Next year, the Eagle Ski Club will reach its 100th anniversary: it was founded by a group of British skiers staying at the very large Palace Hotel in the very small Swiss resort of Maloja (up the valley from St Moritz, and on the pass between the Engadine and Bregalia regions) in 1925.
Special events and activities throughout 2025 are planned to celebrate the centenary, and will look both back on a century of ski-touring, and forward to the future. It is hoped that as many members as possible, young, old, recently-joined, and veterans of decades of touring with the club, will be able to participate in one or more of them.
Burns Night Scottish Dinner Meet - 25-26 January 2025
The centenary year will kick off with the now-traditional Burns Night Weekend Meet at the Balavil Hotel at Kingussie in Scotland. Full details will be announced in September.
Maloja Day Tours - 28 Feb - 4 Mar 20255
The 2025 touring programme includes a trip to the Maloja area in south-east Switzerland, with a mix of day tours and a celebratory meal one evening, hopefully at the the club's birthplace of the Maloja Palace Hotel. One day may be spent exploring some of the original routes on Piz Aela, which were used by Club members in the 1920s.
Though it was the scene of the club's 75th Anniversary celebrations in 2000, it was concluded after much discussion that Maloja's relative remoteness, and less abundant touring and other opportunities than better-known centres, rendered it unsuitable for the club's main Centenary event in the Alps, which will take place at Arolla.
Centenary Meet - Arolla, Switzerland - 14-17 March 2025
We have secured exclusive private use of the historic Grand Hotel and Kurhaus, where the bulk of attendees will be accommodated for this event, with some overflow in other nearby hotels. The weekend will incorporate training sessions, guided and member-led day-tours, a re-enactment (not a competitive race) of the type of "patrol race" run by the club before the War, talks, exhibitions and a celebratory dinner on the Saturday evening. Several of the tours on the club's official touring programme for 2025 have been designed to link with the meet.
Booking opened on 1 June 2024, and due to logistical constraints the total numbers have been capped at 180. There was exceptionally high demand, and the meet filled completely within a few days, though a waiting list for possible cancellations is being maintained and will remain open until 1 October 2024.
Centenary Symposium - Kingussie, Scotland - 15-16 November 2025
A special ski-mountaineering symposium will be held at the Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie (near Aviemore) on the weekend of 15/16 November 2025. This will build on the successful symposia held at various venues in England and Wales over the last few decades, and will include lectures, workshops, training events, a dinner and the AGM.
London Dinner - Provisional Date 1 Nov 2025
A celebratory dinner in London is intended to be particularly attractive to those members unable to travel to more distant locations. Further details will be made available in due course, but a provisional date of 1 November 2025 has been identified (subject to securing an appropriate venue).
Centenary Merchandise
A range of club merchandise carrying the centenary version of the club's logo will be available later this year. On the basis of indications from last year's survey, initial items available are likely to include tee-shirts, neck warmers, ski-ties and woolly hats/beanies, with other items possibly added later. Items should be available for ordering via the website in autumn 2024, with further orders being taken towards the end of the year.
Centenary Book
A special book will be published alongside the 2025 Yearbook to celebrate the centenary. It will contain a selection of articles from Yearbooks over the past hundred years, along with specially-commissoned articles on the history of the club, the development of ski-touring over the past century, and prospects for the future. The editorial team is being led by Pete Boyd, assisted by Stephen Goodwin and John Barnard.
Other Centenary Events and Activities
A number of other events and activities have been proposed, and further information will be announced in due course. These include:
- centenary postcards, to be distributed with the 2024 Yearbook, which members will be able to return from wherever they get to during the centenary year, as a record of the diversity of the club's activities
- "world ski tours" organised by members in different parts of the world
- "micro-adventures" and other ski challenges through the year
- charitable activities in furtherance of the club's initiatives on climate care and the encouragement of youth and diversity in the club, possibly in association with other relevant organisations
The club's Archivist, John Barnard, is co-ordinating the various events and activities, with the assistance of a large number of volunteers. A survey to assess members' interest in different ideas was carried out in the late summer of 2023 (a report on its results is available here) which, along with informal soundings taken at other club events (such as this year's Argentiere meet) have been used to help develop the plans.
If you would like to help with the organisation of any of the events or activities, or have ideas of your own, then please contact John Barnard (archivist@eagleskiclub.org.uk; 07985 465330).
(Updated 3 Sep 2024; JMB)