100th Birthday Celebrations
The Meets Committee organised a packed programme for 1992, befitting the Club’s centennial celebration.
The year kicked off with the usual trio of winter meets. The North Wales meet attendees met in freezing conditions with the Glyders, Snowdon and Carnedds being traversed and graced by Brocken spectres. LHG was frozen in for the February meet and a few hours after dusk were needed to complete rounds such as the Scafells and the greater Coniston Old Man round. The CIC hut was used by some on the Glen Nevis meet but wet conditions limited activity.
The Buttermere meet in March placed members on the tops of practically all tops within reach given the shortage of daylight.
Rowten Pot was first bottomed by the YRC in 1897. So, not to be outdone by the mountaineers, in April, the potholers made a celebratory descent clothed in traditional Norfolk tweed jackets, sporting bowler hat-mounted candles secured with clay and descending on “proper” rope and wooden rung ladders. While alongside them another YRC team used the latest Single Rope Techniques (SRT), abseiling down the main shaft and prusiking back out, but excessive water prevented all reaching the sump pool.
The author of the account of the original 1897 exploration remarked:
“Although the Pot affords plenty of excitement and opportunity for exercising the best qualities of the speleologist, it is not recommended for the amateur to practise in. The falling water, the long climbs on a swaying and twisting ladder, together with the general absence of good light, form conditions that should be taken separately or in smaller doses than are to be found in Rowten Pot.”
J. W. Swithinbank YRCJ 1902; 1(4): 316-324
All the 26 summits in Yorkshire above 2000ft were traversed in a single multi-day outing of some 110 miles in April and were filmed by YTV on the last summit for a news report. The Skye Ridge and several other climbs were completed during the week-long May meet based there at Coruisk. With more daylight hours, the Wasdale (Shap) to Wasdale Long Walk in June had a pre-4am start, saw some bivvying on High Street and arriving at the Wasdale Head bar from 1830.
Led by the President, Derek Smithson, the most ambitious goal was a plan called the Norsk Project to commemorate Wm Cecil Slingsby, our illustrious second President. The original idea was to repeat all Slingsby’s 79 first ascents; but the list of his routes in Norway is formidable and the length of some of his outings intimidating. This was ultimately felt to be too ambitious, but throughout the year, numerous trips were made by small groups to different parts of Norway. These included a winter traverse on ski in the Jotunheimen. Others crossed crossed the Ålfotbreen and Jostedalsbreen glaciers to repeat two more of Slingsby’s journeys. The Jotunheimen, the Lyngsalpene and the spectacular Lofoten islands were visited in the summer and many of Slingsby’s peaks were climbed. A full account of these undertakings was reported in the Alpine Journal.
In August, Rowten Pot was again very wet for descents by wire ladder and SRT making for fraught ascents. Gaping Gill’s Far Country was also explored. The traditional Joint Meet with the Wayfarers’ and Rucksack Clubs in September raised mixed parties out in Langdale, though rain thwarted the climbers’ plans.
October 6th, the actual day of the centenary, saw eleven members assemble at the original location of the Skyrack Inn in Headingley, Leeds after walking in the Washburn Valley. Later, glasses were raised to toast the Club’s next hundred years.
Excursions from the October Crianlarich meet took climbers onto The Buachaille and Etive Slabs and walkers to Cruachan, Glen Fyne, Ben Chonzie and points in between. Two bivvied out after Beinn Sgulaird to then tackle the Mamores before joining the meet. At the end of October, Swaledale’s Punch Bowl Inn saw the usual rounds to north and south and included Norwegian friends. Slide shows of Norway and the Himalayas helped pass the long evening.
In November, the Centenary Dinner was held at Randells Hotel in Skipton with a distinguished guest list and a mountainous celebratory cake. The Principal Guest was Lord Chorley of Kendal, Chairman of the National Trust and past-President of the Alpine Club. A host of Presidents and Vice-Presidents represented our kindred clubs. The Skipton brass band played the party in for an excellent dinner and accompanied the assembly for the traditional singing of “Yorkshire”. The front cover of the dinner menu is reproduced below – this painting was a tribute to Roger Allen, one of our members swept off the mountain by rockfall whilst descending Trollvasstind on the Norway meet earlier in the year.
On the Sunday, the wet weather did not dampen activities and a sporting trip through Swinsto Hole was survived.
The Hill Inn in Chapel-le-Dale was the traditional haunt of the YRC in the early years and for some 60 years running up to 1970. This venue was thus a fitting choice for the Christmas meet for this special year. The iced approach slope defeated several vehicles and whiteouts on Ingleborough and descents of Sunset Hole and Long Kin West were ‘highlights’ to close the year’s activities. It had been a fitting celebration.
As well as the Centennial issue of the YRC Journal, the Club published a small booklet celebrating the first 100 years of the club’s history. The Club’s anniversary was also reported by the Yorkshire Post in an interesting article entitled “Rambling back into history“.
Read about the next chapter in the YRC’s history – Into the 21st Century.