Author: webmaster

  • A message from the RNRMMC President

    As the world has started to gradually recover from the standstill of COVID lockdowns, our club has been working hard to regain a small measure of business as usual while optimistically looking ahead to future activities. When I last wrote to you I mentioned two major expeditions that were being planned for this year – Ex Scottish Surprise and Ex Cairn Conquest (formerly known as Alpine Conquest, changed to reflect the exercise’s new location). For obvious reasons, there was some trepidation that these would be able to go ahead. I am therefore extremely proud of our club members who, in the midst of a global pandemic and alongside their own busy day jobs, worked extremely hard to successfully deliver these two concurrent expeditions. I managed to take some time to join the second of these for a few days and it was fantastic to catch up with many old faces and meet new ones. These two expeditions also delivered great returns for the club’s collective experience, between them achieving 250 summer mountaineering and 125 rock climbing training days. With the climbing tailored to individual abilities across routes from VD to E3 5c, foundation qualifications for rock climbing and summer mountaineering were achieved by RNRMMC members on both expeditions.

    While the routine meets programme had been initially suspended for 2021, as restrictions slowly lifted our meets team worked rapidly to exploit the ‘art of the possible’. Thanks to some late nights and long hours of planning, their diligence resulted in almost all programmed meets being held (albeit with a bit less notice than usual!). This flexibility, diligence and perseverance are the skills we climbers all inherently strive to possess; my sincere thanks to the meets team for their proactive efforts in achieving what they did this year.

    2022 is shaping up to be a great year for us. Already there is a comprehensive meets programme with activity forecasted throughout the winter and summer seasons, and some major expeditions are already deep in their planning phases. I urge you all to get your people and yourselves involved; after the past 18 months you’ve earned a few days out of the office so please sign up. I have done so already and so really look forward to seeing you back on the hill very soon. 

    Lieutenant General Rob Magowan CB CBE

    President RNRMMC

  • News: Royal Marine and Royal Navy Teams climb Scotland’s most challenging peaks

    Exercise Cairn Conquest has been running this summer, which has seen RN and RM personnel undertake some great mountaineering and climbing! Check out the article by Sam Whitworth and David Sivills-McCann here: https://www.forces.net/news/royal-marines-and-navy-climb-scotlands-most-challenging-peaks

  • Climbing Hubs are now up and running!

    We’re happy to announce that we’ve now got the planned climbing hubs up and running – these are local groups designed to put you in touch with fellow RNRMMC members in your area, and perhaps help you find that belay buddy you’ve been looking for! Members can find more info in the climbing hubs page and within the members area. Don’t forget to join our main WhatsApp group (also in the Members area) in order to make sure you don’t miss out on any news, messages or other briefs from the committee and other club members.

    Hope to see some of you soon at the Peaks meet!

    Rob – Webmaster

  • A Message from the RNRMMC President

    For the last year our attention has, quite rightly, been focussed on dealing with and containing the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been an incredibly difficult time and I have been impressed by the resilience we have shown and the support we have given each other. There is hopefully now light at the end of the tunnel, conscious of course that for many life will never be the same again.

    As the national plan for easing lockdown restrictions becomes clearer, it has allowed Club activity to be planned in greater detail. There are already two fantastic expeditions being organised for July: SCOTTISH SURPRISE in the highlands and ALPINE CONQUEST in Switzerland – the second of which I am really looking forward to taking part in. There will also be various other smaller regional activities organised to encourage grass roots participation. I hope that you all can find the time to be personally involved and to encourage more of our Marines and Sailors to engage in the various mountaineering activities that we enjoy so much.

    I hope to see you back on the hill very soon.

    Lieutenant General Rob Magowan CB CBE – Deputy Commander, UK Strategic Command

  • Members Only – New Meets Programme!

    Fellow RNRMMC Members, a new meets programme to cover the 2021 year has now been released – you can find it in the members area! Obviously, as for the meets this year, the programme is very much subject to change but keep your eyes peeled – the club will keep the file up to date online and hopefully any changes will be made well in advance – but as you all know, there are no guarantees in today’s COVID-19 landscape. Stay safe, keep washing your hands and I really look forward to seeing you at a meet sometime soon.

    Kind regards,

    Rob
    Webmaster

  • Announcing the Entre-Prises Trophy Winner 2020!

    Announcing the Entre-Prises Trophy Winner 2020!

    The Entre-Prise Trophy is awarded to an individual within the club whose sport climbing performance has improved rapidly through consistent effort, commitment and hard work. Prospective candidates can be individuals who attend the many club-run indoor climbing wall sessions or those that compete in the various climbing competitions we take part in!

    An annual award, nominations have been received, discussed, and a winner picked by the Committee, so we are very happy to announce that this year’s Entre-Prises Trophy is AB Alice Nimmo RN!

    Alice’s first contact with the RNRMMC was in March 2019. She was immediately keen to get involved with all aspects of RNRMMC life, from competing in sport competitions to attending weekend club meets. Eager to learn and keen to train, she committed herself to bouldering and rapidly progressed from being a complete novice to sitting within the top 20% of women across the 3 Services. 

    Whilst doubtlessly naturally talented, this rapid improvement can largely be put down to consistent effort. Alice has made training for climbing and broader physical fitness a key part of her daily life. She has sought appropriate advice from the RN & RM team coach, the HMS Sultan Club and her peers and she has made every effort to boulder as frequently as possible, despite being in her first year of RN life and engaged in a busy medical centre job at HMS Sultan. 

    When lockdown hit: Alice, distraught at the thought of a life without tiny shoes and sore fingers, enlisted the help of an ‘enterprising’ club member to (temporarily) vandalise the HMS Sultan footbridge with the addition of a fingerboard rung, to allow her to train. Marvellous. 

    Alice has made the effort to attend the AFBL, managing to get to 4 of the 5 rounds in the 19/20 season. She is usually one of the first through the door and one of the last to leave, always offering to help out with the competition admin. A woman of few words, she is well known by her tri-service peers for her brusque but friendly northern charm whilst competing. 

    Alice finished 11th of 54 Female competitors in her first season and took 2nd place at the RN & RM Bouldering Champs.

  • The 2018/19 RNRMMC Magazine is out!

    The 2018/19 RNRMMC Magazine is out!

    Hopefully members should shortly be receiving their magazines in the post if they haven’t already – mine came in recently. For those who’d like to view online, you can find it in an easy to read format in this post!

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