Kindred Club Journals

THE JOURNAL OF THE MIDLAND ASSOCIATION OF MOUNTAINEERS. 1973-74. Vol. V No. 4.

The Midland Association of Mountaineers’ Journal can always be relied upon to furnish interest and entertainment, and this issue is no exception. However, a more serious note is struck in the editorial which deals with various threats to the environment. Our members will remember that the M.A.M. President, F. R. Robinson, dealt forcibly with this matter in his remarks responding to the toast of Kindred Clubs at our dinner this year. Obviously the Midland Association of Mountaineers and its officials take this issue seriously. As usual, M.A.M. members have ranged far and wide in their activities from Greenland to Patagonia. In view of the hefty report on Mountain Training which we have just been invited to study, Michael Hall’s amusing skit, Profound Report has become both topical and relevant. Mr. Hall must be gifted with second sight. A good selection of photographs complete a journal of unusual interest.

J.G.B.

JOURNAL OF THE CRAVEN POTHOLE CLUB. 1974. Vol. 5 No. 2.

Appropriately, the Craven Pothole Club Journal is mainly concerned with activities underground, and in this connection we notice articles by two of our members, John Whalley on his caving exploits in Canada, and Dave Judson on the more serious topic of cave conservation. All who know and frequent Gaping Gill will be interested in Richard Glover’s well informed article, G;G. Some Underground Controls of Development, and in the report of the 1974 Gaping Gill meet dealt with by Peter Rose. The indefatigable Stephen Craven has been doing some detective work on a mystery lake in Stump Cross Cavern, and Albert Mitchell has recorded his findings. Mr. Mitchell has also produced an absorbing piece of historical research in his account of the Ingleborough Cave Book, which was mentioned in a Y.R.C. Journal (No. 5. 1903) and then apparently disappeared until 1939. To get away from caves, D. Allanach and friends did the Dom-Taschorn Traverse—Almost, and Hugh Bottomley in his search for the ideal island found that Arran was not quite good enough. In all a very good journal, well up to the standard we expect from the C.P.C.

J.G.B.

THE RUCKSACK CLUB JOURNAL. 1973. Vol. XVII. No. 2

This issue of the Rucksack Club Journal might almost be named a “Munros Number” as those numerous Scottish tops seem to have an obsessive attraction for Rucksackers. Don Smithies gives us Munros, A Personal View, and after reading Tom Waghorn’s Munro’s Mountains, we were not really surprised to turn over to find the opening sentence of John Mills’s Anticlimax to read, “I climbed my last Munro, Ben Alligin, on a calm but cloudy day last July.” All of which makes those of us who can only boast a mere handful of Munros in our pockets slightly envious, if not guilty. By way of a change, and going a little higher, Brian Cosby has been attending to the 4,000 tops in the Alps, his article, The Waiting Game, being illustrated by his own dramatic shots of the Grands Jorasses and the Grand Gendarme on the Lenzspitze. For the encouragement (or discouragement) of others with similar ideas he appends a list of the 4,000 metre summits and the tops over 4,000 metres. John Allen was busy on and around Mont Blanc, and Mike Edwards on the Corder-illa Blanca. Back to Scotland again where Taffy Davies navigated his Merlin Rocket in and out of the West Coast. In conclusion, it was sad to read the obituary of Fred Heardman, the uncrowned king of Edale.

J.G.B.

THE ALPINE JOURNAL. Vol. 80 No. 324. 1975.

Ascents on the American continent from Mount Burney in Chile to Mount Dan Beard in Alaska? Yalung Kang, Kangbachen, Changa-bang or half a dozen other major Himalayan peaks? The Pyrenees, the mountains of Sinai, Majorteqe in Greenland, or Astronomy on Ben Nevis? Eric Shipton or Doug Scott? Alpine thunderstorms, continents in collision, or mapping by side-looking airborne radar? The range of articles is intimidating, the standard enviably high, the plums too numerous to pull out. Perhaps of particular interest to members of this club are the articles by J. D. Han well on Eighty years of British Caving and by Philip Brockbank of the Rucksack Club on Moorland Marathons.

A.B.C.

THE SCOTTISH MOUNTAINEERING CLUB JOURNAL. Vol. 30, No. 166. 1975

1975 is the Jubilee year of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland, and this number of the S.M.C. Journal is largely devoted to the celebration of the Junior Club and of its first fifty years. The recollections begin with contributions from founding members and cover each section of the club to the present date. They make fine nostalgic reading—about such things as tricounis, and 120 ft. leads without runners. They chronicle interesting social changes like the effect of increased private transport. They also leave no doubt about the vigour and quality of the club or about the increasing standard of achievement of its leading members, and augur well for the next fifty years’

A.B.C.

THE FELL AND ROCK JOURNAL, No. 64. Vol. XXII (No. 11). 1974.

George Sansom at 87, remembers Wasdale before the 1914-18 war and climbing with Gibson, Hazard, Botterill, Brunskill and Herford; in contrast John Cook discusses ski-ing in Scotland using a helicopter in place of a ski-lift. Margaret Duke writes of New Zealand, Eric Arnison of Australia, Paul Ross of the Salathe Wall (El Capitan), David Hughes of the Transvaal; Angela Faller writes of routes which she wanted to do but for which she had to wait, sometimes for years, K. Bennett of a week in Skye, Miles Burbage of a holiday of singular storm and stress in the Alps and Dolomites. To round it off Ian Bowman is back at Brackenclose trying to cope with the gamesmanship of two seasoned Yorkshiremen.

A.B.C.

The Librarian also gratefully acknowledges the following journals:

Alpine Journal, 1973, 1974
Appalachia, 1973, 1974, 1975
Appalachia Bulletin, 1973, 1974, 1975
Bristol University Speleological Society. Proceedings, 1973, 1974, 1975
Cairngorm Club Journal, 1975
Climbers’ Club Journal, 1973-74
Craven Pothole Club Journal, 1973
Deutscher Alpenverein. Mitteilungen. Jugend am Berg. 1973, 1974, 1975
Fell and Rock Climbing Club Journal, 1972
Gritstone Club Journal, 1972
Himalayan Journal, 1971
Japanese Alpine Club Journal, 1972, 1973
Lancashire Caving and Climbing Club Journal, 1970, 1972, 1974
Leeds University Speleological Association Review, 1973, 1974
Mountain Club of South Africa Journal, 1972, 1973, 1974
National Speleological Society Bulletin (U.S.A.) 1973, 1974, 1975
National Speleological Society News (U.S.A.) 1973, 1974, 1975
Rucksack Club Journal, 1972
Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, 1973, 1974
Societe Suisse de Speleologie—Stalactite, 1973, 1974, 1975
South Wales Caving Club Newsletter, 1973, 1974
Speleo-Club de Paris, Grottes—Gouffres, 1973, 1974
Speleo Club de la Seine—L’Aven, 1972, 1973
Spelunca, 1973, 1974, 1975
Swiss Alpine Club Bulletin, 1973, 1974, 1975
Swiss Alpine Club Review, 1973, 1974, 1975