Extracts from Newsletter 20
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Eight brave (foolish?) souls made the long journey to Cornwall over Easter. Despite the inclement weather, Harvey, Barcode and Jo were spotted on Sunday on "Black Slab" (again) at Bosigran, while Pete and Ali tackled "Andrew". The hail did not add to the enjoyment. Lynne wisely decided to stick to walking. Gary and Mark were also rumoured to have put in an appearance, but left early - apparently unimpressed by the 90ft waves at Sennen.
Swim anyone?
Alison
Visiting crags for the first time can result in one of several experiences; the extremes being disappointment and rapture. For me at least, Hounds Tor on Dartmoor fell into the former class, but this was more than compensated by the earlier Club visits to Sheep Tor and The
Dewarstone, where there are large numbers of superb routes on firm granite. But staying on the positive side, a recent visit to North Yorkshire with Sandy saw us at Baildon Bank, a disused sandstone quarry just five minutes walk from the road. Sandstone? I hear you say, we have enough of that down south!! But no, this is definitely different and more akin to Millstone Grit. In fact, the whole quarry has a similar aspect to Millstone, but without the crowds. So what's at Baildon? I hear you all ask. Well try these for starters: Hades*** (50' 4c VS), Bramble Crack** (45' 4c VS), Joanna*** (40' 4c, VS), Epitaph*** (55', 4a HS), Paddy's Route (45' 4c, VS), and lots, lots more at similar and higher grades for the main course and dessert. This crag faces south and comes highly recommended for those having a day to spare and wanting to go somewhere different - just be a little careful when topping out and definitely keep clear of the central box quarry. All is revealed in the Yorkshire Gritstone guide.
Derek 3rd June 1998
| Derek is no longer encumbered by the routine monotony of work now fills his time with climbing and international travel, he likes small furry animals and would like to save the world through modelling. |
Bank Holidays are made so that you can sit in traffic on long Journeys, Eventually we all arrived at the same place at the same time to turn an empty campsite into a post apocalypse refugee site, and then to sleep. The next morning the council for refugee climbers announced that the invasion would head to Sheep Tor. The troops rolled out with military precision whilst the rest of us made for the nearest greasy spoon, stopping only to admire the complete glue set (four glues in one packet - handy or what and only £3.95 - a bargain), before satisfying the inner man ..... woman..... dog.
Sheep Tor is a little lump of granite surrounded by sheep, well it was until we arrived. We set about spreading the paraphernalia of modern climbing techniques all over the ground and tackled the routes with gay abandon, all except Phil who hid behind a bottle of Bud Ice or two. The easy routes where hard, the harder routes where great and the really hard routes where impossible, no change there then. Most of us struggled on some and flew up others, well except Derek who struggled on all the routes and blamed too much winter climbing on his lack of form. Is the Keen Machine slowing down??? Nahhhh, just warming up.
The sun set, the larger was consumed and the BBQ was lit so that good food could be burnt to a cinder, the air filled with fumes and bellies filled with charcoal. Later in the pub the evening entertainment was supplied by the flame haired lesbians from hell who had taken a shine to our Suzanne.
The next day started slowly, very slowly, and for Suzanne and Phil extremely slowly indeed. We needed to go to the Dewarstone, we needed a massive intake of grease, we needed the Dartmoor Chef. The Dewarstone was its usual big impressive self so we had to do big impressive climbs like Central Grove, Fly on the Wall, Spiders Web, Climbers Club Direct, Fruitflancase, Route B and many others. Ian had to do an impressive fall, Trevor did some impressive giggling, Pete did some impressive floundering and Barney got sensible in an exposed position. The climbing went on till late, very late, so late that the pubs stopped serving food and the Crows went home to roost. We found a Chinese restraunt and a pub in Ashburton, but not in that order, and later formed a select band eating from shiny cartons and chatting into the night (all except Martin who seemed to have ordered Chilli Chow Main with extra Chillies in Chilli sauce).
The Guide book claims that Hound Tor has 30 Odd routes, This is bollocks, there is however a massive amount of bouldering to be had or if your stupid enough to link them together one long game of follow my leader. Super way to end the long weekend unless you count the Burger King Big Whopper with extra cheese and large fries ... which I do.
Trev, Suzanne, Phil, Ali, Pete C, Ian, Shirley, Liam, Martin, Barney, Serena, Stuart, Angela, Pete H, Flo, Derek, Son of Derek (Rob), Friend of Son of Derek, Girl Friend of Son of Derek and Girl Friend of Friend of Son of Derek all took part in this outing but Martin was the only on to order Darjeeling at the up market Cafe in Ashburton.
Pete
The cows on Dartmoor are just so cool, eat grass, smoke grass, moo man .... moo. but remember there are strange beasts abroad. they will temp you with tales of daring do. lull you into a false sense of security and play on your vanity until you believe everything that they say. Before you know it you will be in too deep hanging on the edge of the gapping abyss by your finger nails; knowing that your next move could end in failure; being taughted by your nemesis form above. If you come through this ghastly ordeal and survive you your bitter experience should tell you NEVER NEVER do it again. .......... but of course you will.
Pete
| Pete cannot climb E1 but was seen seconding Trevor up Fruitflanecase (E1 5a) at the Dewarstone. |
What can I say. It's quite clear that my wife is definitely up to something! It's May, and already I've climbed on 8 different crags this year on "proper" trips. 21 great routes have succumbed, many of them classics.
The tick list includes 9 HVS's, 4 E1's, 2 E2's and even an E3 (Wow, I hear myself say). Partners have varied although all from the "elite" gang of rock rats, namely Richard "Backoff" Groves, Trevor "Comfy Mattress" Clarke and Mark "Big boy" Holmes.
Destinations have been Portland, Cornwall, Swanage x 2, Wintours Leap, The Roaches and Stoney Middleton. Pete keeps nagging us and so eventually we'll put finger to keyboard for them all.
The forecast was brilliant (for winter climbing in Scotland). I spoke to the big boys "comfy" and Ian Wigglehorn, who both confirmed their positive intentions. Rendezvous and ETA were set!
I went down a day early to prepare the landing site and deposit my family at some distant relatives. At 9-00am Friday I arrived at Bosigran car park to meet up with the rest of the club (53 strong at last count). Mark was there with Dave, a relatively new climber who had driven down from Scotland for the meet. We huddled up in the strong gales and waited………….and waited…………..and waited. It soon became obvious this was not going to be EGCC's winner of "most attended trip".
Bosi beckoned and we set off in search of adventure. The wind was so strong we could hardly stand, which made the descent interesting to say the least. We were soaking wet from sea spray whilst still 100ft above the sea. We climbed 2 routes. The first, Black Slab, in gloves and big boots. The weather improved slightly in the afternoon and we climbed the "classic" Doorpost 185ft HS. I had the pleasure of leading the top pitch just as the rain poured. Mark came up 3rd blue and shivering.
The 2nd day was a similar story, but colder. We chose the easier Sennen Cove to compensate. 3 routes succumbed including Demo Route HS. Crux moves were made interesting by a sudden Hailstone storm, which did not do much for friction. Try looking up for holds whilst being pelted in the face with hundreds of ice pellets.
We ended the day soloing out on a V Diff in big boots and rucsacs. At 80ft the spray from a crashing wave soaked us and the rock. We quickly decided to finish using ropes. Sensible eh!
The highlight of the trip, though, had nothing to do with the climbing. Saturday night was spent in the usual watering hole, The Wreckers Inn. Here we met up with Barcode and his crowd (who had "sheltered" there all day) together with Newall and Phillipa. Flexible licensing meant we were still there drinking (I think) past 1am. During which time we had all mastered revolutionary new dance routines, as performed by Phillipa. Eg. Big Fish….Little Fish, Big Box….Little Box. One even included T-shirt swapping!!!
You wimps who bottled out missed a great trip.
Gary.
| Gary is a rock God. (NOT). |
What a washout! like many others I had been looking forward to a first weekend away on the "real" stuff for 1998. However higher powers intervened and all thoughts of driving to Cornwall vanished as I checked teletex for the weather reports. With there being no real chance of doing much meaningfull climbing, I managed to blag a lift to South Wales for a little caving (what goes up sometimes goes down ?!!?).
Easter Saturday consisted of a mainly horizontal trip into a cave called Ogof Fynnon Dee. Lots of clambering over huge boulders until the main river, then off upstream for an hour until the top waterfall gets in the way, turn round and retrace our steps to the pub dinner and four pints of Brains SA.
On Sunday I visited the only vertical pothole in South Wales, Pwll Dyfn, 3 ropes, 5 pitches and a mainly dry cave later I was walking off the hill in a blizzard. Out of desperation I had to visit the pub for six pints of SA and a side order of hangover.
On Monday I saw a sign in the caving shop advertising a climbing wall at the Welsh international climbing centre, at the site of the old trelewis pit, strangely my climbing kit had been optimistically packed so it was off to the valley ..... boyo.
The centre is in a new building and is a little tricky to find. It's HUGE, possibly even STONKING, but that's enough about me, the climbing centre based in a new building is at least four time the size of high sports and about 60ft high. It has bouldering, top ropes huge lead walls, awesome overhangs, a gym and most importantly a bar. As it wasn't that busy Caver Matt and I managed to get totally knacked in two hours.
A member of the UK ladies climbing team was at the at the centre doing all the hard stuff. This served to remind me of three fundamental truths in my life: one, I am crap, two I am overweight and three I am liable to pass out whenever a young, lithe and athletic woman removes her T-shirt to reveal one of those skimpy Stone Monkey crop tops.
The place is worth a visit even if you aren't a middle aged, crap, overweight and perverted climber.
Martin Upfold.
| Martin and his alter ego Famous Pierre are currently touring the Basingstoke area after a wrong turn and a first assent in Braknell |
John had very kindly arranged accomodation at the climbers club hut, which was difficult to find. John had retired early leaving Eddie and I to navigate Pembroke for beer. John being very keen got us up extraordinarly early in the moring to visit the popular Saddle Head area to climb a number of V.diffish routes in rapid succession, followed bt the magnificent Pink-Un (VS 5a) which was lead by Eddie.
By lunch time the crag was full of people that get up at a sensible time of the day so we moved on to Bosherton Head to allow John to lead a Severe in double quick time and for Eddie and I to share the honours on the excellent Olde Worlde (VS 4c, 4a).
Our evening repast was taken in the St.Governs head where we met Ian, Shirley, Marcus and Co. They were roughing it in one of those Bed and Breakfast things, now where is the fun in that?
On Sunday our team was augmented by Steve and Dick from the Climbers Club to climb at Flimstone Bay and Crystal slabs in the morning followed by Crackmail Point in the afternoon. The best routes were Krispie Crack (VS 4c) and Crunkie (VS 4b) but that could have been due to choclate depravation.
By Monday the frantic pace had slowed to a sprint has we headed off to Giltar slabs to give Steve a chance to practice his leading. The best route of the day award went to Greasy Corner (HS 4b) which we attacked as two pairs before heading back to England.
Martin Upfold
| Owing to a missprint Martin will no longer be available for weddings, Birthdays and Funerals, He would like to apologise to Eddie, John and Steve for the poor quality of many of his jokes. |
There was this ledge. It was a fine ledge with panoramic views over a sun-drenched Staffordshire landscape. On reaching it three people could be espied - sitting comfortably, or not so comfortably amidst a quantity of rope, slings & expensive looking shiny pieces of metal.
My arrival added somewhat to the congestion in this idyllic spot. John found a safe point for me to attach to, and I sat down at the end of the row. Looking at the activity below, above and at each side along the Roaches - I wished I'd brought a camera along.
After a while, ( for Tom, Isobel & myself this sitting halfway up a cliff was a new experiece - and we wanted to enjoy it ) a decision was made that we should carry on to the top.
John, who was shepherding this merry band of adventurers, offered the the chance of leading the next stage. This was much appreciated, as he'd already spent the morning teaching me about leading further down the ridge.
I set off. The scary bit first - standing up. Then edge along the ridge, trying to avoid standing on people and anything else non-rock - like rope, slings or especially space. Starting a climb from the side has great advantages, you're already halfway up and don't have to try to jump for the first hold. The first part was pleasant, progressing sideways across face ; with nice grippy rock and a series of parrallel hand and footholds Usefull advice like 'you'd better put some protection in around here ' & 'just up a bit to your right' making sure that I didn't forget too much..
Then ,on reaching a corner , for the vertical bit. Careful instructions were received to use a large nut on the corner to try to prevent the rope jamming in the crack. This was done. I just chose the wrong crack. Fortunately it didn't matter. Upwards progression was slow, with good large holds. I like good large holds. The queue of people behind me also liked good holds. They waited patiently for me to stop using them.
At the top, 1) think great I've made it, 2) look for something to tie the rope to. Here I was lucky, as piece of rock having been designed for anchoring ocean liners was to hand. After some slight delay due to communication problems - no one could hear me - Isobel appeared confidenrly climbing towards me. The next to arrive was John who belayed Tom up to join us whilst Isobell & I enjoyed the atmosphere, the view & generally lazing around on warm rocks on a sunny day.
There ended my go at lead climbing, I enjoyed it. Many thanks to all who took part.
Roger Grieves
A very well attended trip with eighteen or so members wandering aimlessly about in the mud trying to find a climb that they have the remotest posibility of getting up.
Notible events included :
Danny's scream of 'Coliiinnnnn !!!!' as he lobbed fifteen feet down Reptile Smile E1 5b having just clipped a bolt. Great belaying (not) to which Colin seemed to pass off with remarkable indifference. (It's a dangerous game we play people so let's keep things a bit more tidy.)
Don's stonking lead up Mother's Milk, an E1 5b up an impending crack that had already repulsed a few others that day.
Some new guy backing off the top section of Cakewalk HVS 5a and sitting on the pillar having a fag to calm the nerves, before retreating the rest of the way.
Just about everyone getting up Slings Slot HVS 4c - popular route that, I wonder why ?
And of course a mention of Garys lead of 'Nothing is Cool' at a very cool E3 6a. Me jealous ? Never.
I wonder how many routes had the bottom half done and the top half left untouched - I certainly did a few !
Trevor
| Trevor, a stalwart of the club, is currently scaring rabbits on the south downs. His past misadventures have earned him the esteemed title of chairman |