One of the most impressive things I found when I first joined RAMSOC was the way the walks were lead, by capable, cheerful leaders who (almost) always seemed to know where they were going, as well as chat to everyone in the group to keep even the most reluctant hill-climber going. So, when the opportunity came up to train to lead walks myself, I couldn’t think of a better way to give back to the club. Our training day began when we arrived in Edale car park, handing out maps, compasses and headtorches and trying to ignore the persistent drizzle. We split into two groups with a mix of trainees and experienced leaders, and set off on different routes up the hill. Our first exercise was general navigation and also involved using our surroundings to locate ourselves. One trainee was in charge of map reading, whilst the other two were banned from looking at their maps and compasses at all, but had to rely on their memory and powers of observation to re-orientate once we arrived at a ne...

Hello again Ramsoc! Our blog series continues and I have taken up the task of writing about our weekend away to Minehead, in the Exmoor National Park between 5 th and 7 th February 2016 (apologies, I’m a  bit of a stickler when it comes to detail like that, and I will probably remember it for a long while yet – strange, I know). This weekend took place a mere two weeks after the end of exam season, so we were naturally all excited to escape Nottingham for a weekend as a chance to catch our collective breath. I assume the club has visited Exmoor at least once in the past, but it was only last year that we started going again. As I was on my year abroad last year, I obviously didn’t go, so naturally I was enthralled at the prospect of visiting an entirely new area. There has to be some perk of doing a four-year degree after all. My first impressions of Exmoor (months before we went) were already positive – from the photos I could see it was a beautiful area by the coast with...

“Well, so that’s where all the lakes of the Lake District come from!” For most of our Ramsoc walks, we’re very lucky – this year we’ve had sunshine, blue skies, and mild weather. Charlotte’s October weekend were tales of lovely weather in Snowdonia. Unfortunately, our luck couldn’t last! With the remnants of Hurricane Abigail echoing on the minibus radio as we headed into the North, there was a sense of trepidation. For forecasted was rain, and lots of it. Not just a lot. Buckets worth. A little fall of rain, however, doesn’t stop us! After cosying up in the lovely YHA Hawkshead Courtyard and falling asleep to the sound of rain (we didn’t stop hearing it all weekend), we arose bright and early for a day of walking! I was one of the leaders and was being assessed, and we were climbing some of the Langdales – beautiful peaks in the centre of the Lake District. The climb wasn’t too arduous, yet with the clouds lapping at our boots, we knew we were getting high. Our assessment ...

On a Friday afternoon, tired from a week of lectures, we bundled on to the coach. The cooks brought their delicious cakes, ingredients and dishes they had prepared. Soon the night arrived and we were nodding off. I was jealous of those that had pillows! We arrived late and it was inviting for everyone to see what looked more like a house than a hostel.  By midnight the hostel was quiet and everyone was getting rest for the next day of hiking. Saturday morning we awakened to a lovely blue sky, fresh air and we were all really excited to get walking! I chose a walk 2, where we walked up Snowdon from a slightly higher point.  There were also other walks and scrambles for the more adventurous. The walk started off gentle, but we were soon faced with larger and larger rocks. The views were outstanding and everyone was stopping to take photos. As we got in to the walk, the air was getting misty and it was getting colder, on with the layers! We were given an option to keep on...

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...