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! 

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With the series of weather fronts since the start of September, it has been difficult to find a good weather window for the high mountains.


In the last two days about 30cms of snow has fallen at 3500m, with some drifting due to the strong winds. The rocks are plastered, but routes like Cosmiques Ridge or the Aiguilles Marbrées traverse remain feasible.
There is fresh snow down to 2100m and some paths are affected, notably on the multi-day tours, (Aiguilles Rouges, Tour du Mont Blanc...). To remain safe, mountain boots and hiking poles are essential.

The bad conditions, plus the fact that most of the lifts will soon be closed, means some of the huts might bring forward their closure dates.  Check with the hut before leaving the valley.   On a separate topic, be aware that there are unstable blocks on the routes at the “Le Spa”,(Fayet)  dry tooling site.

Several paths in the Chamonix valley are closed for works, details available on the Chamoniarde site.
The Mont Blanc Tramway is closed and you are reminded that it is forbidden to follow the tracks when accessing  the huts on the normal route up Mont Blanc.

There are plenty of options for climbing on the valley crags during the dry spells.