Joining the club
If you are thinking of joining there is some information about the club below.
See the joining or renewing page for:
• how to join
(or, for current members, how renew your membership);
• the current annual subscription.
See the FAQ page for:
• answers to some 'frequently asked questions'
See the contact details form to:
•
send/update your membership details
(NB this form simply updates the membership
details of people who are already members,
(i.e., who have paid the subs).
It is not designed to contact us.
To contact us, see below or email the
.
Meeting us
The best way to find out about us, and decide if you want to join, is to come along and meet us, and the easiest way to do that is to come to one of our regular climbing sessions. These are described in the next section, which gives a general view of what we are likely to be doing.
Before you come along email the
to find out exactly where we will be and how to meet us
(the
Twitter/Posterous pages
below also give an
up-to-date idea of where we are likely to be).
Generally speaking, it is easier to find us at Alien Rock than at Ratho - the staff on the reception desk know us and can point us out.
Climbing sessions
On Monday evenings in the winter we usually go to Alien Rock, and in the summer we either go to an ad hoc outdoor venue if the weather is nice, or Alien Rock if it is raining.
On Wednesday evenings in the winter we usually go to the EICA near Ratho when it is warm enough, or Alien Rock when it isn't. In the summer we either go to the regular weekly evening meet if the weather is nice, or the EICA if it is raining.
Twitter/Posterous pages
We have a
Twitter page
and a
Posterous page
- these both show a list of our recent emails, which should give an
up-to-date idea of where we are likely to be
(personally, I find the posterous page more user friendly, but if you
are a fan of twitter try that one).
Who can join?
The club welcomes individuals over the age of 18,
of all levels of experience and ability.
However, club members are generally not guides, or professional
instructors, so if you are a complete beginner you should
learn basic rope work skills, in particular, how to belay, by
attending a professional training course such as those run at
Alien Rock
or
Ratho.
Why join?
Probably the two main groups of people who join are:
- experienced climbers who want to meet new climbing partners
-
people who have climbed in indoor walls and want to move into the
outside world.
If you have some experience of climbing in indoor walls we can introduce you to outdoor, so called 'trad' climbing, and 'show you the ropes'. Joining a club, and thereby meeting experienced outdoor climbers is a standard way of moving from indoor walls to outdoor climbing. A not-insignificant corollary of this is that you can often tag along with someone who has a full rack of gear — thereby putting off the moment when you have to start spending hundreds of pounds on jangly bits of metal.
Terminology:
'trad' climbing refers to climbing on leader placed protection
(not on bolts, which is usually called 'sports' climbing),
using modern, space-age protection technology such as CAD-CAM designed
expanding camming devices and high-technology, dynamic ropes.
Despite the terminology, no one uses traditional protection nowadays,
apart from bolts, which for some theological reason the
'traditionalists' regard as anathema.
Two other significant membership benefits are:
- the club is affiliated to the MCofS, which provides a range of benefits, see below for some of these
- members get access to discount nights at the local climbing shops — these take place roughly every 3-4 months (the club news page will say if any of these are imminent), and climbing gear is usually reduced by 20-25%.
Subscription
The club year runs from November to October,
and the annual subscription is reviewed annually at the club AGM in
the middle of November
(admittedly, that is after the club year starts, but no doubt there was
once a goood reason for this).
See the joining or renewing page for the
current subscription.
The subscription includes the affiliation fee to MCofS
(see below).
Mountaineering Council of Scotland
The club is affiliated to the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS), the Scottish national representative body for mountaineering activities. As a result of this, club members receive the following:
- third party civil liability insurance (see the MCofS website for more details)
- the quarterly MCofS magazine The Scottish Mountaineer
They also get access to:
- BMC climbing and travel insurance. This is only available to members of clubs affiliated to the BMC or the MCofS, or to individual members of the BMC or MCofS
- subsidised training courses, including winter skills, navigation and first aid
- various discount schemes
Other benefits of affiliation to MCofS are described more fully on the
MCofS website.
The club subscriptions also help support the MCofS's work on behalf of
climbers, and mountaineers in general.
Other club information
Finally, there are links to more information, for example club meet reports and newsletters, and some historical information about the club on the library page.