Bergensteigern - Mountaineers

For ages now I have been trying to read the hand written climb club diary of the Bergensteigern climbing club from Middlesbrough. It is a collection of minutes from a climbing club my grandpa was a founding member off. It’s a record of events between 1938 and 1942. It wonderfully naive, simple. Just young men getting out on the rock. They never talk about work, just getting out on the hill, and joke merrily between them. They all have nicknames and make up feuds between each other, which are never real but need settling with beer or climbs. You have to read between the lines to see the true story. But underlying the climbing is a more sinister landscape, one which they don't understand, and why should they, after all they didn't know Hitler was about to start a war. Recorded in the minuets of this old and tired diary, you see a sudden realization; people can't make it to climbing weekends due to air raid duties. A tardy meeting is held, as they are tired after spending the night in the shelters, and food and petrol are rationed. In a time of internet and fast information it all looks so naive, but they just didn't know what was happening. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, if you already know the future.