In 2004, with retirement approaching and my 27-year association with MGS trekking coming to an end, I was keen to maintain contact with the walking friends I had made while trekking with MGS. So I invited all the staff I had trekked with over the years (and for whom I had contact details) to join the inaugural Old Trekkers Group (the OTG), with the aim of arranging periodic social walks, mainly in the Peak District, about 6 times a year. Many responded to the idea, and the OTG is now well established, with walks taking place monthly from 2008 when most of the group had by then retired. In 2014 we had our 10th Anniversary walk and meal, in March 2015 held our 100th event, a walking weekend in the Yorkshire Dales, and in September 2019 celebrated our 15th Anniversary and 150th event, again with a walking weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.

In the summer of 2006 the opportunity arose for an all-staff trek to the Alps. With most of those interested in their late 50s, and with Lesley Witton and Judith Willson keen to join in too, we decided against camping treks and the heavier packs that they necessitate, and opted for hut-to-hut treks. And so the first Old Trekkers’ Trek went off ‘hutting’ in the Stubai Alps in Austria.

The Logs for each OTT are simply pictorial diaries with brief outlines of the route and conditions, plus a sketch map, a route summary, and map and guide references. Such details of organisation such as transport links, cable cars and details of the huts are not included as they are readily available online. The general pattern of travel has been: budget flights between Manchester and Munich/Milan/Toulouse/Zurich/Verona/Venice/Geneva/Oslo; rail and bus to and from the mountains; plus, where available (on 8 of the treks), a cable car to the start of the trekking.

The Logs were written primarily as a record to be circulated to those who were on each Trek, and consequently contain lots of images of people as well as landscape photographs.

The slide show below shows the whole party for each of the 14 Old Trekkers’ Treks we have done so far.

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