The Alpine Club, the world’s first mountaineering club, was founded in 1857.  For over 150 years, members have been at the leading edge of worldwide mountaineering development and exploration. 

With membership, experienced and aspiring alpinists benefit from a varied meets programme, regional lectures with notable guest speakers, reduced rates at many alpine huts, opportunity to apply for grants to support expeditions, significant discounts at many UK retailers, extensive networking contacts, access to the AC Library and maps - and more! 

Becoming a Member
 

Publications

The Alpine Club publishes an annual journal, a selection of climbing guides to the key alpine areas, a range of Christmas cards and a Newsletter. Click on the images below to view further details of each along with ordering and pricing information. Many of these items can be purchased through Cordee.

Alpine Journal

The Alpine Journal is a substantial annual record of mountaineering achievement which has been published continuously since 1859. It is issued free to members. Those from 1969 onwards are fully digitised and can be viewed and searched by Volume or Area.

Back copies are also available for the following years

Find out more at the Alpine Journal website

1859 - 1891 1892 - 1926 1927 - 1952 1953 - 1968
 

GuideBooks

The AC publishes the most comprehensive English Guidebooks covering the most popular regions of the Alps. Included here are updates for each guide.

Members can buy our guidebooks from the Alpine Club Shop

Newsletter

The Newsletter includes news items, articles, details of all club events, and anything that may be of interest to our members.

The AC also produces a regular Bulletin which is e-mailed to members.

We also have a comprehensive set of Newsletter Back issues available for download

The Artists of the Alpine Club

Since its foundation in 1857 there have always been members of the Alpine Club who have carried sketch-books into the mountains, keeping a record of their endeavours and peaks they had climbed. Descriptions of these artists form the principle part of of this Biographical Dictionary from Peter Mallalieu, together with many illustrations of their work. The book costs £20 +p&p. If you would like to purchase, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call (+44) 020 7613 0755.

Everest by 'Those Who Were There' Exhibition Catalogue

Produced in 2021 to accompany the Everest by ‘Those Who Were There’ 1921, 1922, 1924 exhibition, this catalogue provides a detailed examination of the three 1920s Everest expeditions.

Written by the Alpine Club’s Honorary Librarian, Barbara Grigor-Taylor and with a foreword by mountaineering author Peter Gillman, the catalogue utilises the climbers' diaries and letters, as well as their artwork and artefacts, all drawn from the Alpine Club Collections, to tell the remarkable stories of these early Everest pioneers.

With a depth of material never before assembled, the catalogue is now freely available to read at this link.

Content Warning: Please be aware that this catalogue cites from archival material and publications which use historic terminology and may refer to people in ways that are outdated and offensive. This material is included as a source for historic research and does not reflect the position of the Alpine Club or Alpine Club Library.