Chicago Mountaineering Club. The Chicago Mountaineering Club continued to expand its program of local outings in 1956 by holding several winter weekend trips to the regular climbing areas of Devils Lake, Wisconsin, and Mississippi Palisades States Park, Illinois, in addition to the usual warm-weather trips. Eighteen outings in all were held, with attendance ranging from eight during one weekend when the temperature dropped to -8° F, to 45 on several summer trips. As the club holds western camps only in odd-numbered years, many members were able to participate in the climbing activities of other mountaineering clubs. Fifteen members attended the Alpine Club of Canada camp at Glacier, B.C.

Early in 1956 the directors of the club instituted a new program designed to control climbing activities more firmly by qualifying and designating certain members as rope leaders for local outings. As a result of this program and the work of the outing and safety chairmen, accidents were held to a minimum, with only one injury recorded for the entire season.

Non-climbing activities were limited to the publication of the "Newsletter,” regular monthly meetings during the spring and fall, and a family picnic and dinner in November, attended by over 100 people. Club membership in 1956 totaled about 150, with 65 percent from Chicago and its immediate vicinity.

Walter I. March