2025 AC Photo Competition

The Alpine Club is excited to announce a Members’  Photo Competition, culminating with a special exhibition of the best submitted works at our Charlotte Road exhibition space. The competition is open to all Alpine Club members.

^{Michael de Csilléry traversing pinnacles on the South Ridge integral of the Aiguille du Moine, Chamonix, July 2021}
_{Tom de Csilléry, AC 2022-23 Photo Competition}

Members can submit up to two images per category across three categories. Images that have been entered into other, non-AC competitions will be accepted and any image taken since 1 January 2024 will be eligible for entry.

The closing date for submissions is the 30 April 2025, with the winners expected to be announced by the beginning of July 2025. Entries should be submitted, in the format detailed in the 'Rules' section, via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Club will reproduce the winning entries as high-quality framed prints for display at a celebratory exhibition scheduled to take place in November – December 2025. By way of a prize, these prints will subsequently become the property of the winning photographers.

A selection of the winning entries will also become part of an AC Calendar for 2026. By submitting a photograph to the competition, you are consenting to its use in the exhibition and calendar, but you will retain your copyright over the image.

The three categories and competition rules are below. Good luck!

^{Cold Camp -} 
_{Neil Pitts, AC 2022-23 Photo Competition}

Categories

1. Alpine Climbing/Mountaineering – Colour photos of alpine climbing/mountaineering from Scotland to the Greater Ranges.

2. Mountain Landscape – Colour photos of mountain landscapes from any part of the world.

3. AC Gatherings – Colour photos of AC members getting together on meets, at the AC HQ , at a base camp or an alpine camp – i.e. a shot that captures members in their environment.

^{Back in the jeep after a shop and a shave. Gilgit Balitstan, Pakistan. (Selfie). Yawash Sar I-IV Expedition 2022}
_{Photo:  Nicholas Hurndall Smith, AC 2022-23 Photo Competition}

Rules

a. The competition is open to all members – Full, Aspirant or Associate, either professional or amateur photographer.

b. Members may submit up to two digital images per category via email to the Alpine Club at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. not later than the 30 April 2025.

c. The images must be contemporary; i.e. taken since 1 January 2024.

d. Images must be submitted in digital format: they may have been scanned from film or transparency stock, or taken with a digital camera or mobile phone.

e. Photoshopped images will be accepted and will not count against photographers in judging. However, where technology has been used to radically and creatively alter an image, this should be noted in your submission.

f. The member submitting the images must be the author and the owner of the copyright.

g. Entries that have been previously published or entered in other competitions will be accepted, but members need to say when and where the entries appeared when making their submission.

h. The digital images can be in either Portrait (vertical) or Landscape (horizontal) format. However, any Portrait format images that win cannot be used for the AC Calendar as that format is unsuitable for use in a wall calendar.

i. The images must be in their final format as defined in these rules. The Competition Secretary will not perform any manipulations, resizing or other alterations to the presented images, other than to place all the entries into a single competition folder for forwarding to the competition’s judge, Ben Tibbetts.
j. The images should be submitted as flattened 8-bit RGB files in the highest quality JPEG - .jpg files. Images in other formats such as PSD will be rejected. Images will need a minimum resolution of 300dpi so that they can be successfully reproduced as prints and used for the calendar.

k. For each image, please include a short caption that details the ‘What, Where and When’ of the photo in question. All image files are to be named in the style: Competition Category, Image Number, Image Title, Location.

l. You may not enter an image previously submitted for an Alpine Club Photo Competition, or one so similar as to be almost identical, irrespective of the title.

m. There are prizes for the winners. Up to six pictures will be chosen from each category for exhibition and the resulting print(s) will be retained by the member who entered the competition. Winners will also receive a copy of the AC Calendar.

n. The Judge’s decision will be final. No discussion will be entered into.

2025 Rick Allen Skills Award: APPLICATIONS OPEN

The Rick Allen Skills Award (RASA) is now accepting applications for the 2025 programme.

Established in 2024 with funding from a generous bequest left to the Club by former vice-president Rick Allen, the RASA is designed to help competent young alpinists to progress to longer and more challenging multi-day routes in the Alps and Greater Ranges.

Over seven days, course attendees will climb with guides in a 2:1 climber to guide ratio and complete at least one bivouac. The emphasis of the instruction will be on helping climbers to develop the independent decision-making skills that will allow them to progress to more adventurous and committing routes.

The instruction is subsidised, with the AC covering 75% of the cost. The course also includes a training weekend in the Lake District which applicants should ensure they are able to attend.

Applications are open to established teams of two climbers, of comparable ability and fitness, both of whom are full members of the Alpine Club. Applicants should be in the process of developing competence on alpine routes of AD+, and multi-pitch rock routes of VS/HVS, and have a resumé which reflects this.

Applications will close on 21 March 2025.

You can learn more about the course, including how to submit your application, via the Rick Allen Skills Award Page.

2025 Alpine Club Calendar Goes on Sale

The Alpine Club’s calendar for 2025 brings together a selection of stunning mountain paintings from our collections. The calendar includes works by the likes of ET Compton, Edward Whymper and John Ruskin depicting iconic peaks such as the Aiguille Verte and the Matterhorn.

Alongside key celebrations and holidays, the calendar also lists iconic dates in mountaineering history, allowing you to mark some of alpinism's most important achievements.

The calendar is on sale now via our web shop for the price of £16 (including UK postage and packing). 

It can also be purchased in person at Charlotte Road lecture evenings or by sending a cheque for the correct amount, made payable to 'Alpine Club', to Office Manager, Alpine Club, 55 Charlotte Road, London, EC2A 3QF.

 

 

 

 

Mathews Unveiled

On 6 July 2024 AC members gathered in Chamonix for the unveiling of the newly restored Mathews Monument. The monument, originally dedicated to AC founder member and former Club president CE Mathews, has been relocated to a position of greater prominence near the entrance of the Couttet Park and rededicated in recognition of the enduring relationship between the town of Chamonix and the Alpine Club.

The AC's Honorary Keeper of Monuments, Charlie Burbridge takes up the story:

After four years of effort the day had finally come to unveil the relocated, restored and rededicated Mathews Monument in Chamonix. We had hoped for poor conditions in the mountains and a patch of sun over the Couttets to encourage a crowd. We were blessed instead by biblical quantities of rain. I'm pleased to report that this did little to dampen the enthusiasm of those who attended to witness our President and the Mayor of Chamonix remove the covers on the new signs next to the wonderfully restored monument.

^{AC President Simon Richardson, Claude Marin and AC Keeper of Monuments Charlie Burbridge stand
with the new bilingual monument information boards}

The Mayor, in good mountaineering tradition, had prepared a wet weather plan and we decanted to the town hall for drinks. Representatives of Chamonix, the Chamonix Guides, the British Mountain Guides and the Alpine Club gathered to listen to a fine speech by the Mayor followed by a response from AC President Simon Richardson.

The monument represents a great deal for the AC, Chamonix and British climbers generally. It is a testament to Charles Mathews' humility that he would be the last person to whom he thought a monument should be raised. I hope he would be pleased to see it resurrected in recognition of the fraternity so aptly described in its inscription:

"Mountain Lovers
To a mountain lover
The members of the alpine fraternity
To one of its members
The brother to one of those who
Assisted the founder
Friends to a very sure friend
He went away, wept by all"

The information signs are lovely. They describe succinctly the genesis of the monument and have a picture of Mathews which has caused some onlookers to describe him as 'smoulderingly handsome'. 

^{The monument in its new site - Photo: Town of Chamonix}

It is interesting to see the vast amount of work that has been completed on the new Couttets hotel complex and to realise how the monument could so easily have been lost forever in the renovations. Instead, it may stand for several more hundred years to represent the enduring affection with which British climbers hold this magnificent range of mountains and the town and people of Chamonix.

Finally, and most importantly, we should acknowledge the tireless work and determination of Claire Burnett and Claude Marin without whom none of this would have been possible.