The first Alpine Club, Alpine Club (UK), was founded in London in 1857. It was once described as:
Today, Alpine clubs stage climbing competitions, operate alpine huts and paths, and are active in protecting the Alpine environment. The oldest is the UK Alpine Club, founded as a gentlemen's club (see List of London's gentlemen's clubs). With around 1,000,000 members the German Alpine Club is the largest Alpine club in the world.
References
List of alpine clubs Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA