km round of the Mountains of the Mourne in Northern Ireland and a traverse of the 103 km St Cuthbert’s Way over two days. Shorter routes and drop-out points are always included in the meet planning.
Trekking and Backpacking
These are catered for on overseas meets and we have recently arranged trekking meets in Ladakh, Dolpo and Eastern Nepal, Morocco and Bulgaria. The Club has built up close ties over 25 years of exploring with Rimo Expeditions run by Motup and Yangdu Goba, India’s foremost organiser of Himalayan treks and expeditions. Backpacking has been undertaken as part of meets to the US Sierra Nevada and Wind River Range in Wyoming.
Scrambling
Where scrambling routes are available, there is usually at least one YRC party engaged on taking a more interesting hands-on route to a summit. A rope will be taken if it is possible it will be needed. A number of interesting and lengthy scrambles were completed during a recent Moroccan Anti-Atlas meet based in Tafraout to complement the mountain walks and trad rock climbs.
Via Ferrata
Overseas, via ferrata (cable protected and aided climbs) are increasingly being put up and are popular amongst our scramblers and climbers alike. We recently organised a very enjoyable two week meet in the Italian Dolomites – the home of via ferrata.
Climbing
Climbers in the Club enjoy the full spectrum of climbing activities throughout the year: trad rock climbing, sport climbs, indoor climbing and ice climbing. Our sun-rock meets to the Costa Brava and El Chorro in southern Spain for example, have been very popular with climbers and walkers alike.
Mountaineering
The YRC winter mountaineering meets in the Lakes, Wales and Scotland are well-attended. Routes of varying degrees of difficulty are undertaken by small groups of members depending on the weather and snow conditions. Summer mountaineering meets to the Alps and other mountain areas are also organised. You can read many mountaineering accounts in the Meets Reports and Overseas Meet Reports pages.
Ski-Touring and Ski-Mountaineering
The Club has a number of cross-country ski enthusiasts and has recently organised several hut-to-hut ski tours in Norway, most recently on the Rondane meet and pulking trips in Svalbard.
Snowshoeing
The first YRC meet to use snowshoes in anger was in Iceland. More recently a meet was held in the Franco-Swiss Jura mountains where a week of single day routes with ridge traverses and summits were undertaken by members, many using snowshoes for the first time.
Caving and Potholing
The Club has its traditions rooted in new cave exploration in the Yorkshire Dales. In recent years this interest has been taken abroad by the club’s cavers who have made substantial new finds in China. Sporting trips down caves and mines in the UK are regularly undertaken.
Mountain Biking
The YRC has members who also cycle and mountain bikes are not an unusual sight on club meets. A few members completed the famous Sella Ronda circuit on the recent Dolomites meet.