The Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland celebrates its centenary in 2025. The Club will be marking this milestone with various events including a ‘Whole Club’ dinner with all the Sections, a gathering at the Narnain Boulder (the birthplace of the Club) on the anniversary of the first meet and the publication of a book celebrating 100 years of the JMCS with climbing and mountaineering stories, new and old.
The JMCS was conceived in July 1925 in the Mutthornhütte at the head of the Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Bernese Oberland. The inaugural meet of the Club was held at the Narnain Boulder below the Cobbler on Sunday 30 August, 1925. It was here that the first committee was elected, followed by a mass ascent of Ben Ime in mist and rain. This, in effect, marked the birth of the JMCS.
When Arthur Rusk rendezvoused with his 2 friends, Dick Rutherfurd and Archie Hutchison, in Amiens on 17 July 1925, they couldn’t have envisaged the far-reaching consequences of what they would be starting. Dick and Archie had been touring the war-scarred battlefields of the Somme, en route to the Bernese Oberland, where they would be spending their summer holidays exploring the glaciers and peaks of the Oberland. As Arthur’s train pulled into the station, Dick and Archie were bemused to see Arthur leaning half-out of the carriage window, wildly waving his arms. He was bursting with an idea for a new mountaineering club.
1920’s Scotland was a very different place to today’s high-speed, interconnected country. Few people ventured into the hills, cars were few and far between, tarred roads did not reach beyond the Great Glen, and access to mountain areas beyond the range of bicycles involved cunning and innovation that would impress today’s most hardened weekend warriors. Clubs were not common and those that existed tended to cater for seasoned mountaineers from the professional classes.
Arthur’s idea was to create a new club: “An association for mountaineers in which they might meet kindred spirits and find among them those who could teach them the rules of the game. It would be a Club in which the members would learn the rudiments of mountain craft and it might also become a ‘feeder’ for the Senior Club which requires conditions of membership”. The 3 friends talked long into the night on their train journey, formulating plans for the new club.
Arriving at Kandersteg the next day, they made their preparations for the days ahead in the mountains and enjoyed ascents of the Wilde Frau, the Weisse Frau and the Balmhorn. On 25 July they cut short their plan to climb the Tschingelhorn due to bad weather and holed up in the Mutthornhütte for the better part of the day. It was there that the constitution for the new club was hammered out and agreed upon. The name, The Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland, was also decided there.
Fast forward to 29 August 1925. Another train journey sees Dick and Archie travelling this time from Glasgow Queen Street to Arrochar in the company of several friends. They had been spending a lot of time exploring the hills and crags of the Arrochar Alps and had been building up the howff below the Narnain Boulder. It was probably no coincidence, then, that a party of seven spent the night there prior to the inaugural meeting of the JMCS. This was attended by a further seven the following day and was convened by Arthur from the comfort of his sleeping bag, such was the weather.
Conceived in the Mutthornhütte and born under the Narnain Boulder, the JMCS came into existence in the most original of circumstances. The rest is history. Within weeks of the Glasgow Section forming, the Edinburgh Section was established and had its first meet. Over the following years other Sections were set up: Perth in 1929, Inverness in 1938 and Lochaber and London in 1946. All but the Inverness Section are still active mountaineering clubs in their own right and function autonomously.
In the age of social media, many clubs have found it increasingly difficult to recruit new members. The Glasgow JMCS is bucking this trend, with much interest being shown by people from all backgrounds eager to join a club with a rich history and an active membership. As the Glasgow Section approaches its 100 th birthday, it is safe to say that it is in fine fettle, with a healthy and active membership who are ever keen to explore the hills and crags of Scotland and further afield. We look forward to our next 100 years with excitement and optimism and will be ever grateful to the vision of our founders, Arthur, Dick and Archie.
