The years rolled back like mist from the hills as old friends met up and new friends were made at a wonderful gathering at Lensbury on 21^st November 2015.  Lensbury Mountaineering Club (known as LMC Mountaineering Club these days) held its first meet in October 1975 after Ricky Turpin placed a small ad in London Shell to gauge interest in starting a hill-walking and climbing club.  Andy Johns, the current chairman and incidentally first chairman of the newly constituted Lensbury Club section back in 1976, welcomed Ricky and over 60 past and present members from as far afield as Singapore – and Elgin.  Stephen Cogbill then gave us a masterful audio-visual history of 40 years of LMC in just seven minutes.

An excellent meal was provided by Lensbury and a raffle raised £300 for Porter’s Progress, a charity supporting training and welfare of trekking porters in Nepal – a more than ever worthy cause following the tragic earthquake in April.  After dinner came the serious reminiscing, helped by a comprehensive display of photographs and extracts from meet reports, AGM minutes and other memorabilia.

All agreed it was a splendid evening which reaffirmed our love of mountains and wild places, and celebrated the lasting friendships made through LMC – even those who hadn’t seen each other for decades just picked up where they’d left off!  The bar closed at midnight but many discussions continued into the small hours and over breakfast next morning.

The hill-walking bug is certainly still alive and well and several ex-members expressed an interest in joining LMC meets next year.  You can view our current programme of activities on our Programme page.  Or you can EMail us at: LMC@hillsandvalleys.co.uk.  New members are always welcome!

Here are a few of the comments received about the Dinner:

"A fabulous evening which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.  Everything was perfect, and the archive display and the brilliant picture show were the icing on the cake."

"It was lovely to meet-up again with people who I never expected to see, and to have a chance to reflect on what the club is/has been.  It’s always been fun and good company, and the walking (albeit important) is just a vehicle for that."

"What a tonic it was to see old faces and a blast from the past.  The LMC is a truly wonderful club."

"Thanks to those who over the years joined in or supported our various adventures like the visit to Rhum, the Lykewake Walk, Welsh 3000’s, the Lakes 3000’s, and the Cuillin Ridge.  Many great memories which are still vivid 40 years on."

"Thank you for organising such a splendid event.  It was really fantastic and a masterpiece of organisation – so much work obviously went into it, for which I thank you all."

To mark the occasion further, we have created four Photo Albums on the photo viewing web site, Flickr.

Special guest access to these Albums is available to Dinner participants and Club Members.  If you wish to view them, you can contact us by EMail at: LMC@hillsandvalleys.co.uk.