RAMSOC isn't just about Rambling and Hillwalking, we're a very friendly bunch of people and so love a good social! A few Wednesday's ago we met at Portland, armed with cameras and phones and a strange list of things we needed to take pictures of before being split into teams ready to take part in our much loved photo scavenger hunt! The race was on between mine, Patrick and Richard's teams to take pictures of as many of the things on the list as we could before Trent clock struck 8'O Clock, while making them as funny and creative as possible! We all had a lot of fun running around campus and using the scavenger hunt as an excuse to act like big children! Once the time was up we all met back in Mooch, ready for Andy and Helen to judge the categories and announce that the overall winner was Patrick's team, with the most pictures to raise a laugh! But there was a lot of funny pictures from all teams, here is just a few... A fully kitted out Rambler (bonus po...

By Helen McGhee So it’s a new academic year and with that come new and exciting faces to Ramsoc. “So what was the first walk of the year like” I hear you cry! Well … sunny! Yeah I know right! So Sunday saw us set off for Castleton on a foggy and slightly chilly morning. Naturally, I looked out my window and thought ‘Layers. Lot of Layers’. So I donned the leggings under my tracksuit bottoms slipped into my fleece. The hot squash flasks were filled to the brim as they would during summer and I set off to Lincoln hall car park. Since the marathon had messed with our normal drop off route there was a lot of people already there. A surprise since I deliberately got there 15 mins early. I thought people would appreciate a committee member to greet all the new faces. It was slightly creepy seeing everyone gather from out of the mists like a scene out of a ghost story.  So when we finally got everyone on board, everyone was so excited that our Ramble Sec Alex was kept on...

To celebrate another brilliant year for Ramsoc a very excited group of ramblers headed to the Lake District for our annual summer weekend away, to enjoy a wonderful few days of hills, lakes, mountains, stunning scenery and the hope of some sunshine! As always we had a selection of walks on offer on the Saturday, ranging from a bimble around the local countryside, to taking on the challenge of scrambling on Blencathra. Those of us that chose the pretty countryside bimble certainly had a wonderfully relaxing day, taking in the beautiful scenery and wildlife (may be more than we anticipated, due to an ever so slight navigational issue) and enjoying a lovely mid afternoon cup of tea (with free cake!), in a nice little tea room. Arriving back at the hostel it was clear everyone else had an equally brilliant day exploring the Lake District and were ready to finish the day off perfectly with lots of barbequed food, plenty of drinks and some wonderful desserts! A brilliant evenin...

On Saturday 6 th June, at ridiculous  o'clock  in the morning, a minibus and 2 cars full of intrepid ramblers set off from Nottingham, ready to face a massive challenge- the Dark Peak Marathon (DPM)! The 14 brave ramblers had a 24 or 37 mile walk around the wonderful Peak District ahead of them, with the first challenge of the day being Win Hill. The steepness took a few people by surprise and definitely woke everyone up for the day ahead! Meanwhile, the marshals, not facing the same enormous challenge, made their way to their marshal points. I started the day with a lovely early morning stroll up Jacobs Ladder, followed by a very windy few hours sat at the Edale Cross checkpoint, behind the only 2 metres of wall that provided shelter from the rather gusty weather! Eventually walkers (and runners) started to appear, with tales to tell of the steep start and the dreaded Brown Knoll, described by one particularly incensed walker as “a new kind of hell!”- some tack...