Club Meets

1963/64.

Sixteen official Club Meets were held and the average attendance, not including the After-Dinner Meet, reached the record figure of 26. There was also an unofficial Alpine Meet in the Lotschtal and at Zermatt, at which eight Members were present.

The Club’s Fiftieth Annual Dinner was held at the Hotel Majestic at Harrogate, on 16th November, 1963. The President, R. E. Chad-wick, was in the Chair and the Guest of Honour was John A. Jackson. Seven Kindred Clubs were represented, the Alpine Club by T. Howard Somervell. Of the seven living past Presidents six attended the Dinner and it was very good to see Clifford Chubb, President during the War years 1938 to 1946, back in the North after an absence of some 10 years. The After-Dinner Meet took place at “Harden”, Austwick; the weather showed a deceptive promise as Members dispersed into the hills but most of them returned for tea having received a complete drenching. After tea John Jackson projected his unique composition, “Mountains and Music”.

For the first Meet of the Club Year at the Milburn Arms in Rose-dale, the Club was fortunate in having as guide the National Park Warden for the area. In such competent hands 24 Members and their guests could relax while walking instead of having to concentrate on map-reading, though in a locality with a disused chimney, visible for many miles around, as a marker for base, and three high spires as secondary landmarks, it would tax the ingenuity of the most resource­ful Member to get himself lost. The ancient crypt of Lastingham Church was visited and those insistent on pursuing yet further the Club’s second objective (Y.R.C.J., Vol. I, No. 1, page xii^[1]) were duly impressed by the Roman Road and, incidentally, by the Fylingdales Early Warning Station.

Sixty-two Members and their guests sat down to dinner at the Hill Inn in mid-January. The Meet was one of curiously mixed tradition and innovation; the new proprietors, Captain and Mrs. Flint, produced a very satisfying meal cheerfully served under the usual conditions of overcrowding, leaving the Club confident that the hospitality of the Hill Inn is safe in their hands. The meal probably accounted for a shortage of explorers in “Barn Pot”, the majority being content to watch a spontaneous demonstration of Members’ photographic slides. Outdoor activities included Whernside before breakfast, the Three Peaks, Wild Boar Fell, Sunset Hole and ‘becking’ in Ling Gill.

Hill Inn Meet by S.A. Goulden

What a week-end in Low Hall Garth history was the February Meet! The President and 29 Members, no snow, a new fireplace and 23 active rock climbers. Saturday showed bright blue sky, glorious sunshine and beautiful colouring; ten men were on Dow Crag, ten on the Langdale Pikes while four searched for snow and ice in Great End Gully. A mist at the end of the day brought forth a Brocken Spectre seen from the upper slopes of Coniston Old Man. On Sunday there was a mass exodus to Gimmer, 16 Y.R.C. men on the crag at the same time. Congestion at the Old Dungeon Gill revealed the fact that the Fell and Rock and the Rucksack Clubs had Meets in Lang-dale too. The solitude normally associated with the Mungrisdale part of the Lake District was interrupted when, for the second week-end in March, the President and 30 men descended upon the Mill Inn. In perfect weather on Saturday there were parties on Blencathra and in Skiddaw Forest; climbing on Carrock Fell was difficult owing to the need to avoid inhabited ravens’ nests, cold fingers forced a party off the rocks at Hutaple on to the Fells at Fairfield and St. Sunday crag. On Sunday the rock climbers converged on Castle Rock, where several leaders seemed to disappear into thin air.

The President and 18 men assembled for the Easter Cairngorm Meet on the camp site at Coylumbridge on Good Friday evening, but the day’s activities in the snow forced them to congenial surroundings in Aviemore to slake thirsts. Here one group decided to put a high camp at Loch Einich. while those who elected to stay at Coylumbridge did so ostensibly to ski or, possibly, to keep in closer touch with the fleshpots at Aviemore and Carrbridge. The Loch Einich party were foiled on Saturday by a strong wind and snow from completing a horseshoe walk after a fine ridge scramble to the head of the valley, but on Sunday some made the round of Braeriach and Cam Toul while others bagged the Feshie summits. Two men stayed on to ex­plore the northern corries of Braeriach on Monday, the remainder retiring to Coylumbridge to ski. Snow conditions were well suited to ski-ing and walking, but were dangerously unstable for climbing, though one party attacked a gully at Coire an t-Sheachda but were repulsed by arctic conditions.

It was 17 years since the Y.R.C. had last potholed in South Wales and considering the long trek thirteen men was a goodly number for the April Meet at the South Wales Caving Club’s headquarters. On Saturday six men went into Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, where they took a large number of photographs; five fully explored Tunnel Cave and subsequently Quarry Cave Cwm Dwr, while two walked over Brecon Beacon. On Sunday, thanks to the help given by Mrs. Price of the Gwyn Arms, an old friend of Ernest Roberts, permission was obtained to visit Dan-yr-Ogof, first explored 27 years ago by a Y.R.C. party consisting of Roberts, Gowing, Nelstrop and Platten. After wading two lakes and swimming another two, members reached Boulder Chamber and thence were able to enter some new passages and to find a small sapphire blue stalagmite. It was a great pleasure to learn how the name of Ernest Roberts is still remembered and respected in the Upper Swansea Valley.

At Whitsuntide the romantic appeal of the forbidden Isle of Rhum proved irresistible to the President and 36 Members and guests; the Club’s thanks are due to the Nature Conservancy, who made the Meet possible and who provided transport for a vast quantity of gear and supplies from the landing at Loch Scresort to the camp site some 3 miles to westward. Activities were many and various, there was walking on the northern hills and along the magnificent sea cliffs, bays and beaches; parties traversed the main ridge in from nine hours upwards and there was rock climbing on Askival and Runival. The walkers collected mushrooms and the anglers harried, and even col­lected, trout. Painters painted, bird watchers watched birds including Stonechat, Corncrake, Wood Sandpiper, Dotterel, Red Throated Diver, two pairs of Eagles and a whooper Swan; botanists prepared a report on flora, and the weather, despite a wet start, was kind. The ‘Long Walk’, scheduled for the first week-end in June, from Kirk Yetholm to Bellingham along the northern end of the Pennine Way, may well go down in the Club’s chronicles more for the odd incidents and unusual diversions that befell Members, than for the actual walk itself. Lurid stories of primaeval bogs, wild bulls, man-eating vipers and a certain unpleasant breed of bird that makes its presence felt by climbers, were reported by hysterical Members, some of whose faulty navigation led them into the wild fastnesses of the darkest Border country and consequent 20-mile diversions. The Meet gathered at the Kirk Yetholm Youth Hostel, kindly made available by the Scottish Y.H.A., and the start was at 4 a.m. on the Saturday morning. The first ten miles as far as the Cheviot, and a second breakfast, were the most interesting, after which the route lay across the rather feature­less and very isolated Northumbrian fells and it was in this section that a number of parties went astray and got into the wrong valley. The attractions of the Byrness Hotel were such that nobody did the last section from Byrness to Bellingham, the deviationists giving as their excuse that they had in any case covered an equivalent distance.

Rain and wind welcomed the President and 30 men when they arrived on the Friday evening for the Midsummer High Camp at Sty Head Tarn; Saturday morning brought little change but revealed a high standard of tent-pitching under difficult conditions. The President was on Great Gable and there were climbers on Kern Knotts, Raven Crag and Gillercombe Buttress, where one leader found three brand new slings complete with karabiners. Two walkers did the Keswick Round. Sunday was a day of sun and wind; rocks were climbed and hills trodden all over this, the most beautiful part of the Lake District. For the July Meet at the Lowstern Hut the B.B.C. announced 72 hours of bright sunny weather, but the Postal Strike delayed attendance advices and Members were down deep potholes in Austria, climbing in the Alps or wandering round Asia Minor in a Volkswagen. The result was that only the Hon. Secretary and 7 men put in an appear­ance and, despite an almost continuous downpour on both the Satur­day and the Sunday, attacked Lost Johns’ as far as the next pitch after the Dome and gave Lowstern a spring cleaning. Meanwhile, and indeed for most of July, seven Members and a guest were holding an informal Alpine Meet of the Club based mainly on the unspoilt and peaceful Lotschental. Setting out from Blatten they broke all records by bivouacking on the first night, having failed to reach the Hollandia Hut by dusk. Parties climbed the Mittaghorn and the Ebnefluh, then, after a night’s heavy snowfall, decided to explore the richness of the Alpine flora while the Bietschorn got back into condition. But a further storm robbed them of this peak and they had to be satisfied with the Willerhorn. Separate groups then climbed the Petite Dent de Veisivi, the Tellispitzen, the Pointe de Zinal and the Alphubel, two Members also enjoyed a long day on the Dent Blanche.

Only ten persons turned out for the Pothole Training Meet at Lowstern in August to take advantage of the excellent and valuable instruction in safe potholing given by the Club’s Hon. Treasurer. Saturday morning was devoted to a lecture, demonstrations and prac­tice and the afternoon to laddering in Pillar Holes and Fluted Hole. On Sunday the 320 ft. deep Long Kin West was laddered with electron and one man reached the bottom of the shaft. The Joint Meet with the Rucksack Club took place at their Bewdy Mawr Hut the first week-end in September; the President, with 21 Members and Guests represented the Y.R.C. After a fortnight of ideal weather it was dis­appointing to find low cloud on the Saturday morning; nevertheless parties dispersed to the Slabs, Llywedd, the Glyders, Tryfan and the Horseshoe: anyone venturing higher than 1,500 ft. came back soaked to the skin. Sunday was not much better but in the afternoon a num­ber of well-known classical routes on the Three Cliffs of Cromlech were chalked up. Six men stayed over Monday and got well and truly soaked again on the traverse of Moel Siabod; two optimists who stayed till Tuesday had a good day on Myrydd-Drws-y-Coed.

The President and 40 men made up the Y.R.C. contingent at the annual Robertson Lamb Hut Meet with the Rucksack and Wayfarers’ Clubs. As usual some stayed at R.L.H., some at Raw Head and there was a large overflow at Low Hall Garth. The R.L.H. party walked on Bow Fell, Crinkle Crags and Wetherlam, the Raw Head party fes­tooned the Langdale Crags while the L.H.G. group, besides revelling in the newly installed electric supply and presenting unusually clean­shaven faces, climbed Central Chimney and other severes on Dow Crag, The Main Wall and The Crack on Gimmer and several routes on Raven Crag. Walkers picked a route up Greenburn Beck to Wether­lam, got splendid views from Seathwaite Fell, of Harter Fell and the Duddon and Eskdale Valleys ablaze with autumn colour and returned by Coniston Old Man and Dow Crag. A late L.H.G. party on Sunday assaulted the slabs on White Gill and, on moving round to Scout Crag, found a group of Y.R.C. climbers being led up Ramblers’ Hang­over by one of their number with a left leg in plaster using a piece of car tyre for heel friction.

No potholers appeared till Saturday evening at the Harden October Meet, so the day was spent walking in Crummock Dale, over Simon’s Fell and Ingleborough- some even going as far as Pen-y-Ghent. In spite of a very wet forecast for Sunday there was good potholing in Disappointment Pot and a small party did several strenuous routes on some newly pioneered limestone climbs, The last Meet of the Club Year was at the Punch Bowl Hotel at Low Row in Swaledale, the President and 21 Members attended, the weather was fine and frosty and a hardy minority camped on the aptly named Crackpot Moor. On Saturday the Meet split into two halves to walk the Pennine Way between Middleton-in-Teesdale and Tan Hill. Both groups had a close look at the interesting God’s Bridge and with the high degree of efficiency always associated with the Y.R.C. contrived to pass each other at exactly the right place at the right time and to exchange the right car keys. On Sunday everybody walked the moors between Swaledale and Arkengarthdale; the colouring of the trees was superb, the sunshine bringing out the full brilliance of the yellows, reds and russets.

1964/65.

Fourteen Club Meets were held and the average attendance remained at the high figure of 26.

Some 154 Members and Guests were present at the 51st Annual Dinner at the Hotel Majestic at Harrogate on Saturday, 21st Novem­ber, 1964. The retiring President, R. E. Chadwick, was in the Chair, Tom Weir was the Principal Guest and the evening was memorable for the excellence and wittiness of the speeches. On Sunday more than 80 of those present trod the fells and assembled for tea at the Fell Hotel, Burnsall.

The December Meet was at one of the Club’s favourite hostelries, The White Lion at Cray, Buckden, and there was the usual large gathering of 32 men in spite of continuous rain for the whole of the journey thither on Friday. Campers had an unhappy time with fast flowing flood water during the night and there was little improvement on Saturday, though most Members dispersed over the fells to collect an appetite for the very fine evening meal and a thirst for the new President’s traditional Punch. In the evening Eric Arnison showed his slides of bird life in the Shetlands and in India. For the Hill Inn Meet at the end of January about 60 Members filled the inn, Lowstern and the Gearstones Hut, kindly lent by the Gritstone Club. Permission was granted for a descent of Lancaster Hole on Saturday and a party of five penetrated to the Colonnade, the Graveyard, and reached the main sump. As was already known, the 16 ft. column of the Colon­nade had been completely shattered by vandals and although the pieces had been collected and some attempt made at reconstruction this act remains one of wanton damage to a very fine formation. Skiers found wet snow to the north of Whernside and walkers were on this, traditionally the first of the Three Peaks, before breakfast. After supper there was a show of Members’ transparencies which covered many and various activities from Club Meets through Alpine and other flowers to “unofficial and matrimonial Meets of 1964”. On Sunday seven men went down Ease Gill as far as Easter Grotto and walkers on Ingleborough, Whernside and Dodd Fell enjoyed a glorious spring-like day. Members who arrived on Friday evening for the mid-February Meet at Low Hall Garth were awakened on Saturday morning by an unholy banshee-like wailing which on investigation turned out to be a Member with The Pipes. In a strong wind most groups went in search of gullies on Great End, in Dove Dale, Deep-dale, Fairfield, St. Sunday and Wetherlam. The gully in Dove Dale, after several strenuous attempts at a wet pitch, was declared impassable until a certain Life Member and Past President came up strongly from the rear, forced the passage and, near the top, spurned the rope and went on ahead. Sunday was bright and clear, more gullies were climbed on Helvellyn, Great Carrs and Wetherlam. Others were away to Fairfield and Grisedale, Grasmere, Easedale by Stickle Tarn to the Old Dungeon Ghyll and over Wrynose to Swirl How. Two people who stayed till Tuesday climbed in shirt sleeves to Rossett Gill and found a virgin gully on Great End. Many thanks were due to the Hon. Hut Warden and Mrs. Driscoll for ensuring that the 26 Members and their Guests were well fed throughout the week-end.

Dovedale February Meet 1965 by R. Harben

It was some years since the Club had held a Meet in the Clevelands and 26 men put in an appearance at the Blue Bell Hotel, Ingleby Cross for the first week-end in March, many hoping for interesting climbs on the sandstone outcrops of the northern escarpment. How­ever, all the rocks and moors carried a thick carpet of soft snow; skiers found in Scugdale the best conditions of the winter and a party of walkers, having scrambled up the steep snow-covered scarp behind the village, made their way round the head of Scugdale, over Carlton and Cringle Moors to Kirkby where Mrs. Harry Haslam, the wife of a Member, provided them with a most welcome tea. A thaw set in on Sunday but ski-ing was still possible and there was walking from Chop Gate, over Hasty Bank and Urra Moor.

Sickness unfortunately struck off three of the Members who had intended to join the Mendips Meet at the end of March, with the result that only the President and four Members made the long journey to the camping site near Cheddar village. They spent a strenuous Saturday, after consulting notes made in 1929 by Ernest Roberts, exploring the tortuous system of Swildon’s Hole, near Priddy, to the limits which lack of diving gear allowed. This included the recently discovered Shatter Passage /Blue Pencil Passages systems. Sunday was a glorious spring day and three Members explored the main stream passage in Eastwater Hole; they judged it to be awkward, wet, tight, dank, gloomy and slippery, so they spent the afternoon basking in the unaccustomed sunshine before driving back to ‘wintry Yorkshire’. Of the sixteen Members and Guests at the Easter Glen Nevis Meet the most fortunate were the few who arrived in time to spend Good Friday traversing the main Mamore Ridge from Mullach nan Coirean to An Garbhanach. Saturday was wet but some Members visited the vitrified fort overlooking the Glen and walked the Mullach nan Coirean—Stob Ban horseshoe. In spite of a gale warning for Sunday the President and his party traversed the Grey Coires from Sgurr a’ Bhuic on the end of Aonach Beag to Stob Ban, pressing on in a ‘white-out’ to reach a 4,000 ft. summit.

After a week of early summer sunshine the weather seemed set for a good week-end as the President, with 22 Members and Guests, assembled at the Brotherswater Hotel for the mid-May high level camping Meet in the upper reaches of Dovedale. But by the time a start was made towards the camp site the tops were shrouded in mist and the site itself, on a plateau 2,000 ft. up between Dove Crag and Hart Crag, was found when reached to be well in the clouds. At this point the Meet leader disappeared to look for a cave, very soon a shout out of the mist signalled that he had found it about 100 ft. higher up and to this the party moved on. It was a great gash in the mountainside, 30 ft. across, 15 ft. deep and 6 ft. high, a magnificent situation; to the north the beautiful profiles of Hartsop How and St. Sunday Crag hanging with mist, further to the east Place Fell and the High Street group and between them a little corner of Ullswater. Saturday dawn was perfection; the day was spent climbing in Deepdale on Hutaple and neighbouring crags, finishing with a convivial evening round a camp fire in the cave with moving clouds occasionally show­ing the dark shapes of the peaks. Sunday was disappointing with mist swirling into the cave and hardly a peak in sight. Some set off for Helvellyn, some walked down the valley but there was no climbing.

The President, eighteen Members and four Guests attended the Whitsun Meet at Knoydart. They sailed from Mallaig at 1 p.m. on the Saturday and reached the head of Loch Nevis an hour later. There they found an excellent camp site just above high water mark at the point of disembarkation. The head of the loch is very shallow so loading and off-loading was a laborious business by dinghy with the boat standing out about 100 yards off-shore. This part of Scotland is virtually deserted, access can only be made by boat and once past the village of Inverie on the north side of the loch and the hamlet of Tarbet on the south there are no further signs of human life. There are five Munros in this part of Knoydart; on the east Sgurr na Ciche and Sgurr nan Coireachan and between them a good ridge, Garbh Chioch Mhor which also tops 3,000 ft., in the centre are Meall Buidhe and Luinne Bheinn while further away is Ladhar Bheinn. Although there is plenty of rock on all the mountains, most of it is large sloping slab and there is virtually nothing suitable for rock climbing. Climbing the five Munros and their outliers formed the main activity of the Meet. Two parties each of four carried an advance camp to Barrisdale on Loch Hourn and tackled Ladhar Bheinn by way of Coire Dhorr-cail, a well worthwhile expedition, the mountain has a fine mile-long ridge. One Member, by no means the youngest, did a solo circuit of Meall Buidhe, Luinne Bheinn and Ladhar Bheinn in two days, sleep­ing out on Ladhar Bheinn. On off days Members fished and explored the shores of Loch Nevis, a wild cat was clearly seen, deer were stalked and seduced with Kendal Mint Cake, ptarmigan with young were found and an eagle was reported, near the camp a merganser was sitting on a large clutch. At Barrisdale the farmer feeds the deer in winter and they were still tame enough for it to be possible to get within 15 feet of five fine stags as they came down for their evening meal.

The Long Walk this year was from Sedbergh to Ambleside, a total distance of 31 miles; it took place in perfect walking weather on the first Saturday in July. Twelve men walked and the President and seven others acted as support parties at feeding points for ferrying cars back from Sedbergh to Low Hall Garth. From a 4 a.m. start at Sedbergh the route lay over the grassy tops, rising to 2,220 ft. at Bram Rigg Top, over Uldale Head to Low Borrowbridge where breakfast was provided. A second feeding point at Hollowgate was reached just before midday by way of Grayrigg Forest and Whinfell. The next leg of 18 miles over Tarn Crag, Nan Bield Pass and High Street (2,718 ft.) to the third feeding point at the Kirkstone Inn proved somewhat formidable and it was nearly 6 p.m. before the first arrivals reached the inn. Early arrivals went on over Kilnshaw Chimney, reaching Amble­side at 8.30. By 10 p.m. most Members were gathered into L.H.G. to enjoy an excellent meal provided by the Hut Warden. The President and eighteen men were present at the Lowstern Hut for the potholing Meet at the end of July. A party of eleven, four of them having their first experience underground, laddered two pitches in Easegill on Sat­urday and negotiated two interesting crawls and a tight chimney, the route being to County Pot, through Stock Pot to Holbeck Junction; lack of time prevented them from reaching Easter Grotto. On Sunday five men laddered three pitches in Sell Gill and at the bottom found nine inches of water, a cartwheel rim and the frame of a lady’s bicycle. The Climbers’ Club kindly lent their hut at Helyg for the first week-end in September and the President, with 19 Members and Guests, all got wet on both Saturday and Sunday. Some climbed on Tryfan, some went to Cnicht, others to the Lleyn Peninsula, parties walked the nearer hills and ridges, one Member cruised the Menai Straits, and all were rained upon with equal impartiality. Another thoroughly wet week-end greeted the 32 Y.R.C. Members at the annual Joint Meet with the Wayfarers and Rucksack Clubs at the Robertson Lamb Hut. Parties disappeared into the misty waterlogged hills; one lot (“At least we shall keep dry”, they said) explored the Hodge Close Mines and the Halls of Silence and came back with the water pouring out of their boots. Really bad weather usually means an early return to the huts and favours the formation of discussion groups. Casual eavesdroppers who went the rounds learnt how to combat the wiles of perfidious builders and architects, how to make a profitable living out of insurance and how to sell a tin of dubbin to a customer who comes in to complain about the porosity of his newly bought climbing boots. The Low Hall Garth contingent organised a Wine and Cheese party and thereby uncovered a wealth of ballad singing and story telling talent.