2024 AGM & Annual Dinner

Date: Saturday 23 November 2024

By popular request of members, we are returning to The Castle Green Hotel, Kendal, LA9 6RG. The hotel is 2.75 miles from Oxenholme station.

This year's event coincides with the 2024 Kendal Mountain Festival, allowing those members with an interest to take in a talk or film screening during the weekend.

The order of events is:

15:00  AGM in the Kendal Suite.

16:30 - 17:30  Presentations on the impending release of Denise Evans' autobiography and recent AC expeditions.

18:30  Cash bar open in the Function Suite (where the dinner is taking place. Cumbria's finest real ales will be available.

19:30  Dinner.

Tickets for the three course dinner are £45.00 per person, reduced to £30.00 for those under the age of 40 on the date of the dinner.

Favourable B&B room rates have been arranged with the hotel as follows: £155 for a double/twin room for one night, and £260 for two nights. £125 for a single room for one night, £220 for two nights. For a third or more night, the rates are £120 per night for a double/twin room and £110 for a single. These discounted rates will be held until the end of October, so you are encouraged to book soon. Call 01539 734000 and quote 'Alpine Club'.

Members can now buy dinner tickets for themselves and their guests, paying in either of the following ways:

• By cheque, made payable to 'Alpine Club', and sent in the post to the Honorary Secretary at 55 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3QF
  
  
• Or online by logging into the AC website, navigating to the 'Events' tab and selecting 'AGM & Dinner Booking' from the drop-down menu.
  

When applying for tickets, please specify any dietary requirements.

Tickets will be posted to members in the two weeks before the event. 

Further details of the event will be circulated in due course on the website, in our next Newsletter and by Alpinet.

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.

Save the Date: 2024 Annual Dinner and AGM

The 2024 Alpine Club Annual Dinner and AGM will be held at the Castle Green Hotel in Kendal on 23 November 2024.

Further details on the event schedule and booking will follow.

This year's event coincides with the Kendal Mountain Festival, providing members with the opportunity to catch mountaineering and outdoor events over the weekend.

AC Members Receive 2024 RGS Awards

Among the recipients of the 2024 Royal Geographical Society's Medals and Awards are two RGS members. Former AC president Stephen Venables has been honoured with the Patron's Medal in recognition of "his lifetime’s contribution to geographical discovery in the high mountains of the world" and Professor Chris Clark has received the Busk Medal "For profound influence on the understanding of glacial systems through the ‘British-Irish Ice Sheet’ reconstruction." 

^{Venables on the summit of Ngabong Terong}

In typical fashion, Stephen responded to news of the award by downplaying his own achievements, commenting "What a wonderful honour and surprise, to be rewarded for what is essentially having fun – exploring remote corners of the world’s most spectacular mountains, in the company of some of the world’s finest mountaineers.

Congratulations to both Stephen and Chris for these well-deserved marks of recognition.