Alpine Club (UK)
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The Alpine Club was founded in Great Britain in 1857 and was probably the world's first mountaineering club. It is UK mountaineering's acknowledged 'senior club'.
[edit] History
For many years it had the characteristics of a London-based Gentleman's club, including a certain imprecision in the qualification for membership - ( said to have been 'A reasonable number of respectable peaks').
By the mid 20th century however, the club had evolved into the UK's senior mountaineering club with a clear qualification for membership, for both men and women, and an 'aspirant' grade for those working towards full membership.
The club has rarely been at the forefront of purely technical climbing (The early club was once dismissed as doing very little climbing but ' a lot of walking steeply uphill'). These higher technical standards were often to be found in offshoots such as the 'Alpine Climbing Group', founded in 1952.
Though the club organises some UK-based meets, the administration of purely UK activity, such as sponsoring guidebooks, is largely carried out by the other UK senior clubs (see below) founded in the late 19th and early 20th century.
[edit] See also
[edit] External link
- [1] - Alpine Club website
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