Club Meets

1956-1957—Thirteen Club Meets were held during the year and the rising trend of attendances shown in recent years was more than maintained, the average attendance, excluding the Dinner and ‘After-Dinner’ Meet, being 24, The ‘After-Dinner’ Meet, following the 1956 Annual Dinner, and based on The Buck Hotel, Malham, saw something over 60 Members and Guests spending the day in divers ways.  Various parties drifted Cove-wards and to Gordale Scar, and generally the surrounding hills were draped with Ramblers, i.e.  the Y.R.C. type and not the hiking fraternity !  The principal guest at the Dinner, Sir John Hunt, had expressed a wish to descend a Yorkshire pot-hole, and accordingly a party of Club Members obliged and a descent of Alum Pot was made.  The pot was laddered from the surface and also via Long Churn and several through trips were made.  Altogether a very successful day both from a walking and pot-holing point of view.

For the second year in succession the December Meet of ’56 found an attendance of 10 at the ‘ White Lion’ at Cray which supplied the usual excellently festive fare.  Saturday saw the party away over to Semerwater and Fleet Moss and returning by Langstrothdale.  The last part of the journey was particularly interesting as it was carried out in very complete darkness and a dense mist over sodden peat hags.  A determined attempt to return to Stalling Busk even at that late stage was only thwarted by the President who consulted his compass and asserted his authority.  After a very much delayed Dinner on the Saturday evening the enjoyment was further enlivened by B. E. Nicholson showing some very excellent colour transparencies of the Easter and Whitsun Meet of ’56, together with shots taken during his holiday in the Alps.  The January Meet at the Hill Inn in Chapel-le-Dale which was apparently now become to be considered an Annual Informal Dinner was stupendous.  Due to the incidence of the Suez crisis and the introduction of petrol rationing the Meets Secretary had viewed the Meet arrangements with equanimity and expected no trouble in placing all-Members in beds.  A fortnight before the Meet the tranquil calm of Meet preparations was rudely shattered and became instead, a feverish matter of answering telephone calls and blasting the serentity of peaceful Chapel-le-Dale with urgent requests for more and more accom­modation.  In fact the Meet took on a similar fever of activity as preparations were then in progress for the Club’s forthcoming Himalayan Expedition.  Incredible as it sounds, and in spite of petrol rationing, 61 Members and Guests eventually littered Chapel-le-Dale, in and around the Hill Inn and the Gritstone Club’s.  Hut at Gearstones.  The weather over the week-end was atrocious at times, but activities on the Saturday ranged from pot-holing to fell walking.  Some Members walked over to Dent and back via Whernside, others over Ingleboro’ and Simons Fell whilst others descended Long Churn and down to the bridge in Alum Pot and were rewarded with superb views of pouring water, a heavy fall from the beck going over the lip of the pot itself.  Saturday evening was distinguished by a showing of Members’ colour transparencies both above and below ground and ranging from the Isle of Rhum to Switzerland.  A further side of Y.R.C. activities was illustrated by a colour film of a yachting Expedition by Y.R.C. Members skippered by Jack Woodman.  The rigging of ‘ Barn Pot’ was carried out as usual, an expedition in which the younger Members fully justified their inclusion.  Gyrations were also performed as usual over the well worn beam in No. 4 bedroom.

The Cottage for the February Meet was overflowing as usual, the atten­dance reached 30 and partook excellency of Driscoll’s catering.  February at L.H.G.  usually means snow and this year was no exception.  Parties left early on the Saturday morning for Rossett Gill and the Great End area — and blizzards.  In fact it was strongly rumoured and later substantiated that one party became completely lost and eventually returned to L.H.G. by bus, via Keswick and Ambleside.  Sunday morning found parties hard at work salvaging cars from both ford and drift, by late afternoon the snow had gone as had also the Y.R.C. who seemed to have arrived with it.  In March the Club had a Meet at Edale, and 21 Members and Guests made a welcome return to Derbyshire.  Saturday morning saw the pot-holers making their way to Giant’s Hole and the walkers to Kinder and elsewhere.  It was a delightful morning and the pot-holers soon disappeared into Giant’s Hole but before long emerged sadder and wiser men.  Apparently the complete exploration of this system requires such weird and wonderful methods as baling, syphoning, plugging pipe-lines and the like, and when the party had crawled through a most uninviting section inches deep in water enthusiasm was noticeably decreased, discretion was felt to be the better part of valour and after an exhaustive crawl through the existing passages before the impasse was reached it was unanimously agreed that a more enjoyable time could be spent in the 250 foot shaft of Eldon Hole.  The evacuation was carried out in good order and so away to Eldon Hole and a pleasant time for the surface party basking in the sun.  Judging by the lurid expressions of the party below drifting up the shaft the same could not be said for them.  The Dinner on the Saturday evening was enlivened with a tape recorded message from Crosby Fox, leader of the Club’s 1957 Himalayan Expedition, and made just prior to the Expedition’s departure from London Airport.  On the Sunday morning three Members made an early start for the Edale-Marsden walk which they completed although two-thirds of the way was in’ cloud and walking was purely by compass.  At the Easter Meet twelve Members and Guests scattered themselves in small groups amongst the Cairngorms and survived four nights in varying degrees of comfort.  The H.Q. of the Meet was at the ‘Dell’ Hotel, Aviemore which the President graced with his presence.  Rain fell during the evenings and each morning a light covering of fresh snow appeared on the higher hills.  The gullies and high corries were well filled with soft snow, so, other than a few poor snow climbs, all parties, resorted to fell walking.  The weather was ideal for this and the majority of Members reached the summits of the four four-thousanders.  One day was spent walking over Cairn Gorm and Ben Macdhui, where snow bunting and ptarmigan were common, and a second day was devoted to the traverse of Braeriach and Cairn Toul.  The President after tramping the last named peaks and rushing down Glen Einich arrived very late at the ‘ Dell’ and was offered a choice of late Dinner or early breakfast.  The Glen More campers also walked the Meall a’ Bhuachaille hills, west of Ryvoan and wandered the woods of Rothiemurchus, whilst the Rough Corrie campers had an interesting scramble up the North ridge of Angel’s Peak.

In May the Club made a long overdue return to Gaping Gill where it was intended to descend the main 360 foot shaft on ladders, do the ‘through’ route and out by Bar Pot.  Thirty-two Members and Guests attended, and the Bar Pot system was rigged on the Friday night and rain during the night was sufficient considerably to increase the already heavy flow of water in Fell Beck.  Saturday was grey and cold, ten people descended Bar Pot, and after laddering the main shaft four men were put down, but after receiving reports from the Main Chamber to the surface it was decided not to bring anyone up the main shaft ladder through the very heavy fall of water.  The weight of water was such that the Main Chamber walkie-talkie apparatus was flooded and rendered useless.  Sunday was cool to start with but though there was less water going down the shaft the fall was not inconsiderable, and only one man was sent down the big ladder, he being the last to climb out of G.G. by this route bringing the walkie-talkie up with him.  A party had descended via Bar Pot and three Members of this group came out by the long ladder — one taking only nine minutes on the climb.  It was a successful week-end in spite of the water and a refreshing return to tackle Gaping Gill on ladders.

Of the many good post-war Whit. Meets the ’57 Meet on the Isle of Rhum must rank as one of the most interesting and pleasant the Club had experienced.  First of all the weather, with the exception of one wet day during the whole of the week, was ideal for climbing and walking.  Twenty-five Members and Guests inhabited a camp reminiscent of the palmy days at Gaping Gill years ago; sited in the midst of a virtually uninhabited island it left little to be desired.  Let it be understood that this was no ordinary Meet, but rather a gathering of sober-minded naturalists intent on observing nature in the raw.  It was some­thing of a shock, therefore, when the most senior Member in camp persisted in old Y.R.C.  traditions by completing all the ridges in one day and followed up with the complete circuit of the island’s shores.  It may have been binocular eye strain or possibly the torrid heat but the Friday saw the summit crags of Askival festooned with the ropes of common or garden climbers, some of whom tested the gabbro with their bare knees.  There are few climbs which can exceed 200 feet, but the experience of climbing through low lying cloud into bright sunshine and seeing the whole chain of the Outer Hebrides at one’s feet is an experience not soon to be forgotten.  In addition to climbs on Murray’s Buttress and the Oxford Route, first ascents were recorded on the S.W. Buttress and Shearwater Rib.  To the ornithologists in the Club the Meet was a sheer delight and to enthuse over this requires a special article in the Club Journal.

Seventeen attended the pot-holing Meet at Lost John’s Cave in July, and again, as last year, efforts to bottom L.J. and traverse the Master Cave were defeated by the weather and flood water.  However, the party did reach the depths of Pinnacle Pot and the Centipede system and in spite of weather conditions it was a most satisfactory week-end.  The Bull Hotel at Sedbergh did the Club well again, and the loan of the Shooting Hut on Leek fell by the Keeper was appreciated.  Sixteen Members collected at the Hadrian Wall Hotel, Northumberland in August and over the week-end activities such as walking, climbing on the rocks above Crag Lough, and viewing the Roman remains were indulged in.  It was generally agreed that all had spent a pleasant week-end in an area not often visited by the Club.

At the joint Meet with the Wayfarers and Rucksack Clubs in September the Robertson Lamb Hut was filled to overflowing, with a contribution by the Y.R.C. to the joint Meet of 20 Members.  Climbs were made over the week-end on Dow, Gimmer and Raven Crag whilst a small party reverted to type and disappeared into the Hodge Close Main Drain and spent a couple of hours in the ramifications of passages.  After supper at R.L.H. on the Saturday evening Maurice Wilson showed a number of colour transparencies of the Himalayan Expedition and a Wayfarer some of a holiday in Switzerland.  We have come to rely on the presence of Harry Spilsbury, once again he made us all welcome to the luxuries of R.L.H., as usual his catering was beyond reproach and, thanks, largely to his efforts, the joint Meet was a delightful success.

Seventeen gathered at ‘Harden’ in October for serious pot-holing but as was usual during 1957 the weather wasn’t kind to subterranean efforts.  In spite of this siege was laid to Juniper Gulf on the Saturday morning, attempts to bottom the hole finished at the bottom of the fifth pitch by mutual consent, and it was a weary and wet party that emerged later on the moor.  Tackle was evacuated on the Sunday in good order and everyone enjoyed the efforts, except perhaps Lovett’s Land Rover which had laboured so heavily with men and gear over the week-end.

It should be noted that in November Sir John Hunt made a welcome return to Craven for pot-holing, and fitted in an all night descent down Bar Pot to the Main Chamber in Gaping Gill with Club Members on a private expedition.  This was greatly enjoyed equally with the efforts of the Members in dodging the gentlemen of the Press with their cameras and notebooks.  It is believed that in the early hours of the Saturday morning, after an all night descent, a highly respected Member of the Y.R.C. misguidedly directed three reporters to the top of Ingleborough in the half light where they were certain to be able to photograph our distinguished guest !  The Hut Warden held his annual banquet and get-together at Elterwater at New Year.