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Ed was elected President at the 2012 AGM in February and will serve the next three years. He has been both the Meets Secretary and more recently the Membership Secretary of the club from 2004. He is also a current Director of ABMSAC Ltd.
Ed began his climbing and walking career in the Peak District in the early 1970’s as part of his Duke of Edinburgh award, whether it was navigating over the peat bogs of Kinder, or climbing on the Derbyshire edges with the Meadows’ Boys Climbing Club. In his University years, he specialised in glaciology, and was involved for two summers in studying the Gorner glacier above Zermatt, which allowed for the ascent of a number of peaks in the area.
Ed has been a key participant of the club trekking meets for over 10 years, and has organised those meets for the last five years. As part of the centenary celebrations of the club, Ed and a number of other club members trekked an extended Haute Route, from Chamonix to the Britannia Hut.
Near to home, in Yorkshire he can still be found climbing and walking regularly in the Yorkshire Dales.
Belinda was born in Cheadle Hulme but spent most of her childhood in Taplow, which is a long way from any mountains. It was not until she was 12 that her father- Maurice Freeman, initiated her by doing the Snowdon Horseshoe, which was a bit of make or break. Fortunately she married James, who shares her delight in going far in high places. Their first ABM Alpine Meet as guests was in 1967 at Fafleralp, in the 70s and 80s they camped or had apartments in proximity of the meets bi-annually with the children, including the 75th Anniversary in 1984.
Belinda was on the committee in the mid eighties and editor from 1992-2002.
Belinda does not claim to be a great mountaineer but goes the distance. She was on Wendell’s expedition to the Pyrenees and two more in Austria in the 90s. As well as enjoying treks in high places she has walked many long distance paths in England and Wales.
She has lived in Staffordshire, Zambia, Bedfordshire and East Devon. She has taught biology, science and health studies and is now enjoys retirement.
Dick was first introduced to the mountains on a ski trip to Switzerland, in the days when ski length was determined by holding your arm above your head, and the standard issue was wooden skis and soft boots. Family walking and ski holidays followed by an introduction to rock and ice climbing whilst in the Scouts established mountaineering as his main hobby.
He joined the SAC in 1976, prior to his first proper climbing trip to Tasch, in the Zermatt valley, with Jeff Harris, eventually the pair decided to try an ABMSAC alpine meet and went on to become regulars. Having got involved in mountain rescue, fell running, cross country ski touring, rock climbing and sailing Dick found his time in the alps restricted and stopped attending meets for a few years. Later having acquired a bad back and dodgy knees requiring him to cut down his activities he joined one of Alasdair Andrew’s trekking meets and began to visit the Alps regularly again.
Home is currently Tadcaster so regular walking is mainly in the North York Moors with forays to the Dales or the Peak District, also good areas for a little gentle mountain biking.
Marian took over from Jeff Harris as Meets Secretary at the AGM in February 2010. Marian started climbing while at Bangor Uni in the late 1960's - hemp waistlengths and shoulder belays! Now creaking a bit but still out there enjoying the hills.
Marian is also a member of the Climbers' Club, Alpine Club and Fell & Rock. She has completed the Munros (now working through the Corbetts), climbed a lot in the Alps and in some greater ranges.She has had two periods of ABM membership, joining first in the early '80s to use the hut. She can now be found lurking in Patterdale and acts as hut warden as well as hon meets sec.
Mike first became involved with hill walking through the Scouts. During the year between school and University rock climbing was added to the agenda. In 1975, the year the George Starkey Hut was opened, he joined the ABMSAC and the Grindelwald section of the Swiss Alpine Club prior to his first alpine season based at Zinal.
Initially Mike’s first involvement with the Association was through the use of the hut. However in 1978, plans for the Alps were thrown into disarray when his climbing partner managed to get stranded for the winter at an Argentinean base in Antarctica, the Belgrano. He thus attended his first Alpine meet at Zermatt and although conditions were not ideal, made some good friends.
In 1979 Mike joined the committee as an ordinary member and has subsequently been treasurer, hut (ABMSAC Ltd) treasurer, director, Vice President and is still hut booking secretary. He has been actively involved in the running of the Alpine camping meets(along with AC, CC, FRCC). After serving the last three years as our President Mike will take on the Membership Secretary.
Subsequent to joining the Association he has joined The Climbers’ Club, the Alpine Club and Yeovil Mountaineering Club. In 2007 Mike completed the Alpine 4000m peaks. In recent years he has tended to concentrate on Alpine rock routes with a shorter Summer season. This has allowed time for involvement in ice climbing and ski mountaineering. In the UK, being based in the SW, the SW sea cliffs and crags of North Wales are his normal territory. With 80 Munros, he still has some way to go.
I've been a member of the ABM and SAC since 1975 and served on the committee previously as Meets Secretary and President. I set up and maintain the web site and when Richard Winter decided to stand down from the Newsletter and Journal editing I volunteered to bring all three under one roof.
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ABMSAC MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION |
Hello, and thank you for taking an interest in our club. If you are thinking about joining our club, please read the information below to help you in your decision.
We are a national UK mountaineering club with a strong interest in alpine mountaineering, particularly in Switzerland. As you can see from the meets list and write ups, we are an active club, with a diverse and well attended range of meets, including a significant number to the European Alps and beyond.
Our club offers two categories of membership. The first is an affiliate membership, which is the basic membership category for all club members. People can also become ordinary members, which then additionally includes membership of a section of the Swiss Alpine Club. The club rates for the current year are given on the attached sheet.
Full SAC membership does bring a discount in some huts in the Alps (as does membership of other alpine organisations). If you are thinking of joining solely for obtaining hut discounts, please be aware that you would need to be using huts for at least two weeks each year, before this became a lower cost option than paying the higher hut rate.
Membership of the ABMSAC also provides affiliation to the British Mountaineering Council(BMC). This entitles members to purchase comprehensive mountaineering insurance through the BMC. You should note that membership of our club does not include any mountaineering insurance.
Our objectives are to encourage the natural progression to climbing in the Alps through membership of the Swiss Alpine Club and to provide opportunities as a British Club for members to meets together and enjoy mountaineering activities both in Britain and the Alps.
The Association organises a comprehensive programme of meets throughout the year.
During the winter months there is a series of meets in Scotland to make best use of any snow and ice conditions. During the rest of the year there are meets in England and Wales, typically in the Lake District, North Wales, Yorkshire, Dartmoor and the Peak District. These meets are based in climbing huts or bunkhouses.
The highlights of the year are the Alpine Meets. Every year there is a meet in the Alps based on reasonably priced hotel or self-catering accommodation. There is a separate camping meet and at the end of the season the annual alpine walking tour using climbing huts and bunkhouses.
The Association does not provide any formal mountaineering or climbing training but members have a wealth of experience that they are happy to pass on to the less experienced.
Social EventsDuring the winter The Association promotes a series of lectures in London. The programme is run in conjunction with the London sections of three other major mountaineering clubs.
We hold our Annual Dinner and AGM in Patterdale at the end of January/start of February.
There an Alpine Reunion Meet in the autumn.
There is also an annual Hut Maintenance Meet, though this is not strictly a social event.
All members of the Association receive regular Newsletters via post or e mail to keep them up to date with activities and events. In addition the Annual Journal is published each spring with a full review of members’ activities over the previous year.
If you would like to join our club, the only stipulations we make are that you should:
• Have a genuine love of the hills and an interest in Switzerland and the SAC, and
• Have been on a club meet, before formally becoming a member of the club.
To cover this second point, once you let us know you have a potential interest in the club, we can then set up with you to attend one of our meets as a guest.
If, having read this, you would like to join us, please drop me an e-mail using the following link, membership@abmsac.org.uk and we’ll get in contact with you.
Many thanks,
Ed Bramley - Membership Secretary
