Category: Knowledge

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

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

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