Club News

Alpine ClubCast 22 - 16th March at 19:30

Tierra del Fuego: Climbing, sailing and horses at the Ends of the Earth

Andy Parkin, Simon Yates and Julian Freeman-Attwood take us to the remote and little known Cordillera Darwin on the tip of South America, which has received only a handful of expeditions over the years. Close to southern-most city in the world, Ushuaia, Charles Darwin and Eric Shipton were amongst the first to explore this area, with its bleak and weather-worn peaks, fjords and glaciers. Tonight we’ll hear about the history of its exploration and the expeditions and first ascents made there by three mountaineers who have been at the forefront of worldwide mountaineering for decades.

As usual the evening will finish with a Q&A.

Alpine ClubCast 23 - 23rd March at 19:30

Peaks and Pandemics: Andrew Pollard and Charles Clarke

Tonight Dr Charles Clarke - Kishtwar '65, Kanjiroba '69, Everest SW Face '75 & NE Ridge '82 - introduces Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric Infection & Immunity at Oxford, whom he met as a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in the 1980s.

Andy went on to climb on Jaonli in '88, Chamlang in '91 and Everest in '94, doing high altitude medical research, while developing interests in childhood infections and their prevention. Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford for 20 years, Andy has worked on vaccines in Nepal and Bangladesh. He led the not-for-profit Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. This vaccine is now used here and is being distributed widely by COVAX, for global equitable access in millions of doses. Andy will describe how the Oxford vaccine was developed, and with luck indicate how we'll be able to return to the mountains this summer.

 As usual the evening will finish with a Q&A.

Alpine ClubCast 24 - 30th March at 19:30

Conrad Anker: Queen Maud Land, Antarctica

In 2017, The North Face dispatched a team of the world’s finest explorers to one of the world’s last great climbing frontiers: the Queen Maud Land territory. Here they spent a month climbing and establishing new routes on the remote frozen towers of the Wolf’s Jaw massif.  Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker tackled a new route on the 3,600-foot Ulvetanna; Savannah Cummins and Anna Pfaff summitted the towering Holtanna; and Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright, using techniques honed in Yosemite, blitzed up 13 different spires spread across the ice field.  In total the team climbed 15 peaks in just 17 days. 

Join us for an evening with Conrad Anker, one of the most prolific explorers and mountaineers alive today.

As usual the talk will finish with a Q&A.

Alpine ClubCast 25 - 6th April at 19:30

Nepal: The Wild West

The West of Nepal is one of the least explored areas in the Himalaya with hosts of unclimbed mountains over 6,000 metres on the Tibetan frontier. Tonight we trace the origins in the 1960s of the trekking boom in Nepal, which came full circle for Henry Edmundson when he returned, after his early explorations, to climb Dhaulagiri 7 in 2007.  Then we head North West, with Becky Coles and Paul Ramsden, to a beautiful area which had received few visitors even by the mid 2010s. Both achieved first ascents, and Paul’s stunning line on Gave Ding with Mick Fowler was awarded a Piolet d’Or. 

As usual, the three talks will finish with a Q&A.