SAC members and guests met at the Nethy Bridge Hotel for the 2024 Annual Gathering and Supper. The afternoon presenters were so interesting that we over-ran horribly and the AGM had to be squeezed in very quickly before dinner!
This year’s Scottish Arctic Expedition Fund presenters were Callum Johnson on the Scots-Slovak climbing expedition to The Thumbnail in South Greenland (video presentation); four St Andrews University students on their geology dissertation fieldwork, also in South Greenland, and Holly Carroll, a Polar Academy graduate on her experience returning to Greenland.
SAC member Douglas Anderson entertained the audience with reflections on his adventures (all profits from his memoirs are donated to the Polar Academy) and we learnt about British alpine pioneer Edward Whymper’s lesser-known Greenland expeditions from President Noel Williams. After this excursion into the past, we were brought back to the 21st century by keynote speaker Master Maiwenn Beadle describing the highs and lows of her experience as a superyacht skipper navigating through the sea ice of the North West Passage.
Dinner was the usual highly talkative affair of catching up with old friends and making new ones. The Expedition Fund benefited from a silent auction of member Sheila McCulloch’s collection of Inuit carvings and souvenirs which she recently donated to the Club. In the 1950s Sheila worked as a nurse at the remote Fort McPherson in the Canadian North West Territories. Now in her nineties, she has recently moved to a care home in Edinburgh. The usual generous raffle donations meant that many more members happily went home with prizes ranging from cheese to paintings.
We dispersed after a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning, with various smaller parties making the most of being in the Cairngorms for the weekend walking, running & even swimming (briefly!)
The application window for 2025 Expedition Fund awards is now open and will close on 31st January 2025. Further information and application form can be found here.