The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as:

"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which have successfully addressed themselves to attempts of the kind on loftier mountains" (Nuttall Encyclopaedia, 1907).

Alpine clubs are typically large social clubs that revolve around climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Many alpine clubs also take on aspects typically reserved for local sport associations, providing education and training courses, services for outdoorsmen, and de facto regulation of local mountaineering resources and behavior of mountaineers. Most clubs organize social events, schedule outings, and stage climbing competitions, operate alpine huts and paths, and are active in protecting the alpine environment.

With around 1,500,000 members[1] the German Alpine Club is usually reckoned as the largest alpine club in the world.

List of Alpine clubs

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Club Abbreviation Country Founded
Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Hiking Club of Catalonia CEC Catalonia (Spain) 1876
Alpine Club of Pakistan ACP Pakistan 1974
Alpine Club Prishtina KAP Kosovo 2013[2]
Clube Alpino Paulista CAP Brazil 1959[3]
Academic Alpine Club of Innsbruck AAKI Austria 1893[4]
Academic Alpine Association of Innsbruck AAVI Austria 1900[5]
Academic Alpine Club of Munich AAVM Germany 1892
South Tyrol Alpine Club AVS Italy 1946 (1869-1923: part of OeAV, banned after 1923)
Alpine Club AC United Kingdom 1857/58
Alpine Club of Canada ACC Canada 1906
Alpine Club of Haller AGH Austria 1905
Alpine Club of Krummholz AGK Austria 1879
Alpine Club of Peilsteiner AG? Austria 1894
Alpine Club of Preintaler AGP Austria 1885
Alpine Club of Reißtaler[6] AGR Austria 1881
Alpine Association of Berne[7] AVB Switzerland 1909
American Alpine Club AAC United States 1902
Alpine Club at CU CUAC United States 2001
Andean German Club DAV Santiago Chile 1924
Appalachian Mountain Club AMC United States 1876
Armenian Mountaineering and Hiking Federation AMHF Armenia 2011
Associazione Sentieri Alpini Calanca ASAC Switzerland 1978
Australian Alpine Club AAC Australia 1950[8]
Barts and the London Alpine Club[9] BLAC United Kingdom 1941
Belgian Alpine Club BAC CAB Belgium 1883
California Alpine Club CAC United States 1913
Carpathian Association of Hungary (Magyarországi Kárpát Egyesület)[10] MKE Kingdom of Hungary 1873
Club Alpin Monégasque CAM Monaco 1911
Club Alpin Français CAF France 1874
Club Alpino Italiano CAI Italy 1863
Clubul Alpin Român CAR Romania 1934
Colorado Mountain Club CMC United States 1912
Crimean-Caucasian Mountaineering Club CCMC Russia 1890[11]
Croatian Mountaineering Association (Hrvatski planinarski savez) HPS (HPD) Croatia 1874[12]
Delftsche Studenten Alpen Club DSC Netherland 1922
Den Norske Turistforening DNT Norway 1886
Excelsior Alpine Club Excelsior Hungary 1966
German Alpine Club (Deutscher Alpenverein) DAV Germany 1869
German Hiking Club of Valparaiso DAV Chile 1909[13]
Kiama Alpine Club KAC Australia 1957[14]
Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club KPSC Australia 1861[15]
Kosciusko Alpine Club KAC Australia 1909[16]
Federación Española de Deportes de Montaña y Escalada FEDME Spain 1922
Fédération des Clubs Alpins Académiques de Suisse
Association of Academic Alpine Clubs of Switzerland
FCAAS Switzerland 1983
Fédération française de la montagne et de l’escalade FFME France 1942
Federazione alpinistica ticinese FAT Switzerland 1965
Groupe Alpin Luxembourgeois GAL Luxembourg 1955
Groupe de Haute Montagne GHM France 1919
Climbing Interest Group (Interessengemeinschaft Klettern) IG Klettern Germany 1989
Icelandic Alpine Club[21] ÍSALP Iceland 1977
Japanese Alpine Club JAC Japan 1905
Ladies' Alpine Club LAC United Kingdom 1907 to 1975 Merged with AC
Liechtenstein Alpine Club LAV Liechtenstein 1946 (1909 DuÖAV branch)
Austrian Friends of Nature (Naturfreunde Österreich) NFÖ, TVN Austria 1895
Nederlandse Klim- en Bergsport Vereniging NKBV Netherlands 1902/1998
New Zealand Alpine Club NZAC New Zealand 1891
Österreichische Bergsteigervereinigung ÖBV Austria 1907
Austrian Alpine Club (Österreichischer Alpenklub) ÖAK Austria 1878
Austrian Alpine Club (Österreichischer Alpenverein) OeAV Austria 1862
Austrian Tourist Club (Österreichischer Touristenklub) ÖTK Austria 1869
Austrian Tourist Association (Österreichischer Touristenverein) ÖTV Austria 1908
Alpine Association of Slovenia (Planinska zveza Slovenije) PZS Slovenia 1893
Ljubljana Matica Alpine Club (Planinsko društvo Ljubljana-Matica) PD LM Slovenia 1945
Polski Związek Alpinizmu PZA Poland 1974
Swiss Alpine Club SAC CAS Switzerland 1863
Skagit Alpine Club SAC United States 1960
Swiss Ladies' Alpine Club SFAC Switzerland 1918 to 1979 Merged with SAC
Società Alpinistica Ticinese SAT Switzerland 1937
Società Escursionistica Verzaschese SEV Switzerland 1983
Société des Touristes du Dauphiné STD France 1875
Southern Alps Ski Club SASC Australia 1935[22]
Svenska Turistföreningen STF Sweden 1885
Türkiye Dağcılık Federasyonu TDF Turkey 1936 (predecessor 1928)[23]
Unione Ticinese Operai Esccursionisti UTOE Switzerland 1919
Israel Climbers Club ICC Israel 1939
Mazamas MAZ United States 1894
Damavand mountaineering and ski club DMSC Iran 1953
The Mountaineers United States 1906
Washington Alpine Club WAC United States 1916
Centro Excursionista Brasileiro CEB Brazil 1919[24]
Círculo Marumbinista de Curitiba CMC Brazil 1930[25]


References

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  1. ^ "German Alpine Club in numbers" (in German). Deutscher Alpenverein. 2023-12-31. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  2. ^ "Klubi Alpin Prishtina". Klubi Alpin Prishtina. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  3. ^ Clube Alpino Paulista
  4. ^ "Akademischer Alpenklub Innsbruck". Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-12-26.
  5. ^ Akademischer Alpiner Verein Innsbruck
  6. ^ Alpine Gesellschaft Reißtaler Archived 2010-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Alpine Vereinigung Bern
  8. ^ "History - Australian Alpine Club".
  9. ^ http://blalpineclub.wordpress.com/ [user-generated source]
  10. ^ https://karpategyesulet.hu/ https://hu.wiki.x.io/wiki/Magyarorsz%C3%A1gi_K%C3%A1rp%C3%A1t-egyes%C3%BClet [bare URL]
  11. ^ Крымско-Кавказский горный клуб
  12. ^ "Hrvatski planinarski savez". Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  13. ^ Footprint, Asset. "DAV". dav-valparaiso.cl/. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  14. ^ "Kiama Alpine Club - Club History".
  15. ^ Footprint, Asset. "Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club". kpsc1861.org.au. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  16. ^ "Home - Kosciusko Alpine Club".
  17. ^ Akademischer Alpenclub Basel
  18. ^ Akademischer Alpenclub Bern
  19. ^ Akademischer Alpine Club Zürich
  20. ^ Club Alpin Académique de Genève Archived 2012-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Icelandic Alpine Club Archived 2011-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ "Southern Alps Ski Club".
  23. ^ Türkiye Dağcılık Federasyonu – Tarihçe. 2014.
  24. ^ CEB's history.
  25. ^ A mountain range and a set of cultural practices as scale of research in environmental history.
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