Foreword by the President

Puerto Rico to Nepal, Greenland to Chile our members have beenthere in recent months and have set down some of their experiencesin this edition of our Bulletin.

Just look at these snippets... 'Humpback whales playingaround the ship...' 'Ever onwards, ever upwards was the motto.''Splat! Several 10cm long spider legs twitched from under her fist.''Ropes fixed on the steeper sections up to camp two at 61OOm...'The track was said to be 'uncycleable' so he cycled it. 'Wingovers,spiral dives and asymmetrics..' 'Pills to combat the effects ofaltitude..' 'Porter blown upwards and backwards ...' 'Found asuitable boulder to shelter under for the night..' In cloud and snow acircuit of all the eight tops and three Munros of Craig Meagaidh wasan interesting exercise in navigation.

It's not all activity though there are reflective thoughts on thosemiscellaneous topics like stress in leeches, naval architecture andageism in the Guardia Civil which litter our conversations. Crinoids,buffalo, vultures, tripe, ice cream and chips all make an appearance.

Let's hope for a few days of poor weather or at least a wet evening ortwo, to allow members time to dip into this melange of typically YRCmadness.

©1996 Yorkshire Ramblers' Club

Secretary - John Schofie1d, 40 Newall Hall Park, Otley,West Yorkshire LS21 2RD

Editor - Michael Smith, 80 Towngate Road, Worrall,Sheffield, South Yorkshire S30 3AR

The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarilythose of the Y.R.C, its Officers nor those of the Editor.An information sheet entitled 'Notes for Contributors' isavailable to anyone considering submitting material for

inclusion in subsequent editions.

The Bulletin of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club 1 Summer 1996

Contents

D01je Lakpa Expedition Ged Campion 3

YRC Jugal Himal Expedition 1995 AlanKay 8

Paradise Maintained? - a poem Ian Crowther 23

Ascent ofNaya Kanga David Smith 24

Expedition Diary, Nepal 1957 Maurice Wilson 27

A Summer's Climbing Dream JonRiley 28

Eastern Greenland David Laughton 30

Humiliation at Caverna Corredores John Middleton 31

Cueva del Gato JonRiley 33

A World Caving Update John Middleton 35

Under a Canopy in Tenerife Peter Price 37

The President's Report DerekBush 39

Contents ofthe YRC Journals Ray Harben 41

Reviews Bill Todd 46

Edmund Bogg, the Savage Club & the YRC S. A. Craven 51

Obituaries Geogrey Booth Bates 55

Alton Hartley 55

Letters 56

Chippings 57

Meet Reports: 1995 Picos de Europa July/August 59

Mallorca April 81

Inchnadampf May/June 90

Crianlarich September 92

Low Hall Garth October 93

Swaledale October 94

Blencathra December 97

1996 North Wales January 95

Lowstern March 98

Glen Etive February 99

The Bulletin of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club 2 Summer 1996

(Liaison Officer)(Sirdar)(Cook)(Head Sherpa)

Dorje LakpaExpedition

An attempt on Dorje Lakpa(6966m) via the West Ridge bythe climbing group of the 1995Club Expedition to Nepal

Expedition Members:Ged Campion Expedition LeaderStuart Muir Deputy LeaderROlY Newman Expedition DoctorGraham SalmonFrank MilnerBruce BensleyDavidHickHoward HumphreysTimBatemanPralhad PockerellPemba TsiringAng Phurba LamaPemba Tharke

Introduction and Background:The YRC DOlje Lakpa Expeditionwas a Yorkshire Ramblers ClubExpedition in the true sense. Apartfrom the Deputy Expedition Leader,Stuart Muir, all the climbers wereClub Members.

The YRC has been no stranger to theJugal Rimal area of Nepal. In 1959the Club mounted an expedition toclimb Lonpo Gang (The Great WhitePeak 7,083m). Sadly, this expeditionended in tragedy when the expeditionleader and a Sherpa were killed byserac fall on the Phurbi ChyachuGlacier.

Whilst there was talk of a furtherattempt on Lonpo Gang, it wasgenerally felt that the idea of"settlinga score" was not the best basis for a

The YRC Bulletin 3

club expedition ill the 1990's.Nevertheless, club members on the1957 expedition were able to offertheir invaluable advice and knowledgeon the area and it~as finally MauriceWilson, the YDungest member of the'57 expedition now aged 85, whosuggested Dorje Lakpa as ourobjective.

The History and the Logistics ofthe Approach:It was therefore, our objective, toclimb Dorje Lakpa (6966m) by theWest Ridge. Dorje Lakpa has beenattempted on six previous occasionsand four of these managed to reachthe summit via the west ridge. Thesummit has not been reached by anyother route on the map. However,ours was to be the first Britishattempt. Expeditions have normallyapproached the mountain from theLangtang side. Only two expeditionshave previously approached from theJugal Himal side in the south, aGerman expedition in 1987 and anItalian one in 1989. The Germanexpedition was successful in reachingthe summit the Italian one was not. Itwas to be our decision to approachfrom the south since there werecertain advantages from this side:1 The walk into the base camp wouldbe more interesting through a remoteand relatively unpopulated areacompared with the more popularLangtang side.2 We would be able to gaininformation ofDorje Lakpa IT which isvery visible and impressive from theLingshing Glacier.3 Our base camp would have a sunnyaspect.

The disadvantages were the concemsabout a suitable base camp site awayfrom the dangers of avalanche andstone fall.

Summer 1996

The Organisation:Dorje Lakpa is a mountain that canonly be climbed as a joint Nepaleseventure and therefore permits andpermission had to be obtained fromthe Nepalese authorities. It was AlanKay, Club Treasurer and nominatedExpedition co-ordinator for the YRC,who took care of the formalities. Weall have much to owe to his carefulplanning and patience surmounting thehurdles of Nepalese bureaucracy.Rimo Expeditions acted as our Agentsin Nepal organising the LiaisonOfficer, Sirdar, staff and base campequipment. Malla Treks weresubcontracted for use by RimaExpeditions. We were alsointerviewed by Elizabeth Hawley, longestablished Climbing Journalist basedin Kathmandu.

The Equipment:Most of our equipment was loaned tothe expedition by club members.Additionally, three high level tentswere borrowed from theWolverhampton Mountaineering Club,and two loaned by the "Base Camp"shop in llkley. Radios were loaned bythe West Yorkshire Scouts Movementand were to prove invaluableespecially at altitude. Special highaltitude food packs were carefullyprepared in England to last lOO man­days on the mountain. Two sets ofskis were loaned by "Base Camp" inllkley and "Climber and Rambler" inBets-y-Coed, NOlth Wales.

The Journey Out:The Team flew to Nepal on the 30September '95 arriving in Kathmanduon the 1 October. The first few dayswere spent confirming arrangements,meeting agents, liaison officer andSirdar. Some additional equipmentwas purchased in Kathmandu i.e.

The YRC Bulletin 4

snow stakes and ice screws chieflybecause of then' very temptingcheapness. A Government briefingtook place on the 4 October. It wasinitially very difficult to convene thismeeting because of our arrival hadfallen during the festival ofDasain andconsequently many Governmentbureaucrats were still busycelebrating! At the briefing there wasconfusion about the route our caravanwould take to approach the mountain.However, following discussion andhelp from the Liaison Officer this wasresolved.

The Approach to the Mountain:On the 4 October we left Katmandufor Chatura only 60 kilometres northof the city and took three hours bymotor vehicle. Porters were organisedat Chatura and additional supplieswere purchased by staff to sustain usduring our outward leg. We decidedto approach the higher ranges of theJugal Himal by a series of ridgesystems high above and to the west ofthe Balephi Valley. This it was feltwould serve as a useful acclimatisationexercise rather than taking the routealong the Belephi Valley directly toTempathang Village and thensuddenly have to climb 2,000 metressteeply to the top ofthe ridge system.

From Chatura our caravan took usthrough the village of Bangland up tothe Rhododendron Forests and leechinfested scrub of the KamicharkaDanda leading eventually to PanchPokhari (five lakes). The monsoonwas late this year and bad weatherobscured views but out spirits werenot dampened. Unfortunatelyhowever, our poorly clad porters fromChatura suffered in the wet conditionsand the Sirdar experiencedconsiderable industrial unrest on morethan one occasion. From the sacred

Summer 1996

lakes of Panch Pokari we left ourtrekking team, also members of theYRC and travelled the so called "fivecombs" high above the impenetrablegorges of the Balephi River to theeventual Confluence of the Balephiand Lingshing Rivers below the mouthofthe Lingshing Glacier.

At the "Confluence Camp" on the 11October 1995 we halted proceedingsto search for a suitable base camp onone of the flanks of the LingshingGlacier. We therefore made acomprehensive exploration of bothwest and east side. The westappeared safest seemingly absent ofany avalanche threat from the slopesof D01je Lakpa IT above.Unfortunately, though a number ofgood sites were discovered, access tothe Glacier was impossible. TheAblation Valley on the east sidehowever hosted a very promising siteand access to the glacier provedrelatively simple. Tins and otherartefacts were evidences of a previouscamp no doubt the German expeditionof 1987. Although there was some

. threat of serac fall from the cliffs ofUrkinmang (6151 m), it was judgedthat the camp site was of a generallysafe distance in the event of any icefall. Base camp was thereforeestablished at 4500 m on Friday 13October with marvellous view ofD01je Lakpa from the crest of thelateral moraine of the LingshingGlacier.

The Climb:From base camp the Ablation Valleywas followed to an eventual descentto the Lingshing Glacier gained from adiagonal traverse on steep loosemoraine. The next section of theGlacier Tilman was described in 1949as "a long stretch of rough penitentialsurface, huge craters and hillocks ofstone covered ice". Forced on to the

The YRC Bulletin 5

medial morain, we discovered aperfect site for our advanced basecamp - a grass hollow with two smalltarns, a veritable oasis amongst thechaos of the Lingshing Glacier. At4700 meters and two and a halfhours,from our base camp, we had very clearviews of our objective. Tilman'sporters mistakenly believed this placeto be Panche Pokhari when theycrossed from the Lang Tang side tothe Jugal via the east col in 1949. Thelabours of much ferrying from basecamp saw the establishment ofadvanced base camp on the 15October. From here we gained heighton the medial moraine climbingsteeply to rejoin the glacier at 5,000meters. The chaos of boulders gaveway to ice and snow making the goingconsiderablymore easy. Progress wasthreatened on the west by regularstone fall from the massive rockbuttresses of Ling Shing Kanshurm(6078 metres). Although a number ofcrevasses were encountered, theyproved relatively easy to cross. Camp1 was established on the 16 October at5,300 meters just below Tilmans EastCol marking the start of'Dorje Lakpa'swest ridge. During these early daysprogress was often hampered by poorvisibility and snow fall but latemonsoon mists gradually gave way toclear and cooler weather.

The camp I was efficiently equippedby ferrying equipment from advancebase. From here we ascended thegradual snow slope to the right of theridge. Access to the ridge proper wasgained via a 45° slope initiallychristened the Scottish Grade IT.From the top of this, the ridge rosebroadly at first and then more finallycrested with large cornicesoverhanging the Langtang side of themountain. We were mostly forcedon to the southern side of the

Summer 1996

again. At :first this camp was sited toofar along the ridge and precariouslypoised on the Crest. The followingmorning it was moved back into a lessprecipitous area. Throughout thisperiod, teams had been continuallyvisited by two large alpine ravens who

YRC Dorje LakpaExpedition - 1995

..

lOkm

NEPAL

5km

_.- Border- -0- - Route taken

with camps

o,TIBET

,--->4, pPallgtallg

(

la Kamicharka; ; 1160mIudrawati Dauda " la

\ Khola '-~ " ')J""\ 2557~i. \) ',~-,-'~- \~\ --- .../'

'\. . \ \ - '- .l ,

- ~\~... -'0, " ,1~a1bire 830m

S W" fJya e'" i If Jeen,A IJ ft::"!'

Kathmandu IT" t 'om~- c ~: here

55lan by road Chautara ';',

Crest on steep ground sometime icecovered and sometimes poor qualitysnow. Ropes were fixed on thesteeper sections and by the 24 OctoberCamp 2 was established on the sectionof the ridge at 6,100 meters where theridge levels out before rising sharply

'TheYRC Bulletin 6 Summer 1996

cunningly managed to unearth foodand equipment despite considerableefforts to conceal supplies.

On the 24/25 October, explorationbegan on the ridge above camp 2.This was to be the turning point of theexpedition. Much to our dismay snowconditions began to deterioratesubstantially. Disturbing slabavalanche conditions wereencountered on the south side of theridge making a traverse extremelyserious. The ridge reared up andcould not be climbed at the crestbecause of the unstable nature of thecornice. There appeared to be noreasonable way forward. Expeditionmembers discussed the situation fully,but with an absence of other routes onthe 25 October that fateful decisionthat every mountaineer dreads had tobe made - not to go on. With mixedfeelings therefore, over the next threedays, camps were dismantled andequipment was gathered together anda runner was sent to organise pottersin Tempathang for our return journey.Base Camp was completely cleared upand non biodegradable rubbish carriedout with us.

The Outward Journey:On the 28 October, the expedition leftthe base camp and headed back southacross the five combs via the"Confluence" Camp. From the PanchPokhari area a steep track was takenin the direction of the village ofTempathang. This required a full daysdescent through difficult forestcovered country. It was at this villagethat our Sirdar experiencedconsiderable difficulty persuading theporters to continue on the outwardjourney. They had considered thedescent the previous day too exactingand so there was some reluctance tocontinue immediately. However, anagreement was made and the caravan

The YRC Bulletin 7

continued to descend the BalephiValley through Gompathang andfinally the village of Jalibre wherejeeps were hired to convey us toBalephi Village itself Soon after theVillage we reached the main roadsouth to Kathmandu. The entirejourney from base camp toKathmandu took six days.

The Return:Once back ill Kathmanduarrangements were made for adebriefing meeting at the Governmentbuildings. This however did nottranspire. Instead the Liaison Officerrequested that we filled in a formcovering details of the expeditionsconclusion. The expedition leftKathmandu to fly home to England onthe 10 November.

Acknowledgements:

We thank the following for theirgenerous financial support:

Foundation for Sport and the Arts,British Mountaineering Council,YRC members,Mount Everest Foundation,Barclays Bank,Panasonic UK Ltd,Skipton Building Societyand an anonymous donor.

The Wolverhampton M C providedthree high altitude tents. The BaseCamp shop at llkley also provided twohigh altitude tents. Climber andRambler in Bets-y-Coed, North Walesand Base Camp in llkley provided skimountaineering (which incidentallywere not used). The West YorkshireScout Movement provided five radiosthat were used extensively from BaseCamp.

Food was supplied at a discount by:­Twinings Tea, Yorkshire Teaand Asda Stores

Summer 1996

The YRC Jugal RimalExpedition, 1995

Alan Kay

Planning for the Dorje LakpaExpedition and the related trekkingexpedition to the Jugal Himal began inDecember 1992, and after almostthree years, work, including solvinglast minute problems, it seemed almostunreal on lst October 1995 actually tobe beginning the expedition, andboarding the coach for Heathrow.

The original reason for having aspecial coach had been quite simply toensure that everyone, and theenormous amount of equipment wewere taking, actually got to Heathrowon time. The enthusiastic "send-off'we received from spouses, partners,children and other YRC memberscertainly gave our departure quite alift and the "coming together" of the, .two teams in this way was, I think, feltby everyone; there was clearly afeeling of increasing excitement as weprogressed down the country fromone pick-up point to the next.

Formalities at Heathrow were dealtwith without hitch, and this was thefirst of a number of occasions whendealing with officialdom, that as alarge party we received preferentialtreatment.

The PIA flight had a stop-over atDubai and we were able to wanderaround the magnificent airportbuilding. Karachi was reached ontime, transit arrangements wentsmoothly (again, 'group-power') andthree hours later we were inKathmandu.

The YRC Bulletin 8

Here we saw the enOlIDOUS advantageof having a good local agent to helpwith customs formalities. We weremet and ushered through Customs

.without the slightest problem or delay- our fears oflosing two or three dayswith Customs problems had beenmisplaced.

We met Motup, our principal agent,outside the airport building, and atonce took a liking to him - a small,though powerfully built man of 29,brimming with energy and enthusiasm.Thirty minutes later we were at ourhotels, the climbers at the KathmanduGuest House and the trekking groupat the Tibetan owned Utse Hotel inThamel- the beginning of a separationI didn't altogether care for.

Next day the 7 members of thetrekking group went sightseeing roundKathmandu. Our first destination wasSwayambhu Stupa. On the way wecrossed the Vishnumati River, theriver banks lined with piles of garbagethrough which a number of enormouspigs and water buffalo wererummaging, We looked in at a smallmonastery where Nepali families weremeeting and worshipping. We hadarrived in Nepal at the beginning ofthe Dasain Festival which lasts fourdays and during this festival it istraditional for families to visit theirrelatives. From the jovial atmosphereit was clear that everyone was havinga good time, playing games. andgenerally enjoying one another'scompany, children and grandparentsbeing much in evidence. A gamesimilar to monopoly, but played on thepavement, noisily, and for money, waspopular. It was fascinating to see theentire population intent on enjoyingthemselves.

Summer 1996

Further along our way to SwayambhuI noticed that many of the houses,built of crude crumbling brickwork,had huge satellite dishes on the roofs ­the dishes seemed to be made of littlemore than chicken wire. Against abackdrop of Swayambhu Stupa, whichis on a site believed to be 2000 yearsold, were thus ancient and modern injuxtaposition.

The Stupa, by definition a domedstructure housing the relics of a saint,is surrounded by 211 prayer wheels atshoulder height, and devout Buddhistscircuit the stupa in clockwisedirection, turning all the prayer wheelsas they pass. Swayambhu is a superbviewpoint for the entire Kathmanduvalley, and for this reason alone is agood starting place for a visit toNepal; add the noise, smells andbustle, the monuments and the idols,the tolerance shown there betweenfellowmen, and it becomes an epitomeofthe whole ofNepal.

We made our way eventually toDurbar Square where a Sadhu, for afee, allowed us to photograph him.We bartered with some traders for afew items for presents, and then madeour way by cycle rickshaw to Patan.David and Albert, after muchsearching, and despite two puncturesto their rickshaw, eventually found theJesuit College they were looking for,and apparently were very warmlygreeted by the chief Monk and giventea. The rest of us enjoyed furtherhaggling for presents, crowned by lan,at great length, buying a large woodenmask, for the adomment, wifepermitting, of a wall in his house.That evening the "trekkers" joined theclimbing group at the KathmanduGuest House for dinner.

The YRC Bulletin 9

We left Kathmandu next day at 12­30pm.for a four-hour journey to thevillage of Chautari where we campedon the village games field, just outsidethe village.

What an introduction it was, though,to the Himalayas. The sky seemedquite enormous, gigantic cloudsconstantly undergoing delicatechanges of colour as the sun wentdown, from brilliant white, throughdeepening shades of gold, and finallyrusset as the sun neared the horizon.When the sun was finally gone, quiteimperceptibly more and more starsappeared than a city-bred Westernerwould ever realise existed.

A building near the games field wasoccupied by the Save The ChildrenFund, one of many in Nepal,according to Motup. He said that theactivities of this charity were workingwonders, gradually increasing healthfacilities and health education in thecountryside.

Next day started with a routine thatwe were to follow for the remainderof the trip - out of sleeping bag at6am. , Sherpas bring "bed-tea" thenwashing water, pack up personalbelongings, and whilst we eatbreakfast the tents are taken down andpacked, and we begin walking atabout 7am.

An easy pleasant path took us throughsome small settlements where thecelebrations of the Dasain Festivalwere continuing. In two or threeplaces huge swings had been madefrom bamboo poles and children, oldas well as young, took enormousdelight in swinging madly, almost tothe horizontal position at each

Summer 1996

extremity of the swing. I believe that agood number of the passing trekkerswould have given rupees for thechance of a go!

On the balconies of many of thehouses maize cobs had been hung outto dry in the sun, and near mostgroups ofhouses, forming a giant leapfor improved health, were water tapsand shiny brass water carriers.

We had an early lunch near adilapidated Chorten - a hot, sultry spot- followed by a short afternoon walkon a well used track, through forest tocamp near a small settlement knownas Lower Orkin. There was a small teahouse which was well patronised bythe porters, and the village tap wasused by some of our group to washout sweaty clothes. The tents were setup on a grassy "bealach" where valleysfell away on three sides; next morningthese valleys were filled with mistwhich gradually rose and dispersed asthe sun got higher and brighter - anentrancing sight in the clear air, andwhich stopped conversation for awhile. Breakfast was porridge, fried"eggy" bread and tea, very good, butnot so welcome for the members whocouldn't eat either porridge or eggs!

In sticky humid conditions wecontinued along the route which istaken every July by pilgrims to Panch

The YRC Bulletin 10

Pokhari. The path was eroded intodeep channels which occasionallymade progress awkward, particularlyfor our porters. We also encounteredour first leeches - rubbery little brutesthat reached out from vegetation assoon as they could pick up humanscent. They seemed almost to 11sniff'us out, and then attach themselves toclothing or skin, before proceeding tosuck blood. Although quite smallbefore feeding, (anything from I" to3" long and matchstick thick), aftersucking blood they can fatten out toI" thick and 4" or 5" long.

The state of the path meant wecouldn't avoid vegetation andtherefore all of us were caught byleeches. Fortunately I managed to spotthem and remove them before bloodwas drawn, but most other memberswere bitten at one time or another andlost blood. One leech which I spotted6" below my crutch, and headingnorthwards, was despatched withparticular urgency.

Our lunch stops, as well as thecamping sites were dictated byavailability of water, and we had tostop today for lunch at 9-20am.. Alarge eagle was identified on rocksnearby and later it flew around quiteeffortlessly.

Summer 1996

We camped at Balua Karka, anopening in the forest and quite a dampspot which quickly became a quagmirewhen it rained heavily later thatafternoon, with much thunder andlightning. The whole site was thenrunning with water and in the messtent it was 311 or 411 deep.

Our porters stoically put up with theextra discomfort, but trouble wasbrewing amongst the porters attachedto the climbing group. These werelocal men, not particularly experiencedat the job, but deliberately chosen sothey could be easily dismissed whenno longer needed. The porters withthe trekkers, however, had beenrecruited by Mingma, our Sirdar, fromPokara, 70 miles or so away, and notonly were they professional,experienced porters, they couldn't soeasily quit when the going got rough.

Despite the flood conditions, thecooks and kitchen staff managed toprepare a good hot meal, and withthunder and lightning still crashing andflashing around we turned in, hopingfor the best.

Next morning, as so often happensafter a storm, the weather was perfect- blue skies, clear light, and viewsthrough the trees to high mountains,our first views of D01je Lakpa Oneand Two.

Continuing along the pilgrims trail,now not so eroded, and on a ridgetop, we came across masses of bluegentians and other flowers I couldn'tidentify. Our two botanists, Howardand Rory, were running around fromone find to another, however, likeexcited youngsters.

When the view opened out we couldsee Langtang Lirung (23739') twenty

The YRC Bulletin 11

or so miles away, totally covered withsnow and ice. We were to see muchmore of this beautiful mountain, thehighest in the Langtang, in the weeksahead.

We met two children and subsequentlya man and young girl, possibly hiswife, who were driving cows alongthe path. Later a small flock of goatspassed us going in the oppositedirection, two very young goats beingcarried by the shepherd.

More and more blue gentians were infull flower and one area over 150yards or so long was literally coveredwith them.

This part of the pilgrims route hadbeen laid with large flat stones andprogress was easier and quicker.Views opened up westwards towardsthe Helambu region, a more cultivatedarea with many terraces of rice. Bycontrast however, the Jugal now wassteep, rough and tree covered with nocultivation possible, hence the absenceof villages and scarcity of localpopulation. Camp, at an altitude of3360 meters, was near some stonehuts which were roofed with bamboo.

Next day was Sunday 8th October,and we had been on the move for aweek. A steep climb was followed byan undulating ridge walk, and onturning a slight bend, there before uswere superb views of the entire range- D01je Lakpa 1 and 2, PhurbiChyachu and Langtang Lirung, alongwith many others we couldn't yetidentify. There followed a superb walkamongst rhododendron trees, moreblue and occasionally white gentians,to camp at Nasem Pati, a site used bypilgrims and adorned with prayerflags. The tents were put up in a seriesof gullies - fortunately it didn't rain in

Summer 1996

the night, otherwise there could havebeen problems. The climbing groupcamped a little higher, just over theridge, a cold site during the night butwith beautiful views eastwards nextmorning towards the Jugal peaks.

Our walk to Panch Pokhari next daywas quite short - 3 hours - but wasdelightful; traversing the west side of'the ridge before finally crossing it toarrive at Panch Pokhari, The site ofthese five lakes at an altitude of14650' was similar in style to theScottish Highlands, but magnifiedthree or four times in size. There weretwo or three old stone walls erectedfor sheltering pilgrims, and now usedby porters for the same purpose. Thetwo groups camped beside separatelakes, a complete separation, fortomorrow we were to go our differentways. It was misty and cold so apartfrom George doing some birdwatching, most of us retreated earlyinto our tents. Altitude was beginningto have some effect and the short dayfollowed by rest was welcome. Roy inparticular had been going quite badlytoday, puffing and panting up everyslope. He was diagnosed by ROlY ashaving bronchitis and given a courseof antibiotics which eventually curedhim.

We met only five Westerners in theJugal, two Germans south of PanchPokhari, two Spaniards just south ofthe Ganja La pass and a ganulousWe1shman who was staying at PanchPokhari in a hut near one of the lakes.He rapidly told us his life history ­perhaps he had been starved ofWestern conversation - but later hetried to stir up trouble amongst ourporters and I was glad to see the backofhim.

We joined the climbing group fordinner in their mess tent, a jointcelebration for tomorrow our routesseparated.

We were now at a point on the trekwhere we had to decide either toattempt Tilman's Pass West, a 17000'glacier covered notch in the ridgebetween Jugal and Langtang, orwhether to cut across the grain of theJugal to the Ganja La pass. Motup andour Sirdar, Mingma, were not at allkeen to cross Tilman's, largely becausethey didn't know what it involved, butwere prepared to go to the Ganja La.There was much heart searching onour part, mine in particular, as thecrossing of Tilman's Pass West hadbeen at the centre of my plans fromthe outset. We were of course still inthe early stages of the trek, and hadmuch food and equipment, andtherefore many porters, and it seemedthat Motup's fears centred on howthey would contend with an attempt tocross Tilman's Pass West.

As an attempt at a compromise it wasdecided that next day Motup andDavid would go as far as possibletowards Tilman West to see what theterrain was like, and Mingmaand oneof the Sherpas would try to find aroute that might lead directly fromPanch Pokhari towards the Ganja La.

Whilst these parties were out, andwhile George and Roy had a rest day,the remaining four trekkers, Derek,Albert, Ian and myself, accompaniedby two Sherpas followed the route ofthe climbing group, firstly on to theridge which encloses the corrie atPanch Pokhari, then northwards intothe first two "cwms" which lie belowand to the west of the rock peakknown as Cathedral (approx 164501

) .

The views towards Dorje Lakpa 1 and

10e YRC Bulletin 12 Summer 1996

2 were excellent and we had a bird'seye view of Chintang and the valley ofthe Pulmathong Khola (the site of the1957 base camp) as well as the uppervalley and inaccessible gorge of theBalephi Khola. Mist gradually formedin the early afternoon, and waftedaround in the slight breeze,tantalisingly obscuring the mountainsbriefly, then a "window" would appearas a hole in the mist, making themountains even more ethereal.

During my early research for the trip,John Cleare had described the seriesofhigh cwms which lead to the glacierconfluence below Cathedral as "simplydelightful", and indeed they were justthat. There was water and flat ground,shelter and superb views and theywould have made good camp sites.This was officially a "rest day" and wemade the most of it, relaxing in thesun in the cwms and on the ridge,taking many photographs. When wereturned to Panch Pokhari ourSherpas led us on a direct descent ofthe headwall of the come whichprovided good views of the five lakesbelow, but in the latter stages itdegenerated into swinging from onethorn bush to the next, good fun,nevertheless.

Motup and David returned late in theafternoon, having walked hard all day.They had not been able to get a closesighting of either Tilman's Pass Westor the Lingshing Glacier but in thecircumstances we had to accept theiradvice that it was probably impracticalto attempt the crossing with our fullparty of porters, Sherpas and trekkersbearing in mind the time at ourdisposal. It would have meant threecamps each at over 16000' and Motupwas rightly concerned for the safety ofthe porters who carry little in the wayof warm clothing. A smaller party

The YRC Bulletin 13

would have been justified in pressingon, but it was clear that our routehenceforth had to be towards the'Ganja La pass. With the benefit ofhindsight this turned out overall to bea better route than the crossing ofTilman's Pass West.

Next day our route involvedbacktracking to Nasem Pati beforestriking south-west towards the villageof Yarsa. We had hoped, however,that before leaving Panch Pokhari,George would be able to follow partof our previous day's walk and thushave a bird's-eye-view of themountains and valleys he had travelledthrough in 1957. This was not to be,however, as clouds were down, andfurthermore, during the previous dayof rest, whilst sitting awkwardlyreading in his tent, George haddamaged his back. I knew that hisprincipal reason for joining the trekwas to see again the area ofhis earlierexploits, and I was particularly sadthat he was deprived of the bestviewpoint ofthe area.

As we descended towards Nasem Patithe sun began to break through part ofthe mist, and I well remember seeingan area of grasses, wet with dew,illuminated by the bright low sun sothat each blade of grass looked like astalk oflight. We soon got back to thelong mani wall above Nasem Pati andafter a short rest, pressed ondownwards on a good track throughdelightful woods to stop for lunchnear a side stream. There was lightrain in the early afternoon, but wereached our campsite, situated onterraces above Yarsa at 3-30pm afteran eight-hour day during which wehad descended more than 8000'.

George had been in pain all day and hewisely decided that he should return to

Summer 1996

Kathmandu for a few days rest and toget some physiotherapy treatment forhis back. We were now at virtually thelast point on our route where aconvenient retreat to Kathmandu waspossible, and Motup thereforeassigned a potter and Laxman, one ofthe kitchen staff, to accompanyGeorge on the two day journey.George hoped to be fit enough torejoin us in about ten days time in theLangtang Valley.

We were now down to an altitude of6000', and the thicker air wasrelatively so rich in oxygen that italmost seemed "drinkable". During alavish afternoon tea we ate lots ofcracker biscuits smothered with"Jimmy Carter" peanut butter sonamed by us as Motup had told us ofhis trek to Everest Base Camp someyears earlier with the erstwhilepresident.

On the following day, Thursday, 12thOctober, we continued downhill again,through the village of Yarsa. We meta number of villagers who were goingabout their work - either ploughingwith oxen-drawn wooden ploughs,fetching water or carrying fodder forthe livestock, and a short distancebeyond the village, and downstreamfrom a large waterfall, we found awater-driven grain mill being workedby two millers, one of whom spokequite good English, and who insistedon showing David into his house andintroducing his many relatives.

TIle remaining descent to a chainbridge across the Larka Khola wasawkward and slippery, threadingbetween series of terraces, and in thelatter stages it was desperately steep.It was incredible that the potters,wearing "flipflops" and carrying heavyawkward loads managed so well.

The YRC Bulletin 14

Whilst we were resting beside thebridge, George and his small retinue ofporters/assistants leisurely strolleddown to the bridge, having found amuch better path. It was hot in thevalley bottom and some of the portersstripped to their underpants for a rarewash in the liver.

Continuing on a good path, werounded the southern end of theThorke Danda to the banks of theYangri Khola, and after climbing verysteeply for 200' or so over a rockybluff descended to a good spot forlunch beside a new suspension bridge.A few local children watched us eat,gradually edging closer as theirtimidity left them.

Our path was now steeply upwardsonto the Thorke Danda, but George'spath diverged here as he had to crossover the Yangri Khola to go towardsTarkeghyang, where he could get alocal bus to Kathmandu. Our route upvery steep zigzags for about 2000'took us to a campsite beside adeserted house, near to the village ofRipar.

We now began to appreciate the hugerugged terrain of the Jugal andunderstand why so few touristsventure there. The steepness of thehillsides is almost intimidating, andnext morning our route continuedupwards for a further 2000' or so to akharka on the Thorke Danda.

None of the Sherpas or porters knewthe area, nor whether it was possibleto get from the Thorke Danda to theGanja La Pass. Our Sirdar hadfortunately found a local hunter, adelightful "old" man of 55, whoassured us that the route was possible,and he was engaged to show us theway. He joined us at the kharka and

Summer 1996

whilst we recovered from the effectsof the steep climb, he placed somewild flowers in the kharka, offering ashort prayer.

The Thorke Danda, our route for thenext two days, was covered with aforest of rhododendron trees whichrestricted views somewhat. The ridgepath gradually degenerated into a mudplod, and eventually we came acrossthe cause - a small herd of cattle andyaks. Whilst we lunched here, sittingon a large tarpaulin, a monk dressed inhis full robes of yellow and red passedby - in this area of little habitation Iwondered where he might have comefrom.

We were back in leech country andthe rubbery creatures came at us fromall directions. Not having salt availableto deter them, I hit one of them threeor four times with a trainer shoe - thishad absolutely no effect as it simplyuncurled when I had finished hitting itand continued to loop its way towardsme.

A few weeks after returning to the UKI read a newspaper article about themedical miracles possible with the aidof leeches - "leeches are very sensitiveto stress of all kinds", wrote theauthor following a visit to a leechfarm. He continued "<althoughmedicine largely abandoned leeches inthe 3rd quarter of the last century ....there is much work to be done inreviving the use of live leeches forplastic surgery .... the leech is a livingpharmacy.... its enzymes and otherprotelus from leech saliva .... could beused to treat heart attacks, strokes,embolisms, arthritis and glaucoma."Perhaps we should have had morerespect for leeches, after all.

The YRC Bulletin 15

Our campsite for the night was atDabre Kharka, a fairly flat site wherethe ridge opened out. There was anold stone shelter which was taken overby the kitchen staff and porters, andwhen they got their fires burning,smoke and steam filtered through thereed roof so much that it seemed theplace was on fire. The huge cloudeffects, after the early afternoon heavyrain were on a gigantic, Himalayanscale, almost as if the clouds weretrying to vie with the mountains forsize, brightness and beauty. Thiscampsite was perhaps one of the mostsheltered, luxurious sites we had.

We were away next morning at ourusual time of about 7-l5am,continuing along the Thorke Dandawhich at about 11500' was stillcovered with huge rhododendrontrees. Availability of water wasbecoming a potential problem - one ofthe reasons the Jugal is not muchfrequented - and today when waterwas found at 9-15am. we had lunch! -­- but more importantly, the portersprepared and ate their first meal of theday.

We were now in the wildest part ofthe Jugal, the path was narrow,sometimes non existent. Morning mistwas slowly curling around hugepinnacles on the ridge, sometimesbriefly patting to reveal huge deepvalleys to the east. The autumnalvegetation, still wet from yesterday'srain, was also saturated with deepcolours of brown, yellow, green andoccasionally bright red. Some of thered leafed bushes looked almost likethe biblical burning bush.

Following our guide, and hoping heknew were he was going, we movedfrom rock to rock, tree to tree, up anddown and round steep ravines and all

Summer 1996

manner of obstacles. It was difficultenough for the trekkers, each carryingsmall 201b rucksacks, but how onearth the porters managed with fourtimes that weight I shall never know.Our two "table men" whose sole jobduring the trek was to carry a foldingtable and three chairs each, plus theirown equipment, must have had anightmare of a day. We all hadenormous respect for our porters, buttoday and the next day they werenothing short ofheroes.

Late in the afternoon, at an altitude ofabout 15500' the ridge widened outconsiderably, we were above the treeline and still with intermittent mist,and the scene was a bit "Scottish".Water availabilitywas again a problembut on the west side of the ridge wecame across a small spring of goodwater, and close by, a flat area for thetents; this spot was known as DyagKharka. The porters found shelteramongst some old stone walls abouthalf a mile away.

The following day will long beremembered by us all, trekkers,Sherpas, and especially the porters,We knew we had to descend to, andcross the Yangri Khola, a drop ofabout 4000', and then establish campon the west side as high and close tothe Ganja La Pass as possible. The"path" quickly disappeared but theclouds were high and the line of theroute was fairly obvious. Generallydownwards at first, we had to climbover the shoulders oftwo large coniesthat looked rather like Skye on agrand scale, with huge black walls andpinnacles and much loose rock. Idoubt whether these corries have beenentered by Western mountaineers ­they were certainly superb spots. Thenfollowed a rough, very steep descentdown a long narrow gully, through

'TheYRC Bulletin 16

thickets of bamboo, bushes and looserock. From time to time the only wayforward was to swing from one lot ofvegetation to the next. This went onfor about two hours, and towards thebottom of the valley, amongst morebamboo, we had lunch. We had"bottomed out" the valley at a pointwest of the peak 18276', and wetherefore followed the river upstreamfor about two miles, crossingtributaries where necessary, andeventually crossed to the west side ofthe main stream at the confluence oftwo large tributaries, near two oldstone huts which were probably usedin summer by goat herders.

We waited here for the entire party tocross the river, either by boulderhopping or wading - it was fairlyshallow but very cold and fast flowing.

With everyone safely across thereseemed to be something of a "hiddenagenda" amongst the porters, for theyall sat around, with no signs ofmovement, but most tellingly of all,their faces clearly said what was intheir minds. I realised we probablyhad a porter strike on our hands - wewere at the most remote part of ourjourney, two hard days away from anyform of help, and we were utterlydependent upon the porters forsupplies and movement of equipment.At this spot. was water - albeit glacierfed - and shelter for the porters, butideally we needed to continue foranother two hours to a much highercamping site. The onward routecertainly looked intimidating, up ahuge convex slope ofmoraine, the topout of sight. There followed aconversation between Motup andsome of the porters which wassubsequently translated for us, andslowly and reluctantly the porters got

Summer 1996

up, picked up their loads and starteduphill- to everyone's immense relief

They had told Motup they were tired ­understandable, so was I, and I wasonly carrying a third of their load - andthey wanted to pitch camp where theywere - actually quite a good site - butMotup had pointed out that suppliesfor everyone, porters included, weregetting low and it was essential to getover the Ganja La and into theLangtang Valley to reprovision withintwo days. He asked if they could dothis without going on further today.The answer was clear to everyone,and the potential strike was avoided.

Climbing steep convex moraine is notgood at any time, and at the end of ahard day, with 601bs. or more tocarry, the porters were exhausted, butkept going. My respect for thesefellows increased no end.

Over to the east, in a valley betweenpoints 19170' and 19450' thereappeared a huge waterfall, an entireriver falling sheer over the lip of rock;the most spectacular part of thewaterfall was, however, in the lowerpart of the drop, where verticallyfalling water hit a huge boulder anddramatically spewed up and out like agiant fountain. Regrettably neither Inor anyone else could get into a goodposition to photograph it, because ofan intermediate moraine ridge, and thepoor light.

Eventually after two hours we crestedthe moraine and found a good site forthe camp on flat ground surroundedby peaks rising to 19000' or more, theperfect site for tomorrow's crossing ofthe Ganja La Pass. We were now veryclose to the more usual route to thispass which follows the Dukpa Danda,but we saw no signs of the route.

The YRC Bulletin 17

We awoke next morning to brightsunshine and could fully appreciate theglorious position of our campsite,surrounded as it was by jagged blackrock peaks, most capped with snow,and a glacier falling from the uppervalley. We delayed our departure tolet the tents dry out and to give theporters extra rest, for they had anotherhard day ahead.

We took the opportunity in thisbeautiful setting to take photographsof the group ceremoniously drinkingour Yorkshire tea, obtained for theexpedition at trade price by myyounger daughter Madeline, a memberof the commercial division of Taylorsof Harrogate, the producers ofYorkshire tea.

Our local guide, having done his jobso well, now left us to return to hisvillage, and there were moving littleceremonies and much hand shaking.

David became a drug addict today asfor the first time he needed pills fordiarrhoea, (the result of a porterfetching drinking water from a glacialstream), further pills to combat theeffects of altitude (he'd taken Diamoxtwo days earlier for the first time andas a result had been up eight times thatnight), further anti-malaria pills andfinally a cod liver oil capsule - nine inall. Only three days earlier David hadannounced that in his 67 years to date,the only pills he had taken were twelveaspmns,

We moved off at the late time of 8­30am, heading for the crest of theGanja La, about two miles away.There was much boulder hopping onthe moraine, some of the bouldersbeing as big as double-deck buses, soprogress was slow and hard. We kept

Summer 1996

well away from the eastern wall of theconie where there was much unstablescree, and after two or three rests weeventually scrambled up the steep finalslopes of the pass at midday, at aheight of approx 17000'.

All our early reading in preparation forthe trek had mentioned the deepunconsolidated powder snow on thefar, northern side of the pass, and wewere therefore equipped to deal withit. However, to our enormoussurprise, and with some relief: we sawon cresting the narrow pass that thevalley on the far side was almostdevoid of snow.

We spent some time at the pass takingin the view - we could see all theLangtang peaks, the peaks on theNepal/Tibet border - Dome Blanc,Triangle, Pemthang Ri, etc., all over22000' and beyond themShishapanga, wholly in Tibet, at26398', one of the 8000 meter peaks.Dorje Lakpa could not be seen as theintermediate ridges of Pongen Dopku(19450') and "Fluted Peak" (20954')filled the view in that direction.

We descended the steep headwall ofthe northern valley by means of anarrow ramp where the Sherpas hadfixed a rope to help the porters down.Not for the first time did I wonderhow they would manage, for the ledgewas little more than boot wide formuch ofits length, and the drop on thetight hand was absolutely sheer forabout lOO'.

We descended the upper COllie onloose moraine for about 300' and atthis point our party divided. David,Derek, Ian and Albert, accompaniedby Motup and Casi made their way upto a high glacier camp as a preliminaryto climbing Naya Kanga the next day,

The YRC Bulletin 18

whilst Roy and I went down to campat a much lower altitude at a siteknown as Yeshekupedakto, and thushave a needed rest the following day. Ihave to admit that when we parted,Albert's offer, made only partly in jest,to swap places with me, was tempting,but tinitis had made it clear for two orthree nights that a rest day wasneeded. So after some three hoursmore of boulder hopping on loosesteep moraine we arrived at thecampsite, at an altitude of about13000', where the air was rich withoxygen and where we could relax afterfour hard days trekking. A better placefor relaxing could hardly be found, forthe views across the Langtang Valleyto Langtang Lirung and up the valleyto Fluted Peak and beyond werewonderful. We were virtually in a"balcony" position, able to have thebest views without moving from thetent.

The weather next morning was quitedifferent, however, - it was bitterlycold, cloud was down low andthreatened to stay low, and ourthoughts were with our fourcolleagues attempting Naya Kanga.We knew they planned a 5-30am startand that even if all went well they hada 12 hour-day to get down to ourcamp. The poor weather obviouslyaltered this time scale and meant thatit was impossible for them to getdown before darkness fell at about5pm.

We were surprised therefore to seeAlbert, accompanied by two potters,descending the scree high above campat 10.45am. and he duly reached campat 11-30am. Back trouble had forcedhim to pull out of the. climb but thenews he brought was mixed He hadwatched the climbers on their route,apparently going well, but they had

Summer 1996

delayed their start by one hour toensure they had daylight as theynegotiated a series of crevasses. Thistold us that even at top speed theywould not be able to reach us today.

The remainder of the day was spentresting and eating, but mainly trying towork out the various possible routesand timing of our friends - all quitefutile of course.

In poor weather at 4pm, one of theSherpas ascended the steep moraineabove in an attempt to meet and helpdown the climbers - he took with hima kettle full of hot lemon juice,knowing they would be cold andthirsty. In the fading light he was lostto sight at 4-30pm. We worried abouttheir safety, but could do nothing untiltomorrow - they were at least notwithout experience of benightment,though not at 19000'

An hour before dawn Motup reachedcamp, having descended in darkness.He had sprained his ankle whilstnegotiating the difficult moraine, buthe reported that the others were well.Sherpas were despatched to help themdown and at 9am. they were seenbeginning the long slow final descent.They arrived an hour later, lan in frontfollowed by David and Derek, alllooking very weary, particularly thePresident. They were on a "high" atthe success of their climb, but werehungry and tired; They could,however, only now be allowed twohours sleep as it was vital that wemove down to the valley because theporters were now out offood.

One of the Sherpas who had gone upto assist the climbers had continued onto the site of their high level camp toretrieve the oxygen cylinder, stove andgas canisters, and he arrived back

The YRC Bulletin 19

down in our camp at 1pm. - anothersuperhuman effort which made us feellikewimps.

Whilst David, Derek and lan slept,Albert, Roy and 1 went out along aspur which gave an almost panoramicview of the upper Langtang Valley ­we found Himalayan Edelweiss and anumber of small white gentians, and ofcourse took many photographs.

Later, our descent to Kyangjin Gompatook us through glorious oldwoodland festooned with hanginglichen. A huge boulder, the size of twohouses, was lodged in the bed of theLangtang Khola, and with plankseither side linking it to the river bank,formed a natural bridge over thisturbulent stream. From the boulder,looking upstream was a view of apeak, in perfect juxtaposition with thevalley, the river and the othermountains, yet dominating them allwith its splendour, and after muchdiscussion and changing of minds weeventually identified it as Gangchempo- the peak aptly named by Tilman as"Fluted Peak".

At Kyangjin we camped amongstthirty or so other trekkers, very muchaware that our journey through thewilderness of the Jugal was over. Wedecreed a rest day for the next day andtherefore only climbed 30001 or so tothe top of Tsergo Ri! Even ifit wasn'tphysically restful, then mentally itcertainly was - there was no pressureto move on, the weather was perfect,and our Naya Kanga team had viewsall day of their mountain from valleybottom to its summit. We met yaks,photographed yet more gentians, andfrom the summit - no mean height at16500' - had some of the finest viewsof the trip. Although the summit ofLangtang Lirung was a further 75001

Summer 1996

above us we seemed close to it, andNawang, one of our accompanyingSherpas pointed out the route of theprevious year's Japanese attempt onthe mountain - he had been a memberof their Sherpa team.

We sauntered back to Kyangjin, drankgallons of hot orange juice and simplylapped up the relative luxury of it all.There was even a "shop" at Kyangjin,run by a very astute Tibetan lady.

Another lady - a New Zealander ­correctly identified us as part of "theDorje Lakpa group" and told us ofhermeeting with George three daysearlier. He had been robbed of moneyand his trekking permit and hadreturned to Kathmandu to get anotherpermit - at least, though, we had thegood news of knowing that he was fitand well.

Our campsite was a thoroughfare forlocals, Sherpas, porters and othertrekkers and, inevitably, a few localchildren came and looked at us.Amongst them was a boy aged aboutnine years who was carrying his youngbrother; we learned that the nine yearold was destined for a life as a monk,but his current skills were devoted toplaying cards, which he usually won.

We were now in the final stages of thetrek, but before leaving the LangtangValley we wanted to go as far aspossible up the valley towards theTibetan border, and ifpossible see thenorth side of Tilman's Pass West. Inreal holiday mood we sauntered up thevalley, passing the site of the disusedairstrip, then following closely theLangtang Khola, to camp atNubamathang, where there was an"hotel" - a stone building with a matroof and which both outside and insidewas rather like a yak hut. The walk so

'nle YRC Bulletin 20

far had only taken three hours, and soin the afternoon most ofus went muchfurther up valley to LangshishaKharka (13400).

En route David couldn't resistclimbing a huge boulder which musthave fallen to the valley bottomthousands of years ago. Rather morerecently fallen, however, and withfurther to go in the next monsoon,was a huge precariously balanced rockwhich was lodged temporarily in placein a steep stream bed which wecrossed.

Where the valley turned slightlynorthwards, Langshisa Kharka wasrevealed to us, in the centre of an areawhere the valley briefly widened, witha narrow ravine at one end and theterminal moraine of the Langtangglacier at the other. It was a perfect"sanctuary", the feeling of"protection" being reinforced by thehuge line of peaks which form theTibetan border and which were nowdirectly in front of us. The dominantpeak was Pemthang Karpo (22408')which has the self descriptivealternative French name "DomeBlanc". Next along the ridge was theequally self descriptive Triangle Peak(21400').

Looking southwards we were able tosee far up towards the Langshisaglacier, and could just make out thenorthern slopes of Tilman's PassWest. There was no snow on themoraine and rocks leading to the passand it seemed that ifwe had been ableto get to the pass from the south asoriginally planned, then no difficultywould have been experienced indescending to the Langtang Valley.

Hindsight is a luxury, of course, butwhilst looking up to the pass from

Summer 1996

Langshisa Kharka I was convinced,and I remain convinced, that the routewe took across the Jugal to the GanjaLa, and then down into Langtang, wasbetter than our originally plannedroute.

We intended to retum to LangshisaKharka next day and ifpossib1e go uponto the Langtang glacier - rumourhad it that snow leopard were still inthe area. Unfortunately the weatherwas quite different next moming, andhaving already seen the area in perfectconditions, we didn't want to see it inanything less, and we therefore movedback to Kyangjin and then on to campat Gore Tabe1a.

Whilst passing through the village ofLangtang we met George and heard ofhis exploits since he had left us in theJugal. He looked very fit and hadobviously had a whale of a timedespite the theft of money. It wasgood to have him with us again, andhave the team complete for theremaining two days of exiting from themountains.

We were now well into regulartrekking country and met many othertrekkers, quite a few from Americaand Germany. Passing through villageswe saw water powered prayer wheelsplaced in the channels for irrigationditches, thus providing both essentialwater and prayers for good crops oflice, sorghum or potato. Rather moreunusual was a small wind drivenprayer wheel, perfectly pivoted andwith four small propellers to drive itround.

Continuing down valley, we had avery long day to Syabru, with muchclimbing up and down, includingcrossing a truly huge landslip whichhad probably fallen during the

The YRC Bulletin 21

previous monsoon and which musthave blocked the river for a while.

Our final day was a short five hourwalk to the roadhead at Dunche. Thisday, as our first, was a Nepalesefestival day. On this occasion it was inhonour of all the animals, which todaywere not allowed to do any work, andwere garlanded in blight yellow andorange flowers. Lots ofNepalese alsohad similar garlands, and before long,so had some ofthe trekkers.

It was therefore a suitably relaxing endto the trek. We had crossed thewildest part of the Jugal, climbed arespectable peak (rated by Motup asharder than any other trekking peak hehad climbed); we had a wonderfulcompanion in Motup and a good teamof Sherpas and porters. We had seenthe way of life and happiness of theNepalese, and we had worked throughthe one or two minor difficulties thatinevitably happen on a trip of thislength. Most of all, we seven trekkerscame to know, understand andappreciate one another in a way thatonly a successful team can do.

The trekking party consisted of

DerekBush

Albert Chapman

Ian Crowther

AlanKay

Roy Pomfret

David Smith

George Spence1ey

Summer 1996

22

Constipation, Paraffinand other things...the Expedition Doctor's Notes

Rory NewmanExpedition doctoring turned out to be

easier than I had feared. Most of the workand nearly all the worry took place beforedeparture. A lot can be done to avoidproblems during the trip by advising andencouraging expedition members aboutsensible precautions and preparations.

There are awkward decisions to be madeabout what to take and what to leavebehind. To some extent the area andactivities affect this but there are alsoconstraints of weight, size and cost.There's no point in taking drugs orequipment that nobody in the party iscompetent to use and it's impossible toallow for every eventuality.

For the Nepal trip I took the approachthat I should be equipped to treat mostproblems that can be treated effectively onthe spot without intensive technologicalsupport. I reckoned we could improvisesplints, stretchers, neck supports and thelike if needed. I'm afraid that given thedifficulties of communication andevacuation from the climbing expeditionbase-camp I considered that very majormedical problems or injuries wouldprobably be fatal in spite of treatment.Therefore I didn't take appropriatetreatments. I used the same rather nihilisticapproach to equipping the trekkingexpedition by not giving them anything Ididn't think that they would be able to use.Apart from the appropriate medications,etc., for a party away for six weeks, I'dtaken specific treatments for altitudesickness, snow blindness and frostbite.

Either those decisions were correct or wewere lucky as we had what we neededexcept perhaps a real dynamite treatmentfor constipation: a problem I had notanticipated in Nepal. I'd be happy todiscuss what to take and how to organisedoctoring an expedition with anyone elsefaced with the task.

Medical problems on the trip weremostly the predictable diarrhoea, coughs,colds, minor injuries, etc. plus mild altitude

The YRC Bulletin

sickness. The most exciting incidentoccurred early in the trip when a portertried to encourage the camp fire withkerosene. The resultant explosion lookedand sounded potentially disastrous and setoff a ring of subsidiary fires. The porterwas blown upwards and backwards but hisonly injury came from biting through hisown bottom lip in surprise. The mostserious problem encountered on theexpedition was also kerosene related.Another porter, carrying a leaky container,walked all day with his shirt soaked in itwhile his pack rubbed. This removed mostof the skin from his back - the equivalent ofsecond-degree bum. I treated him withsoothing antiseptic lotions, dressings,antibiotics and painkellers so that he wasimproving by the time he set off for homefrom base-camp wearing one of my cleanshirts as I was running short of cleandressings. It was also interesting, thoughfrustrating, to see and try to treat people inthe remote villages on our return journey.It is surprising how far you can get withsign language and a little bit ofinterpretation. No real medical help isavailable in these villages as medical careis two or three day's walk away. Too farto bother for minor problems and still toofar for seriously ill patients.

My general impressions of Nepal are thatit is much the friendliest country I'vevisited and the place I felt safer therewandering about on my own in the cities,as well as the wilderness, than anywhereelse. As with any 'developing' country, thereal problems come where western andlocal cultures are juxtaposed.

The people in the more remote villageslive a fairly hard life of subsistencefarming but the older ones and the childrenseem satisfied and cheerful. The youngeradults wonder what they are missing anddream of the supposed delights ofKathmandu. On the other hand, smallchildren can wander about the countrysideunmolested and without fear, so perhapscivilisation isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I ended up doing less medicine and moreclimbing than I'd expected and so enjoyedmyself very much. If I get another chanceI would certainly go back.

Summer 1996

IS D?(dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Roger Allen)

I fain would know the siren Goddess,

careless in Her wild dominions.

Now enticing, now rejecting

those who'd mountaineer.

We sought to know this awful Goddess

who, in frightful Nordic beauty

cast Her deadly glance upon us,

We who'd mountaineer.

And so I knelt before the Goddess

in Her shining Asian temple.

Now she smiled serenely on me,

I who'd mountaineer.

Think not to know this fickle Goddess

throned in her pale pavilions

Bitter sweet the thralldom is, of

he who'd mountaineer.

W. C. I. CrowtherNovember 1995

The YRC Bulletin 23 Summer 1996

Ascent of Naya Kanga17th October 1995

F.D. Smith

In the summer of 1994 a number ofY.R.C. members attended the funeralof a much loved friend, FrankieWaterfall, the wife of our memberSidney. It was here that the seed wasborn, Albert Chapman, my goodfriend of forty years, and my wifeElspeth conspired, the result was thatI placed my name on the Clubs meetlist for Nepal in October 1995.

Reading much literature on the area itappeared that there was a possibilitythat some of the trekking party mightattempt Naya Kanga, a spectacular19180 foot (5846 m) snow peakdesignated as a trekking peak. It wasdescribed in Bill O'Connors book,'Trekking Peaks in the Himalaya' asPD Alpine grade and well within myown capabilities. It had the attractionof being one of the hardest of thetrekking peaks.

Our expedition from Kathmandustarted with a bus ride to Chautara avillage of 2000 people 12 kilometresnorth east of the capital. It was goodto get away from the polluted air andthe fly-infested butchers' dens and thedisgusting squalid rivers. The journeywas to say the least exciting, as ittwisted and wound round themountainsides. Many times the roaddisintegrated into mud 12 inches ormore deep or over huge stones ordeep ruts. The landscape held ourinterest, we saw deep ravines,waterfalls, picturesque groups ofhouses and wonderfully terraced farmland not unlike the wine terraces ofSwitzerlandbut with cereal crops.

On arrival at Chautara it was great tosee 16 tents already erected and two

The YRC Bulletin 24

mess tents complete with tables andchairs. Tea and biscuits wereprovided, preceded by what was tobecome a ritual hand washing in asolution of permanganate of potash.Having settled into our individualcanvas homes we were next providedwith bowls ofhot water to wash awaythe dust and sweat of the journey;such unexpected luxury.

The chosen route to Naya Kanga wasfar from a normal trekking route, ittook us broadly up the ChyochyoDanda (ridge) through many smallhamlets like Orkin, Chang Samparphuand Nasem Pati to the holy lakes atPach Pochari 14650 ft, the site ofmany Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimages.We might have been in the LakeDistrict were it not for a prayer flagand the dilapidated roofless buildings.

On our first rest day Motup our'Malla Trek' leader, a remarkably welleducated and interesting Ladakhi and Iwere charged with exploring the routeahead with a view to crossing into theLangtang valley via the celebratedTilman Pass West. The prospect ofgetting the porters up to the pass anddown a possible steep snow descentwas not good, though it was the clearaspiration of two of the trekkers.After four hours of hard and steepascent keeping pace with anextraordinarily agile and fit sherpa, wewere still quite a way from a sightingof either the col or the LinshingGlacier, the mist descended and lightrain fell. It was with some reluctancethat we had to advise the trekkers thatTilmanPass was probably impractical.

The following day we returned toNasem Pati then southwest to Yarsaat 6000 feet before a spectacularcrossing of the Indravwati Kho1a(river) and finally heading northwestto Ripar on the Yangri Khola at 6900feet. The route took us through leech

Summer 1996

infested paths, though weird mosscovered and enormous rhododendrontrees often draped with beautifulhanging moss. It took us up anddown ridges losing and regaining twoor three thousand feet with each ridge,Our remarkable porters, some carryingtwo of our bags each weighing in theregion of 45 pounds plus their ownsacks moved with remarkable balancealong the narrow track, down steepmud slopes, or on rocky ground andmost had either bare feet or wore flip­flops.

The next stage was along the ThorkaDanda, but as none of the supportparty had any knowledge ofthe area, alocal man was engaged by the sirdarto lead us through a very complicatedterrain including an incredibly steepgully. How the table carriers copedwas truly amazing. We had threecamps at 13000 feet, 15000 feet and16000 feet with views of the YangriKhola as it wended its way towardsour objective, the Ganga La, a pass16800 feet which would take us intothe Langtang Valley and for me,nearer to my objective, Naya Kanga.

Now the views were becoming moreand more spectacular.with the majesticsnow peaks coming into our vision.We descended the northern slopes andwere surprised to discover that therewas no deep soft snow that we hadbeen led to expect. Descending about1000 feet or so, Albert, Ian, Derekand I along with Motup and a youngsherpa, Kazi, headed for a level glacierto our high camp. Three porters andtwo sherpas arrived before us anderected four tents, two for theclimbers and Motup, the other two forthe rest of the party. A meal wasprepared and we retired to oursleeping bags. Unfortunately Albertdeveloped a back problem and had topull out ofthe final assault.

The YRC Bulletin 25

It was a 5 am start for the day, andafter a quick breakfast we roped up tocross the glacier at 6 am. Motup,myself and the President on one ropeand Kazi and Ian on the other.Although crevassed we did not haveany problems. Snow level hadchanged drastically since BillO'Connor wrote his account. Wethen ascended a shallow rock gullywhich is usually a snow couloir to gainthe snow boss and the series of ridgesthat would take us to the summit.

The slope was probably about 50 plusdegrees; the snow was fairly soft butharder underneath in places. Therewas always a danger of windslab butfortunately it never developed. Therarefied air, however, did have itseffect; we were only managing abouttwenty paces before each brief halt,but we were making progress.Bamboo cones collected on routethrough the vegetated areas were lefta convenient intervals to enable us toreturn in safety should it becomemisty. The mist descended evenbefore we had reached the final snowpyramid.

It was 1.30 pm when we eventuallyreached our objective, the easterlysummit, the true summit was about 30feet higher connected by the mostslender of snow ridges that I have everseen, falling on either side at perhaps80 degrees. It would certainly havebeen foolhardy to have attempted tocross it and certainly it would havetaken many hours to force a crossing.Motup had clearly decided that it wasnot sensibleeven to by, we concurred.

It was misty by now and photographswould be disappointing but we tookthe obligatory group shot beforeretuming by the same route. I was notlooking forward to the descent as thesnow would have deteriorated. Dereklead off with Motup at the back

Summer 1996

safeguarding us. The flag cones werea great help, several times Derek wasrelieved to see the next one ahead. Ittook just 2 hours to reach the rocksagain. Motup thought we might savean hour by going straight downinstead of returning via the glacier andrisking crevasse difficulties.

The way down was over huge jammedboulders or loose scree, this was mademore difficult as it began to snow.Motup and I went ahead to find theeasiest route but it becameincreasingly hard and slower. Duskwas quickly replaced by darkness,time was moving on apace by 10 pmwe decided that enough was enoughand elected to bivi. I found a suitablehuge boulder to shelter under and wesettled down for the night.

Motup was some way away lookingfor an easy descent and Kazi decidedto join him as he did not have anyextra clothes. Derek and Ian were nottoo happy with their situation but myown experience of being benighted inthe Alps helped me to treat thesituation with less anxiety. Hourlytime checks were requested andeventually it was 5.30 am, it was nowlight so we decided to make a move.

Hardly had we been going half an hourthan we were met by Norbu aremarkably conscientious young

sherpa with a teapot of hot lemoncovered with a towel. Norbu had infact been up on the ridge at 11.00 withhot drinks for us. But returned asKazi had advised him that we werealright and that we would not havewanted him to risk injury joining us.

Kazi and Motup carried on down andrached the camp at 4.30 am very tired.Clearly we had made the right decisionin staying put. Back down at thecamp we were fed and as a treat thethree of us shared a large tin ofmangos. And so to our sleeping bagsfor a deep one hour sleep before thewalk down to the Langtang Khola andon to Kyangjin and the GyalishamGompa. The path was extremelypleasant through beautiful woodlandsand with superb views of the shapelyLantang Lirug and its neighbours. Forthe first time we saw trekkers, duringthe past two weeks we had only seentwo Germans and two Spaniards.

Our return to Kathmandu was alongthe Langtang Khola through manypicturesque villages, passing prayerwalls and gompas to Syabru and on toDunche for our final camp and ahectic bus ride to the capital. Aremarkably competent piece of drivingon quite impossible roads, negotiatingoncoming vehicles with vital precisionand in some places on none existentroads. The whole expedition gave us

fulfilment, it gave us time to reflect,it was a period of strenuous andsustained activity, a clear bond haddeveloped between trekkers,sherpas and porters. We would allreturn home changed and moretolerant individuals.

lan Crowther, David Smith and Derek Bushwith Naya Kanga in the background

The YRC Bulletin 26 Summer 1996

Expedition Diary1957 - Nepal

Maurice WilsonApril 28, Camp 1. We started ratherlater than usual this morning, as we hadto move two boxes of food up to Camp 2.Indeed, the sun was already on the upperglacier before we reached it. We arebecoming more adept at scrambling upthe short rock pitch flanking the icefall.On the glacier, the snow was softeningand I found the going rather slow, and wetook at least half an hour longer thanusual. Andy was willing to go on toCamp 3, but I didn't feel up to it. In fact,as we started to descend the glacier Irealised I was not well and was verypleased to reach Camp 1. I think it wasthe porridge we had this morning whichdidn't go down too well.

In the afternoon, it became very dark andsoon thunder and lighting were let loose.I was afraid it might loosen some of therock above us but, fortunately, the stormonly lasted half an hour. I don't like thiscamp site. Quite close, seracs arecollapsing in the icefall, and crevassesopening up. Behind us, towers a cliffwith stones and small boulders hurtlingdown from time to time. Andy has justlooked in to say that the nearest stonestopped only 20 feet away.

April 29, Camps 1-3. For the first time,the early morning weather lookedunpromising and the sky was overcast,the sun having a job to shine through.Nevertheless, we set out from Camp 1 atabout 6.45am and, after the usual trudgereached Camp 2 in 2 hours. We had arest here and then continued up to Camp3. Again the snow was soft and the goingtiring. We met Arthur and Dan on theirway down.

We finally reached Camp 3 about 10.30am in poor visibilityand a very cold wind.Turned in and had some soup. My feetare very cold and I can't get them warm,as the lilo is saturated and the sleepingbag not much better. Snow drives in

through the sleeve whenever the entranceis opened. Andy placed some overbootsunder my feet by way of insulation andthis has made a lot of difference.

April 30, Camp 3. This terrible daystarted with difficulties with the primusstove. As a result, we had little breakfast.Still, it was a beautiful morning and, inview of the behaviour of the stove, Andyand I decided that it would not be fair toask Crosby and George to say here atCamp 3, as arranged, by way of supportto us at Camp 4. Accordingly, we set offfor Camp 4 with a box and a bag of food,expecting to meet them.

It was an interesting route through theicefall, finishing high on its right flankunder some cliffs. There followed a mosttedious traverse in soft snow, to Camp 4.We could see Crosby's party on theglacier way beyond, but they had not leftus any note. I suppose they wanted totake advantage of the sudden change ofweather. We left them a note and then setoff back.

To our surprise, when we reached Camp3 the stove burst into life, so we had abrew. However, we hadn't been theremuch more than on hour when Georgeturned up with his dreadful story.

He, Crosby, Mingma and Myla had beenpassing beneath a hanging glacier whenthe snout of it broke loose. In secondsthey were all hurled into a crevasse.Somehow or other, George managed toclimb out. He scraped and dug for a longtime but was unable to extricate the ropeto Crosby or reach anyone else. We fearall are lost.

As soon as we could, Pemba and I set offdown to Camp 1 where we found theothers. Dan and Ang Temba set off, atonce, to Base Camp for entrenching tools.I shared a tent with Arthur.

It was a melancholy gathering. We allfelt so completely helpless and yet,praying for a miracle. The Sherpaschanted some mournful tune all night andI got no sleep.

The YRC Bulletin 27 Summer 1996

on 8a moves before hopelessly lobbingoff into space - not true (most of thetime). In fact in France you will findall ages and abilities climbing. We saw7 year olds leading well bolted V.Diffsand whole families going out climbingtogether, retiring to the shady cafes inthe village during the heat of the dayand returning to the crag to climb inthe evening.

I can hear you all asking 'Are thereany draw backs to this climbingparadise?'. Well yes. Claire and Ireally enjoyed our time at Orpierre, weclimbed 6 routes a day for a weeknon- stop, but by the end of that timewe started not to care about thequality of routes, more the quantity,and I cannot honestly say I rememberall the moves of anyone climb - it allsort of blends into one. Unlike sayBotterills Slab or Gimmer Crack orOld Lace on Earl Crag, there are veryfew obvious lines, many of the movesare very similar and the bolts meanthat you don't really get worried whichtends to be what I remember most!However I wholeheartedlyrecommend a weeks climbing therewhether you go to climb purely forenjoyment or to push your grade in asafe and friendly environment.

A Summer's Climbing DreamJon Riley

Whilst the club was meeting in thePicos de Europa, Claire and I leftSpain and drove into France to samplesome of the fantastic low level rockclimbing. Although none of the areasthat we went to are new, I thought itwas worth writing about them in caseyou had never considered trying sportclimbing in France. The first thing youneed to realise is that many Frenchpeople regard climbing as a sportsimilar to tennis or golf whereas manyBritish people regard climbing as 'away of life'. This difference inattitude leads to some differences instyle, probably the most obviousexample being bolting.

The French love bolts! Take forexample the crag at Orpierre. Thewhole village is geared up for rockclimbing, You buy a topo for 10francs in any bar or shop and arrive atthe crag 15 minutes later carrying onlya 60m rope, 10 quick draws, rockboots, chalk bag and wearing yourharness a pair of shorts, a climbingvest and sandals - no need for arucsac, no spare clothing, bivi gear,big boots, flares, whistles, maps,compasses and all the other parafinaliathat escorts climbers everywhere inBritain!

Once you start climbing you realisehow much fun sport climbing can bebecause you are not wobbling on thecrux of a climb as your marginalprotection falls out and shoots downthe rope to your belayer. Instead youcan confidently cruise the crux with aresin bolt at waist height. A popularmisconception is that all sportclimbers climb wildly overhangingroutes flexing there enormous muscles

'111C YRC Bulletin 28 Summer 1996

Ifhowever you want something a littlemore adventurous then may I suggesta gobsmaking route at Buis-les­Baronnies. As you drive towards thevillage your eyes are drawn to whatlooks like a clean wall of limestoneabout 300' high and a mile long, withpinnacles along the top similar toBristly Ridge on Tryfan. However asyou drive past the end of it you realisethat it is about 2' wide! The routefollows the crest of this amazing fin ofrock. The Traversee Des Aretes istechnically about VS 4b but theincredibly exposed position rivalsmany routes that I have climbed in theAlps. In all a traverse takes about 7hours and descent is by abseil andchain handlines down the south face.As with all classic routes the ClUX is atthe end and I suggest that you startearly in the morning and carry lots ofwater because it is in the sun all day.

You only need a small rack of gearand a few quick draws as the ClUX hassome bolts on it. We also found that a60 metre rope was invaluable as wejust reached the belay stances some of

. which were equipped with bolts andpegs. I will never forget belayingClaire, as she climbed up the knifeedge arete at the start of the routewith both of my legs dangling in spaceon either side of the crest as the sunrose up behind us, absolutely stuuning.

Useful tips:

1. We found that Bill Birketts 'FrenchRock' was very useful, it gives anoverview of the major sport climbingcrags in France and although it doesn'tlist all the routes you can buy a topowhen you anive. Guide book availablefrom David Hall at Base Camp (littleplug there David, I will collect thecommission later!).

2. You need to drink gallons of waterso we used a Camelbak each, foranyone who has never heard of aCamelbak its a bag with a drinkingtube that you carry in a pouch on yourback so that you can drink whilstmoving around, I no longer use awater bottle I put one of these into myrucsac and when I need to drink I justsuck - no need to even stop! Brilliantfor climbing long hot routes, it holdsabout 1.5 litres and the opening is bigenough for ice cubes, amazinglyenough the liquid stays lovely andcool. Base Camp may sell them, ifnotby a bike shop as they are verypopular with cyclists.

3. Take at least 60m of rope. A45/50m one is next to useless on manyFrench crags. Indeed you can spot theBritish climbers as they are the onesdangling five metres above the nextabseil point! Double 45m ropes are

ideal.

If anyone requires any moreinformation please contact meas I have a load of top os,guide books and pictures. Ican really recommend it.

The YRC Bulletin 29 Summer 1996

Eastern GreenlandDavid Laughton

Will Lacy and David Laughton spentthe last two weeks of August, 1995 inthe Arctic. They flew up toLongyearbyen in Spitsbergen wherethey joined a small Russian ice­strengthened ship, The ProfessorMolchanov. Their fellow passengerswere a mixed bunch of Dutch,German, Austrian and 18 SouthAfricans plus a couple of other Brits. ­38 in all.

Only one day was spent inSpitsbergen looking aroundLongyearbyen (rapidly developing itstourist industry) then crossing Isfjordfor a long walk around the huge birdcliffs of Alkhomet. The ship thensailed for N.E. Greenland, a smoothcrossing of two days SW aiming forMyggebukten on Hold With Hope.U~ortunately very thick pack ice,which had first been encountered halfway across the Greenland Sea, ,prevented an approach closer than 30miles. Now also in thick fog, it wasdecided to head south for ScoresbySund (70 ON) where a satellite icereport showed more prospect ofgetting ashore.

Scoresby Sund is the largest fjord inthe world, 15 miles wide at theentrance and reaching inland some 200miles as far as the Greenland ice cap.It was discovered by WilliamScoresby, a very successful Whitbywhaler, in 1822. Although there hadbeen a few very small Innuit (Eskimo)settlements on the banks of the fjordmany centuries ago it was not until1925 that the Danish government,then administering Greenland, set up anew settlement also calledScoresbysund on the north bank just

The YRC Bulletin 30

inside the entrance. This has nowgrown to some 500 people and giventhe Greenlandic name ofIttoqqortoormiit. As a currentprominent citizen of Whitby Will Lacyis keen to develop a relationshipbetween Whitby and Scoresbysund inrecognition of Scoresby's (Senior &Junior) links with the town and thefact that they are second only to Cookin the towns historic links withexploration at sea. Will had taken withhim presents from the Mayor ofWhitby and proposals for closer links.

The ship did manage to enter the fjordafter much banging and crashingthrough the ice but was not initiallyable to approach the village Howeverthe fjord was navigable althoughlittered with thousands of icebergs,ranging from foot wide blocks to 1,4

mile long monsters. A week was spentexploring the fjord, landing at leastonce a day for extensive walks overthe tundra and climbing some of theminor peaks. The scenery and theweather were magnificent. To thenorth lay the snow clad Stauning Alpsand to the south the WatkinMountains with huge rock walls, splitby glaciers coming right down to thesea. There was also plenty of wildlifewith musk-ox grazing on the slopes,Snowy Owls, Gyr Falcon, and manyflocks of Snow Bunting plus BlackThroated Diver, geese and manyvarieties of seabirds.

Summer 1996

Before leaving the fjord anotherattempt was made to reach thesettlement, the approach to which stilllooked impossible. However the veryexperienced Russian captaineventually forced a way through andin brilliant sunshine a landing wasmade. Accompanied by a Danishinterpreter Will and David attended ameeting of the town council whereWill presented the Whitby gifts andaccepted gifts in return. 111e locals stilllive mainly by hunting; so far this yearthey have killed and eaten 60 polarbears as well as a number of musk-oxand innumerable seals. Unfortunatelydrink appears to be a major problemand at 5 pm the shop started to sellalcohol with the depressing sight of allages coming away with cartons ofbeer and bottles of stronger stuff,several already drunk.

Farewells were said and the. shipbattled its way through very thick iceout to sea to drop off the passengersat Akureyri in northern Iceland. Thislast 33 hour leg was enlivened by fivelarge Humpback whales playingaround the ship for almost an hour. Anovernight stop in Reykjavik then homeaccompanied on the plane by 45youthful members of a British SchoolsExploration Society expedition toIceland.

TIle YRC Bullain 31

Humiliation atCaverna Corredores.

John Middleton.

Caverna Corredores is a highlysporting river cave situated in theimpressive 300m deep CorredoresGorge some 4km north of the CostaRican town of Ciudad Neily. Thegorge is clothed in dense primary rainforest and is home to an abundantfauna including monkeys, Jaguars,snakes, and parrots, The cave has asurveyed length of 1700m and thistogether with the surrounding karstwas investigated by the Americans in1989 and Canadians in 1990. Our visitin 1995 (my son and me) coincidedwith the wet season making the forest,river, and cave doubly challenging.The tortuous route up the gorgerequires prior knowledge and for thiswe were assisted by the 19 year olddaughter of the owner of the smallhotel were we stayed. Maybe the tripwould be easier than we thought. .....

The derelict dirt road turned left andbumped steeply uphill into the earlymorning mist. We changed directiononto an indefinite track between the

L.~~~:::::::::::::::::::::: -. ,::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::':'!::-Io----'~--..,,...

iiiijjjiiijiji~~jiiii)ijiiiiij~i~::.. ,~'"----' ...~

lllllllll.:·:·.:.~::-.:<Jt"""""':......................................................'.' ........................................, ";' .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~!~!~!~! ~! 1~i~:!:~:1!1:~: 11 ~I!:~: [:fIf:;:~ i!I~:~: ~:~: ~: ~i~i;~\: /:........... , ' ,. ,,::::::::;

~~ ~ ~~~ ~~ ~i ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~:' .,::=::::=:::::................................................................... .,::::::;:::;::::::::

:::·····:::·:::4··.Summer 1996

long grass. We stopped abruptly. Anextremely long but beautifully markedsnake silently slithered across ourpath. "Mucho peligroso" (verydangerous) exclaimed Leticia with abig grin. We continued into the forest,dismissing any other ideas we mighthave had about dusky senoritas andlong grass, determinedly lookingdown and treading faithfully in herexact footsteps. We negotiated fallentrees, swamps, plants with viciousthorns and others with disablingstings. Then came the river. A 20mwide torrent of foaming white water.Leticia and her friend Christina wadedstraight in and with much laughterarrived soaked but safely on the bankdirectly opposite us. We stumbled,slipped, slithered, and arrived halfdrowned many metres downstream.Five more life threatening crossingshad to be undertaken before welanded on a small beach opposite thecave. Behind us was Caverna Alma,notable mainly for its small populationof Vampire bats, whilst SOm upstreamand on the other side, the powerfulRio Guaymi burst forth from the cliffdown a Srn waterfall. We made onefinal and reasonably dignified rivercrossing before again being humbledon the 6m climb to the entrance. Hereour ham-fisted attempt created muchentertainment whilst the girls lithelyswarmed up the vertical mud and treeroots.

The dry entrance was big, maybe 12mwide and 6m high and led into a welldecorated chamber with two ways on.To the right an impressively largepassageway gradually gave way to anextensive bat roost and associatedstinking guano covered floor. Massivepseudoscorpions, cave crickets,cockroaches, and other nightmarishcreatures scuttled everywhere.Suicidal bats aimed themselves

The YRC Bulletin 32

directly at us. We retreated calmly andin good order consoling ourselveswith the fact that the survey said thispassage didn't go anywhere anyway!The other large formation filled gallerygradually made a slippery, meanderingdescent to the main river, the RioGuaymi. This completely filled thefloor of a IOm wide superbly erodedtunnel. Downstream led quickly to asump whilst to the right was over500m of magnificent challengingstreamway. At its end the passagecontinued dry but in a much smallerway whilst the river emerged sumplike from the right hand wall. Out toimpress, we swam straight innegotiating two small ducks within thefirst 30m before the passage againenlarged and our feet touched thebottom. We looked back and wereamazed and very impressed to findLeticia and Christina directly behindus - they had never swum in a cavebefore let alone negotiate two ducks!More grand gallery followed and thenthe inevitable sump but just a fewmetres back a crawl invited inspection.We looked at it intently, the girlsrushed straight in. "Arafia" (spider),Christina excitedly shouted from upfront. We raced forward just in time tohear a loud "splat" and arrive to seeseveral 10cm long legs and a squashedbody beneath her fist! The crawl thenprogressed into a rift and looped backto join the dry section of the mainpassage. A highly satisfying andincident free return was then made tothe entrance.

With not an undue degree ofapprehension we followed our leadersdown to the river wondering what ourdownstream techniques might be.They proved remarkably simple, justthrow yourself in a deep bit, get sweptaway, and grab the first sizeableboulder to slow progress! Bruised and

Summer 1996

battered and with a massive overdoseof adrenalin coursing through us weeventually made it back and stumbledhigh spiritedly into Neilys nearest bar.

Some cave, some gorge, some river,some day, and most of all some girls!We definitely couldn't have made itwithout them or am I just getting old?

In Costa Rica, limestone and karsticfeatures have also been recorded onthe Santa Elena Peninsular (reasonablecockpit karst), around Venado(Caverna Vernado lkm plus), on the

Cueva del GatoJon Riley

An account of a trip through acave in southern Spain

It had taken us a lot oftime to find outabout this caving trip. Even afterexhaustive information gathering indreadful Spanish and sign language,we had very little to go on. We knewthat it was a through trip of about 5km with lots of swimming, some bigcaverns and pull-through abseils. Wewere pretty sure that we had parked atthe correct exit, an impressive gash inthe cliff face from which a smallstream flowed. We had a vague ideaof where the entrance was, though wehadn't actually seen it, for all we knewwe could have been going into onecave and parking outside of the exit tosomewhere completely different!

The entrance to the Cueva del Gato(Cat Cave) lies in the bottom of asteep sided gorge blocked at bothends, to the West by a cliff, similar inheight to Malham Cove, with the cave

The YRe Bulletin 33

Nicoya peninsular (mainly shafts intoformation filled chambers - SantaAnna -24Om), on the eastern side ofthe Gulf of Nicoya, inland fromQuepos, and around Puerto Limon.We also visited the first threementioned areas and enjoyed manymore adventures amongst veryfriendly people. Potential for newdiscoveries is obviously considerablebut none are likely to be of any greatlengths or depth. There is a smallactive caving organisation in thecapital, San Jose.

entrance in the shape of a slot, c30'wide and 90' high, in the middle of theface and to the East by a 200' concretedam!

The Spanish had built the dam in thehope of catching water between it andthe cliff face and the story goes thatfor a time it did hold some water, untilsuddenly the level dropped and thewater disappeared into the ground,leaving the dam wall high and dry. Itwas only after several attempts atplugging the holes with everythingfrom concrete to dynamite that theSpanish discovered this enOlIDOUScave, put two and two together andlinked the disappearance of the waterfrom the reservoir to the massiveflooding of the river in the next valley!

Summer 1996

whether the cave entrance has sincebeen enlarged by man or nature we arestill unsure. We think that the nextstage in the history ofthe cave was forit to become a show cave of somesort, because as you walk in youfollow a series of man made platformsand ramps. Throughout the cave youcan see old timber walkways andplatforms at the most spectacularformations.

After walking along in the enonnousentrance passageway for about tenminutes we came to the first pool witha handline down into it and apparentlyno return once you let go! The waterwas extremely cold as we slid in andswam the few metres across the poolto struggle out at the other side, atthis point three of our patty decidedthat maybe caving wasn't such a greatidea after all and turned back, leavingStuart and me to carry on.

There really is nothing like caving withvery little information as to whatcomes next to sharpen your senses andkeep you excited and we had to makeit up as we went along when we cameto what appeared to be a dead endsump. We decided to double back ashort way and soon found two verythin steel cables in the roof one abovethe other, spanning a 30' deep pit withan old wooden ladder on the otherside. Unfortunately I was the lighterso I got the dubious pleasure oftesting the traverse first. With my feeton the low cable and my hands andcows tails clipped into the upper cableI slowly edged across to the other sidelooking straight down into the pit, Ireached the other side and waited forStuart and then climbed the ricketyladder to find myself looking downinto a chamber with the way onmarked by a series of pools and pullthrough abseils, we had bypassed the

'111C YRC Bulletin 34

dead end. We felt a mixture of reliefand anxiety because it had taken ushalf an hour and we had made littleprogress into the cave however ittumed out that this was the onlyawkward piece ofroute finding.

After the abseils we found ourselvesswimming in canals with similarproportions to Kingsdale Master Cavein static water with just the sound ofour flaring carbide lamps to punctuatethe silence. Really the only thing thatworried us was getting trapped bysome of the submerged walkway thatwe were swimming alongside. Afterabout a kilometre of swimming,broken only by large boulders to reston, the water abruptly ended and wefound ourselves in a large perfectlycircular chamber with a 15' high whitestalagmite boss dead in the centre,certainly one of the most amazingformations that I have ever seen. Thechamber was followed by some lowerwider passages with sand and clayfloors which then plunged into anothercanal section ending in a tall thinboulder strewn dry chamber with awall that had been covered in calcite,it was perfectly white and reflectedour light illuminating the large cavern.This was quickly followed by a finalswim before smelling the outsideworld, feeling the heat of a southernSpanish summer and once again beingin daylight.

We allowed ourselves to be takendownstream by the gentle current andalmost caused an elderly Spanishwoman to fall of a bridge at theentrance as she thought we were twodead bodies floating past! We metwith the others at the cafe and theyrecounted the story of their trip backto the car in the back of an emptymeat wagon who's driver had giventhem a lift. We realised that in fact the

Summer 1996

trip had taken us about five hours andwe had swum and waded for about2.5 km of the 5km trip. In all it was agreat through trip with some

INFORMATION

Location: The Cueva del Gato isfound about four miles outside ofBenacoan on the road to Ronda in theGrazelema national park in Andalucia.

Situation: The whole area is fantastickarst scenery, has enormous potentialfor caving and is relatively unexplored.The exit is found on the left of theroad when heading towards Ronda,there is a small bar near the exit thathas a large wall survey of the caveand from this you can find theentrance which is on the other side ofBenacoan.

Accommodation: This area of Spainhas few regulations so you can wildcamp just about anywhere. Benacoanhas a Scotsman who resides in thevillage and rents out apartments forup to eight people at reasonable rates.If you fancy a touch of luxury youcould stay in the Parador hotel in

challenging swimming and amazingscenery. Remember though to take athick wetsuit!

Ronda which has stunning views ofthe gorge and is about 20 minutesfrom the cave.

Travelling: I think the best way to getto this area would be to fly to Malagaand from there hire a car and drive toRonda.

Season: The cave shows signs ofcatastrophic flooding and is not be agood place to get caught out, howeverthis is southern Spain and floods ofthis size are very rare so a through tripis possible throughout the year.

Equipment: You need a harness withcows tails, a figure of eight or Stop toabseil on and a 35 Metre rope. Agood quality, thick, full wet suit isessential and ifyou are unsure ofyourswimming ability a buoyancy aidwould be a sensible precaution.

A World Caving Update As At December 1994J.R.Middleton.

Since 1992** world cavingexploration has continued at a freneticpace. Long caves have become longer,deep ones deeper, and many new oneshave appeared on the scene. By theend of 1994 there were some 47systems over 1000m in depth and 28over 50km in length.Spain dominates the depth charts with10 over 1000m to be followed closelyby Austria with 8, whilst the USAcontinues to lead the length listings

The YRCBulletin 35

with 7 over 50km.. The only major up­set to the British charts is the amazingarrival of Ogof Ddraenon which wasexplored from virtually nil metres toover 20km in barely 3 months!

Another statistic is for Nohoch NahChich, 40km long, and the Cenote dosOjos, 30km long, both only 5km apartand likely to be connected shortly inQuintan Roo, Yucatan, Mexico.Good, but not amazing you might say

Summer 1996

until you realise that ALL the 70km sofar explored is UNDERWATER!

providing me with these lists andallowing the club to publish them.

Once again I must thank TonyWaltham and Claud Chaubert for

**For 1992 see the YRC JournalVo1.Xl NoAO.

MexicoAustria

South WalesDerbyshire

South WalesYorks DalesYorks DalesYorks DalesYorks DalesYorks Dales

DerbyshireYorks Dales

ClareFermanagh

SomersetYorks Dales

SomersetYorks DalesYorks DalesSouth Wales

DerbyshireYorks Dales

22 Akemati 1226m23 Schwersystem 1219m24 Complesso Fighera Corchia

1215m Italy Appenines1198m Slovenia25 Veliko Sbrego

BRITAINS DEEPEST CAVES1 OgafFfynnon Ddu 308m2 Giants-Oxlow System 214m3 Daren Cilau 213m4 Ease Gill Cave System 211m5 GinglingHole 210m6 Penyghent Pot 196m7 Gaping Gill System 195m8 Ireby-Notts System 183m9 Peak-Speedwell System 182m10 Meregill 181m11 Poll na Gceim 181m12 Reyfad Pot 179m13 Longwood Swallet 175m14 Long Kin West 174m15 Swildons Hole 167m16 West Kingsdale System 165m17 Dale Head Pot 165m18 Ogof Agen Allwedd 160m19 Nettle Pot 159m20 Tatham Wife Hole 158m

THE WORLDS LONGEST CAVES.1 Mammoth Cave System 560ktn USA, Kentucky2 Optimisticeskaya 183km Ukraine3 Holloch 156km Switzerland4 Jewel Cave 144.8km USA, South Dakota5 Siebenhegstehoh1en System 126km Switz.6 Wind Cave 113.3km USA, South Dakota7 Ozernaya l11km Ukraine8 Gua Air Jernih 106km Sarawak9 Lechuguilla 106km USA, New Mexico10 Fisher Ridge Cave 104.5km USA, Kentucky

11 Sistema de Ojo Guarena 97.4km Spain, Burgos12 Reseau de la Coume d Hyouernede

90.5km France, Pyrenees13 Zoluska 85.5km Ukraine14 Sistema Purification 79.1km Mexico15 Ease Gill Cave System 70.5km England16 Hirlatzhoh1e 70km Austria17 Rauucherkarhoh1e 70km Austria18 Friars Hole System 69.2km USA,West Virginia19 Organ Cave System 60.5km USA,.West V'na20 Red del Silencio 60km Spain, Picos21 Toca da Boa Vista 60km Brazil22 Reseau de 1 Alp 56.7km France, Alps23 Kap-Kutan-Promezutocnaja 55km Turkmenistan

24 Reseau de la Dent de Crolles 55km France,Alps25 Mamo Kanada 54.8km Papua New Guinea

THE WORLDS DEEPEST CAVES1. Reseau Jean Bernard 1602m France, Alps2 Lamprechtsofen 1550m Austria3 GouffreMirolda 1520m France, Alps4 Shakta Pantjukhina 1508m Georgia5 Sistema del Trave 1441m Spain, Picos6 Boj Bulok 1415m Uzbekistan7 Puerta de Illamina 1408m Spain,Pyrenees8 Lukina Jama 1390m Croatia9 Sistema Cheve 1386m Mexico10 Ceki Jama 1370m Slovenia11 Sneznaja-Mezonnogo 1370m Georgia12 Sistema Huatla 1353m Mexico13 Reseau de la Pierre St Martin 1342m France,

Pyrenees14 Siebenhegsthohlensystem 1284m Austria15 Reseau Berger 1278m France, Alps16 Platteneck-Bergerhohle 1265m Austria17 Sima T27 1255m Spain, Picos18 Tocca de los Rebecos 1255m Spain, Picos19 Abisso Paolo Roversi 1249m Italy,Appenines20 Sistema V Iljukhin 1240m . Georgia21 Abisso Ulififer 1230m Italy.Appenines

BRITAINS LONGEST CAVES1 Ease Gill Cave System 70500m Yorks Dales2 OgofFfynnon Ddu 50000m South Wales3 Ogof Agen Allvedd 33000m South Wales4 Daren Cilau 27000m South Wales5 Kingsdale Cave System 24000m Yorks Dales60gofDdraenan 20000m South Wales7 Gaping Gill Cave System 16500m Yorks Dales8 Dan yr Ogaf l5000m South Wales9 Peak-Speedwell System 14000m Derbyshire10 Poulnagollam Poulelva 13000m Clare11 Slaughter Stream Cave 12000m Gloucestershire

12 Ireby-Notts System 11100m Yorks Dales13 Mossdale Caverns 10500m Yorks Dales14 Doolin St Catherines 10000m Clare15 Langc1iffe Pot 9600m Yorks Dales16 Swildons Hole 9100m Somerset17 Ogof Craig y Ffynnon 8600m South Wales18 Little Neath River Cave 8200m South Wales19 St Cuthberts Swallet 7100m Somerset20 Reyfad Pot 6700m Fermanagh

The YRC Bulletin 36 Summer 1996

Under a Canopy in TenerifeFebruary 1996

by Peter Price

On the first day we woke to find thatit had rained during the night and nowthere was a low cloudbase. The windwas a strong easterly. A site waschosen and after checking out thelanding area we drove to the top.'Blown Out!' - just like Pendle. Later,on our way home we decided to lookat the training site luckily it was about100ft below cloudbase so we all had aflight or two here before heading offfor a restaurant.The next day 'base was still low ataround 4000ft, just clearing the top ofthe mountain that dominates the LosAm~ricas skyline, El Conde, so it wasdecided that the two more novicepilots would fly the 'training slope'and the rest ofus would go higher intothe mountains. I elected to fly lastafter ensuring a clean launch foreveryone then setting myselfup.During the launch I found that I'dsnapped a brake line so decided to flystraight down the valley and, if I hadenough height, cross to the valleywith the landing fields. About halfwaydown I encountered a very smoothlarge thermal which I cored. My aimon this trip was to put into practice allI had learned about thermals. Usingeverything I'd read or been told Ifound that very soon I was atcloudbase. I mentioned my line breakto those who had already landed andmy position to make sure I had achance to gloat later in the pub.With my line repaired courtesy of theparaglider first aid kit, we were takenback to the launch site for the earlyafternoon thermals to sort ourstomachs out.Daren Williams, an experienced pilot,went first and had headed off to the

The YRC Bulletin 37

light around the corner to a knownthermal source (a set of very largerock spines) and reported that therewas lift available, so I followed. Welost height indulging in photographythen the lift became harder to find sowe started scratching. After a whileI'd lost so much height that I couldn'tclear the ridge to get to the landingarea so to minimise the walk out I setout on a final glide down the valley Iwas in towards the motorway,At about 150' agl I encountered thefamiliar feeling of my canopy pitchingupwards, damping the inevitable dive Icouldn't believe my vario ( nor couldthe dogs who must have beendeafened) 14 - 16 up and large Is~alied. a long slow 360° eventuallytightening on the core. On seeing thisDaren, who was also low (about 800ftabove me), headed into my thermal.He mustn't have damped the diveforward on entering the thermalenough as the next thing I saw himfalling groundwards with a full frontaldeflatio~, recovering at around mystart pomt. By this time our take offbecame visible and everyone flyingwas heading in my direction. Itseemed that the only way was up and Isoon made cloudbase at about 5400ft.Looking below me I could see themelee ofpilots circling below.I took the plunge and headed acrossthe valley to the mountain expectingto get hammered. However I only lostabout 600ft which was soon replacedon the face of Conde. After about 30minutes of popping in and out ofcloud, most of the pilots had madebase or headed off for the beach toimpress the tourists. I decided to headoff for Los Christianos as last year aninstructor had impressed us all bydoing this then spending the earlyevening soaring the sea cliffs there.Following a compass bearing in cloudI soon realised it is a long way, and

Summer 1996

very lonely compared to ridge soaring.Daren had followed the BEACHsetting on his compass for 20 minuteswhile not being able to descend fromthe cloud and found himself emergingover the sea at about 5100ft givinghim plenty of time to impress thetourists on the beach with wingovers,spiral dives and asymmetricseventually doing a pinpoint landing,between the nicest females on thebeach, to a large round of applause.At about halfway I was down tobelow 4000ft but I still had themotorway, powerlines and a town tocross so keeping the speed bar full onI headed for what I'd been told couldbe a source of thermals, a small hilljust before the motorway it workedand I was soon back up at base.Arriving with over 5000ft over LosChristianos blew my mind I'd neverleft the ridge before let alone flownover tower blocks. After a while I'dhad enough and decided to call for aretrieve.

'Can you pick me up please. ''Yeh sure. Where are you?''The sea cliffs! '(smugly)

Losing my height over hotel pools wasfun, first a left hand spiral losingaround 1500ft then a right handedspiral to unwind myself: of about2000ft it was then that I noticed mydrift was away from the sea cliffs,checking this with the boat anchoredout to sea I realised that landingwould be fun. In my excitement I hadflown up wind all the way and now Ifaced all the rotor coming in over thecliffs. I'd committed myself to landhere so I gently 360o'd until Iencountered a 60170% asymmetric.This was dealt with but it didn't seemright, everything was too quiet. Ilooked down to see an already largehotel getting larger very fast! Quicklyrunning over the manoeuvres in'Instability' in my mind I'd just got to

The YRC Bulletin 38

'Big Ears' when I thought I'd betterdo something quick, first I tried largebrake on both sides - nothing, then Itried a large input on one side - thewing started slowly at first to turn so Ithanked the Lord (audibly, I found outafterwards) and set up the landing andlanded safely a few minutes later. Itall happened very fast and I only lostaround 600ft but every second felt likean hour.The trip continued to be a very steeplearning curve for everyone, even a'Sky God' like myself

Tenerife is an island of contrasts. The Southis barren, almost desert like, with the climateinfluenced mainly by the sea breezes. TheNorth is green, moist and in general morewindy. The South is a major touristdestination with the resulting availablility ofpackage deals and English speaking localsUnlike the Alps there are few restrictions onfree flight. Spanish law insists on a reserve,there is no flying within the National Park(Mt. Tiede) and it's advisable to contactlocal pilots. Landing out can mean a longwalk out, and/or an evening, extracting'Prickly Pear' spines out of variousextremities (Someone even had thempenetrate the soles of sturdy flying boots!)The take off points are all high (even the'Training slope' has a top to bottom height ofover 1700ft and it is possible to get awayfrom here and cover vast distances) and mostare top driveable. Of the other sites I'dflown the year previously one was closed dueto some German pilots upsetting the landowner and the launch site of another hadbeen moved due to complications with a landowner, emphasising that communicationwith local pilots is a good idea,The added bonus of Tenerife is that out ofseven days there is a good chance that allwould be flyable.Our group of eight consisted of twoinstructors, two newly qualified pilots andfour others of varying experience includingmyself. We had all independently decided togo with 'Airborne' as they sorted everythingout from flights to retrieves, also it waspossible for those without varios, radios,reserves and the like to rent them.

Canopy:- Swing Prisma (large)Experience» CP + 45 hours

Summer 1996

The President'sReport

as presented to the 103 rd AGM

All YRC years are special, but 1995was doubly so because it was the yearof the Himalayan Expedition. At thetime of writing this report news hasjust come through that the climbingteam are safely off Dorje Lapka andback in Kathmandu. The news is thatthe team did not reach the summit a,decision having been taken that snowconditions were too dangerous. Anyfirst feelings of disappointment aresoon dismissed. The safety of all themembers is paramount and theclimbing leader ~d Campion and hisadvisers are to be complimented onmaking a very sound mountaineeringdecision. Recent events this summerelsewhere in the mountaineering worldbear out this judgement.

I feel it is not my place to report eitheron the Trek or the ClimbingExpedition. This task quite lightlybelongs to the Climbing Leader andAlan Kay, our Trek Leader and co­ordinator of the whole expedition.There are many people to thank andthese acknowledgements will be madeas the various reports unfold.However I feel, as I am sure the wholeExpedition members do, that this tripwould not have got off the groundwithout the work of Alan Kay whoresearched it, organised it, did a hugeamount of fund raising and alsotwisted the arms of his employers notonly to give a generous donation, butalso to waive numerous bankingcharges which normal expeditionswould have had to bear. The Clubowes Alan a huge debt.

The YRC Bulletin 39

Finally, it is a great credit to this Clubthat we were able to send 14members, 1 prospective member and aguest to the Himalaya. Let us build onthis success and, through the publicityit will generate, it should help tostimulate the recruitment of activenew members.

To return to more mundane clubaffairs. The average meet attendanceof 21.4 was only slightly down on the1994 figure of 22. This level has beenthe norm for the past few years. Thisyear was probably helped by the longhot summer which in turn helped toraise the climbing standards of someof our younger members. It gave megreat pleasure when on the LHG meetin July Tim Bateman and AlistairRenton came in rather late for dinnerto announce almost casually that theyhad climbed Kipling Groove onGimmer, the climb that used to be thetest piece of all the hard men of the1950's and 60's.

Another most enjoyable meet was theLong Walk organised as a two dayevent in the Southern Uplands by lanCrowther. The two overseas meets inMallorca and the Picos d'Europa werealso highly successful and seem set tobe repeated in the not too distantfuture. The one cloud on the horizonis the decline ofthe Spring Bank weekin Scotland.

The Club must decide very shortly if achange away from Scotland isdesirable, or indeed if the meet shouldbe moved from a busy holiday period.Finally, my thanks are due once againto all the meet organisers who put somuch effort into making our meets sosuccessful.

Considerable time, effort and moneyhas gone into the improvements at

Summer 1996

both our huts in 1995. This appliesparticularly to Lowstem where atconsiderable cost the electricalinstallations have been put right and atthe last Committee Meeting approvalwas given for the installation ofstorage heaters, a de-humidifier andextractor fans to eliminate thehumidity problem The Hut Wardenswill report in more detail, but at lastLowStem will be a cottage of whichwe can be truly proud.

The YR.C. Bulletin is now well andtruly off the ground thanks to theefforts of Michael Smith, our Editorand of course all the contributors.

One very interesting article wasArthur Evans's account of theCorrugated Cracks and Janus climbson Elidir Fawr in 1937. This was inBulletin No. 3. Then in Bulletin No. 4Tim Josephy describes how herepeated the climbs and is full ofrespect for such a lead before the 2ndWorld War using Alpine line, wearingtricouni shod boots and with noprotection. As Tim writes, AW.E. westand in awe! Both gentlemen are heretonight, if they haven't got togetheryet I am sure they will. These twoarticles alone convince me that theprinciple of a six monthly bulletin isthe road to go down.

Last year we debated at length theissue of women in the Club. Thiscaused many of us a lot of agonisedheart-searching. The debate wasconducted in relatively good humour.I think it was right to bring it out intothe open. The decision was made andat the first Committee Meeting afterthe E.G.M. it was agreed that thesubject should not be raised againunless there was a real groundswellwithin the Club and it came from theyounger members.

'The YRC Bulletin 40

All members will have read in recentcirculars of the difficulty we areexperiencing recruiting officers of theClub, particularly for the key posts ofTreasurer and Secretary. Discussionswill take place later in the meetingwhen the Secretary will outline howhe would like his duties to be split.This is in line with how other KindredClubs operate. However, withoutvolunteers coming forward allsuggestions are worthless and this is aheartfelt plea from a President, whohas himself served time, for membersto come forward and help in any waypossible. Ifthese posts cannot be filledsatisfactorily, and I support bothincumbents in their determination toleave their posts next November, thenthe result for the Club will be a hugedrop in standards in the managementof our affairs.

The other major disappointment hasbeen our failure to recruit newmembers. 1995 saw only one newmember join the Club. There are atleast four prospective members in the'pipeline' and hopefully they andothers will help to boost next year'smembership

Membership now stands at 185. Therewere two deaths in the year, GeoffreyBates and Geoff Scovell and tworesignations, Steven Goulden andAndy Wells. Membership is brokendown as under:

I 1995 11994Honorary Members 6 6

Life Members 64 65OrdinaryMembers 114 116

Junior Members 1 1Total 185 188

C. D. Bush, President

Summer 1996

Morteratsch1903

1904-5

1906-7

5Sattell (Conway). Two New Climbson Scafell (F. Botterill), A Night In aPothole - Lost John's ("SilentMember"). Alum Pot (Lowe). GapingGill Hole (Cuttriss). EarlyExplorations in Ingleborough Cave(Green). Slanting Gully, Lliwedd (F.Botterill), Savage Gully (F. Botterill),

6 Winter

Mountaineering in 1883 (Jackson). AFortnight in the Eastern Alps (Brigg).The Kleine Zinne from Cortina(Calvert). The Horungtinder (Green).Slogen (Raeburn). Jockey Hole andRift Pot (Booth). Geological FeaturesofRift Pot (Broderick).

7 Some

Reminiscences of Skagastoldstind(Ulten). Further Explorations inGaping Gill Hole (Horn). Gaping GillHole (Plan). North West Climb, Pillar(Botterill). Limestone Caverns andPotholes and their Mode of Origin(Dwerryhouse), Scoska Cave,Littondale (with plan) (Hill).

8 1907-8 -. Some Alpine

Variations (Wintlrrop Young).Speleology (Martel). Some Caves andPotholes County Fermanagh(Broderick). Gaping Gill Again(Cuttriss). Mere Gill Hole (Roberts).

9 1909 - Alpine Flora

(Farrar). S.E. Arete of the Nesthorn(Lowe). In Northern Siberia(Cuttriss). Log of the Bertol(Botterill). Caves In Yamaguchi(Gauntlett). The Florence CourtCaves, Co Fermanagh (with plan ofMarble Arch and District and PollaSumera) (Broderick). Gaping Gill inFlood (Rule).

Yorkshire Ramblers' Club Journals

ContentsAll forty Club Journals 1899-1992, ,are listed below together with anabbreviated summary of contents.

1 1899 -The Formation of

the Club (Bellhouse). The NorthernPlayground of Europe (Sllngsby).Dent des Bouquetins by East Face(Calvert). Mountaineering withoutGuides (Pilkington). A NewMountain Aneroid Barometer(Whymper). The West Wall of DeepGill (Robinson). The Caves andPotholes or Yorkshire (Cuttriss).Gaping Gill Hole - Part 1 (Calvert).

2 1900 - The Growth of

Mountaineering (Walker).Keswick Brothers' Climb (Puttrell).Mountaineering in Norway(Sllngsby). Long Kin Hole West(Ellet).Gaping Gill Hole - Part 11 (Calvert).

3 1901 -Ancient Kingdom

of Mourne (Moore). Swiss Holiday(Anderson). Walk in theTyrol(B11gg). Southern Greece (Barran),Two Explorations in IngleboroughCave (Green). Easter Holiday in theScottish Highlands (Slingsby).Scrambling on Derbyshire Rocks(Barton)

4 1902 - A Run through

the Dolomites (Coolidge). CampingOut (Scriven). PersonalReminiscences of Great Climbs(Mathews). Solitary Camping onScafell (Lund). Record Fell Walk(Broadrick). Rowten Pot(Swithinbank). An Expedition In theRange of the Grand Muveran(Corbett).

The YRC Bulletin 41 Summer 1996

111911

17 1927

10 1910-In Praise of Good

Things (Schuster). Gaping Gill(Farrer). Concerning Guide Books(Benson).: Easter in the Black Forest(Greenwood). Car Pot (Broderick).Sunset Holefkoberts). Gaping GillSpout Tunnel and Rat Hole (Rule)

Helm Wind

(Benson). In Old Tracks (Brigg).Climbing at 11k1ey (illustrated)(Greenwood). The Cave of theDragon, Majorca (with plan) (Hill).Sleets Gill and Dowka Bottom Cave(Plan of Sleets Gill) (Hastings).Swinsto Cave and some others(Broderick),

12 1912 - On the Grigna

(Farrer). Aurora Borealis (Benson).Attempt on Kamet (AM. Slingsby).Sinai: A Desert Ride (J. J. Brigg).The Siege of Mere Gill (with plan)(Roberts). The Stream Bed of FellBeck above G.G. (plan showingSpout Tunnel and Rathole)(Broderick).

13 1913 - Clapham Cave

(with plan) (Hill).The Cave of theWild Horses (Baker and Kentish).Noon's Hole (with plan) (Baker &Wingfield). Siberia in Winter(Cuttriss). A Spofforth Pinnacle("Columbus Junior"). Gaping Gill in1913 (Rule).

14 1921 -A Shikar Trip in

Tehri (0. 1. Addyman). In the Tracksor the Rubber Men (Frankland).Scawfell, Pisgah Buttress (W.Y.B.).Mountain and Sea (Botterill).Conceming AITan (Benson). GapingGill in 1920. Flood Entrance (D.

The YRC Bulletin 42

Burrow), Flora and Fauna (Lovett).Cave Exploration.

15 1922 -Central Buttress,

Scawfell (Frankland). Mountains andSea IT (Botterill). Snow on the Fells(Seaman). The Mountain Ramparts ofSeas (Roberts). Swildon's Hole andMendips (Bonner). The Leek FellPotholes (with sketch map). GoydenPot (with plan of Labyrinth). CaveExploration.

16 1924 -A Brief Visit to

the Jotunheim (C. E. Burrow). AGlimpse of the Dauphine(Woodward) . Les Ecrins and theMeije (Wright). Longkofe1 by theN.E. Ridge (Smythe). Mountainsand Sea 11l(Botterill). Fox Holes,Clapham - A Rock Shelter (withplan)(Broderick). Diccan Pot, Selside(Brown). Little Hull Pot, Penyghent(Roberts). Oxlow Cavern, Castleton(with plan) (Humphreys). CaveExploration.

Peaks &

Porterage in the Pyrenees (G. R.Smith). Across to Andorra (Wright).Food & The Mountaineer(Crcighton). ConcemingClassification (Benson). SomeSeveres (Barker). Camp at LochCuruisk (Barker). Esk Buttress,Scawfell Pike (Frankland). JuniperGulf (Griffiths). Gingling Pot(Hilton). Clearing up in Gaping Gill(Anon).

18 1929 - A Raid on the

High Atlas (Brown). West Buttress ofClogwyn du'r Arddu (Smythe). Notesof a campaign in the Alps 1927(Smythe). Some Peaks by the Lake ofComo (Wright). Gaping Gill, Whit &September ("Gantryman"). GapingGill in 1904 (M. Botterill).

Summer 1996

23 1938

26 1952

19 1930 - Corsica in May

(Roberts). The Outer Hebrides (M.Botterill). Some Notes on Sauerland(Ellis). Three Summers in the Club(Whitaker). About Nothing inParticular (Benson). Lost John's Cave(Foley). Gavel Pot in 1885(Hastings).

20 1932 - In the Adamello

and Brenta Groups (Sale). A Novice'sHoliday at Saas Fee (Shaw). A Trekin Northern Rhodesia (Wo0 dman).June Days in Ross and Skye (Reed).The Caimgorms (Riley). TheEisreisenwelt (Puttrell). CaveExploration.

21 1934 - Forty Years On

(Lowe). A Glimpse of theDrakensberg (G.S.Gowing). MountOphir, Lahore (Lowe). Six Days inDauphine (OakesSmith). TheRoman Wall of Hadrian (Lowe).Goyden Pot, Nidderdale(Yates).

Rumbling Hole, Leck Fell(Roberts). St. Michael'sCave,Gibraltar(Brodrick). Caves inDove & Manifold Valleys (Yates).

22 1936 -A Fortnight In the

Lepontine Alps (Evans). RoundSutherland (Roberts). Mountains ofYorkshire (Crawford). The RoyalGrotto of Postumia (Puttrell). TheGingling Hole Accident (N.C.P.C.).The Underground Course of theMonastir River (G.S. Gowing).County Clare - A Brief Diary(Bartlett). Sam, the Ingleton Plumber(F. W. Stembridge). These LatterDays (Washfold Cave, Mere Gill,Gaping Gill) (Roberts).

The Giant

(Davidson). Days Around the Susten

The YRC Bulletin 43

Pass (H. L. Stembridge). Snow OverPillar Fell (Reed) . Mountain and SeaIV (Botterill). Lochs Morar, Mournand Nevis (Goggs). The ChislehurstCave Myth (Bonner). Three Eastersin Ireland (Bartlett). Ireland re-visited(Gowing). Dan-yr-ogof and theWelsh Caves (Roberts).

24 1947 - Edouard Allied

Martel (Roberts). Some Mountains ofCape Province (Elliot). A Note on theTheban Hills (Evans). Route Z Brig­Grindlewald (Evans). Omul - GettingFit for War (Watts). A Happy NewYear. High Level MidwinterBivouacs (Nelstrop). The EnniskillenGondoliers (Roberts). CaveExploration.

25 1949 - Return to the

Alps (Watts). First Visit to the Alps(Chadwick). Cyrene Underground(Stringer). Summer Camp in Lewis(Matheson). Almscliff Key to Climbs.5 plans and sketches(Stembridge).Floreat Hibernia (Stembridge ).Potholes of the Ulster Border (6sections) (Holmes). Car PotBreakthrough (Brindle). CaveExploration.

Norwegian

Holiday (Holmes). Late Summer inthe Alps (Fox). A New Type of ClubMeet (Chadwick). Club Cottage(Burrow). Tales of Old Langdale(Griffin). Thadentsonyana Basutoland(Jorgensen). Ulster the Seventh Time(Roberts). Mount Etna (Rusher).Letter from Scotland (Reed). CaveExploration.

27 1954 - Some Potholes in

Leitrim, Eire (H. L. Stembridge). The1911 Ascent of Gardyloo Gully(Roberts). Gaping Gill ExplorationsAugust 1951 - May 1952 (Parker).

Summer 1996

Loubens and the Deepest Pothole(Roberts). Zennatt and Chamonix1952 (Fox). Two Climbs on theChamonix Aiguilles (Fox). TheAscent of Mount Victoria (Kelsey).The New Generation (Spenceley). ANorthern Bogtrot (Griffin). Holes Inthe Ground (IIPunchll

) . Climbs onGuisecliff (Scovell). Dr Johnson andthe Mountains (Brook).

28 1957 - South Georgia

(Spenceley). Fairy Hole Cave,Weardale (Jones). Bird Watching inthe Hills (Stonehouse). The Anglo-­French Expedition to Labouiche(Patchett). The Seven Peaks Walks(Large). We Can't All Be Explorersbut - (Lacy). Praraye (Watts). TheLakeland 3000's (Anderson). MountArrowsmith Vancouver Island(Devenish). Brimham Rocks, anInterim Guide (McKelvie). TheBrenva Route (Fox). Some Lettersfrom the Past (Brook).

29 1958 - YRC Himalayan

Expedition - Introduction (H. L.Stembridge) England to Katmandu(Tallon). Katmandu to Base Camp(Wilson). The Big White Peak(Spenceley). After the Accident(Anderson). A Bearer of ill Tidings(Spenceley). Base Camp to Katmandu(Tallon). A Doctor in the Himalayas(Jones). The Injured from Base Campto Katmandu (Jones). Equipment,Medical and Food Rep orts. TheSumming Up (Spenceley).

30 1960 - Clapham Cave ­

1946/1959 (Patchett). Lonely inLapland (Spenceley). 1957 Expd. toMonte Marguaries (Linford).Traverse of the Eiger and the Monch(R. Gowing). Lost John's Cave 1959(Stembridge). Enniskillen Whitsun1959 (Hanis). A Pyrenean Journey

'The YRC Bulletin 44

(Large). Reminiscences Part 1 1902 ­1909 (Roberts),

31 1962 -Skiing in Norway

(Harris). Rosenlaui and so to Tatra(Bell). La Haute Route 1960 (D. W.Stembridge). KnoydartReconnaissance (Stirling). FirstImpressions of Newfoundland(Lockwood). A Traverse or theLenzspitze (Wilkinson). Mountains,Beaches and Sunshine in Corsica(Tallon). The Cascade Mountains(G.A.Salmon). Reminiscences Part ll­The YRC (Rob ert s).

32 1964 - Mountains &

Indians in Peru (H. L. Stembridge). Inthe Footsteps of the Fianna(Crowther), Avalanche (Baume). AShambles amongst the Alps (F. D.Smith, Allen, Vamey). IcefieldRanges of the St. Elias Mountains(T.H. Smith). Dolomite Introduction(Henderson). Gullies (Woodward). ADay on the Matterhorn (R. Gowing).Skye, the Ridge (Harben). KilnseyCrag (Moorhouse).

33 1966 - Fuji-San (R.

Gowing). Knoydart (Swindells). TheBritish Expedition to theEdelweisserhuttenschach (Judson,Middleton). The Northern Alps ofJapan (R. Gowing). Climbs in theEastern Alps (Moorhouse). Land ofthe Magic Carpet (Watts). Pen yGhent Pot 1964 (T. W. Salmon).With a Scout Troop in the HighAtlastMarr). Carlsbad Caves, NewMexico (Reynolds). ReminiscencesPart 111 (Roberts), Oxlow Caverns(Middleton).

34 1968 -Three-Quarters of

a Century (The Presidents). Antro diCorchia, Apuan Alps (Arculus).Climbs in the Clapham Area

Summer 1996

(Richards). A Fionn Loch Diary(Stirling). Some Climbs in Turkey(Spenceley). The BritishSpeleological Expedition in Turkey1966 (Middleton). Turkey Again1967 (Middleton). First Descent ofthe Melon River Gorge (Middleton).Hadrian's Magic Stones (Patchett).Further Rambling in Japan (RGowing). Cave Exploration in SouthWales (Judson).

35 1970 - The Watkins

Mountains Expedition (Spenceley).Underground in the Lebanon 1968 &1969 (J. R Middleton). HighAdventure (T. Smith). Return toCorchia 1969 (Edwards). Fellsman1969 (Hooper). Midnattssolens Land(Humphreys). 1969 SpeleologicalExpedition to Umbria (Judson).

36 1973 - Iran: A Caving

Adventure Extraordinary (J. RMiddleton). Ghar Parau 1972(Lomas). Land, Sea and Skye - TheWhit Meet 1972. The Reseau FelixTrombe (J. R Middleton). Damavandand Alan Kuh (Edwards). 1972 TheYear of the Push (J. R Middleton).Jiekkevarri '71 (Bugg). The GouffieBerger (Edwards). The Golden AgeofYorkshire Potholing (Swindells).

37 1976 -The Hard Way to

Lalibella (Spenceley). A Journeythrough the Semyen (Medley).Yorkshire Ramblings in California(Goulden). Those Blue RememberedHills (Farrant). Nova Scotia and theDrakensberg (Smithson). BeckingPleasures (Clayton). Messrs. Dawson,Townend & Co. - Pioneer Potholers(Craven). The Greatest (H. L.Stembridge). First Alpine Route:Gran Paradiso (Lomas). Sulitjelma1975 (Bugg).

The YRCBulletin 45

38 1979 - A Long River

Through a Lonely Land (Spenceley).The Ogre (Rowlands). The Los TayosExpedition (Whalley). Outdoors inSouth Australia (Reynolds). Doingthe Donalds (Farrant). RadioBroadcasts by J. W. Puttrell(Harben). Trekking to Toubkal(M.Smith). Spitzbergen (D.Mackay).Arabian Clu,.ppings (Lovett).

39 1985 - Wasdale Diary

(Hoop er). A Tale of Two Chimneys(Sale). Rambling Alone (Aldred). ADay In the Cascades (Farrant). TheMunro Meet 1983 (Swindells).Himalayan Trek (T. A. Kay). CaveDiggers (Lomas). YRC Reflections(G. S. Gowing). Two Continents byCanoe (Spenceley). An OrnithologicalPanorama (Papworth). Introductionto the Alps (Goulden). BolivianReconnaissance (M. Smith)

40 1992 -Centenary Year. ­

The Y.R.C. 1892-1992 (Craven).Cololo, an Ascent in the Apolobamba(M. Smith). Karakoram Trek 1989(Kay). Farthest North & South(Lacy). Norway 1991 (Armstrong).Mount Albert Edward Diary (White).'1 Know the Beggar" (Hooper). TheRediscovery of Cwm Dwr IT(Campion). Some Notes on the WorldCaving Scene 1992 (J.R.Middleton).Lets Go Paragliding (Smythe). AView from the Bridge (Farrant).Extracts from Alpine Meets(F.D.Smith). Club Proceedings 1979­1991.

Ray HarbenHon. Librarian

January 1996

Summer 1996

Craven Pothole Club RecordNo. 40. October 1995

Here is a bumper (54 page)issue. Lively accounts of cavingadventure in the UK and abroadpredominate but there is a timely andthoughtful article about conservationand, as usual, an account of amountaineering meet. Abroadincludes Sarawak and Transylvaniaand the climbing meet took place inSkye. I was delighted to learn thatthere is an easy (relatively) way toSgurr Alastair from Sgumain.

The biggest news on the UKpotholing side is the discovery of anew extension in Gaping Gill. Theexact location is not given but theaccount coveys all the thrills ofexpIoration.

Letters From the LakesW.R. MitchelI

Castleberg, 1995, pp. 172 £5.99&

I'll Walk Where I Will.An Anthology for Ramblers,

compiled by Roy AlIen.The Rambler's Association, 1995,pp. 58. Available from: 18 FurnessAvenue, Sheffield, S17 3QL.

Yorkshiremen will be familiarwith Bill Mitchell's name as long timeeditor of the ''Dalesman''. Since hisplace there was taken by David Joy hehas not been idle. In the forward byHunter Davies we learn that this bookwas written after a serious operationfrom which Mr. Mitchell has happilycompletely recovered. He has beenkind enough to present a copy to theClub.

'Ibe YRC Bulletin 46

It consists of a series of essayson various aspects ofLakeland. Thereare none about climbing as such butplenty about the countryside andabout people. A gentle gossipy bookthis with no derring-do and nounpleasantness, a senior citizens' bookrather than a young tiger's.

Mr. Mitchell's encyclopeadicknowledge certainly filled in somegaps 'in mine, in particular theconfusion I was in over two names,Heaton Cooper and Collingwood.AHeaton Cooper was the artist fatherofthe better known W.Heaton Cooperand W.G.Collingwood, secretary toJohn ("greasy pole") Ruskin, wasfather of R.G. Collingwood, Oxfordhistorian and joint author of "RomanBritain and the English Settlements" inthe Oxford History of England. W.G.also wrote one of the best historicalnovels about Lakeland, "Thorstein ofthe Mere".

We learn something aboutMrs. Heelis (Beatrix Potter) andHarriet Martineau. In the chapter onphotographers as well as the greatAbraham brothers we hear aboutJoseph Hardman of Kendal who usedto photograph the glamorous nursesof Westmorland County Hospital in amountain setting. Funny enough afterthree weeks being looked after bythem in 1953 I developed a desire todo something similar but didn't getanywhere.

I am sorry that Mr. Mitchellhas conformed to the current fashionof calling Mill Gill "Stickle Gill". I seeno reason for altering a name whichhas served for centuries and I resentthe arrogance which assumes the lightto do so. Another small carp is thereference to ''Matthew Arnold,Headmaster of Rugby". SurelyDoctor Arnold of Rugby was father toMatthew Arnold, Poet, andincidentally grandfather to Malcolm

Summer 1996

Amold, composer. A talented family,why weren't they members?

This is a good book to have onyour shelf and take down when youhave half an hour to spare. It is full ofinterest and the black and whiteillustrations are surprisingly effective.

"I'll Walk Where I Will" hasonly an indirect connection withBenny Rothman of mass trespassfame. The title is a quote from a verseby Ewen McColl which is printed infull on the title page. The book isdivided into sections for particulardistricts and aspects of walking. Thequotes are from a variety of authorsfrom Shakespeare through EmilyBronte to Mike Harding, Most ofthem are to the point and the questionof access is by no means overlooked.There is a copy in the YRC library andits well worth a look.

Wainwright. The Biography.Hunter Davies,

Michael .Ioseph, London, pp.355,£16.99

I have long been fiercelyresentful of the assumption that everyred blooded English-man knows aboutfootball. We get no further than pagesix of this book before the author isexpecting his readers to know whatthe 2-3-5 system is and how it differsfrom the 2-2-6 system. For heavenssake if you pick up a book aboutWainwright you may expect aknowledge ofLakeland to be requirednot football.

The information thatWainwright 'followed' BlackburnRovers all his life did not enhance myopinion of the man. I suppose peoplewho know about football appreciateskill and dexterity displayed on thefield but when good performance isonly applauded from 'our' team I partcompany.

The YRC Bulletin 47

But persevere with the bookeven if you are not a football fan. Infact don't start it if you want to beyour own man for the next five or sixhours because I found it very difficultto put down. My own view ofWainwright before reading this was ofa man who let his love for theLakeland Fells consume all his sparetime either walking them or writingabout them. This naturally caused hiswife to feel like nothing but aneglected skivvy and cost him hismarriage, Most of us have seen thishappen.

But the truth seems so strangeas to be bizarre. This was no whitehot young love getting marriedwithout further thought. It seems thathe married because she was the onlygirl who accepted his embraces. AndI can appreciate that because I stillremember the time when NO girlaccepted mine. Another reasondriving AW. into early marriage was adrunken father at home. Plainly theycould not afford to get marriedbecause their honeymoon was twoshilling seats at the local cinema afterwhich they moved into the housepreviously shared by Ruth and hersister.

Ruth's motivation was perhapsmore straightforward, Alf had asecure white-collar job in the TownHall and was a "good catch" but whenit transpires years later that "shewould never have married him if shehad known he had red hair" onewonders what sort of courtship theyhad. It seems that all their courtingwent on either in the dark or withAW. wearing his cap, or both.

So instead of a man gettingobsessed with the Fells and ruining hismarriage we have a man climbing theFells to get out of the house. Nowonder he never got a car; he was

Summer 1996

happier trundling home on a slow busthan getting home in good time.

Having claimed that hisfamous guide books (thank goodness Iwas finding my own way roundLakeland before they came out) arosepurely out ofhis love for the Fells andthat he desired no personal gain orpublicity we arrive at the 1980's whenfor a period you could not turn on theTV or open a colour supplementwithout seeing Wainwright. But all themoney went to animal charities so Isuppose that made it all right. I sawone of these programmes myself;"Animals cannot speak up forthemselves" said Wainwright,Certainly they cannot speak but theother side of the coin is that they donot have consciences and need notworry about over population, the thirdworld or the next ice age. No, Icannot agree with a man who puts theanimal kingdom, in his will, before hisown son.

But read the book. I think itgives a fair assessment of a man whoused his considerable talents to makehis mark and did his best to play fairaccording to his lights. Largelybecause he realised how lucky he hadbeen I cannot dislike him. I used to beenvious of the considerable time hemust have spent on the hills but hemissed out on a lot of the other goodthings oflife.

The Last Hero. Bill Tilman.A Biography of the Explorer.

Tim MadgeHodder & Stoughton, 1995,

pp. 288, £18.99What do you think of a man

who, after falling off Dow Crag,finding himself the ouly member of theparty able to move, crawls down toConiston to get help? His actionsaved the life of one of his two

'l1lC YRC Bulletin 48

companions and he had to bephysically restrained fi..om going backwith the rescue team.

You might think he was a bitof a hero, you might also wonder howall three climbers managed to fall offDid none of them have an adequateanchor? Fair dos, Tilman wasn'tleading, but a mountaineer of hisexperience ought to have been tied on.

This seems to have been thepattern of a lot of Bill Tilman's life.Tough, careless of danger, andsometimes careless in his approach tohazardous enterprises, for examplegetting 'Mischief out of Las Palmasharbour (p.212).

Mr. Madge tells a good storyabout this man who was born in 1898and left school to join up for theKaiser's war. After the war, havingbeen wounded and decorated, he wentto East Africa to grow coffee. It washere that the successful partnershipwith Eric Shipton was started. Theyclimbed Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenyaand the Mountains of the Moon.When Shipton decided that the 1933Everest expedition had been toocumbersome he and Tilman set up aseries of lightweight trips whichachieved among other things the firstpenetration of the Nanda DeviSanctuary. Tilman took part in thefirst ascent of the mountain a yearlater.

World War II found Tilman inkhaki again. After active service inIraq and Africa he found his metierleading guenilla operations behindenemy lines in Albania and Italy.

Mr. Tilman senior's deathbefore the war had left Bill with aprivate income so he was able toresume his mountain explorationswithout the worry of having to earn aliving. His books must have helped ofcourse, I think "Two Mountains and aRiver" describing his 1947 adventures

Summer 1996

is one ofhis best. Even the preface isa little gem.

In his mid fifties Bill found hecould no longer perform at highaltitudes so he took up sailing. Hebought an old Bristol pilot cutter,christened her 'Mischief, andembarked on a twenty year career ofsailing round such places asGreenland, Spitzbergen and theAntarctic. As he got well into hisseventies he experienced increasingdifficulty handling his crews.

By this time there was morethan one generation gap between thisfirst war veteran and the SOli offootloose young men who would be atliberty to take six months off to gosailing. The footloose young men ofthe seventies were not inclined to kowtow to this silly old buffer who keptmaking a mess of things and thoughthe was doing them a big favour.

In fact, of course, they weredoing him a favour because the boatshe used needed a crew of four or five.One wonders why he didn't get agood one man craft and do a ChayBlyth.

Mr. Madge writes well and hashad a lot of help from Bill's niece,Pam Davis. He has done a good jobin putting all the information togetherthough I found his layout by activityrather than chronology a bit confusing.

I get the impression,nevertheless, of a certain lack of'empathy?' between biographer andsubject. Mr. Madge is at pains topoint out that Bill's 'sense ofdeference' to members of the RoyalFamily for instance was not 'odd'.Tim, everybody except the bolshieshad it in the 30s and 40s too. It is stillthere now in a perverted wayotherwise the antics of some of itsyounger members wouldn't sell somany papers.

The YRC Bulletin 49

Another sign of those times isthat people didn't use first namesoutside family. It is sometimesremarked on that the two booncompanions Shipton and Tilmanaddressed each other as just that. Thestory goes that when Shipton askedTilman to call him 'Eric' Tilman'sreply was 'It's such a sillyname'.

I don't buy this. Firstlybecause Bill was too much of agentleman to poke fun at a mend'sname and secondly because I amconvinced that to Bill the use of firstnames belonged to the nursery, 'Playnicely with Eric, Billy'. I suggest thatwhat Bill meant to convey, whateverhe said was 'It's such a silly childishhabit'.

But read this book. It will tellyou a lot about the man that is worthknowing. High jinks in Africa,groping for bullets on the tent floor toshoot a buffalo at dead of night. Bythe time they found them the buffalohad gone.

Thoughts on the war, Bill wentand fought, of course, but he had thisto say about some of those whostayed behind, 'I dislike those peoplewho go to the country (to escape thebombing) and stay there; it will not dothe monied people any good after thewar.' He knew what he was on aboutthere, Clement Attlee and Co. saw tothat.

Every reviewer must find ahole to pick, even a minor one. Anauthor with Mr. Madge's impressivelist of qualifications, yachtmaster,pilot, climber etc., ought to know thatStornoway is not in the Shetlands. Itwas on Lewis in the outer Hebrideslast time I was there.

On a more important issue I donot agree that HW.T. was the lasthero'. He did well in two wars; so didmillions of others. He climbed andexplored; so would have hundreds of

Summer 1996

others if they hadn't had to earn aliving. In fact when Bill was startinghis sailing working class mountaineerssuch as Don Whillans were taking upmountain exploration where Bill hadleft off

No, Bill Tilman would neverhave described himself as any kind ofhero. Ifyou don't believe this read hisown books as well as this one.

Lakeland Rocky Rambles.Geology beneath your feet.

Bryan Lyan,Sigma Leisure, pp. 282, £9.95.

Until I got this book I thoughtI knew something about geology. It istruly said, however, that humility isthe beginning of wisdom and afterdoing the first one of the 'rockyrambles', Haystacks, with the book inhand I am certainly humble. Juliet andI chose a clear March day to do the

The Scottish Mountaineering Club walk which goes through WarnscaleJournal 1995. Bottom taking in the waterfalls of

Volume XXXV, No. 186. Warnscale Beck to Dubs Quarry.There is something for Here we lunched and completed the

everybody in the 225 pages of the walk by Little Round How, BlackbeckS.M.C. Journal. We have reports of Tarn and Haystacks, to Scarth Gap.accidents, new routes, club activities The book takes twenty-two pagesand of course orbituaries. On the including drawings to describe thelighter side there is a new Sherlock walk and the things you can see and isHoImes adventure (how many of you a mine of information. We had itknew that Norman Collie was cushy, we didn't have to worry aboutSherlock HoImes' cousin?), and a the botany (Mr. Lynas is not narrowfunny about the Mad Monk of minded) because it was winter.Dundonnell. The Letterewe Accord is Nevertheless by the time we got toreported fully and might yet show the Little Round Row with clag coming inway forward in reconciling the the the West in the middle of a winterinterests of various land users. afternoon we felt it best to close the

The ten colour photographs book and finish the walk. We willare all first class and represent certainly have to go again to see themountaineering all over the world. things we missed.

This is the first S.M.C. Journal There are ten ramblesI have studied in detail and I am described including Coniston Fells,impressed by the way clubs and Langdale Pikes, Helvellyn andmountaineering have been organised Blencathra. Appendices include ain Scotland. We all know the S.M.C. glossary and a timescale. I wish I hadwas founded just before the Y.R. C., had this book :fifty years ago and I willbut the Junior Mountaineering Club of certainly not go back to LakelandScotland was formed in 1925 without it. The style is racy andspecifically to accept and train amusing, it is a good armchair read asnovices, and retains a sort of filial well.relationship with S.M.C., in that its If you are the least bitactivities are reported in this journal, interested in how the hills we lovenow in the Club Library for your were formed get this book it is wellenjoyment. wOlth the modest price of £9.95.

A special issue of the 'The Bulletin' of the South African SpelaeologicalAssociation, number 34, 1994, pp136 is to be placed at Lowstern. The issue isgiven over to a comprehensive study ofthe Management Problems at Cango Caves

'!11e YRC Bulletin 50 Summer 1996

51

The Relationship betweenEdmund Bogg, The LeedsSavage Club and the YRC

S.A. Craven

The late Edmund Bogg was a popularand prolific writer a century ago. Withhis artist and other friends he trampedall over the northern Pennines gatheringmaterial for his well-illustrated books.His first book, "A Thousand Miles inWharfedale" was published in hardbackby subscription in 1892. Subsequentbooks were financed by advertisements.As the years passed, his standards fell.By the 1920s he had re-worked muchof his material, and re-published usingpoorer quality paper and paperbackbinding. No doubt these later, cheaper,editions brought the countryside to aless affluent and increasingly mobileworking class population.

This paper records and comments onBogg's connection with the YorkshireRamblers' Club. It is not intended to bea critical appreciation ofBogg's literarytalent. Suffice it to say that he was aromantic writer. His contemporarytopographer and local historian, HarrySpeight, is considered to be a morereliable authority.

Bogg supplemented his literaryearnings by running a wholesale andretail business supplying artists'materials at 3 Woodhouse Lane andGuildford Street, Leeds. By the 1920she had moved to 3 Wade Street, Leeds.For many years he rented the ManorHouse at Castley which he used as aholiday homel.

Bogg gathered around him at hisCastley home and on his field trips agroup of artists, journalists, writers,musicians and craftsmen from which heformed the Leeds Savage Club2.

The YRC Bulletin

In those halcyon days before televisionand radio people had to entertainthemselves. The Leeds Savage Club,modelled on the earlier club ofthe samename in London, enabled the membersto do just that. Inter alia theyaccompanied Bogg on his lengthy toursof the countryside, and severalcontributed drawings and photographsto illustrate his books.

Bogg has the dubious distinction ofbeing involved in the first cave accidentin the Yorkshire Dales. On 12September 1891 he organised a concertfor about forty friends in Dow Cavenear Kettlewell. Owen Bowen andAlbert Haselgrave left the main partywith only one candle between them.When the light failed, Haselgrave fellabout 5 m. into the stream, injuring hisface. This story appeared in the localnewspaper-', and was repeated by Boggat least four times". A somewhat lesssensational account was written by aneye-witness 76 years later-'.

This early incident may have causedBogg to reconsider his attitude to caveswhich, unlike the works of HarrySpeight, rarely feature in his books.Four of his collaborators, George T.Lowe, Percy Robinson, Fred Leach and

Summer 1996

52

Frank Dean, subsequently joined theYRC which had been founded in 1892.It is not clear whether Lewis Moore(elected 1892) joined the YRC beforeor after his association with Bogg.There is no record of Bogg's financialarrangements with the YRC members.Owen Bowen received £2 per weekplus expenses for his artistic workv, soit is not unreasonable to assume thatthe YRC members were alsoremunerated.

In his first book, A Thousand Miles inWharfedale, Bogg dismissed StumpCross Caves in five lines7.Nevertheless, George Lowe obligedwith ten lines in the appendix to thatbook8. Twelve years and a thousand

. miles later Stump Cross had beendismissed in one line"!

The timing of George Lowe's firstcontribution is significant. He visitedStump Cross Caves during an Easterbefore October 1892 i.e. well beforethe YRC was formally constituted on 6October 1892. At that inauguralmeeting Lowe was elected President.

Lowe, writing under the banner of theYRC, contributed a chapter on UpperNidderdale to Bogg's undated Edenvaleto the Plains of York10. lnter alia hetook the readers to Tom Taylor's Cave,Eglin's Hole, Goyden Pot andManchester Hole. For many years thiswas the best available description of theNidderdale caves. Of the paperbacks,Lowe is acknowledged for hisassistance with Wensleydale and theLower Vale of Yore, but there is noindication of the full extent of hiscontribution11. He also provided sevenillustrations for Bogg's The OldKingdom of Elmet12, two for LowerWharfedale13, and five for HigherWharfelandrs,

l1lC YRC Bulletin

Bogg's biggest book was his 2000Miles in the Border Country, Lakelandand Ribblesdale. This tome went out ofprint in less than a year (1898: 1200copies), and was immediately re­published in two parts - A ThousandMiles ... in the Border Country and AThousand Miles ... Lakeland andRibblesdale. The identical paginationindicates that re-publication wasintended at the typesetting stage.George Lowe contributed a chapterabout the Northern Cheviots(illustrated by Fred Leach)15, whileLowe and Lewis Moore wrote aboutthe Roman Wall16 and Climbs inLakeland (also illustrated by FredLeach before he joined the YRC)17.

Messrs. Lowe and Moore were not theonly YRC members who were involvedwith Bogg's publishing efforts. PercyRobinson supplied many illustrationsfor Richmondshire-s, Two ThousandMiles in Wharfedale19, Edenvale to thePlains of York20, The BorderCountry-), Lakeland andRibblesdale--, A Thousand Miles inWharfedale-i, Higher Wharfeland-",Lower Wharfedalel>, The OldKingdom ofElmet26,Wensleydale andthe Lower Vale of Yore-], and

Picturesque Fell Land28, Robinsonwas a late arrival at the YRC from theBogg fraternity, being elected in 1906.This search of the Bogg books revealedthat Frank Dean (elected 1892,resigned 189529) was another majorillustrator.

The relationship between the membersof the YRC and Edmund Bogg was toa certain extent symbiotic. Although theYRC was founded in 1892, it did notpublish its Journal until 1899. In retumfor the contributions to his books,Bogg provided a medium for the

Summer 1996

publication of some early meetreportsl ! and cave explorations, bethey original or repeat. Thus in Bogg'sbooks can be found accounts of earlyYRC meets at Dow Cave-", GapingGill and Rowten Pot (illustrated bySamuel Cuttrissj-J, and Hell Hole32 .

As soon as the YRC Journalcommenced publication, the members'contributions to Bogg's books declined.Despite this unofficial association ofBogg with the YRC, only four of hisbooks were mentioned in the YRCJournal, and none was reviewed.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Don MelIor of Farnhillwho drew my attention to EdmundBogg's association with the LeedsSavage Club. The Club is mentioned inBogg's books.

1 Kerton F. (1946) "Edmund Bogg by HisDaughter" The Yorkshire Dalesman S, (4), 77-79.2 Leeds Savage Club archives (Leeds ReferenceLibrary).3 Anon. (1891) Craven Herald and WensleydaleStandard No. 883 for 18 September.4 Bogg E. (1892) "A Thousand Miles inWharfedale" pp. 242 - 243 (London: Simpkin,Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.).

Bogg E. (1904) "Two Thousand Miles inWharfedale" p. 608 - 610 (London: John Heywood).

Bogg E. (1904) "Higher Wharfeland - The DaleofRomance" pp. 322 - 323 (Leeds: James Miles).

Bogg E. (1904) "Picturesque Fell Land" p. 66(Manchester: John Heywood).5 Bowen O. (1967) "Owen Bowen: The Artist asa Young Man" Dalesman 29. 467.6 Bowen O. (1967) "Owen Bowen: The Artist asa Young Man" Dalesman 29.465.7 Bogg E. (1892) "A Thousand Miles inWharfedale" p. 173 (London: Simpkin, MarshallHamilton, Kent & Co.). '8 L(owe) G.T. (1892) "AnArtist's Rambles inUpper Wharfedale" pp. 262 - 268 in Bogg E. "AThousand Miles in Wharfedale" (London: Simpkin,Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.) reprinted (n.d.)~p..(39 - 40) in Bogg E. & Daykin w.H. (n.d.)Nidderdale and the Vale of the Nidd from Nun

Monkton to Great Whemside" (Leeds: E. Bogg).9 Bogg E. (1904) "Two Thousand Miles inWharfedale" pp. 489 & 493 (London: JohnHeywood).10 Lowe G.T. (n.d.; post-1892 & pre-1898) "ARambler's Reminiscences of Upper Nidderdale" pp.185 - 191 in Bogg E. "From Edenvale to the Plains

of York" (Leeds: Edmund Bogg). * Noted in 1.YRC. (1922) 2,. (15),69.11 Bogg E. (n.d. pre-1899) "Wensleydale and theLower Vale of the Yore, from Ousebum to LundsFell" (Leeds: Edmund Bogg). * Noted in J. YRC.(1899) 1. (1), 90.12 Bogg E. (1904) "The Old Kingdom of Elmet"pp. 15, 17, 19,46,74,164 & 222 (York: JOMSampson).* Noted in J. YRC. (1903H. (5), 95.13 Bogg E. (1904) "Lower Wharfeland: The OldCity of York and the Ainsty" pp. 135 & 162 (York:John Sampson).14 Bogg E. (1904) "Higher Wharfeland: The DaleofRomance" pp. 10,36,179,204 & 218.15 L(owe) G.T. (1898) "The Northern Cheviotsfrom Berwick to Otterbum" pp. 153 - 166 in Bogg.E. "Two Thousand Miles of Wandering in theBorder Country, Lakeland and Ribblesdale" (Leeds:Edmund Bogg)* Noted in 1. YRC. (1922) 2,. (15),69 reprinted (1898) pp. 153 - 166 in Bogg E.(1898) "A Thousand Miles of Wandering in theBorder Country" (Newcastle: Mawson, Swan &Morgan).16 (Moore 1. & ? Lowe G.T.) (1898) "RomanWall" pp. 36 - 41 ifl Bogg E. (1898) "TwoThousand Miles of Wandering in the BorderCountry, Lakeland and Ribblesdale" (Leeds:Edmund Bogg) reprinted (1898) pp. 36 - 41 inBogg E. (1898) "A Thousand Miles of Wanderingalong the Roman Wall, the Old Border Region,Lakeland, and Ribblesdale" (Leeds: EdmundBogg).17 L(owe) G.T. (1896) "Climbs in Lakeland" pp.161 - 169 in Bogg E. (1898) "Two Thousand Mileso~Wanderingin the Border Country, Lakeland andRibblesdale" (Leeds: Edmund Bogg) reprinted(1896) pp. 161 - 169 in Bogg E. (1898) "AThousand Miles of Wandering along the RomanWall, the Old Border Region, Lakeland, andRibblesdale" (Leeds: Edmund Bogg).18 Bogg E. (1908) "Richmondshire" pp. 13, 19,23,282,290,488,552, 566, 568 & 590 (Leeds:James Miles).19 Bogg E. (1904) "Two Thousand Miles inWharfedale" pp. 94,96,109,154,182,192,241,248,267,368,369,390,404,424,556,615&627(London: Jolm Heywood).20 Bogg E. "From Edenvale to the Plains of York"(Leeds: Edmund Bogg) pp. 6, 31, 34, 36, 37, 38,49,56,66,68,69,74,85,96,101,113,117,140,142,165,253,261,262,273,289,301,320,323,325, 333 & 334 (Leeds: Edmund Bogg).21 Bogg. E. (1898) "Two Thousand Miles ofWandering in the Border Country, Lakeland andRibblesdale" pp. 5, 18,23,34,36,62,67,71,232,250 & 253 (Leeds: Edmund Bogg) reprinted:(1898) "A Thousand Miles of Wandering in theBorder Country" pp. 5, 18,23,34,36,62,67,71,232, 250 & 253 (Leeds: Edmund Bogg).22 Bogg E. (1898) "Two Thousand Miles ofWandering in the Border Country, Lakeland andRibblesdale" pp. 9,26,40,46,47,53 & 90 (Leeds:Edmund Bogg) reprinted (1898) "A Thousand

The YRC Bulletin 53 Summer 1996

The result is this, still incomplete, list.

1. George T Lowe,1892-1942, a foundermember.

...no,

k'ur·nr')r.tv.a-f":

/Z_ ;''-';'9 j? e;04';.r'1~.

kt- /JI.1 •

2. J A Moxon3. Lewis Moore, a great member 1892-19334. WaIter Yale5. Joseph Towers, 1892-18936. Charles W Harding7. William Carter, not a member.8. W. Scuriato, nota member.9. ER CrossIO.AntiquaryI 1.Jester12.R C Oldham13.Percy Robinson, 1906-1948, 'inventor'

ofcommunal catering in the Club.14.F.M.Cunan(s) , not a member. Though

there was a S.W.Cuttriss in 1894,15.Frank Dean16.WilliamH Lamb,there was a Percy H.

Lamb in 1894.17.Frank Atthaise/ss, not a member.18.George I Barley, not a member.19.F. Miles Waite suggests F.D.S20.Emest Forbes21.R? Smith, there was a Ralph Smith 1892­

190422.George Barber23.Mark Senior24.Edmund Bogg25.Still unknown26.W. Edwin Tindale27.Charles W Wilkinson28.Joseph? Sheard29.A1exander Cambell, 1903-48 also pianist

at the 1903 Annual Dinner.30.J Fred Symonds?31.William Jones, not a member.

Edmund Bogg) reprinted (1898) "A ThousandMiles of Wandering along the Roman Wall, theOld Border Region, Lakeland, and Ribblesdale" pp.9,26,40,46,47, 53 & 90 (Leeds: Edmund Bogg).23 Bogg E. (1892) "A Thousand Miles inWharfedale" pp. 49, 63, 82, 101, 103, 106, 119,123, 135,212,248 & 255 (London: Simpkin,Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.).24 Bogg E. (1904) "Higher Wharfeland" pp. 82,83, 104, 118, 138,270,329 & 341 (Leeds: J.Miles).25 Bogg E. (1904) "Lower Wharfeland: The OldCity ofYork and the Ainsty" pp. 82, 117,222,224,237,282,310,320,369,370 & 395 (York: JohnSampson).26 Bogg E. (1904) "The Old Kingdom ofEhnet"pp. 8,31,32,49,60,70,83,95,122 & 174 (York:John Sampson).27 Bogg E. (n.d. pre-1899) "Wensleydale and theLower Vale ofthe Yore, from Ousebum to LundsFell" pp. 8, 13,39,36, 61, 68, 74, 91, 99, 112, 113& 123 (Leeds: Edmund Bogg).28 Bogg E. (1904) "Picturesque Fell Land" p. 2(Manchester: John Heywood).29 Hooper J. (1995) The Yorkshire Rambler (4),56.30 Bogg E. (1904) "Higher Wharfeland" p. 321(Leeds: J. Miles).31 Moore L. (1898) "High Ribblesdale" pp. 231 ­243 in Bogg E. (1898) "Two Thousand Miles ofWandering in the Border Country, Lakeland andRibblesdale" (Leeds: Edmund Bogg) reprinted(1898) pp. 231- 243 in Bogg E. (1898) "AThousand Miles ofWandering along the RomanWall, the Old Border Region, Lakeland, andRibblesdale" (Leeds: Edmund Bogg).32 Bogg E. (1904) "Two Thousand Miles inWharfedale" pp. 492 - 493 (London: JohnHeywood).

TIle YRC Bulletin 54 Summer 1996

mDi~ualii6S

Geoffrey Booth BatesGeoffrey, who has died ages 93, wasborn into a West Riding familyengaged in quality worsted yamspinning at East Ardsley. He waseducated at Mill Hill school andeventually joined the family business.Partly as a result of his travels toScandinavia on mill business hebecame proficient in eight languages.

He was interested in the countrysideand its pursuits and when he joined theClub in 1960 he was able to share hisinterests with men of similar outlookand sympathies. Geoffrey was a goodshot and a keen fly fisherman. He wasan extremely good goer on the hill andseemingly indestructible in any kind ofweather. Intimately acquainted withNorth West Scotland as a result ofmany family visits and Whit meets hehad climbed all the mountains and hillsof any note in Coigach, Assynt­Coigach and North West Sutherlandand fished innumerable hill lochs andlochans. He also knew the YorkshireDales and North West Yorkshire insome detail and had made use of theDales Rail service for many linearwalks in those areas.

After leaving the mill in the early 60' sGeoffrey had more time for hisinterests and was very active inkeeping his land in good order in theLake District and the Goole areawhere he planted many trees. He wasa JP in the Dewsbury area and amember of the Bradford Straddlebugsand the Bumsall Angling Club.

Geoffrey, a most kind, very privateman; a delightful companion on a hilland a staunch friend, was devoted tohis family. He married Mary Holroyd,who predeceased him. They had threedaughters.

S.M.

The YRC Bulletin 55

Alton HartleyMember 1972 - 1996

We must sadly recordthe death on 16thMarch of AltonHartley, aged 84.

With his retirement insight, Alton came late to theYorkshire Ramblers yet with his quietself-effacing manner he quicklyestablished a permanent place in theaffections of those many who werelucky enough to know him. His life­time love of the hills found itsexpression not in hard routes orgruelling Munro bagging but in adeep, almost spiritual awareness of allthat could be seen, felt and sensed.Some will remember an especiallyvivid meet report but it was in hispoetry and articles, which werepublished from time to time, that hegrasped and recorded the realsignificance ofhis experiences.

He preached in Methodist Chapels inthe thirties and served in the RoyalCorps of Signals during the last war,surviving the notorious BurmaCampaign from start to finish. Afterthe war he worked, until retirement, inthe Public Health Service.

In 1988 he suffered a stroke which lefthim with impaired speech and mobilitybut he continued to show a keeninterest in all YRC activities, andcontributed handsomely to valuablefixtures and fittings at Lowstem.

It is typical of this gentle and kindestof men that he should leave his bodyfor research with no formal memorialservices to mark his passing. His wife,Kitty, who nursed him so diligentlythroughout eight difficult years isnaturally honouring all his wishes.

A. C. B.

Summer 1996

llkleyOctober 1995

Dear Editor,

I have read, with great interest,the article 'Gaping Gill and theMysterious Miss Booth June 1906'

I knew Miss Mary Booth quitewell. Her father, Harry BlamiresBooth, was a Bradford WoolMerchant who came from Ryhill,south-east of Wakefield and called hishouse in Ben Rhydding 'Ryhill'.

Mary Booth, whilst somewhateccentric, travelled the world and herhouse, which I visited, was stackedwith papers, books and mementoes ofher travels including Cambodia. Shewas about my age and could notpossibly have made a descent ofGaping Gill in 1906, more than twoyears before I was bom!

I am sure, therefore, that shecan be eliminated from the enquiry.

Who was Mrs Boyes?

With kind regards,

Sincerely

Amold N. Patchett

111C YRC Bulletin 56

Dear Editor,May I crave the hospitality of

your columns to comment on JohnBarton's letter.

There used to be a 'YorkshireCfunbers Mountaineering Club'.Some of its members are now in theYRC, others joined YMC when itchanged its title from 'JuniorMountaineering Club of Yorkshire'.So why not call ourselves 'TheYorkshire Ramblers MountaineeringClub"? We would still be the''Yorkshire Ramblers" but wheneverthe club's name had to be written orcited at length our mountaineeringaspect would be quite clearlyconveyed. I feel for our cavers but toinclude caving or pot-holing in ourname would in my submission make ittoo unwieldy. After all CravenPothole Club mountaineers andGritstone Club does, or did, explorecaves and you don't find manypotholes in gritstone.

Of course, it might upset theYMC if we adopted my suggestionand here I had better come clean andadmit that what I would really like tosee, and not just because it would saveme a subscription, is a merger. Thiswould solve our name problem andmightily alleviate our demographicproblem at a stroke. Unfortunately Ican see two massive objections. First,it would be difficult to persuade theYMC to take on a club with so fewassets. Second, it would meanbringing women into the new mergedclub, though it doesn't seem to havedone the Alpine Club any harm.

On the subject of ladies, Iunderstand that the voting at theSpecial meeting was 60-40 againsttheir admission. Would it not beequitable therefore to have 40% of themeets open?

Yours sincerely, () I J f\ rnfJ.Bill Todd. I~ t.P V ~

Summer 1996

Irish Potholing Meet, Whitsuntide 1949

TIlls photograph was taken by JohnBarton at Florence Court nearEnniskillen shortly before everyonedeparted on the last day.John identifies the following:

1 C.E. Burrow the then President2 P.W. Burton3 Tyas Craven Pothole Club4 I.T.H Godley5 C. Chubb6 Mr Barbour ofFlorence COUlt7 Stanley Marsden8 E.E. Roberts

9 Goodwin10 Sam Bryant the lony driver11 I.E. Cullingworth12 H Annstrong

Missing from the picture are thought tobe W. Booth and HG. Watts.For the story of the meet see Ulster:The Seventh Time by E.E. Roberts inthe 1952 Joumal, Vo1.VII, N° 26. Theaccount of tills busy meet refers to theexperimental use of 100ft (30m)nylon ropes.

'lbc YRCBulletin 57 Summer 1996

'91 '91 '93 194 195__----n=:><:><::s--~

The Guiness Book of Records hascontacted Will Lacy for details of histrips to the poles, the North when aged82 and the South at 84. As the oldestperson to achieve this his feat will berecorded in the next edition.~~

Maurice Wilson has presented to theLibrary his copy of "The CompleteMountaineer" by George D. Abraham,Inside the front cover of the book is aletter from George Abraham toMaurice dated 31st August 1954making arrangements for a visit to seehim which was one of many thatMaurice made. Also inside the frontcover is a very interesting note statingthat "This is to certify that this copy of"The Complete Mountaineer" waspreviously in the library of the lateFrank S. Smythe." signed THOMAS JGASTON.Maurice has also given to the Club afurther letter from George Abrahamdated 26.10.55 and this will go intoarchives. The letter was written whenGeorge was in his 90s and mentions theextremely bad weather conditions in thealps particularly after he had leftZennatt in July.

c'fzr>1..M '~H~0..f/-?~....t);. ./

( ) -, '-J('A- LU,,-~("-""\

This letter will join the others fromfamous mountaineers now lodged withthe West Yorkshire Archive Services inLeeds, reports Ray Barben.

~~~

A plea from todays group of Clubcavers who are exploring new areasunderground, Jed Campion andGraham Salmon. They requirescaffolding, clips, swivels, right-anglesand the like. Any lengths, anycondition, any quantity. They willcollect it. All you have to do is contactthem.Also, for the purpose of pulling smallloads, not seeming people, they areoffering to help you out by taking oldropes off your hands and putting themto good use. Any old ropes will dohawswer-laid or kemmantle.-~~

Arnold Patchett was at the centenarycelebrations at Gaping Gill. Heattended, dressed as a gamekeeper, as aguest of Dr John Farrer and wasfilmed by Sid Perou. Later he made athree week trip along the full length ofChile and to Easter Island.~~~

Members are undoubtedly aware of thehazards of mountaineering. What,though, of the dangers inherent in notgoing climbing in the great mountainranges but staying at home instead.Rory Newman, while on the Clubexpedition in Nepal, had his carmangled into a twisted heap of metal byan out-of-control lorry. The lorry,carrying twenty tonnes of plate glass,reached the bottom of Blue Bank,Staithes, turned on its side, andcareered into a car park. Thankfullyno-one was injured. Stick to themountains: it's safer.~~

Repotted at the 1995 AGM from theBMC by our representative, Bill Todd,were the restoration of Rylstone Crossand news that the traditional parkingspot for the Ben, by the Golf Club, isnot longer available.Our Huts Secretary, DavidMartindale, presented to the meetingfigures for the last five year's use of our

huts as measured by bed nights.

1000

800

600

I

nlC YRC Bulletin 58 Summer 1996

YRC 'Alpine' meet

Picos de EuropaJuly - August 1995

Compiled by John Devenport

The venue

The meet was based about 2km fromPotes, about 80 miles from Santanderon the east side of the Picos deEuropa. The Picos are perhaps thefinest and most compact set of ridges,pinnacles and gorges of hardcarboniferous limestone in WestemEurope and form the highest part ofthe Cantabrian mountain range innorthern Spain. The Picos are splitinto three distinct massifs by deepgorges running north to south. Poteswas an excellent base for access to theCentral and eastem massifs and theCordillera Cantabrica to the south. Itis a region of Karst topography,underground rivers, resurgences, deepcaves, gorges, steep valleys, sharppeaks and long steep rock faces. Thehigher mountains reaching up to about8,700 feet are quite different to mostother ranges visited by members oftheclub, being almost totally void ofwater, quite a problem in theextremely high temperatures that wereexperienced during our stay.

TIle lower pastures and alps above thegorges offered lush vegetation withabundant fauna and flora. Probably thehighlight of the trip was theparticularly varied bird life, with manyspecies not found in the u.K., mostnotably the birds of prey andespecially the Griffon Vultures thatwere a memorable companions onmany days in the high mountains.

The very steep sided valleys meantthat reaching the higher levelsinvolved a considerable slog, or use ofthe comparatively cheap telepherique

from Fuente De, at the end of theLiebana valley. However, long queueswere sometimes experienced for thedescent to the valley at the end of theday.

Potes was a bustling, attractive oldtown, with plenty of character andcharacters. The Monday momingmarket was well worth a visit, wherethe usual range of market fare couldbe purchased, plus pigs, sheep,chickens and a wide range of otherlivestock. Shops and supermarketsprovided a very cheap source ofprovisions and local produce. Thelocal specialities included cider, a widerange of cheeses and chorizo sausage.

Old hollowed tree-trunk beehives in use in a village above Pates

The campsite

Our base was on the well appointedcampsite 'Las Isla Picos de Europa' inTurieno, about 2km west of Potes, inCantabria. (Tel: (942) 73 08 96). Thestaff made us feel most welcomeduring our stay, and many of us tookadvantage of the cooling pleasures ofthe swimming pool during theoppressive heat in the aftemoons.Thanks must go to Alan Linford forfinding us such a good base.

The climate

For much of our stay, the weather wasgenerally fine, clear and very, veryhot, which meant that copioussupplies of liquid needed carrying on ahips into the waterless landscape of

TIlCYRC Bulletin 59 Summer 1996

the high mountains. Being so close tothe Atlantic northern coast of Spain,the area was subject to mountain mistsand summer storms.

Maps and guide books

The most useful guide book to thearea was 'Walks and climbs in thePicos de Europa' by Robin Walkerand published by Cicerone Press(£10.95).

Maps were somewhat moreproblematic, with many inaccuraciesand deficiencies noted. However,probably the most useful were thefollowing two maps:

1:25,000 Los Unielles Y Andara(Macizos Central Y Oriental de LosPicos de Europa)

1:75,000 Picos de Europa - MapaExcursionista (Miguel A Adrados)

Getting there

Apart from a long drive throughFrance, most members travelled tonorthern Spain, either by BrittanyFerries from Portsmouth to Santander,or by P&O Ferries from Portsmouthto Bilbao. The most convenient wasundoubtedly the latter, which was onlya couple of hours drive throughspectacular gorge scenery to Potes.

The attendees

Ken AldredSteve BeresfordChristine BeresfordKen BrattAlan BrownCliffCobbJohn Devenportlain GilmoreSarah GilmoreMike GoddenMarcia GoddenAlan LinfordAngie Linford

'lbe YRCBulletin

John MedleyAlistair RentonDavid SmithElspeth SmithMichael SmithHelen SmithRichard SmithFiona SmithDerek SmithsonBill ToddJuliet WhiteMartyn Wakeman

60

The Picos by bike by MartynWakeman

Watching the snow falling outside ofmy window, it seems strange to thinkthat last August we were in the middleof a heat wave. Then to go cyclingsomewhere even hotter seemed toindicate the onset of cerebral dementiaor something a mite more interestingthan a week in Skegness!

I had a problem. How exactly was I totransport myself and a mere'sprinkling' of gear to Potes,somewhere in Northern Spain. All carsseemed full and not fancying a battlewith Spanish public transport, Idecided to saddle up my bike and findan excuse for an extension to theholiday. This proved to be a smartmove, as 'The Picos by bike' provedto be one of the most varied andinteresting parts of my summer. Aftera few frantic phone calls and a geardump somewhere in Yorkshire, mygear was on its way in David Smith'scaravan, and I could hop on the ferryto Santander with my mountain bikeloaded up with four days worth ofdelightful Soya mince and noodlestogether with lightweightbivvi/camping gear.

Rather than extensive planning, Imused over a contourless Michelinmap of Northern Spain and plotted apleasant looking route around thecoast and through the mountains toPotes. I would cycle as far each day asI fancied and bivvi wherever lookedsuitable, to arrive just as the mainYRC pat1y. descended on thecampsite.

Cycling in Spain proved to be both adelight and a new experience. Istormed off the ferry and visited CaboMayor lighthouse for a view of theharbour before winding my way alongthe coast road to Santillana del Mar, a

Summer 1996

traditional 'National Trust' styleSpanish village, full of nick knackshops and very photogenic.Continuing on to San Vicente de laBarquera for an aftemoon nap, I had afairly easy day finishing at a secludedcampsite at Pechon overlooking a seabay. This was gained by a steepwinding road, which exercised lowgears for the first time.

The local Spanish holidaymakersseemed impressed by my Goretexbivvi bag as I feasted on hugetomatoes, the dreaded Soya andnoodles, and luscious nectarines. Theevening was spent skimming stonesbefore a well eamed kip after the sunhad gone for the day.

The next day's target would beCangas, which looked pretty easy onthe map, but this did not showcontours! Being a 'green' scenic road,it wound along by a river through agentle gorge Worried aboutdehydration and the weight of canyingtoo much water on the bike, I hadgone into camel mode, drinking all Icould in the moming, and going foronly two bottles on the bike. Justbefore lunch time as the sun blazeddown, I was low on water, andneeding a rest when a hill, or rather apass, which did not register on themap. I thought I would combust, itwas so hot! The exchange of pesetasfor water and nectarines in a shop likesomeone's living room at the top wasvery welcome, as was the fantasticfree wheel down nearly all the way toChanges.

Some mountain biking up a roughstony track lead me to my tourist stopfor the day, the Cueva del Buxu.These are supposed to be caves withwall paintings, but the exterior onesrevealed nothing and the rest wereheld off by a locked door. With onlythe local flies for company, the main

The YRCBulletin 61

peaks of the Picos could be seenshimmering in the distance, inspiringme to read more of the guide bookand plan strategic bags for the twoweeks ahead.

The process to cool down at thecampsite consisted of a cold showerand a rinse of my sweaty rags beforedrying in the sun. The campsite wasnoisy, with lights on all night, and iteven had the cheek to rain! An earlystart to gain miles in the morning coolbefore the sun became too hot becamea wise move as today was the 40 mileclimb into the mountains, from sealevel passing over several cols to ahigh point of 1450m. A day toremember, a road winding around ariver into a steepening gorge,eventually with walls of rock each sideand peaks soaring above, beckoning tobe climbed. The road was rough, pockmarked with holes from rock missiles,and as the sun bumed down in fullanger, the tar melted with 'PanaracerSmoke' tyre marks visible in the worstpatches. Lunch was a two hour feastof goats cheese, a whole fresh loaf,two litres of water and morenectarines in a strategically placedrural Spanish village.

Ever onwards, ever upwards was themotto for the day but the heat wasincredible, with sweat pouring off andrests in the woods by the roadnecessary to cool down once everyhour. At last, the summit, or rather thefirst col, was gained followed a fewmore uphill bits before a tyre hummingkamikaze dive down the other side,losing height very quickly, brakingvery hard at comers to avoid meetingmy maker earlier than desired.

A lovely campsite with just some basicloos and the mandatory cold showerwas found a few kilometres beforePosada de Valdon. This was in a fieldsurrounded by a tiny village out of a

Summer 1996

time warp, tumbling houses with noglass in the windows, women dressedin black, carts full of hay, with abackdrop of the harsh rock peaks ofthe Picos.

Next day, I could either ascend twomore giant passes and come into Potesfrom the south, or try a Land Rovertrack which I had spotted on a largescale map. This track was said to beuncycleable, so with all the morereason to give it a bash I set off. Thefirst pass was gained via a narrow andsteep road out of Posada de Valdonwhich gave way to a modem roadwhich led to the top. Engaging :firstgear I spurred my wheel off the roadand onto the track, which would saveroad miles and prove greatly moreinteresting. The track did prove greatfun, a monster slog, but I eventuallyarrived at the top at 1800m, with anawesome view of the massif and thevalley down towards Potes.

The descent down the other sideproved one of the best of my life,800m height loss down rough LandRover tracks (the latter one laterascended by the Nissan 4 x 4 touristparty) twisting and turning over thehard dry track, dodging boulders andpot holes. Stops had to be made dueto the temperature of the rimsdecomposing the brake blocks, andeven with oil/air front suspension, thedescent was eyeball wobbling as Ihammered down to the cable car atFuente De before chasing a coachdown to the campsite.

An amazing start to the holiday, a realadventure for me being in a foreignland and not speaking a word of thelingo and totally reliant on my bike notfalling to pieces. Just feeling free tocycle where I fancied amidst glorioussurroundings, sleeping under the starsand soaking in the real Spanishculture.

The YRC Bulletin 62

Ascent of Pico Tesorero (2570m)

by lain Gilmour

When AIan and Angie Linfordsuggested a look at a nice hillsomewhere over on the left, twowilling members, John Devenport andlan Gilmour, joined the party. Onehesitates to detail the :first part of thetrip, for from our campsite at 1,100 ft.we motored to Fuente De at 3,600 ft.and then took the cable car to 6,017ft. Our cable car rose through cloudinto brilliant sunshine and cool air, andthe views over a cloud sea werereminiscent offlying.

The landscape around us was a vastarena of limestone peaks with jaggedoutlines like Sgurr nan Gillean, but ofa warm golden colour. Between thepeaks lay hollow depressions, calledhoyos, with a strange almost lunarappearance. There is almost novegetation, due to the altitude andover grazing by the few sheep andnative rebecos (a small deer likeanimal with thin backward curvinghorns). The lack of water necessitatescarrying two or three litres for a longday.

Some three miles from the cable carstation, we reached the Veronica Hutat 7,600 ft. Near this hut, a band ofdifferent rock had weathered toexpose thousands of fossils includingtubular worms (crinoids) which hadexisted on ancient sea beds.

At this stage AIan casually mentionedthat we would be alright, as he had arope in his rucksack. Could it be thatour look at the peak might requireclimbing gear, rather than spectaclesor binoculars? There was no need tobe apprehensive, for the South Westridge of Tesorero gave a splendidscramble over warm and dry rock withplenty of holds and no difficulties.Good grimping rock was the verdict.

Summer 1996

Tesorero, 8,430 ft., is a splendidviewpoint for the whole of the CentralMassif and incidentally, is the junctionpoint of three provinces, Asturias,Cantabria and Castilla-Leon.

Returning by the East ridge andviewing a spectacular rock arch on theskyline, we descended to the col at7,700 ft. Two of the party made thetwenty minute dash up Torre deHorcados Rojos by the walkers path.Our return to the cable car wasmemorable for the sighting of fourGriffon vultures soaring on theafternoon breeze and thermals.Looking at the hills is a splendidpastime.

Pico de Grajal Abajo (2248m)

by David Smith

Midway through the second week ofthe meet, lain suggested that we havea day on the hills together, joined bySteve with an objective high above thetiny village of Lon. We hadcontemplated walking direct from thecampsite but after second thoughts wewent by car giving us a 520m start.Our tired feet were to be very glad ofthis by the end ofthe long day.

Lon straddles the hillside withpicturesque old houses joined by steeprough concrete roads. Quite soon theroad degenerated into a dusty trackleading upwards, :first throughwoodland providing shade from themerciless sun, then across two smallnewly cut meadows before openingout into a deep valley. A layer ofcloud had to be passed through beforewe emerged back into the sunshine.

The cotton wool cloud totallyobscured the valley. The mountainpeaks look like islands in a billowingsea, the Cantabrian mountainscontrasting sharply with the cloud

The YRC Bulletin 63

layer. Our path followed closely theRio Buron before opening out into aplaya. Much of the vegetation wasextremely prickly and no help in theascent, the rough texture of the rockon the other hand was a great asset.

A little higher the river divided, wefollowed the course of the Canal delas Arredondas in which flows the Riode la Vega in wetter times. The rockycanal took us to the deserted zinc andlead mines of Mina de las Arredondasabove Le Campa. To gain respite fromthe sweltering heat we penetrated theworkings for 100 yards or so, anarrow pointing the way out markedthe junction of two passages. Later wediscovered that Derek and Martyn hadput it there during their search forwater a week earlier.

Refreshed by the cool air we movedcarefully up the course of the canalover steep and very sharp rock to the2193m col. It was a mere 55m belowthe easily gained summit of the grandsounding named mountain, Pico deGrajal de Abajo. Had there been mistand had we walked 2 metres beyondthe magnificent cairn, we would haveplunged 2000 feet down theprecipitous northern edge of themountain into the Vega del HoyoOscuro. How different the mountainmust look from the north facing side?

We enjoyed the views, we tookpictures and we rested in the sunshinebefore our descent to Lon. We hadascended 5,700 feet to make theclimb, it was a great day in themountains, but with good weather,goods views, good health and goodcompany, what more could any manwant.

Lone mountain climbing may suitsome, but for my part let me share theexperiences and the pleasures with likeminded friends.

Summer 1996

The Eastern Massif

by Martyn Wakeman

Having already climbed several peaksin the Western massif I jumped at thechance to accompany Derek Smithsonon one of his legendary expeditions.One ofthe greatest joys ofbeing in themountains is camping or bivvying uphigh where the grandeur and solitudeof the mountains can really soak in.We therefore accompanied the 'Lastof the summer wine' in Alan's Landyto the village of Lon and departed onour way with bivvi gear and enoughfood for three days, slapping greedyinsects off our legs. We walkedthrough the wooded lowlands toemerge onto a lovely grassyprominence, above which the peakssoared and the rest of the route couldbe seen. This would have made anexcellent base camp for attacking thisarea if supplies could be helicoptered. Im.

Captivated by the scenery, we took awrong turn following a stream beduntil a huge chockstone blocked ourway. The following ascent of a steepgrassy bank, which felt near vertical,was hair raising and decidedly dodgy,especially with a big pack, but wesoon retraced our steps onto thecorrect route. A climb through screeled to a lunch stop of bread, goatscheese and jam before continuing upthe miners track to the Mina de lasArredondas. People who slogged uphere each day deserve respect - theywere hard in those days. Here wassupposed to be a mine shaft wherewater could be collected from a drip inthe tunnel roof, and we mused on thelikelihood of this as we searched forthe appropriate mine shaft.

After some exploring, it was time todon Petzels and grovel in the gloomfor about lOOm before finding a pool

The YRC Bulletiu 64

ofwater from which to :fill our bottles.This appeared to feed from meltingsnow, but was probably laced withwhatever metal they used to mine.Cliffs rose above us, and thecontrasting green of the valleywoodland could be seen providing agrand stance to spend a happyevening. Tails of past mountain tripswere exchanged, and the wonder ofsnow shoes explained before a longleisurely tea finishing with Derek'ssuper luxury lemon crunch pudding.Two slugs appeared as we wriggledinto bivvi bags for a splendid night'ssleep, escaping the fug of the valley.When we awoke, low cloud swirledaround, but after several brews itbegan to clear. Packs on, we climbedup to the ridge in the cool of the mistbefore leaving un-needed gear cachedfor the return. The ring of peaks thatform the backbone of the AndoraMassif provided an excellent daysscrambling, culminating in the Morrade Lechugales (2444m), a toweringprow of rock like a ships bow, withviews of the western massif and thevalley below. Traversing back, wediscovered why the 'La Rasa de laInagotable' had that particular name.Traversing around its rocky terraces,we avoided scaling it's cliffs whichwould make an excellent day in theirown right.

After regaining our sacs, we climbedLa Junciana and Pico del SagradoCorazon where the cast statue of StCarlos glimmered in the sun andvultures swooped overhead. Anenormous wing feather fi..om one ofthe birds was found and added to ourmotley appearance, sticking out of mykarrimat.

The descent down scree of Canal deSan Carlos revealed numerous potholes which begged for exploration,but time was pressing and we

Summer 1996

----- ------- ------- ----------

Flowers of the Picos de Europa

by Cliff Cobb

High summer is not the best time foralpine flowers, but we were veryagreeably surprised at the wealth offlowers encountered, particularly inthe higher, completely arid mountainareas.

A typical example; while lunchingamong the jumble of rocksimmediately below the Veronica cabinwe saw a beautiful example ofcampanula thriving in a tiny crevice,its roots no doubt penetrating feet (ormetres) into the rock.

A further notable point was theoccasional sudden change ill

geological formation, with acorresponding change in the flora.

Two special memories for me - thewide expanse of the 'merendera' onthe edge of the Vega de Liordesvalley, and secondly the superb steelblue thistles (eryngium bourgatii), litbe the brilliant sun, a colour I believeimpossible to capture on film

One disappointment was the absenceof any gentians, presumably due to thepredominantly calcareous rock,although other members did seetrumpet gentians (g. acaulis) in one ofthe surrounding valleys.

continued down the track. This iswhere the fun really started as the mapand ground didn't agree despitedetermined efforts to make them doso! After a bit of a fat: we basicallyheaded downward by wandering alongtracks and paths through the woodstowards the valley. Attempts atcommunicating in Spanish farmersresulted in confusion, but at least theirdog didn't eat us. Slowly the tracksmerged into bigger ones and we foundsigns of life in a small village nestlingin the woods.

When confronted by a local lady as toour activities, she seemed awe struckthat we had visited the St Carlosstatue and we extracted ourselvesfrom her presence before we were anylater home. A simple walkout back tothe campsite then resulted andsatisfied explorers could take off theirboots, rest their feet, fill theirstomachs and tell tales to theircompanions. Thank you Derek foryour company and for an excellenttwo days!

These contraptions were seen in several ofthe villages on the hills round Potes.Two villages had older, wooden versions.Each contraption is large enough to restraina horse, cow or donkey, possibly whilevetenary or shoeing work is carried out.The top rails may support a shelter.

The YRCBulletin 65

List of flowers

Achilles erba-rottaArabis vochinensisCampanulaCrepisDianthusDoronicus grandiflorum

EricaEryngium bourgatiiGeraniumGeum montanumIris latifoliaLinaria origanifolia

Simple leaf milfoilCompact rockressVariousHawksbeardVariousLarge flowered

leopardsbaneVariousPyrenean eryngoVariousAlpine avensEnglish irisToadflax

Summer 1996

Rambling in the Picos

gammg height early had a specialappeal. It was our first exposure totypical Picos de Europa terrain. Steep­sided 'dolomite-shaped' mountainswith jagged ridges, seeminglyinaccessible in all but a few places.The steepness of every approachbrought the ridges closer so we wereconstantly aware of the grandeur ofour surroundings.

Day one also gave us an earlyawareness of the profusion of alpineflowers and plants, which in turn,attracted the greatest variety ofbutterflies most of us had seen, detailsof which are listed later. Thebackpackers slowly pulled aheadwhilst the rest of the party absorbedthe spectacular mountain scenery ofthe Arredondas, an experience wewere to enjoy throughout the nextfortnight,

At 1,200 metres, Las Cabanasprovided an acceptable tunring pointfor our first day, the nine hour trekcoupled with the heat being a goodinitiation for the days ahead.

The crowded campsite reflected thenational holiday period, yet apart fromthe routes served directly by the cablecar, we met very few kindred spiritson the hills. On two occasions weattracted other walkers whomistakenly believed we could be reliedon to finish a promising route in anorderly fashion. Aniezo, 10 kilometreseast ofPotes was the starting point fora steep ascent to the Ermita deNuestra Sra de la Luz - a hilltopchurch a couple of hours from thevillage - where we casually noted aparty of five Spaniards and twoSwedish walkers. The circular routecontinued north-west along a goodpath, which then curved sharply south,disappearing into a steep heavilywooded valley. Whilst reasonably sureof our general direction, the scarcely

Grass of ParnassusNo flowers but typicalpale yellow/green foliage

White butter-burrGrey cinquefoilShrubby cinquefoilRoserootMountain houseleekMoss campionPyrenean violet

Lithodora oleifolia Shrubby gromwellLithodora purpurocaerulla Blue gromwell

Now BuglossoidesLunaris redivivar HonestyMerendera montanaParnassia palustrisPinguicala

Petasites albusPotentilla cinereaPotentilla fruticosaRhodiola roseaSepervivus montanumSilene acaulisViola pyrenaica

by Alan Brown

It was disconcerting to discover backin March that the Plymouth /Santander ferry was fully bookedthroughout July and August needingspace for caravans or trailers.However, the longer Portsmouth toBilbao ferry fare included cabinaccommodation so this, coupled withthe shorter motoring distance forNortherners, made the cost roughlythe same. A good motorway betweenBilbao and Santander enabled us toreach the Potes campsite in three anda halfhours.

Derek wanted to be off on a three daytrek as soon as possible, so day onecame with a 05.30 reveille. The villageof Lon, some ten minutes west ofPotes was clearly asleep as fourwalkers and two backpackers set offup the River Buron heading for theCanal de las Arredondas, Best avoidedduring very hot weather intoned theguide book, but very hot weather wasa prominent feature of this meet, so

Although not identified, we ahnostcertainly saw saxifrages and possiblyandrosaces among the many yellowand white flowers amongst the grassand undergrowth.

The YRC Bulletin 66 Summer 1996

discernible path soon disappearedaltogether, and it was at this juncturethat we discovered the Spaniards andSwedes confidently attached to therear of our party. The angle of descentcalled for much hanging on to treesand branches, but the thickundergrowth eventually gave way toopen meadows, where recentlyharvested hay allowed an easier strolldown to the village. Profuse thanksfrom our continental friends endedanother good eight hour day.

The Canal del Embudo is traversed byclimbing 950m from the cable carstation at Fuente De, via 38unforgivinghairpins, warned the guidebook. The valley below and thevertical south wall of La Padiorna tothe north provided breathtaking views,the torture ending with arrival in theVega de Liordes, a high alpinemeadow surrounded on all sides byhigh mountain ridges. A circular routehome over the southern ridges lookedaltogether too demanding so weheaded due north encouraged by ataciturn Scot who knew the area andunderstood our intentions. Here againwe were joined by a middle agedcouple, dressed for an easy day in thecountry, who were dissuaded from thesouthern route. They were a gamecouple willing but not used to thescrambling necessary over the Sedo dela Padierna and the Canal de SantaLuis. Their inadequate water suppliescaused further delays but the top ofthe cable car was reached in time andour guests happily plied us with cooldrinks before the drive back to camp.

Whilst many days were spent on thearid limestone area to the north westof Potes, some time was enjoyed inthe more varied area to the south andsouth-west. Here the limestone masseswere replaced by shale valleys withlarge whaleback ribs of limestone

The YRC Bulletin 67

forming higher rock faces above. Anumber of isolated hamlets and smallvillages depending upon agriculturewere another difference from thebarren area above Fuente De. It wastwo of these villages which we visited,taking the road by tunnels driventhrough solid rock to bypass somevery steep limestone faces. \on a shelfat the head ofthe valley, the further ofthe two villages appeared to offer anideal holiday situation for the artist. Asmall church, an inn and delightfulpantiled houses had an air ofrestfulness in the mid-afternoon sun. Asmall group of children played quietly.Perhaps it is uncharitable to suggestthat their lack of boisterousness wasthe result of the high temperature. Thevariable bedrock supported a widerrange of flora than the solid limestoneto the north, for the shale providednot only a different chemical base butit also appeared to retain moisturewithin the rock. This resulted in bothcalcareous and acid loving plants aswell as large trees which werecompletely absent from the formerarea. A couple of footpaths windingalong the upper reaches of the valleygave us a series ofplatforms for viewsof the villages and lonely farm houses,whilst the village inn was a welcomehalt before returning to the campsite.

Finally, and with the assistance of afour wheel drive car taking us overspectacular mountain country to thestarting point at Cain, we traversedthe Cares Gorge - Spain's answer tothe Grand Canyon. Much smaller ofcourse, but very impressive, albeit themost popular tourist route in thewhole ofthe Picos de Europa.

This was a :fine Alpine Meet, wherefew actually missed the snow andwhere exposure to only a small area ofPicos de Europa territory wetted theappetite for more.

Summer 1996

Butterflies and moths observed inthe Picos by Alan Brown

Apollo Large CopperBlues - various * Large Fritillary *Brimstone Marble WhiteBurnett Moth Orange(Six spot) UnderwingCamberwell Painted LadyBeauty PeacockCleopatra RingletClouded Yellow ScarceCommon Heath SwallowtailCommon Heath Tiger MothGatekeeper Tortoiseshell* There are 44 varieties of Fritillaryand 42 varieties of Blue. The authorregrets that precise identificationcannot be confirmed,

A long day in the Picos

by John Medley

It is traditional for the alpine meets ofthe YRC to produce at least onemountain sequence sufficientlydiverting and eyebrow raising torequire individual report. This time itfell to the Old Gentlemen to provideit.

From El Cable, the top of thetelerifiqo above Fuente De, it is apleasant excursion to Pena Viejasummit whither four of the maturest,Members on the meet made their wayin the mounting heat of the moming ofSaturday 29 July. one goes westerlyup the path towards the CabanaVeronica, then hard right up the gullyto the Col Canalona and backeastwards along the ridge, thenbearing left up the slope to the top ofthe mountain. It was leisurely andpleasant; lunch on the summit.

Back to the col, where thoughts aroseabout an alternative route back.Although it was understood thatprecise information could be extracted

The YRC Bulletin 68

from the maps, it seemed reasonableto consider dropping down to the roadthrough the Aliva area whence back toEl Cable in good time for the lastcable car at 21. 00 hours. Bestavailable advice (in imperfectlyunderstood Spanish) was not to gostraight down from the col but tofollow on below the ridge a little wayin a northerly direction and pick upwhat traces of tracks there were. Thisworked quite successfully; there werenumerous calms about, which tendedteasingly to discontinue in awkwardplaces but. which were eventuallyconnected with a large painted snow­pole in the middle of a heavily crateredarea. from there the route seemed togo slightly uphill, then downwardsagain, following still capriciousintermittent cairns and treacherouslybe-pebbled rock that at one pointprecipitated a damaging tumble.

Eventually the slopes ran out to anedge, with the valley floor and road intantalising view less than 100 metresbelow, but here progress stopped, onemember of the party being unpreparedto be committed to the only possibleroute that presented itself So back tothe col' there should still be time to,climb up, cross the ridge and catch thelast cable car.

The snow pole was regained .inreasonable time, but then there wastrouble. Indications of paths lead in alldirections, but one (uncaimed) waschosen which approached the highground to the north, perhapsremembering the difficult terrainopposite and the original high leveldetour from the col. The ridge waseventually gained but a considerabledistance from the col, with manyobstacles between. It took a long timeto come down again and work across,eventually arriving at a little snowslope from which the col was known

Summer 1996

to be readily accessible. But it wasalready nearly dark, with cloudbuilding up in the high valleys below.All hope had gone of making El Cablein time; the aim now was to get downto the Refuge de Aliva and telephonereassurance before anybody noticed acertain empty Landrover.

In vain! The party admired the lightsof 'civilisation' just below the mist andstumbled, first into young campersplaying games with lantems on poles,and then into a parked Garda vehiclethat had been sent to look forconfused old gentlemen reported lostin the mountains. The driver was Ve1Y

kind, but made it clear geriatricescapades should not be exacerbatedby attempting to explain in Spanish.Most of the meet seemed to havetumed up at Fuente De to assist; itwas a happy occasion thoughembarrassing to some and by 0200hours everybody was in camp and inbed.

Bird watching in the Picos

by Alan Linford

Bird watching in the Picos canseriously damage your determinationto achieve the days objective. There isso much to watch that delays areinevitable.

Once again, Alistair's series ofmishaps provided a benefit, his earlymorning arrival having overnightedunder a hedge with a broken cycle,delayed a start to climb El Cvemon - avantage point to obtain an overallperspective of the Central and EastemMassif Not a pleasant walk in theheat of the day, but rewarded withgentians on the alp, a first view of aGriffon Vulture and, our retum, aclose view of a pair of BlackWoodpeckers in the holmoak forest.

The YRC Bulletin 69

The walk down to San Aniezo isawful, but again a reward with a veryclose view of Short Toed Eagle - wedid not know what it was at the timeand had to consult the guide book toconfirm the sighting. This proved tobe the start of a bounty of bird life:Linnet, Red Kite, Black Kite, BlackRedstart, Com Bunting, SnowFinches, Wheatears, Choughs,Juvenile Robin, Buzzards, Eagles,Rock Thrush, Hobby, JuvenileKestrel, Tree Creepers and RockThrush,

We searched extensively for the WallCreeper but failed to spot it, a lot ofscreeching as the Hobby swept acrossthe cliffs but no sighting.

It was the Raptors that held theattention, the Egyptian Vulture andEagles only students - the master ofthe air is the Griffon Vulture. In theCares Gorge we counted twenty - tencircling in a small valley - thenapproaching closer a sighting at 200metres of a group of Griffons feedingon a carcass. The carcass had beentom into two with a group on each,fighting between themselves, thegroup hierarchy clearly visible. It isnot only the huge wingspan whichattracts the attention but the depth ofthe wing needed to provide lift for thegiant body (and ugly head). On thetraverse ofthe Pena Remona (2,247m)we were above a group of circulatingGriffons, again at close quarters. Wewitnessed the efficiency.of this largewing, the control movements of theprimary feathers and the air flow overthe wing the lifting of the feathers inthe depression zone. What a marvel ofnatural engineering.

Despite trips into woodland areas weleave until our next visit sightings ofCapercaillie, Tree Pipits, Owls andNightjars: all reported in the area.

Summer 1996

Peaks and Passes - Two people'sadventures in Northern Spain

by Bill Todd and Juliet White

You couldn't move for Yorkshiremenin Spain this summer. Apart fromwhen we visited the camp site andwere hospitably entertained, and whenwe walked with Ian and Sarah we metthem in the supermarkets, on the cablecar, in the car park and several lots inthe Cares Gorge. This was our firstdays walking after arriving on themeet a week late and will no doubthave been competently covered byother members.

The following day was uneventful; wedrove to Fuente De and because therewas cloud on top went for a walk upthe track to Collado de Pedabejo.Returning from this at lunch time wetook advantage of improving weatherto go up the Teleferico. We hadn'tbeen there very long when cloud camedown again after a tantalising view ofthe big peaks. I can foresee theembarrassing question at my next slideshow, ''Did you climb it?". "No","Why not?". "Bad weather". "It looksalright on that photo". "Yes but it gotmisty". "A likely tale".

TIns was Wednesday 2 August andJuliet insisted on treating it as a restday because we hadn't climbedanything. So the next day we went upthe highest peak in the CordilleraCantabrica.

On Saturday 5th we did a classic walk,the circuit of the Pena Remona. Thisinvolved following our Wednesdaytrack right up to Collardo de Pedabejoand crossing it into the Vega deLiordes. This is a delightful greenbasin with horses and campers andafter walking across it in poorerweather we descended the famouszigzags from Collardo del Embudo.

The YRC Bulletin 70

Juliet did a nature walk on Sundaywith Teresa Farino, the local expert,while I conserved my strength toclimb a peak. So, 10.25 a.m. found usleaving the top of El Cable in goodheart to attempt Torre de LosHocardos Rojos. But the weather gotworse and worse, and at the zigzags itstarted raining and blowing, so wescuttled into the Cabana Veronica forhot soup which proved to be a lifesaver. By the time we'd finished oursoup (100 pesetas per cup) a queuehad formed in the hut entrance so wehad to go out into the storm and eatour lunch behind a boulder. Anattempt to explore towards HocardosRojos met with more wind and rain inour faces so we beat a retreat.

We heard from neighbour, Dolores,about a fatal accident on Sunday 6thinvolving people from Santander. Wegathered that a land rover had goneover a cliffwhile on the way to a fiestaon top of a mountain. This was oursecond day with Mike, our host andguide, and we left it to him to show usa good day out. Driving through theVinon, we parked his land rover underPena Jumales and set off up the trackto Madaja Trulledes. On a bend wemet three fellows. It tumed out thatone of them was. the son of the manwho had been killed and he had comeup with a friend and a local shepherdto see the actual location of thetragedy. It seemed that the longwheel-based vehicle had not been ableto take the bend in one, and reversingto get round, had run down the verysteep track and over the edge beforethe driver could re-engage first gear.After due commiseration we went onup to the Majado where we had lunch.After this Mike took us up a verysteep pass, the Collardo de San Carlosto about 2000 metres, while I stayedon the pass to take photographs. The

Summer 1996

return journey saw better weather andwe saw a wall creeper and a guineafowl.

Friday August 11th was the day youridle scribe got his second and thirdsummits. Mike was our guide againand we motored through Hennida andturned left to the village of Beges,where we bough cheese. After thisMike took us over the north-eastshoulder of Agero Bis (1349m) into amisty wood. "I've not been this waybefore" he said as we picked our waythrough the beech trees, ''but weshould come out on the ridge you cansee from the guest house". Of coursewe did and came out of the cloudsfinding some limestone to scramble onbefore hitting the top and crossing tothe slightly lower Agero at 133Om,Today was notable for the weirdshapes assumed by the cloud seabelow us and for the view of PenaVentosa across the Deva valley. Mikeknew a grassy descent route to Beges.

Pena Ventosa looked interesting andMike advised us to tackle it from thesouth east, so the following day, Julietand I drove to the nearby village ofSolarzon and walked up into thefields. Yes, the peak lookedreasonable; between the steep southface and an area of limestone slabswas a harmless looking grassy gullywhich led onto the ridge, from whereit may have been possible to tackle thesteep final tower. So above anawkward stretch of bracken andbroom we climbed a scree slope thengot onto our chosen route. What ashambles it was. Scree under grassand more broom, loose rock, Julietwas in front. ''What do I do if a hold isloose?" ''Put it to one side and seewhat's underneath it" I replied. Asthese things do, it seemed to be goingto level out in a few yards but it neverdid until we struck the ridge some

The YRC Bulletin 71

time after 2pm Westward was thesummit tower, looking a bit like SgurrAlastair from Sron na Ciche, andeastwards was the ridge looking a bitlike Crib Goeh, Over lunch in the hotsun we discussed what to do next. Itwas too late for a serious attempt onthe summit and Juliet was not keen onreversing what we had just done,neither was 1. So we took the onlychoice left and followed the east ridgejust below the crest until we came to agreen track sloping through the slabarea. This was evidently the normalway up to the ridge because we founda toffee paper on it. We were glad toget back into easy ground but not toochuffed to see a couple strolling alongthe ridge beyond where we had left itin bathing trunks and bikinirespectively.

Sunday 13th was our last day andMike engaged our interest bymentioning a "user friendly crag". Thiswas on the lower slopes of Agero andhas the same name. Here we spent apleasant, if roasting, day climbing onV. Diff rock and abseiling. A goodfinish.

For our stay, Casa Gustavo provedquite wonderful, at £25.72 per personper day full board, with all of the beeror wine you wanted at the eveningmeal which was very good; 3 course,but served quite late (about 9 p.m.)for an early bed and early start.Continental breakfast (plus cereals andfruit) was 9 a.m. but we could get itearlier on request. On one suchoccasion, Mike came running out withour packed lunches as we were drivingaway.

Summer 1996

A great big pile of stones - PenaPrieta in the 80's by Juliet White

Picnic lunch had been among PenaPrieta's cast-offs. Ten to twenty footlumps of nut brittle (sorry,conglomerate) thrown across anupland lawn divided by tiny streamsand known as 'The rock garden'. Aleisurely lunch. The two small boys inour patty and Bibi, the dog,entertaining us with bouldering funand games. Towards two o'clock wesaid goodbye, six going up to the lake,and Bill, Mike (our host and guide)not forgetting Bibi, who takes amountain climb as exuberantly as youraverage city pooch would take ascamper around Clapham Common,heading for the top ofPena Prieta.

I've never climbed on such user­fiiendly rock as the first stretch. Hand­sized pebbles set in rock with pebblesized hollows for your feet. Thus weset off up the north-eastern ridge ofour mountain. It should have been apiece of nut-brittle cake, but it washot, hot siesta time. Did I eat toomuch lunch? Is this altitude sickness? Ididn't like these reminders that I can'tstay twenty-five for ever. Soconcentrate on getting those heavyarms and legs to take you upwards.One tricky exposed neck to negotiateand then the gradient eased.

"That was the hardest bit. The rest isstraightforward" said Mike. So withmy usual inward reservations aboutwhat an experienced mountaineerdescribes to me as "straightforward" Icontemplated the unbroken upwardcurve of grit and gravel ahead of us.Ugly and gritty underfoot, but whatviews were starting to open up.Cordillera Cantabrica stretching intoinfinity in three directions. My veryfirst view of one of those much readabout mountain ranges. Tum roundand at our backs stands the craggy

The YRC Bulletin 72

backdrop of the Picos. But keepgoing, there's walking to do, a 6.30rendezvous at the Land Rover withthe rest of the patty, and many morestony delights ahead.

Soon we were at the trigpoint atMojon de las Tres Provincias(2497m), the boundary marker forLeon, Cantabria and Palencia. Timefor drinks and to take in at greaterleisure this glorious view of the worldfrom 7000 feet plus; the Rianoreservoir, crazy limestone fault castle,real forests dense enough to shelterbears, clouds in the valleys, and thegreat wall of Atlantic cloud to thenorth that we saw so often during ourstay in the Picos.

The way ahead, the other half of thehorseshoe leading to Pena Prietatumed out to be a long trail acrossblack and rust coloured angular stoneslike ballast on a railway track, uglyand laborious to budge on. "Il fautsouffiir pour voir le bel". Forget thepebbles and look at the valley cloudsand the hills to the hills east glowingpink and gold as the sun gets kinder.

Peace of mind is a good thing whenyou're climbing, but at some stage onthe way up your mountaineeringapprentice has to summon the courageto ask the question ''How do we getdown7" ''Two ways really" said Mike.Can you scree run7 It would bequicker and more fun. I'll hold yourhand."

Well if Mike and Bill thought that Icould cope, pride dictated that Ishould smile gamely and be preparedto tackle yet another first in mymountaineering apprenticeship.

Not much time to linger at the top ofthe Pena Prieta. Similar vast views aswe'd seen en route, except that nowwe could peer down almost verticallyto the Rio Frio summer pastures,

Summer 1996

where our walking had started, to theRock Garden where we had picnicked,and to the lake, where we could seethe rest of our party, splashing,chasing and bathing.

I did do the scree run. Teetering like atoddler, this granny lurched throughthe clattering pebbles holding Mike'shand, while the dog scampered aroundus and descending muscles starting toplead for walk's end. Bill and Ifinished the gentler gradients of thescree so slowly that Mike had had

Picos Experience

time for a swim in the lake before wecaught up with him.

Then there were no more stones.Perfect green pasture with delicatelypositioned musk mallow, bell flowersand purple merendas, Grazing cattle,goats and sheep as before. Just onething had changed. While we were upon the mountain, the easy mile or twofrom the Land Rover to the picnicspot had surreptitiously quadrupled.Honest they did. It's not only Einsteinwho could tell you about relativity!

(5 August 1995) by Bill Todd

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the hills,We found out yesterday on our descent.

The grassy plateau bright with sinuous rills,And varied with the occasional mountain tent

Gave onto a steep zigzag down and downTo reach the Fuente valley far below.

We took it cautiously with careful step,Like Agag placing fine each heel and toe.

When suddenly the heavens opened wide,'Twas more than just a little summer shower.

On narrow path we could not turn asideThere wasn't even room for a wild flower.

So exercising all our craft and skill,We doffed our sacks and took out our cagoules

And donned them on that steep and stormy hill.The rain then stopped, we felt such awful fools.

The YRCBulletin 73 Summer 1996

Multi-day tours in the Picos

by David Smithson

This was my first summer meet inContinental Europe with the YRC.Martin Wakeman documents of aninitial two day traverse of the EasternMassif but after that I was left totravel alone. Should I "read"something into that? My routes were afour day traverse of the Central Massifand four days pottering around Vegade Liordes, an alpine meadow at aheight of just under 2000m, wherehorses and cattle graze all the time andwhere Spanish chamois, rebeccos,have a daytime feed. A very lovelyplace to be, without too many visitorsand much cooler than the lowervalleys.

After a hard journey from El Cable toBulnes, i.e. from the south to thenorth of the mountains of the CentralMassif I had an exhausting day goingthrough the Cares Gorge and up theroad to Cordinane, all in intensesunshine. Bulnes has no road access,but two delightful little gorges, anauberge, a bar and a camp site. TheCares Gorge has the same lack of realatmosphere as Dove Dale on a bankholiday, but on the next day I enjoyedgreat variety. I walked out ofCordinane with four litres of waterbecause I could not guarantee gettingwater in the next 24 hours. I hadcooked my evening meal by the publicfountain and bivouacked just out oftown where the path approaches aserious looking cliff This is a regionof serious looking cliffs and many ofthem look more and more impossiblethe longer one looks. I settled to sleephoping the mist would get no wetterand that the route would show itself inthe morning. The route appeared as apath ingeniously winding up andaround the cliff This was followed by

Tuc YRC Bulletin 74

a dripping birch wood and then analpine meadow with at least two tentsand no signs of water. I sat and readfor a while hoping the mist wouldclear and when it didn't, I took thestraightforward Canal de Asotin. Thisled me above the mist and through aseries of alpine meadows with theirmultitude of flowers and butterflies onbright green grass, which contrastedto the stark grey rock. The dayfinished fairly early with my arrival atVega de Liordes with an almostperfect bivouac site. martin Wakemanhad given me some instructions onbivouac sites and cooking muesli,which will perhaps change my lifestyle. I had made a simple bivvy bagfrom some cheap waterproofbreathable nylon and first used it withMartin who is a bivvy addict. I didn'tuse my tent in the mountains at all.

Later, I discovered that the journeyfrom El Cable to Vega de Liordes isnot so easy or simple as I expected.This land of sharp rock withinnumerable holes, hollows and gulliesis difficult to traverse, but most routeshave occasional cairns. The cairnsappear to comfort one when on aroute but are not so obvious andfrequent to allow relaxation. I met aDutch couple who followed cairns andfound they had transferred routeswithout noticing. On my first visit toLiordes I had made an attempt onTone de Salinas with the idea that Imight be able to traverse onto Tonedel Hoyo de Liordes. I was distractedby some cairns and struggled up ascree slope which seemed to leadnowhere except a chockstone. On mysecond visit, I walked to the top of anadjacent pass, Collado de Remona,but found no sign of a recognisedroute up Tone de Salinas or up TonePedabejo. I enjoyed a scramble acrossthe rocky mountain side to the bottom

Summer 1996

ofthe ridge I originally intended to trybefore the cairns redirected me. I nowfelt the cairns might be pointing to thisridge, but after some easy climbing Icame to a pitch beyond my courageand descended to have lunch at mybivouac. Tone Pedabejo had appearedimpossible from the pass, but now Isaw a back door up the grass slopenear my camp. It worked, and aftergetting to the top of Tone Pedabejo, Imanaged to traverse back onto thenext peak in the direction of PenaRemona before the mountains becametoo difficult. There is obviously a lotof fun to be had playing on thesemountains and the guide book showsthat there are recognised routes up forthose who demand success. After thisI made a visit to the hut on ColladoJermoso which is magnificentlysituated. There, a lady told me that thecows on Vega de Liordes have areputation for eating tents, clothes andprovisions and she considered I'd beenvery lucky having no problem Thereis a cabin where people can leave gearsafe from the cows. She also told me

The YRC Bulletin 75

of the notice at the telepherique up toEl Cable warning one of the existenceofbears.

Needless to say there are lots morewalking routes of quality and plenty ofmountains other than the ones I wason, but for much of this I wouldrecommend having a companion. Itotally neglected the lower valleys andwould suggest cooler weather wouldmake them more pleasant and the useof a car make them more accessible.The sharp rock made the fingers sorebut provided an unbelievable frictiongrip for the feet of anyone who doesnot usually climb in Skye or similarplaces in Norway.

On my penultimate day a flotilla ofcigar shaped alpine storm cloudsappeared and I took the precaution ofsleeping in a hut. There was no stormwhere I was, but the evening mistswere worse than usual, and for myfinal there were clouds on the highmountains and a cold wind that mademe think about getting gloves out. AsI started to descend the interminable

Summer 1996

zigzags to Fuente De, a rebecco stoodon a promontory watching me leave, avulture soared high above the spires ofrock, around me were flowers andbutterflies, and beside me a line ofimpassable cliffs.

Tour 1

El Cable - Horcados Rojos ­Vega Urriello - meadow aboveBulnes

Bulnes - Cares Gorge - Cain ­hillside above Cordinanes

Asotin - Vega de Liordes

Vega de Liordes - attempt Tonede Salinas - Fuente De

Tour 2

El Cable -Colladina de lasNieves - Vega de Liordes

Vega de Liordes - attempt Tonede Salinas - Tone Pedabejo ­Liordes

Liordes - Sedo de la Padiema ­Pico de la Padierna - ColladoJermosa - attempt Torre delLlambrion - Refuge Diego Mella

Refuge Diego Mella - Sedo de laPadierna - Fuente De

Three days into two

by John Devenport

The best laid plans often needrevising, particularly in mountainousareas such as the Picos de Europa, asMichael Smith and myself found out.Neither of us had ever been to such amountain landscape as the incrediblelimestone deserts of the upper parts ofthe Picos, with their peculiar featuresand absence of water, and it wasevident that navigation in anythingother than perfect visibility could be amajor problem The object of ourplanned three day hip was to see someof the sights of the Picos, namely theCares Gorge and the main symbol ofthe mountains of this part of Spain,the Naranjo de Bulnes.

Helen transported us to the start oftheCares Gorge at Cain, an incredible carjourney in itself, with the road at onestage seemingly petering out in afarmyard, but it eventually led into thestart of the gorge. After a welcomecup for coffee at a small cafe, the twoof us set off in overcast weather intothe deep, deep gorge forming anamazing natural barrier around thewestern / north-western edge of theCentral Massif The path is anamazing feat of engineering, cut intothe sheer sides of the precipitous rockwalls, following the line of anaqueduct dating back to the 1940's.Two bridges across the gorge providespectacular viewpoints to the rivermany, many feet below. The 11m ofthegorge and peaks rising into the clouds,were many, many feet above. It isevidently a very popular route, as it isvery easy walking along the mainlylevel path, and about half way along,after lunch and an excellent view of aneyrie, with an eagle feeding its young,we opted for a steep descent down ascree path into what we though wasthe bottom of the gorge, to get away

TIle YRC Bulletin 76 Summer 1996

from the crowds. Even when wereached the low point, we were still aconsiderable distance above the river.

Interest in the gorge decreased as itopened out somewhat as weapproached Poncebos, but ourdestination for the day was Bulnes, sowe turned up a side gorge, the Canaldel Tejo that lead us steeply up to thevillage. By the time we reached theancient hamlet, the clouds were lightdown and it was starting to drizzle.Accommodation was found in adortoir attached to one of the threeinns (not bad for an almost desertedvillage only reachable on foot!).Although it was now quite wet, it wasstill warm, so we sat outside the bar,eating the standard platter provided bythe inn to everybody requiring food,namely ham, egg and chips. We reallypushed the boat out, (well, we wereon holiday) and also had cheese, wine(lots), coffees (several), and thenbreakfast the following morning, butdespite this excess, got change out of£30 for the two of us , including theaccommodation. If only Swissmountain huts were as cheap as this!1Whilst sat in the bar, we exchangedtales with fellow travellers fromseveral other parts of Europe, andwere also joined by the local muleswhich came to see what was going on.

After a comfortable night, we woke tofind that the cloud was even lower, thedrizzle harder and there wasabsolutely no wind. So no chance of aquick improvement to the weather.After spinning out breakfast as long aspossible, we decided not to try andfind our way to the Urriellu Hut,under the Naranjo de Bulnes, becauseof potentially very serious navigationproblems through inhospitable terrainin minimum visibility. Even if we didreach the hut, there was no guaranteethat we would be able to get back to

The YRC Bulletin 77

Fuente De the following day, so optedto return via a lower, but much morecircuitous route via Invernales delTexu, near Sotres and the Valle delDuje, in the cloud for virtually all ofthe way, with only tantalising glimpsesofthe peaks and precipices above. Thefirst part of the route followed a verynarrow path through drippingvegetation, rather like walking in asauna. I wasn't sure how effective thewaterproofs were in such highhumidity; the few Spaniards that wesaw used capes rather than cagoules.We'd heard all S01tS of tales about theinaccuracy of the Spanish maps,particularly where paths and buildingswere concerned, but we had noproblems, managing to follow thevague path and locate every buildingalong the initial part ofthe route in thethick, swirling mist.

From near Sotres we turned southalong the jeep track, which proved tobe a most interesting walk, passingthrough the deserted hamlet at Vegasdel Toro, then across a large flatmeadow at Campomayor, where wehad excellent views of a pail' ofEgyptian vultures, many other birds ofprey, large numbers of horses, arunning track denoted by a line bynumbered stones, and most amazinglyof all, two pail's of goalposts, high inthe mountains and literally in themiddle ofnowhere !

A quick descent down the jeep trackbrought us into Espinama, just in timeto buy some much needed drinks andice creams, before the last bus arrivedto transport us, a day early, to thecamp near Potes, much to the surpriseof those in camp basking in glorioussunshine. Of course, the next day wasanother glorious hot, clear day, such isthe way in the mountains!

Summer 1996

A fleeting visit to Naranjo deBulnes by John Devenport

After the disappointment of not seeingthe Naranjo de Bulnes at closequa~ters on my multi-day trip, Idecided to try to make a quick visitfrom El Cable to the Urriellu Hut. 'nestling in a privileged positionbeneath one of it's great walls. Settingout in clear and slightly coolerweather, I was accompanied almost asfar as the Veronica Hut by Michaeland David, but they had otherobjectives for the day, so from then onit was a solo trip.

From the Horcados Rojos col, it was atraverse eastwards then a steepdescent down the broken, slabbyslopes following the line of fixedcables, complete with highly frayedWIre strands, which proved to be moreof a hindrance than a help. The longdescent took me into the first of twohuge hoyos (hollows), linked by avague, intermittent path, whichconfirmed my concern about potentialnavigation problems in such awkwardterrain should the visibility be less thanperfect, and probably justified ourc~ange of plans during our multi-daytnp.

A group of about six rebeco caughtmy attention crossing the barrenslopes of a hoyo; it certainly must be ahard life eking out an existence in suchinhospitable terrain. After the secondhoyo, a col is gained by a steep step,from where the massive face of theNaranjo de Bulnes suddenly comesinto view. The short walk down to the?niellu .hut took ages, with manymterruptions for photographs of thisimposing mountain. The large modem,hut was thronged with visitorsadmiring the spectacular setting.

Time was getting on, and it was quitea way back to El Cable, so I turned

'The YRC Bulletin 78

my back on the Naranjo, with onlyone or two wispy clouds high in theotherwise clear sky. Then in an instantall my worst fears about navigationproblems were realised. Fromnowhere, I was suddenly engulfed inthick cloud just above the hut, andthought I was going to have realproblems getting back in the mist.Fortunately the mist cleared as quicklyas it arrived, and the return to ElCable passed without further incident,but with added interest of a longscramble up to the :final col at the sideofthe fraying cables.

The trip was a fitting end to my visitto the Picos, an area of quite uniquemountain landscape, but it also servedas a sharp reminder of the potentialdifficulties the unwary traveller could:find themselves in such inhospitableterrain.

The Cares gorge

Summer 1996

Archaeology in the Picos

by Michael Smith

The objects of the Club includeArchaeology and this was notneglected despite the majority of thisreport concentrating on themountaineering and natural historyaspects of our visit to the Picos deEuropa.

A visit was made to the caves atRibadesella on the coast. In the Cuevade Tito Bustillo the control of publicaccess to four hundred visitors a dayprotects the prehistoric cave painting.This was far higher number than mostother controlled caves: Altamiraallowed only 30 and visits had to bebooked years in advance. Severaldoors along the caves blasted modementrance tunnel maintained a steadytemperature of BOC and humidity of98%. A path of 540m through theoriginal cavern leads to a junction anda prehistoric living area. Here, low onan overhanging wall, is painting of ahorse which despite damage byflooding remains clearly visible. Thesolid shape is a dark red and, for me atleast, surprisingly large at perhaps twometres long.

...::'>', .':.....

'·;~:,:}t··

~ .....

A little further on is an area containingseveral paintings. Stag, hind, severalhorse, reindeer and possibly something

The YRC Bulletin 79

like a cow. The largest horse varies incolour from sienna to purple and blackothers are simple outline drawings. Insome engraved lines emphasise thecolour.

It was interesting to compare thesepainting with the rock outcropengravings seen at Alta in Norway onthe 1992 meet. Those were dated atabout 6000 years old and werecarvings, some of which were paintedin an red ochre colour.

q:::

1."

~

~r-'"bbg."c,

~The Tito Bustillo cave paintings werecreated over a period between 15 and20 thousand years ago,

The main cavern contains plenty ofdecorative rock features throughoutits length. Colours range from thepristine whites through ivory to greensand reds. The calcite features arevaried and impressive as the cavern iswide and tall. The streamway is nowsome twenty metres below and visiblein places.

A short driveaway, high on ahill side are acouple ofprehistoric rockcarvings. Theinformation weobtained aboutthem was sketchy.They are about ametre tall, cut into a slight overhangabove a small ledge on a ten metre tallgrey limestone outcrop (Pefia Tu) on aridge. Now protected by an iron cage

Summer 1996

they previously suffered the additionof many adjacent modem carvings,mostly crosses. The carvings areBronze age or Neolithic and may befunerary or sacrificial.

(l .r,· -, I1/ \) ,11 ,"1 i11-" 11 .:

.i; I~ : ,,:.\ .,

J.(1 , . .: /

i; '\ / :, ;}1 ,"

\/1

Much further to the West, inland fromNavia on the crest of a ridge was theCastro de Coafia, probably the bestpreserved of the prehistoric Asturian'towns'. Occupied in the late IronAge and early Roman period it is awell fortified habitation with very solidstone walls, circular, oval andrectangular buildings and large stonetroughs. Served by a long aqueductthe village was supported by mining,transport and working ofgold.

Under Roman occupation theAsturians provided troops for manyparts of the empire including HadriansWall. They must surely have noticed amarked change in the climate therecompared to their homeland.

TIle proximity of the Picos to therugged coast, towns and unspoiltvillages of Cantabria and Asturiasmeans that there can be much more toa visit there than walking, climbingand caving. The Celts settling in theNorth, the Romans taking twohundred years to dominate the area(t~~ugh leaving the Picos well alone),Visigoths taking over Galacia,Christianity with its monasteries andthen Industrial Revolution have allinfluenced the area.

'lbe YRC Bulletin 80

Memories of the Picos by AB

Friendly people at the camp site whowent out oftheir way to be helpful.

A young dog, apparently dying ofthirst, being refreshed in best JohnWayne style, from a bush hat full ofwater.

A middle aged couple who were soimpressed by the navigational skills ofYRC members that they insisted onbuying the drinks at the cable carstation.

An ex-president who insisted thatpear peelings and core soaked insardine oil was part ofthe normal diet.

The entrepreneurial skills of a youngguest on the meet who could l'Ull asecond hand car business during thecourse of a restaurant meal.

Two members who provided a largenumber of locals with a new spectatorsport: - leg breakage repair watching.

A local member of the GuardiaUncivil who seemed to think that threescore years and ten equates to old age.

Members wives who provided hotsoup to a group who arrived back atthe camp a little late, following a slightgeographical error. (Incidentally, thiswas the same group who so impressedthe middle aged couple noted above!)

Two young members who reachedthe campsite on bicycles. What can wedo to win this battle of one upmanshipon our next meet?

The worried looks of passengers onthe ferry who overheard two navalarchitectural members discussing thegross instability ofthe ship.

Female persons on the meet whoappeared quite normal and in fact, ,were excellent company. (1 realisethat this statement may cost me myepaulettes and sword.)

Four gourmet members whocouldn't tell the difference betweenham and tinned tripe.

Summer 1996

Puerto Pollensa,Mallorca

22 / 29 April, 1995

This account covers all the mainroutes undertaken during the meet ndshould give a good impression of howthe week developed. However theparty had no intention of keepingtogether the whole time and as aconsequence perhaps some of theactivities have been missed out.

Organisation was the minimum thatwould unite the group into jointactivity, if that was what theyrequired. All but one couple were inthe same apartment block and so itwas easy to go next door and find outwhat was happening or to have multi­patty conversations from thebalconies. Each evening at at seven ajoint informal meeting was held in thereception lounge to sort out transportfor the following day, which then ledinto groups forming for visits torestaurants. Some cooked forthemselves in their apartments instead.In the morning at a time decided theprevious evening, patties would meet­up in the reception lounge beforestarting for the day's venues.

Shopping for supplies was easy withsmall self-service stores nearby openwhen we returned from walks andrefrigerators in the apartments.

Car hire could be organised locally ona daily basis if required. Hire carsgenerated one or two misfortunes: onemember parked in the wrong placeovernight and had his vehicleimpounded resulting in a hefty penalty,another found his car one morningwith a smashed window.

'Ibe YRC Bulletin 81

We were all indebted to the memberand gue~ who had a knowledge ofSpanish.

During the first few days telescopicski poles were in evidence as walkingaids but later on it seemed they wereused less often.

None of the party were in their firstflush of youth, some were into theirsecond (or perhaps even third)blooming, but what a flourish!

Evening meals were easy to find from800 pesetas (approximately £4), forthe menu of the day including wine, towhat ever level of extravagance onewished to pay.

Sunday.In the afternoon all the patty startedan easy walk along the Boquer Valley.Some people diverted on to shortcuts, and others extended it to CalaSan Vincente but all marvelled at theserrated edge of Serra del CavallBernat on the north-western side ofthe valley. Ornithologists with theirtelescopes and cameras set up ontripods, were all along the route. TheYRC's main sightings were of a BlueRock Thrush at Calla Boquer and aHoopoe just outside the town.

Summer 1996

In the valley one or two rock climberswere on the crags and the sight ofthem incited some members toclamber up house sized boulderswhich lay on the edge ofthe track.

Back at base the first member into ourprivate swimming pool reported that itwas warmer than Loch Laggan. Threeothers followed his example and foundit refreshing. Honour satisfied, theshowers were found to be nice andhot.

Monday,Gerry Lee had intended to lead a walkto the Puig Roig, but a change had tobe made because ofrestricted access,

The revised walk started at the Ermitade la Victoria, Six people went by carto the start, the remainder chose totravel 20 minutes by bus to Alcudiaand walk about 5 kilometres via theMal Pas coast road. Wild gladioliwere prominent in the fields, as werethe carob trees, The Ermita had acool restaurant with terrace and a seaview. Whilst four of the driving groupset off for the Atalaya de Alcudia, thewalkers from Alcudia made a break onthe terrace for beer, or orange drink,which was made from fresh oranges.The main group intended to ascendthe Pefia Roja but as has happenedbefore in the YRC, the conversationwas so interesting that no one saw theroute.

When the main group finally decidedthat they had lost the track, they metthe four returning from the Atalayaand it was decided that the main partywould visit the Atalaya also, and thencarry on to the Playa Baix. After theAtalaya and the views there was alunch stop on a limestone outcroplooking over the sea. A steep hillsidewas then descended on a well graded

'l1Ie YRC Bulletin 82

path in a series of zigzags to the CollBaix. On the descent it was possibleto look down several hundred feet intothe brilliant blue waters of the bay andsee, under the water, the whitebubbles created by the waves on thebeach being dragged swiftly out to seaby the strong undertow,

From the shelter at CoIl Baix, all ofthe party but one made their waydown to the beach under mostunstable looking cliffs,

The lone lady made her way backalong the return route the others wereto follow on their way back toAlcudia. Neither the lone lady nor theothers had foreseen a fork in the roadand true to that well known law, oneparty took one road and the followersthe other. This led to the lady beingrescued by a group of Germans metearlier, on the Atalaya, Contact wasagain made when the lady's husbandwas spotted from the Germans' bus,

The rest of us had a pleasant walkback to Alcudia to wait for the bus toPuerto Pollensa, admiring thehoneysuckle, broom and poppiesflowering by the roadside.

The car party drove to Formentor andfound swimming conditions warmerthan in the pool.

Bill Todd and Juliet White drove toMirador de Ses Barques encounteringhundreds of cyclists on the way. Theyhad trouble locking the car and afterattempting improvements, found thatnow they could not shut the door. Bythe time phone contact with the hirecar firm had been made, from Soller,Bill and Juiliet were short of time tocomplete the objective of Sa Costere.It was an interesting walk with lots offlora, fauna and rock formations. On

Stunmer 1996

15 km

10 miles

return, calling at Balitz de Baix farmfor orange juice led to a lift back tothe car in the farmer's Land Rover.

Tuesday.The objective of a majority of thegroup was the ascent of Teix followedby the Archduke's Walk, with shortcuts if required. Car transport wasshared to Valldemossa and aftercoffee the group set off It was quitechilly in the cold wind and there wasconcern whether or not clothing wasadequate. People were seen wearinggloves later. As we left Valldemossainteresting terrace formations wereseen cut into the hillsides foragriculture, and there was a goodview above the town roofs, of themonastery .

At the shelter where we stopped forlunch there was a large party ofGermans with whom we indulged inmutual language practise.

The YRC Bulletin 83

The summit of Teix (1064 metres)was reached after a plateau followedby a short steep scramble on thelimestone. The conditions were cold,a strong damp wind was blowing withmist in the distance. Most peoplewere wearing jackets. During oureating, photography and banter, it wasnoticed that yet another party ofGermans all had little cards and theleader was stamping them on thesummit with the official rubber stamp.Not wishing the YRC to be outdone Iasked in my best German, andobtained, the summit stamp in thefront of my copy of 'Walking inMallorca'!

The line of ascent was retraced a shortdistance to start on the Archduke'sWalk. The weather brightened andthe sun came out giving us gloriousvertiginous views over the sea some400 metres below for the rest of thewalk. It was generally a good path,

Summer 1996

on the edge of high cliffs withappalling drops in places. Not theplace to turn ones ankle! The pathswere constructed under the directionof Archduke Ludwig Salvator ofHapsburgo-Lorenca last century.Artifacts such as stone seats or minedbuildings made focal points, a thrush­hunters bread oven was seen, as wasevidence of past charcoal burning. Itwas a walk which allowed one toappreciate the meaning ofMediterranean blue and aquamarinegreen. Return to Valldemossa was viaa clearing in the woods with a centralwell with numerous tracks radiating,care had to be taken to follow theC011'ect one.

Some of the party shortened the walkand fitted in Chopin's quarters in themonastery at Valldemossa, where hecomposed the Raindrop Prelude.

It was a splendid day out withmemories of views across the island,of Manessella and Puig Roig, ofthousand year old olive trees, hollyoaks and moss covered pine trees.Rosemary was growing everywherewith bluer blooms than at home;miniature cyclamen, stonecrop andother alpines were around, as wasYorkshire humour. 'Shrouds have nopockets' was one gem heard. Onemember was so moved by it all as torecite what he could remember of'The Ballad ofIdwal Slabs'!

Thanks to Alan Brown and CliffordCobb should be recorded, for leadingus to such a fine day out.

A second party under the guidance ofJohn Barton including some of theladies went to Valldemossa to viewthe splendours ofthe ancient town.

Tuc YRC Bulletin 84

Wednesday.The ascent of Massanella (1367metres) from Coll de Batella was theaim for Wednesday. Gerry Lee to wasto lead the party. The walk startedabout 150 metres along the road, fromwhere we parked the cars oppositeCol de Sabtaia restaurant and ledthrough woodland gaining heightquickly. The path became indistinct atone point as it was possible to climbanywhere between the trees on stonyground. The track was quickly foundagain and at a height of about 800metres a marker stone directed us onrough paths to the top. A bit of roughgoing on limestone with a final steepascent over bare rock took us to thetop. On the way up, there weremagnificent views over most of theisland to the south. In the neardistance superb mountain formationswere seen like plugs of rocksurrounded by 300 metre high verticalcliffswith vegetation on the tops.

To one side of and just below thesummit was a deep pothole withtypically fluted sides. At times it hasbeen used to store snow.

The weather was generally brighterand warmer than the previous day.

Lunch was eaten just down from thesummit sheltered from the wind wherethere was a good view and the retumwas by a different route to the 800metre point.

On the way down an interesting wellwas investigated bringing out all theYRC's potholing instincts. It wassigned Font de S'Avenc and a twistingflight of steps led down into the rockfor about ten metres to a cavern withthree water basins constructed tocatch the trickle. A high aven rosebehind the water supply. Flashphotography was brought into use.

Summer 1996

JelfHooper on the Cavall Bemat (photo Bill Todd)

High on the mountain, setterwort(stinking hellibore) was identified,other saxifrage and cyclamen wereseen, and blackbeny and ivy at thespnng.

Wednesday evening was the time setfor a meal with a difference.

A party of eleven made their way toMartin's Bar. The speciality was leg

l11c YRC Bulletin 85

of lamb roasted whole. Prior to thelamb the party was served with fivesuccessive starters, meat balls insauce; chopped liver and potato fritMallorquin; mixed vegetables cookedin fennel with other herbs; mussels,and finally battered courgettes. Withgreat ceremony the legs of lamb werebrought to the end of the table, theknife sharpened and Martin calved thelamb and sewed the party. Dishes of

Summer 1996

fresh fiuit were placed on the table fordesert.

Coffee followed and when we thoughtthat it was over a delicious ice coldliqueur made from green apples waspresented, complements ofMartin.

Thursday.A bright sunny day. There was adivergence of ideas. One group droveto the Albufera for birdwatching andtheir list is given at the end of thisreport, One couple visited Soller.Another pair drove to Valldemossa tovisit Chopin's quarters which they hadmissed on a previous visit, whilst onelady enjoyed the local scene and wasfascinated by the way palm tree trunkswere trimmed. I had always believedthat the trees grew naturally with asmooth round trunk exhibiting thepattern of triangles where the leaveshad grown, but on our return from theCavall Bernat ridge we too had seenthe trimming and shaping operation.

Seven of us decided to traverse theSerra del Cavall Bernat between thesea and the Boquer valley and for meit was one of the highlights of theweek which I would have been loathto miss. Because I have notexperienced rock ridges for manyyears I found the exposure awesome,my companions had no such qualmsand to see how the older membersmoved on that ridge was a goodrecommendation for a life in the YRCand encouragement for the others.

The group was: Alan and AngieLinford, Clifford Cobb, Alan Brown,Bill Todd, Arthur Craven and me.After a short walk from PuertoPollensa along the Boquer Valley theroute went up the side of the ridgeover broken ground to the coll in theridge about half way to the seaward

The YRC Bulletin 86

end, at the foot of the most prominenttower. The length of the ridge wetackled is approximately onekilometre.

On reaching the coli, without pauseAlan Brown, closely followed byClifford and the others shot up thetower on the edge of the ridge with avertical drop of 352 metres into theCala San Vicente. The limestone wasexceedingly rough with a spikysurface, rougher than gabro, except atthe two most exposed places where itwas smooth with few holds; so I wastold. I took a ledge route on theBoquer Valley side of the tower whichled diagonallyupwards.

The next section of the ridge is so thinthat a window has been formedthrough the rock, over the top ofwhich the party walked. The guidebook recommended doing that andthen climbing down at the end andreversing direction at a lower level toreach the point where one could seethe view of Cala San Vincente throughthe window. After watching the firstmember climbing down with a goodview ofthe sea between his legs, I andone other returned and found anotherroute on the face, which enabled us toarrive below the window before themain party. An estimate of thewindow size is eight metres wide byfive metres high. The view from thereover the bay is stupendous and one byone people climbed to thephotography position. Various routeswere next used to regain the ridgewhich involved either awkward shortclimbs down or awkward littletraverses but the group reformed andhad a magnificent view of the towerfrom the other side. On a branch of ascrubby tree high on the cliff faceabove us, an Osprey was perched,

Summer 1996

although its chicks could be heardcalling for food, we did not see it fly.

It was the warmest day and the hotsun on the rock was nicely bearable.After scrambling further on the ridge ahalt was called for lunch on a flatyellow horizontal slab. It was aperfect viewing platform over the baytowards Alcudia. As we ate, seaplanes flew over head and landedskimming over the blue water, leavinga long white wake before mountingonto dry land at the dock.

There was a second small window atthe top of the ridge in rocks whichoverhung the sea and lookedsomewhat unstable.

At one point on the ridge we couldlook directly at our swimming pooland pick out the individual balconiesof our apartments.

Towards the final tower was a highlyexposed part where I remember Angiewalking as if on a tight rope. It wasthe same shape and slightly narrowerthan a ridge tile on a house roof forabout two metres.

On the final tower we sat and soakedin the sunshine and the view whilstplanning the best route down to thePuerto Pollensa - Calla San Vincentetrack. An improvised flag left byprevious walkers was re-erected onthe summit.

The walk back was hot and dusty andthe first group of four decided on coolbeer by the pool side interspersed withrefreshing plunges. The final threefound a bar selling beer by the pint andafter completing a round, arrived backwith happy smiles on their faces.

The YRC Bulletin 87

For the remainder of our stay the flagcould be seen from our apartmentbalcony.

Fliday.Cars were again organised; a minorexercise in logistics as the walkerswere to start at Sa Calobra on thecoast, and :finish at Esdorca, inland.By road the two points wereconnected by 13 kilometres ofcontinuous hairpin bends, reminiscentof Norway's Stalheim Gorge but notquite so steep and much longer.Thanks are due to lan Crowther forleading this.

From the bay car park we wentthrough a rock tunnel under the 300metre high cliffs into the gorge of theTorrent de Pareis where it meets theopen sea. There was no water runningdown the route of the Torrent and westarted on flat level sand walkinginland. The gorge is narrow withconsistently high (300 metres),unbreachable cliffs for the whole of itslength with the width blocked byboulder chokes and rock outcrops atintervals. It made me think ofpotholing but without a roof At onetime I was reminded of the maincavern of Reyfad. The limestone herewas a complete contrast to theunweathered spiked surface of theSerra del Cavall Bernat, in the gorgethe surfaces were water worn andsmooth.

I cannot remember all the individualscrambles and climbs. There was theone which required long legs to spanthe walls of the chimney with no realholds. Another, where a large smoothegg-shaped chock stone had to besurmounted with the holds always twoinches beyond my reach; the onewhere after a scramble one had tocrawl upwards through a hole, after

Summer 1996

Ipomoea hederaceaKnautia arvensisPapaver RhoeasReseda lutea

removing ones rucksack, I rememberfollowing Alan Brown in jumpingacross a one metre gap fi..om the topof a smooth boulder two to threemetres high to land on an inclinedho1d1ess slab slightly higher. Ianproduced belay slings and line at onepoint, and some of the patty wereassisted by strategically given, pulls orpushes. It was great fun and easily themost strenuous day ofthe week.

The end came when a path was found,coming down on the left which we hadto go up to the road. After the heightgained in the gorge in the previousfour hours, it was felt that we couldnot be far below the road. In fact ittook just over one hour of continuousascent on a well graded zigzaggingpath to reach the road and a cooldrink in the restaurant.

Saturday.The last day. We were not to becollected for transfer to the airportuntil 5 p.m. and so most people tookthe chance of walking through theTernelles valley to the Castell del Rei,a route which is only open onSaturdays. The bus was taken toPollensa and the walk started betweengardens with their own waterreservoirs, gradually climbing to theestate entrance with a guard on thegate. Height was gainedimperceptibly, on a good dirt roadwhich wound through the trees, untilthe Castell del Rei was seen above usand 491 metres above the sea. Accessto the castle was not possible as it isbeing restored. During our lunchbreak on the edge of the cliffs in thenear distance two black vulturesappeared. They were in view longenough for those with glasses to havea good look at them and close enoughfor those without to see them clearly.

TIle YRC Bulletin 88

A bus was caught back to PuertoPollensa earlier than originallyintended with the idea of having largeice creams on the front at HotelMirador. A temporary split in theparty was made when thirst got thebetter of some members and shandieswere ordered and the others went insearch ofthe ice creams.

A very successful meet leaving happymemories and renewed friendships.

IH.H

Flowers, Shrubs and Trees:We are indebted to Betty Cobb forcompiling this list of a small selectionof the very large range of flowers tobe found on the island. The Commonnames are given beside the Latin ones.The book used for identification was''The Flowers of Britain and Europe."by 01eg Po1unin.

Acanthus mollis Acanthus (Bear's breech)

Allium ursinum RansomesAnchusa officinalis AlkenetAsphodelusaestivus AsphodelBorage officinalis BorageCarpobrotus Carpobrutus (Red

acinaciform Hottentot)Centranthus ruber Red valercanCistus monspeliensis Narrow leaved cistusCitrus limon Lemon treeCitrus sinensis Orange treeConvolvulus BindweedErinacea anthyllis Hedgehog broomGeranium sanguineum CranesbillGladiolus segetum Field gladiolusHieracium pilosella Mouse-eared

hawkweedMorning gloryScabeousCorn PoppyMignonette

Summer 1996

Ornithology:Cliff Large, with Cathie's assistanceproduced the bird list. He writes:"In June Parker's book, 'Walking inMallorca' she states that 'Even thosewith a minimum interest in birds arelikely to find this interest stimulated bythe number and variety of birds to beseen on nearly every walk.' This wastrue on some of the lower walks buton high hills hardly any birds wereseen. One of the suggested days outwas a visit to the Albufera, a largewetland nature reserve with bird hides.It was an excuse for a lazier day aftera few days walking but only three ofthe party made the visit. It provedvery interesting with many differentbirds present.

The most spectacular bird sightingwas left to the last day at Castell delRei. Whilst having lunch a pair ofblack vultures were soaring aroundthe cliff tops about a quarter of a mileaway.

The birds listed have been split intotwo groups; those seen on walks andthose seen in The Albufera. Mostwere personal observations, Some inthe second group were seen by othersin the party. Some of the commonbirds found at home have beenomitted from this list."

Sightings on walks:Black Vulture HoopoeBlack Wheatear House MartinBlackcap Marmora's WarblerBlue Rock Thrush OspreyChiffchaff Rock SparrowCrag Martin ShagCrossbill StonechatGoldfinch Swallow

The Albufera sightings:Black-wingedStilt PochardCetti's Warbler Purple GallinuleConunon Sandpiper Purple HeronCoot Red-crested PochardCurlew Reed WarblerGadwall Ringed PloverGreat Tit SandpiperGreenfinch Sardinian WarblerHarrier SerinHouse Sparrow ShovellerKentish Plover SpoonbillLittle Egret Spotted RedshankLittle Grebe Squacco heronMallard Marsh White-headed DuckMoorhen YellowWagtail

Logistics:The party flew from Manchester toPalma and stayed in self cateringapartments which were definitelyabove the standard of the usual ClubHut!The guide books used were:''Walking in Mallorca" by June Parker,''Landscapes of Mallorca" by ValerieCrespi-Green.

Attendance:Dennis and Joan ArmstrongJohn and Irene BartonAlanBrownClifford and Betty CobbArthur CravenIan and Dorothy CrowtherMike and Marcia GoddenJeffHooperIan and Una LaingCliff and Kathy LargeGerry and Margaret LeeAlan and Angie LinfordBill Todd and Juliet White

The YRC Bulletin 89 Summer 1996

Spring Bank Holiday Meet.Inchnadampf

27 May - 3 June 1995

I have not been a regular'Whitsuntide' meet attender as therehave always been other pressures.Inchnadampf has been visited by theclub several times indeed I attendedthe 1982 meet briefly whilecaravanning with the family atUllapool. I will always remember myfirst meet in the area, before joiningthe club, when a bus was hired inInverness to tour the West Coast. Iwas determined to join the meet thisyear but was not anticipating drawingthe short straw and being volunteeredas meet reporter.

Back in 1957 I had never beenin northern Scotland, and the area lefta big impression on me. Themountains of course are unchangedbut their isolation has undergonechange. It is now possible to classthem as a long weekend break fromLondon, and a modern day trip tocompare with the one in 1957 wouldbe to perhaps the Atlas mountains.Another change has been from meetcirculars to the Bulletin. So inevitablyI put this job off and now, whileactually missing a YRC meet, andsitting out the hottest summer forcenturies, I am trying to rememberwhy a small amount of rain had suchan effect on the meet. The meetleader had arranged for us to campwithin a stones throw of the back barof the Inchnadampf Hotel. Cookingwith the midges and the rain provedunable to compete with the bar mealson offer in any cases, and there wasreally no place where one couldwander off with a shovel. The early

The YRC Bulletin 90

morning facilities purchased from theHotel raised a few complaints. Backin 1957, I don't recall even visiting theHotel, as there seemed to be no timebetween the mountains and a muchneeded sleep.

The weather preceding themeet had been good by all reports butit worsened as the days passed.Almost everyone arrived on theSaturday and Quinag and Canisp werebagged by early anivals enjoyingcloud and blue sky with light showers.Sunday and Monday were similar withgood views from the tops but notwithout the scattered showers.Quinag and Canisp were again visitedbut usually by driving as close aspossible, unlike the two early arrivalswho had insisted on round trips fromcamp. Three members, suspected asMunroists, disappeared for these twodays to do Ben Hope and Klibreck. ACorbett or 2 fell to another member.On Monday night, the rain set in inearnest and continued into Tuesdaymorning. Since two moderate dayshad been scored, the mountains losttheir attraction to be replaced by the

Summer 1996

flesh pots of Ullapool and birdwatching on Hanna island. OnTuesday evening again came the rainwhich lasted into Wednesday morningand the start of the exodus. Twomembers were drawn back to the realworld. I joined a party to partake ofAlan Linford's hospitality in hiscaravan at Knockan just ten milesaway. As the meet was notdesignated as an open one, Alancannot be listed as a full attendee, buthe still managed to give me two fullsheets of bird sightings which I haveunfortunately misplaced. In theafternoon, it was fine and a walk up tosee the local caves passed a few hours.At this point there was really nocomparison between 1957 and 1995,and I made a pledge to do somethingon the Thursday come hell or highwater. But what actually happenedwas that the moming was again wetand everyone to a man left me. Withhind sight it is easy to see that the rainwas only at Inchnadampf It wasnearly lunch time and in cloud. Idrove down to Lochinver and into thesun, and as near Glen Canisp Lodge asI could get. The walk into Suilvenand back took me 7 hours, and Iticked off all the tops, unfortunately ina brief interlude when the mist wasdown. The whole ridge was clearbefore and after I reached it. Back inmy solitary camp, and back into thepoorer weather of Inchnadampf, Iagain set my sights on doingsomething on the Friday, and eventhough the morning was misty I set offfor Conival and Assynt. The wholetrip was in mist and some light rain,and at one time I thought that I hadthe mountain to myself However, Iwas just slightly ahead of the crowdand on retracing my steps met severalparties who, unbeknownst to me, hadhad me in their sights. While

The YRC Bulletin 91

discussing the poor conditions with acouple from the north ofEngland theycommented that come the followingMonday, and even before lunchtime,we would willingly swap the officeconditions for the slopes of Ben MoreAssynt despite the rain. How true!Back in camp by 4 p.m., alone, andnot even wet enough to change, Ifinally closed the meet and left to stayovernight with relatives in Arrochar.

As you can appreciate, mycomparisons with 1956 were ratherdepressing. Perhaps the attendancewas affected by the other more exoticmeets on this year's calendar. I canonly hope so, because Scotland hascontinuous marvels to offer, and themost memorable days in themountains are not always those whenthe sun shines. I only hope this reportdoes not upset Maurice Wilson toomuch. He had set his sights onSuilven, but was cheated by theweather.

FW

AttendanceCliff Cobb

Maurice Wilson

Frank Wilkinson

Alan Brown

Arthur Craven

Denis Barker

Ken AIdred

David. Smith

Roy Pomfret

Tony Smythe

Harvey Lomas

Eddie Edwards

Summer 1996

Crianlarich Meet30th Sept. 1995

Scottish meets normally attract a goodattendance, but this one suffered fromcompetition f ..om Nepal. It was indeedsurprising to put one's head round thedoor of the Ochills M. C. hut and seethe only other two members sitting infront of a roaring fire.

~e OMC are rebuilding their cottage,With a rearwards extension whichdoubles the size and adds badlyneeded washing facilities. With thework still incomplete, we made dowith a solitary tap, and slept in thecarpetted loft.

The YRC Bulletin 92

The meet organiser delegated the meetreport to the other members, and aspin of a coin decided that the memberfrom Middlesborough would providethe coal, and the lad would write themeet report,

On Saturday, Derek and Cliff set offfor Cruachan, and climbed from thepower station up to a top, and thenceto the summit. The forecast wind andheavy showers arrived about midday,coming from the South West, and thecompletion of the horseshoe was leftto another day.

The lad drove to Craig Meagaidh, andclimbed all 8 tops and 3 Munros in aclockwise circuit with plenty ofexcursions to outlying summits. Snowwas coveting the high plateau ofMeagaidh, and cloud made finding thecairn an interesting exercise. Unlike onCruachan, the bad weather took muchlonger to reach the East, and a goodday was snatched in spite of adepressing forecast.

On Sunday gales and torrential rainmade any further excursions apointless exercise in masochism, so weall went home.

It is interesting to reflect that thejourney from Yorkshire has become somuch quicker in recent years. One canleave the Leeds area at 4.00 pm, andbe in Crianlarich before 10.00 pm,having eaten well on the way.We thanked Cliff for again organisingthe meet, and we look forward to thenext one.

Attendance:­Cliff LargeDerek A. Smithsonlain Gilmore

Summer 1996

Low Hall GarthMid-Week Meet

10 - 12th October 1995

The track to Low Hall Garth appearsto get narrower and the potholesdeeper as the years go by.Nevertheless, nine members were ableto take advantage of a Lakes mid­week Meet, and found the cottage inexcellent condition, though somesurprise was expressed at theavailability of a telephone and thelaying of tarmac outside the cottage.Double yellow lines have not yetmaterialised.

Taking advantage of the fine weatheron Tuesday, several members tookshort walks, including one overBoardale Hause and Beda Fell,returning in fine autumn sunshinealong the shore of Ullswater.Members sat down to a find meal inthe evening, followed by a visit to theThree Shires (Inn, not the Stone).

After a fairly leisurely but gargantuanEnglish breakfast, parties dispersed tothe well-known haunts, though theweather remained overcast and breezyall day.

Pike O'Blisco and the Carrs, theWetherlam/Carrs Round and the

Crinkles were all visited, though oneparty inadvertently visited UpperEskdale via Long Top. They tookcare however, not to miss the quiteexcellent repast and slide show in theevenmg.

Thursday dawned rather wet andremained so for the day. Afteranother fine breakfast members werein no hurry to venture out, throughTilberthwaite and its environs werevisited. Around mid-day mostmembers reluctantly drifted away intothe mist ofthe aftemoon.

All concluded what a fine innovationthis mid-week Meet had been, andhoped for a repeat performance.

Our thanks are due to Alan whoseenthusiasm extended far beyond theexcellent cuisine he provided to thegeneral bonhomie of the Meet.

T. E. E.

Attendance:

Eddie EdwardsMike GoddenGeoffHooperIan LaingGerry LeeAlan LinfordBill LofthouseChris RentonHarry Robinson

The YRC Bulletin 93 Summer 1996

Swaledale Meet27th - 29th October 1995

The shortage of water in NorthYorkshire could be well understoodby the 26 members who walked thedry fells that autumn week-end. Theweather was glorious, both on theSaturday and Sunday. Below isrecorded the routes followed by thosepresent.

Congratulations to Alan Brown forencouraging so many ofus to be at thePunch Bowl Inn, Low Row, since itcould have been a depleted attendanceconsidering the large party of menscaling the Himalayan heights. Otherthan the two or three guests, everyonepresent had more than a few greyhairs!

The Inn was an excellent base. PeterRoe, the landlord, made us welcomeand supplied all our needs. It wasgood that we could celebrate HarryStembridge's 93rd birthday at theSaturday evening dinner. Afterwards,David Laughton's slides of theKamchatka Penninsula and hiscommentary were much appreciated.

Here are the routes followed by thosepresent:

Saturday

Three Swaledale Peaklets: Reeth­Framlington Edge via Langthwaite(no comfort stop allowed) overCalver. Then crossed the SwaleRiver at Low Whita bridge upGfubonHill,retuntingtoRecthbyvarious routes (Dennis Armstrong,Frank Wilkinson, Derek Smithson,Derek Collins, Mike Hartland[potential member], Jim Rusher).

The YRC Bulletin 94

Smelt Mill, above Surrender Bridge, Hard Level Gill

Marrick Abbey: via Framlington Edgeand Southwaite (David Stembridge,Bill Lofthouse).

Great Shunner Fell: Lovely Seatretunting via Muker (RaymondInce, Richard Gowing, Bill Todd,Alan Brown, Arthur Craven).

Nine Standards Rigg: from CountyBoundary Road (Maurice Wilson,Cliff Cobb).

Pub Crawl: Low Row to Langthwaite(Red Lion opened especially early ­excellent beer), Framlington Edgeto Hurst (pub closed for 17 years),via road to Reeth (Black Lion ­indifferent beer), return to PunchBowl Inn, Low Row - excellent(Derek Clayton, Trevor Temple[guest], Denis Barker).

Tarn Hill: to Nine Standard Rigg andback (Conrad Jorgensen, KenAIdred, John Schofield).

Gunnerside Gill: Melbecks Moor(David Laughton, John Wright).

Melbecks Moor: Low Row viaLangthwaite up MillBeck past OldGang Mine to Gunnerside Gill.East edge of Swale valley viaSwinners Gill, Gunnerside to LowRow (Ian Laing, Geny Lee).

Summer 1996

Sunday (only recorded routes)

Great Pinseat: via Surrender Bridge,Healaugh Edge, retum via FriarfoldRake, Lead mines, Healaugh(David Stembridge, Arthur Craven,Richard Gowing, Derek Smithson,Bill Todd, Alan Brown).

Great Shunner Fell: and retum toMuker (Dennis Annstrong, JimRusher).

P.S. Congratulations to John and PatSchofield on becoming grandparents.Samuel John was bom during theMeet, hence John's early departure,

PRESENT:Ken AldredDennis AnnstrongDenis BarkerAlanBrownDerek ClaytonCliffCobbDerek CollinsArthur CravenRichard GowingMike Hartland (PM)Raymond InceConrad Jorgensenlan LaingDavid LaughtonGerryLeeBill LofthouseJimRusherJohn SchofieldDerek SmithsonDavid StembridgeHarry StembridgeTrevor Temple (G)Bill ToddFrank WilkinsonMaurice WilsonJohn Wlight

The YRC Bulletin 95

North Wales Meet26-28 January 1996

Held at theChester Mountaineering Club Hut

Llanberis

The Chester Mountaineering Club Hutis a small, pleasant building situatedon the lower slopes of Snowdon, nearthe Mountain Railway. Readilyaccessible from Llanberis, it is arelatively easy find for those armedwith a post war map. However, thoseconsulting Medieval Grimoire insearch of its location will have lesssuccess.

Several Club members arrived early onthe Friday of the meet looking for thesolitude of the weekday hills. Onemember scrambled in the Aber Fallsarea, finishing atop the ancient cairn ofDrosgl. Another climbed a desertedTryfan by its snow-clad north ridge.

A small amount of snow fell overnightand after a hearty breakfast, combinedwith the usual procrastination andrefusal to accept responsibility for theday's outcome, a large presidentialparty set forth for Snowdon, by wayof the Llanberis path. On joining therailway track at Clogwyn Station theymet with a fierce wind, blowingpowder snow into every crevice andslowing progress considerably. Incontrast, the summit was found to beperfectly calm. This strangephenomenon occurred on all therelatively high peaks ascended duringthe meet.

Moel Cynghorion was then climbedafter descending via the SnowdonRanger path. Here two optionspresented themselves; was there

Summer 1996

enough daylight ahead to complete theridge to Moel Eilio, or should theymake good their escape down thevalley? One member had gravemisgivings about the former choiceand lost no time in making his feelingsknown to the rest of the party. ThePresident was quick to nip thesemutinous mutterings in the bud.1J00ward!1J he roared, with aflamboyant swish of his ski-pole. Thusinspired, the erstwhile mutineer strodeoff at such a blistering pace that hewas not again seen until descendingthe final peak of the range. The partyarrived back at the hut with daylightto spare and in good time for dinner,which is more than can be said for theother hill party that day .

These miscreants, having spent asuccessful day exploring the Eiflgroup of hills on the Lleyn Peninsula,decided to forsake dinner and head forthe fleshpots, no doubt in an attemptto re-enact those hedonistic, drug­crazed Llanberis parties of yore. Alas,the place didn't live up to itsreputation, they had to settle for aplate of chips at Pete's Eats and adressing down from their hungrycomrades back at the hut.

After a sumptuous dinner, the peace­loving contingent retired to the sittingroom, content with idle firesidechatter. The warlike faction remainedin the dining area and were soonengaged in a vigorous and increasinglyloud debate. At one point, a seniormember burst into the sitting roomand declared IJI've had enough! IJWhether he was referring to theargument or the wine is still unclear.

Sunday saw more unpredictableweather, but this did nothing todampen the spirit. Most areas were

The YRC Bulletin 96

visited, the Moelwyn and Eifl groupsbeing favourites. On the Snowdonrange, Y Lliwedd was ascended fromPen-y-Pass and Cwm Dwythwch wasexplored by both Man and Dog.

All in all, an excellent meet. Thanks toTim Josephy for the fine food and avery good choice ofhut.

MPP

Attendance:

The President - Derek Bush

Dennis Armstrong

Denis Barker

Derek Collins

Ian Crowther

Robert Crowther

Eddie Edwards

Mike Godden

Richard Gowing

TimJosephy

MarkPryor

JimRusher

David Smith

Derek Smithson

George Spenceley

Peter Swindells

Barrie Wood

Martin Woods

Summer 1996

BLENCATHRA MEETChristmas 1995

A limited amount of snow was to beseen on the tops on Friday, but thiscleared over the week-end. A fewmembers who had arrived early onFriday enjoyed walking on B1encathraand Eddie started with Da1ehead,Hindsworth and Robinson.The B1encathra Centre is an idealplace to hold a Meet. The facilities arevery good, parking is no problem, andaccess to the hills is as good as itcould be in most places. The weatherwas fairly kind to us. It was mild andpleasant for walking with a lightbreeze for the paragliders.The landscape appeared in a silver veilof haze and layers of mist hung aboutthe floors of the valleys. From time totime sunlight penetrated theinconsistencies in the cloud cover andgave brilliant vistas of grey, silver andwhite light, rather like a Chinesewatercolour. The tops of the hillsrelentlessly made their plumes ofcloud so that the familiar perspectivescould only be seen at lower levels.However, all this did not preventparties of stalwarts setting off, somefor Honister, then over Green Gable,Great Gable in quest of Pillar - andback by Sty Head Tarn. More forB1encathra, its valleys and ridges werewell attended to as also was Skiddow.Various parties visited Mock Pikes,Little Ca1vert, G1encoinda1e, Calf Cragand Can Gilmour west to Elmerda1e.After the day's exertions, dinner was asplendid affair and credit is due toDavid, Alan and their assistants. Apleasant flow of wine, a good dinnerand very good company led to theslide show we were all eager to see.Thanks to Ged we had a first view ofthe slides of our Hima1ayan expeditionto Dorje Lakpa. It was an adventurethat for the evening we could share.

The YRC Bulletin 97

Sunday's weather remainedunchanged. There must have beenslightly more breeze because Tony'sand Peter's paragliding near Binseywas more rewarding than Peter saidhis had been on Latrigg on Saturday.Sunday's outings varied, Bill Todd leda visit to the West Mercian HuttonRoof and Cliff Cobb to the wildershores of Borrowdale, B1encathra wasagain assaulted, this time by SharpEdge, Sca1estarn, and a party tackledHalls Fell Ridge: this was laterdeemed by Tim to be notrecommended. Descending fromKnowe Craggs we came below cloudlevel and I thought it worthwhile totry and make a panoramic series ofphotographs of Clough Head, StJoOOs in the Vale, High Rigg and theNew1ands Fells. I don't expect theycould possibly reflect the true qualityof that light, but they will serve toremind me of a very pleasant, wellattended meet. D.T.R

Present: Derek Bush (President)Ken Aldred Harvey LomasDenis Barker Frank Milner (PM)

Alan Brown Stewart Muir (G)

Ged Campion Roy PomfretAlbert Chapman Tom Price (G)

Derek Clayton Mark PryorCliff Cobb Alister RentonDerek Collins Harry RobinsonArthur Craven Arthur Salmonlan Crowther John Schofie1dRobert Crowther David SmithEddie Edwards Michae1 Smithlain Gilmour Derek SmithsonRa1phHaigh Tony SmytheDavid Hall George Spence1eyMike Hart1and (PM) Peter St PriceDavid Hick Peter SwindellsTim Josephy Trevor Temple (G)

David Laughton Mike ThompsonGerry Lee Bill ToddTony Lee (G) Frank WilkinsonAlan Linford Roy Wilson

Martin Wilson (G)

Summer 1996

Lowstern MeetMarch 15th-17th

This meet was well attended. In factthe expected numbers were so greatthat an emergency plan had to beapproved allowing the overnightconstruction of a new car park atLowstern involving massiveearthworkings.

On arrival at the hut, the tea folk wereto be found gathered around the cosyflickering gas fire making plans for theSaturday. Whilst the others sampledales in The New Inn.

Many elders had flown the nest by thetime .1'd got up on the followingmorning setting a fine example for theyounger members of the club. Indeed,Graham Salmon, our chef for theweekend, didn't know what hit himwhen orders for breakfast streamed inat 7.30 in the morning. We could onlyconclude that for some, what used tobe achieved in daylight hours nowtook considerably longer. This theorywas classically demonstrated when thePresident and Arthur Salmon trundledin during supper having scaledIngleborough and Pen-y-ghent;leaving the rest of the party falteringat The Crown in Horton.

Scouts were also sent out to recce theIngleborough plateau, topping outover Park then Simon Fell andreporting back on two newly fenceddigs at Clapham Bottoms,

Others settled for the more shelteredoption during the inclement weathersticking to the high walled lanes aboveAustwick. Someone deemed itnecessary to dig out that loud pink flatcap in which to walk the dog,brightening things up considerably.

The Sunday turned out to be ablighter day, and those who had spent

'The YRC Bulletin 98

all their energy the previous day weresurely wishing they hadn't. Again,those venturing onto higher groundcalled in on various potholes includingNick Pot and Gaping Gill Gust tocheck it was still there). Grey WifeHole, recently re-opened by the YRC,was very much snow plugged and thefine work forming the entrance couldnot be inspected. A group of 3 Peakrunners descending Cote Gill were re­routed to Horton with wishes of 'BestLuck' in finding Pen-y-ghent.

The regular callers at the hut madetheir way once more to their winterdig with bang and Bosch - a projecton-going for perhaps three years now.

It seems that a good time was had byall, although some thought was givento ideas for new walking routes. Onesuggestion was a tour of Cairns asmarked on the old 2112" maps.

B.B.

Attendance:

Derek Bush, PresidentBruce BensleyAlan BrownCliffCobblan CrowtherMike GoddenMike HartlandRichard JosephyTimJosephyAlan LinfordHarvey LomasAlister RentonHany RobinsonArthur SalmonGraham SalmonDerek SmithsonBill ToddNick Welch (G)Frank Wilkinson

Summer 1996

Glen Etive15 - 17 February 1996

The journey gets easierevery year. Motorways,dual carriageways andmuch improved roadshurry the hill-hungryclimber to Scotland. GlenEtive is more accessible every year. Isthis why the Spring Bank meet haslost its attraction?

Inhir:fhaolin is in the throes ofrenovation and the cooking facilitieswere not as good as in previous years.The old kitchen areas has beenknocked into the dining-living area.The small shed to one end of the huthas had its roof raised and aconnecting door installed. Thespeculation was that this would beconverted into a new kitchen. Theinterior walls are now clad in pine andwhen finished will be quite smart. Alarge solid fuel fire has been put in theliving area. Stoked up with peatbriquettes it made the room verywarm and welcoming.

Such comforts were needed. Weatherconditions at home earlier in the yearmay have led us to hope that Scotlandwould provide us with good climbingbut this proved not to be the case. Formost of the weekend it was wet andvery windy. There was snow, above2,000 feet, but it was being driven attremendous speeds. Peopleexperienced driven 'snow hurting theirfaces, in spite of the protection ofkagouls. At these heights the maindanger was of being blown off.Lower, it was of being drowned in thebogs. Many paths looked likestreams, the steeper parts transformedinto waterfalls; not unusual on Etivemeets in latter years.

The YRC Bulletin 99

First to fall foul of the rain were twocampers who woke on Friday morningto find themselves pitched in a stream.It hadn't been there the night before.

The weather led to any number offailed attempts on the mountains. Alarge party attempted BennFhionnlaidh but turned back before thesummit. Two other climbers hadhopes that the gulley on Ben Luiwould aid their ascent but they wereforced back by a stream which hadbecome a torrent. The two dampcampers turned back before thesummit of Ben Starav. Wind speedson the ridge suggested that had theygone any further they would haveflown like kites. A distant Corbettwas reconnoitred by a party includingone of the club's Munroists, nownearing completion of the 2,500footers.

The only success of the day was anascent of Sgor na H'ulaidh by anotheraspiring Munroist who inched towardsthe summit holding onto fence posts.He and his companion were beatenfrom their goal more than once untilthey found a convenient snow gulleywhich left them close to the summitcann.

Thursday night's damp campers hadmoved their tents and dried theirsleeping bags over the hut's fire onlyto wake on Saturday morning to find apuddle under their karrimats. Buildup the fire...

Summer 1996

Friday had yielded one Munro,Saturday was a one hundred per centimprovement:; Buachaille Etive Beagand Creise were climbed. The latterfell to a sporting route up a gulleywhich unexpectedly containedexcellent snow conditions. The pair ofclimbers retraced their steps overthree tops because there was ablizzard on the top and they hadreached the edge oftheir map. In fact,Victoria Bridge could have beenreached by a quick descent.

Having pondered the prevailingconditions in small groups scatteredaround the area, and assessed the bestcourse of action, others proceeded asone man to the nearest hostelry in timefor the kick off of the Rugby UnionIntemational between Scotland andWales. One trio was delayed by a manconducting a census. They wereflattered that he estimated their agesto be in the range 35 - 45 (theircombined ages being in excess of150). He was, in fact, seeking theirviews on the need for a new telephonehotline: Avalanche Watch perhaps? Itwould be interesting to know, throughthe pages of this journal, members'views on the need for such a service,

On Sunday most of the party were ofthe opinion that it was time to cut

TIle YRC Bulletin 100

their losses and head south. Thecouple of members lucky (?) enoughto be able to extend their break to afull week set off to attempt BenSgurlaird, having sensibly made bedand breakfast arrangements for therest of their holiday. Has anyone seenthem since?

PS: I do the YRC an injustice. Infact the President's party spent Sundayattempting Meall Ghaordie,encountering white-out conditions."The worse I have ever experienced",writes Derek.

The B. and B. pair did indeed top outon Sgurlaird. Monday saw them onBen Crucachan and Tuesday theHorseshoe above Stronlichan to theeast ofthe Cruachan group.

D.A.H.Attendance

The President, Derek BushKen AldredDennis ArmstrongTimBatemanAlbert Chapmanlan CrowtherAndrew DuxburyEddie Edwardslain GilmourMike GoddenRichard GowingDavid HandleyMike HaltlandDavidHickGordon HumphreysHoward .

HumphreysDavid MartindaleAlister RentonNeil Renton (Guest)

Duncan MackayJohn McKeanDerek SmithsonMichael SmithDavid SmithBarrie Wood

Summer 1996