Chippings
Ged Campion and Graham Salmon spent part of the Christmas period in France continuing their explorations of the same cave system. For the second time they had to return home minus much of their gear which remained at the foot of the first pitch. After one long period underground they emerged to find a blizzard raging. In the course of the ski trip back to the village Ged was engulfed in an avalanche and buried in one metre of snow with only his head sticking out. He was quickly excavated and suffered no serious injury.
Arthur Evans has written with more details of the Liverpool University Club. He has since learned that the LURCC did not peter out but was voluntarily closed down. This came about after it had been run in such a way that there were no women members. This was contrary to the rules of the University Clubs. They were told either to admit women or close down and they chose the latter. The formation of the LUMC arose when a number of climbers met while at Helsby and North Wales and decided to form a club. Arthur was chosen as the first treasurer. Our summary of Arthur’s climbing was innaccurate. A clearer version appers elsewhere in this issue.
The unacknowledged cover photograph on the last issue of the Bulletin was one of John Cleare’s.
Dr Stephen Craven of the Mountaineering Club of South Africa is seeking information. He has read -in the Craven Herald review of Mitchell’s, Ingleborough, The Big Blue Mountain, 1994 – of a Miss Mary Booth and her brother Harry, of Ben Rhydding, descending Gaping Gill. He is researching a possible link between these two and people of the same name he knew in Ben Rhydding but did not associate with the YRC or caving. Harry he remembers as being ‘a stooped, round and full-faced man’. Dr Craven is interested in any connection between the Booths he knew and the YRC, Fred Booth or the Singleton Booths.
A most senior member of the club, who knew the Booths well, assures me that there is no such connection.
Some members of the MCSA are intending to reprint the early MCSA Annuals (1-13, 1984 – 1907) in two hard-back volumes bound in vinyl. The cost is likely to be £30 (R150) and the edition limited to 250 numbered copies. If you wish to secure a copy contact Dr. Craven at 301 Huis Vincent, Ebenezer Road, Wynberg 7800, South Africa.
Finally he recommends the warm dry caves of the area and offers to effect introductions for any of our members visiting the area if they want to cave or climb.
Bill Todd and Jack Wilson have been making a name for themselves on Raven Scar (on the Northwest face of Ingleborough, across the valley from Twisleton Scar) or at least a little to the north of it. Fiddle (V.Diff) is a prominent chimney and Fun (Diff) is a prominent mushroom shaped block still further to the north.
Michael Smith has paid a recent visit to Mallorca and having walked part of the Torrente de Pareis, watched sea turtle from Formentor and visited several watchtowers, is looking forward to the meet report from the Club’s visit there this year.
The sketch is part of invitation which read…
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The faces have been enlarged and copied on the right
The invitation comes from material which formed part of a bequest to the Club by George T. Lowe, our first President.
Along with the invitation was a sketch entitled ‘The Passing of the Old Wigwam’ and dated 1st Feb. 1912. The sketch has been signed on the back and many YRC names are recognised amongst those attending.
The sketch and signatures are copied on the next few pages. The less obvious signatures have been enlarged.
If any of our older members can shed light on the ‘Savages’ or the ‘Wigwam’ the Editor will be pleased to publish the information in a future bulletin. Any help with identifying the signatures would also be appreciated.
The Grampian Club Bulletin, 1994 (46pp, A5), contains articles on New Zealand, the rapidly opening area of Tien Shan, Ballooning in Tuscany, Pyrenees, Israel, Hell’s Lum, Glen Carron, Crete and snow scooters in Norway. Their membership is 226 with 18 new (associate) members joining to maintain a steady number.
Plans for the 1995 YRC expedition to Nepal are taking shape. The dates have been finalised as the 1st Oct. to the 10th Nov. Financial support will probably have been secured by now for some of the team from a charitable trust. A commercial sponsor is backing the venture with £250 in addition to the British Mountaineering Council’s £800 grant and an award of £700 from the Mount Everest Foundation. Alan Kaye will be pleased to hear from you with further money raising ideas or a donation.
An article, ‘Climbing up the wall’ in the Economist of 11 March is highlighted by Dennis Armstrong. It contrasts the safe climbing races possible on an indoor wall, injury only every 18 600th visit, with the free climber high on a cliff seeking ‘to over -come his natural fears by using his rational mind to mitigate the dangers.’ With the safety has come popularity and the ‘sexier and glitzier’ face of the indoor scene. The number of USA climbing gyms, each averaging 200 members, is 170, compared with the 500 British indoor walls. There is some consolation in the remark that ‘outdoor free-climbing remains a liberating and unconventional activity. The men and women who free-climbed routes for the first time used a combination of sinew and nerve unknown to indoor climbers’ with their protection and crash mats.
Just before the start of the official Alpine Meets a large group of members and guests visited the Pyrenees. This was one of the peaks visited. One party camped by the tarn having walked up in shorts only to endure several hours of violent thunderstorm through the night. The remaining low cloud robbed them of the superb views as they scrambled the next day to reach a lightning shattered summit.