THE FELL AND ROCK JOURNAL

2016

No 85

Edited by Martin Cooper and Andrew Paul

Ron Kenyon - President 2014-2016, at top of Goldrush (HVS),Adrar Iffran, Anti-Atlas, Morocco.

Contents

Climbing

Lakes 100 James McHaffie 9Cobbling it Together Dan Hamer 16Lurking Fear (Gregory and I) Peter Graham 21Cassin Route Peter Metcalf 24The Persistence of Memory Roger Wilkinson 31Tatry Adventures Tony Walker 35A Grand Day Out Ian Stirrups 41Pabbay 2015 Ron Kenyon 44

Accidents and Rescue

A Year to Remember John Wilkinson 52Fractures on the Fells Christina Paul 55Dow Crag Incident Martyn Carr/ Paul Exley 57Helicopters in Mountain Rescue Richard Tolley 61

Mountain Adventures

St Kilda Alan Hinkes 69For Those in Peril on a Ski Mike Cudahy 73Fisherfield Adventure Robin Hildrew 78The Final Countdown Paula Carter 84Argentinian Andes Mark Gear 88Simien Mountans of Ethiopia John Moore 96Norway & Greenland 2015 Jim Gregson 100

Lakes and the Club

Two years in the Life of the Club..Several 108Less a Guidebook ... Steve Scott 119A Bridge to the Past Ron Kenyon 125Naming of Routes Martin Cooper 127Bryan ‘n Pirie (Coniston 1930’s) Hattie Harris 134

Fell and Rock Climbing Club Journal 2016.

EditingMartin Cooper and Andrew Paul

Design and TypesettingAndrew Paul

ProofreadingMaureen Linton-Lee, Simon Jefferies,Phil Powell, Ron Kenyon.

ObituariesWendy Dodds

DistributionMartin Cooper

All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, in-cluding photocopy, recording, or anyinformation storage and retrieval sys-tem, without permission in writingfrom the copyright holder.Produced by the Fell and Rock Climb-ing Club of the English Lake DistrictLimited. Industrial and Provident So-cieties Registration no: 30506R

ISBN: 978-0-85028-06-9

Printed and bound by BuchananMcPherson Ltd, Scotland

New Climbs 143

Book Reviews 161

Obituaries 206

Front Cover: Upper Grains Ghyll Buttress,Allen Crags. Whole Grain (HVS). Climber -Paul Clarke. Photo - Richard Tolley

Inside Front Cover/ Half Title: Melbreak andButtermere. Photo - Tony Simpkins

Title Page: Brocken Spectre Photo - JohnHolden

Opposite: Very Big Springs E7 6c - The Burren,Ireland, climbers Sam & Ed Hamer. Photo -Hamer Brothers

Inside Rear Cover: Barre des Ecrins at 5 a.m.Alpine Meet 2016. Photo - Andrew Paul

Editorial

We suspect that the change to the dimen-sions of the Journal, after 110 years, will

generate either approval or opprobrium. If noth-ing else it will probably lead to some livelydiscussions. We believe that the time has cometo give more prominence to photographs andpaintings, and smarten up the slightly dowdyimage of the Journal; this is a process which webegan with the 2014 edition, and havecompleted with this one.

Enough of form, let's move on to content. Wehave a wealth of articles about some remarkableclimbing achievements, real evidence of the vital-ity of the club, so an entire section is devoted tothese exploits. However the world of mountainwalking and ski touring is not overlooked, with anumber of pieces about activities in Scotland andOverseas. Mike Cudahy entertains again, with afine piece of writing about his (in)ability as a ski-tourer.

This year several events came together to pres-ent a theme . At least two incidents on the fells/crag required the assistance of the MountainRescue, which provided a good snapshot of thequality of our rescue and health services. Inde-

pendently, John Wilkinson provided a piece ofwriting about a year on the crags in 1945, which,while not its primary purpose, gave an insightinto how accidents and rescue were handledthen. Finally Richard Tolley, using his knowledgefrom being part of a rescue team, provided anupdate on the transition from the R.A.F. Helicop-ter Rescue to a private service.

Finally, we have revived a section on the year(well two years actually) in the life of the club.This used to a regular feature, but fell by the

Climbing

James McHaffie

Dan Hamer

Peter Graham

Peter Metcalfe

Roger Wilkinson

Tony Walker

Ian Stirrups

Ron Kenyon

Right: Aiguille Verte and Les Droites.Barbara Swindin

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wayside a long time ago – the 'Bill Frindall's of theclub will tell you exactly when. It is a celebrationof the many achievements of club members.Particular mention has to be made of 'LakeDistrict Rock', and the winning of the Banff Moun-tain Film and Book Festival award for the bestguidebook – Steve Scott has written about thegenesis and realisation of this guide. The sectionalso contains a number of articles about thebroader Lake District context in which we enjoy

our playtime.New Routes continue to be found, against all

expectation, and the section does not includeadditions in the new Borrowdale guide, whichwill be available by the time this Journal goes toprint. In the Book Review section we havefocussed on climbing and mountaineering bookswhich we felt were of some significance, rather

than reviewing guidebooks.We hope everyone finds something within

which provides interest and enjoyment.

Martin Cooper and Andrew Paul

ditorial

9

In 2003 I was living in Wales, but all I could thinkabout was the project in the Lakes. The idea was

to climb as many great Lakeland routes as possi-ble in a day. I’d thought about it since 1999,inspired by Big Ron’s circuit in the Peak, but ittook a few years to take root and develop, withlists I’d make getting tricky beyond eighty routes.

A week or so before I was going to make myfirst attempt on an overly ambitious list of routes,I set off on a route called Exponential Exhaustionat Kilnsey. I got past a technical wall to better flatholds, but these were dusty, and a minute of flap-ping found me in mid-air. The thread, whichappeared good, exploded when I came onto itand the rock hit me in the ear with some speed. Iarrived near the base and Rob Fielding loweredme the rest of the way. He turned away in disgust,which made me worry at first that my ear washanging off, but there was only a small hole. Atrip to A&E left me with stitches, a compressionstrap on my head to prevent cauliflower ear, andslightly dodgy balance for a week or so. It’s stillthe worst fall I’ve taken and could have beenmuch worse, as just before I was going to go forthe thread I uncovered a key wire hidden bysome vegetation, which is what stopped me. Iwas a little superstitious at the time and took it asa sign not to attempt the solos. This was a goodthing, as I doubt I would have got close backthen, confidence can only get you so far. It nevercame together again but was always in the backof my mind.

More than a decade later the scheme reap-peared in my thoughts, more as a curiosity at first,looking at lists, thinking about possible routes

and cliffs I could visit. Over the last few years I’vedone a fraction of the soloing I used to do, and inthe spring 2014 I began to get reacquainted, re-climbing routes like Fingerlicker, Silly Arete, doingover ten routes at Gogarth in an afternoon, andrunning into the Carneddau for routes like TheGrooves on Llech Ddu. It did feel harder. Routesthat had felt akin to paths a decade ago seemedlike they were a much bigger deal.

When I set my full first list out in March or so Ifelt a pang of despair. It was considerably watereddown compared with the original list of decadebefore, but still looked ridiculous on paper. Istarted to work out realistic timings and thesemade it worse. Maybe people were correct aboutit being a mad idea.

I’d not booked any work in for the last twoweeks of June, hoping to get some good weatherduring the longest days of the year, and lookingforward to hanging out in the Lakes, visitingfamily nearby. It turned out to be one of the lucki-est of weeks, the stars were 'truly aligned’ for it. Iworked on an ML assessment on the weekend ofthe 14th of June and on the afternoon of thesecond day, when my lower body normally feelslike it has been done over in an American prison,instead it felt fresh; the hauling and climbing inYosemite had delivered a good fitness base.

On the Tuesday of that week I arrived in theLakes feeling a little rough but with fantasticweather and an ace forecast. I headed straight toGoats Crag, a tiny outcrop beyond Reecastle,which I’d not been to before. The views backtowards Scafell and Great End were incredibleand I did everything on the cliff before heading to

Lakes One Hundred

James McHaffie

James McHaffie soloing Central Buttress, Scafell Crag, by headtorch, 3.30 a.m. June 2014. Photo - Adam Hocking

8

crack, before bringing Holland up, was some featwhich dad would speak of in his lectures in theMoot Hall in Keswick. Mabel Barker's andMenlove's efforts were also incredible. It was thecentenary of the first ascent this year and I’d reada great deal about the First World War and whatwas ‘involved’. Herford died in it, in 1916, at theage of 25. His essay ‘The Doctrine of Descent’ is abrilliant piece of writing concerning mountainclimbing. Starting on CB felt like paying respects,and the story and tragedy related to the climbwas like fuel.

I topped out at first light and felt relief, scree-running back down to meet Hock, beforecontouring round to briefly join the CorridorRoute, a path my dad had helped build. After afew routes on Piers Ghyll Crag, and one on Under-carriage Wall, feeling much like grit, I continuedrunning and received a stunning view of StyheadTarn, Derwentwater and Borrowdale in the dawnlight. It was a crystal clear day, 4.30 in the morn-ing, with empty hills.

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the big Goat Crag to go up Praying Mantis andstash an abseil rope on top. Heading down I did acouple of E2s I’d not done and, arriving at a tinyesoteric cliff in the woods named Mac's wall, I wasblown away to meet two other climbers, Pat andCraig from Carlisle, who had known dad. Weheaded over to check out Millican Dalton'sbuttress which was, unfortunately filthy; althoughI did Cold Lazarus for old time’s sake. This smallbuttress was eventually removed from my list.

The Wednesday was the key recce day I’ddecided upon, the make or break day; leavingStonethwaite campsite, I was going to run upLangstrath to Flat Crags and work my way back tomy car. If I choked or was crawling off the hill theidea was a dud. I felt a little bit anxious aboutfinding out just how pie in the sky it really was.

I did a load of routes I’d not done, before leav-ing Neckband; after two cans of coke in the ODG,I paid for it with a headache as I topped out onGimmer. On the run between Pavey and SergeantCrag Slabs I saw two red deer enjoying the soli-tude of the fell top. I got down to my car feelinglike I’d had one of my best days out climbing. Iknew I could do a lot more, having done a lotmore running to access Flat Crags than I’d bedoing when starting from Scafell. The game wason.

The weekend was spent relaxing. Sophie cameup from Wales and we visited my sister, Heather,brother in law Richard, and godson Thomas. Theyhad rented a beautiful National Trust house onthe quiet side of Windermere, near where 'Swal-lows and Amazons' was conceived. The Saturdaynight we spent in the CC hut in Grange. Appropri-ately, there was a poster of Dan Osman doing ahalf lever whilst soloing a big flake, saying 'Don’tlet your fear stand in the way of your dreams'.

On Sunday, I left Stonethwaite campsite andSophie dropped me at Sheps cafe. Hock pickedme up and we went round to Wasdale and had ameal at Wasdale Head with Craig Naylor, farmer,climber, and grandson of the legendary fellrunner Joss Naylor. We all chose the Cumberlandsausage with mash.

We hiked into Hollow Stones and set up camp.It was quiet but Mary Jenner, Mark Greenbankand Keith Phizacklea were on the way down andcame for a chat. Dave Birkett was checking outpossible new climbs on a hill around the corner.Later, Rob and Craig Matheson came along aswell. By eight in the evening it was only me andHock, my enigmatic friend I’d known sinceprimary school, who indirectly helped start mesoloing. Hock said he’d meet me at Falcon Cragsometime in early 1996, but he didn’t and so I setoff up SpinUp and Funeral Way. From then on adifferent world of climbing opened up. Dick Pateywas in his mid 50s and lived near the BorrowdaleHotel in the 1990s. He was fit as sin and I watchedhim solo MGC regularly and routes like The Bludg-eon. We were convinced he was ex-special forces.I used to chat to him about good routes to go for.I’d brought the tent up for both of us but Hockdecided not to bother with it; being fond of thestars he went and slept under them!

At 2.55 a.m. my alarm went off. I’d slept welland felt rested, but looking up towards Scafell itwas pitch black. I carried a small rucksack with athermal, trainers, an empty bottle for streamwater, some food, a map and a compass. Nothungry, but I forced down some food, a smalldrink of tea, and set off.

CB was the biggest route on the list, and in itsown way the most intimidating. The first ascent ofthis route in 1914 was visionary, with the kit theyhad. Leaving Sansom's shoulders to grovel up the

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No 15, Gimmer String

Hock picked me up from beneath and wedrove round to Reecastle, a crag in a truly stun-ning setting near Watendlath, the views from itstop back towards Bassenthwaite Lake. There wasa small crowd back from the crag. Maxine Willetfrom the Mountain Heritage Trust had broughtthe Abraham Brothers camera up. It was great tosee Duncan and Evon Booth with their kids, and Ifelt buoyed by their implicit confidence in myability, as they wouldn't want their children to seeanything traumatic. Nicole Macgregor, Clare andHenry Iddon were also around the cliff, part ofHock’s enigmatic social networking. It felt warmand I did eight climbs as fast as I could. Towardsthe end a climber asked why I don’t do Thumb-screw as he found it easier than some of theothers. I’d intended to but was too tired to do itsafely.

Since leaving Shepherds I didn’t think I’dcomplete the challenge. Fatigue had properlyarrived. I did a pleasant tetchy E2 on the southcrag, Widowmaker, and myself and Hock headedup to Goats. Enjoying the smaller climbs, I felt likeat the end of a long few days sport climbing.Rogue Herries I’d left till last on this cliff as it wasthe hardest and I didn’t think I’d do it. I wanted topull up to look at the first hard bit; after a minute Icommitted upwards in what became the onlybad bit of the entire day.

Feeling pretty battered I decide to leave LowerFalcon, although it would have been great to doThe Niche. At the garage in Latrigg Close wegrabbed a sandwich, Lucozade, and Hock sometabs, before we set off into Thirlmere. This used tobe my commute road, and as Castle Rockappeared in the evening sun the journey with myprimary school friend felt a little surreal andbrought ‘The Heart of Darkness’ to mind for somereason. The journey from Goats to Castle Rock

was the biggest rest I’d had and, arriving at thecrag, I got a second wind. A few routes on thesouth crag meant a move to the north with fiveroutes left to do. I really wanted to do two threepitch routes, Thirlmere Eliminate and Harlot Face.These routes involved Jim Birkett, Paul Ross, DonWhillans, Joe Brown and Pete Greenwood on theirfirst ascent and were cutting edge for the area atthe time. Thirlmere Eliminate went well, being acorner. At the top you can bridge and get all theweight off tired arms. I think I’d done most ofthese climb with my friend Wesley Hunter some-time in the 90s. We had a load of adventures andsome truly ridiculous teenage arguments on thecliffs.

At 10.15 or so I finished on Angel’s Highwayand was glad I’d had a frenzied hour, negating theneed for head torch climbing when tired at theend. I sent Sophie a message. Hock had broughtup some bottles of Cumberland Ale and myself,Hock, Simon Gee, and Henry Iddon got stuck intothem before heading to the Oddfellow Arms inKeswick for another pint. Lucy Wood had madesome great food, which me and Hock consumedsometime after midnight, before bed. The nextmorning I met Hock and Lucy's lovely baby, OliveTinker Hocking. Dave Birkett got in touch to seehow it had gone. I was deeply touched by thelevel of support given by people both on the dayand in congratulations afterwards, on what I’dseen as a personal pilgrimage through somegreat memories of the Lake District. Some climbswere big, some were tiny, some were clean, somewere filthy but all were in the most fantatic land-scape.

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I tracked round to Esk Hause and Ore Gap,looking back towards Scafell. The East Buttresswas in full glory and the Main Face was shown asa silhouette. Dropping off Bowfell I arrived at FlatCrags. Simon Gee was there and after a quickhandshake I headed up Fastburn. I ran down toNeckband and set about six routes. I was onlygoing to do five here, but looking at a crack at thebase called Cut-Throat I thought it looked easy,after America. I was wrong; it was dusty, smeary,and quite strenuous.

I dropped down into the valley, noticing somebog asphodel and sundew between the bedstrawand bracken on the way up to Gimmer, where Iset off up Intern. I first climbed this with AlisonIredale in 2001, the same day as the Twin Towers. Idropped down left and set off up Gimmer String.On the top Steve (superfit) Ashworth was there,having bivvied on the top. I used to work withSteve and it was great to see him. Fifteen minuteslater I arrived at Pavey Ark.

I first climbed here in 1999. On arriving I hadsoloed Astra and Cascade, before belaying DaveBirkett on his project. He told me he wasconcerned that if he fell off he would hit theground. He got really high and fell off. His gearheld fine but it gave me a shock. Dave has onlydeepened his legend through the years, puttingup incredible lines. Whilst working with him andPaddy, he would tell us that he was the best drystone waller in the world. Nay said we, but twoyears ago he won at the Chelsea Flower Show. Hewas the best! I went up Capella and Poker Facebefore heading, via Cove Crag and Bright BeckCove, towards Sergeant Crag Slabs. The two reddeer were there again on the quiet fell tops.

Dad found Sergeant Crag Slabs in the mid 90s,and it gives some of the best single pitch slabsbetween VS and E2 in the Lakes. He brought me

up here to climb my first HVS, Lakeland Crags-man. Hock was there, having driven round fromWasdale, and I quickly did five routes beforepulling back up the hillside to jog to Heron. Theclimbs here are small but on perfect rock and it isa great place to visit after Bleak How. After Heron Idropped off to Bleak How and Fat Charlie'sButtress, before arriving thankfully at my car. I’dtold myself at this point to pretend I’d steppedinto a fresh body and was just starting.

I arrived at Goat a short while later and headedup Praying Mantis. I first did this with dad, whosaid a friend of his once got his fingers trapped ina fingerjam on the first pitch whilst seconding. Hecouldn’t free them so dad started to go down tohim, saying he’d have to cut the finger off. Hisfriend freed the finger. Tumbleweed Connection,Bitter Oasis, Mirage and Footless Crow are someof the finest climbs in the Lakes.

I climbed a few shorter routes before movingon to Grange Crags. Dad once told me ColinDowner came round the house, threatening tobeat him up if he did any of Downer's lines on thiscrag. I was curious as to how I’d be on these.Sudden Impact and Rough Justice have 5c movesabout half way through. I was a bit tired, butmainly in my feet. Then on to Shepherds; thesacrilege of missing out dad’s favourite cliff, BlackCrag, was not lost on me. I took it off the list a fewdays before starting, but intended to do his climb,The Niche, later on.

After an egg butty at Sheps’cafe I coveredShepherds in the heat of the day, feeling verymuggy. Porcupine felt hard, Aaros as ever themost pleasurable, and by the time I reachedBrown Crag Grooves I knew I was tired. Shepherdsis nearly always dry, has the ‘best cafe’ at the baseand offers great views across Derwentwater. Myfirst climb was on here, Donkey’s Ears.

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47. Paint it Black   E2 5C  Steel Knotts48. Zombie in the Dark       E3 6C  Castle Crag49. One Across    E1 5C  Castle Crag50. Fuel Crisis       E2 5C  Grange Crag51. Driving Ambition      E1 5B  Grange Crag52. Desmond Decker       E2 6A  Grange Crag53. Rough Justice       E1 5C  Grange Crag54. Sudden Impact      E2 5C  Grange Crag55. Red Neck    E2 5B  Grange Crag56. Mule Train      E2 5C  Shepherds Crag57. The Black Icicle      E1 5B  Shepherds Crag58. Porcupine       E3 6A  Shepherds Crag59. Hippos Might Fly       E1 5A  Shepherds Crag60. Straight and Narrow      E3 6A  Shepherds Crag61. The Grasp      E1 5B  Shepherds Crag62. Poop & Clutch   E2 5C  Shepherds Crag63. M.G.C.       E2 5C  Shepherds Crag64. Shanna      E2 5C  Shepherds Crag65. Aaros       E1 5B  Shepherds Crag66. P.S.     E1 5B  Shepherds Crag 67. North Buttress      E1 5B  Shepherds Crag68. Imago        E1 5C  Shepherds Crag69. Jaws       E1 5B  Shepherds Crag70. Conclusion       E1 5B  Shepherds Crag71. Brown Crag Grooves  E1 5B  Shepherds Crag72. White Noise       E3 5C  Reecastle Crag73. Rack Direct        E2 5C  Reecastle Crag74. Rack Finger Flake      E2 5C  Reecastle Crag75. Water Torture       E2 5C  Reecastle Crag76. Bold Warrior      E1 5B  Reecastle Crag77. The Gibbet       E1 5B  Reecastle Crag78. Guillotine       E3 5C  Reecastle Crag79. The Gauntlet   E1 5B  Reecastle Crag80. Widowmaker   E2 5B  Reecastle Crag81. Mort         E1 5B  Goats Crag82. Balancing Act       E1 5B  Goats Crag83. Light Fantastic      E2 5C  Goats Crag84. Pussy Galore       E2 5C  Goats Crag85. Munich Agreement     E1 5B  Goats Crag86. Optional Omission      E1 5A  Goats Crag87. Nightmare Zone       E1 5B  Goats Crag88. Berlin Wall      E2 5B  Goats Crag89. Stranger to the Ground     E3 5C  Goats Crag90. Rogue Herries      E4 6A  Goats Crag91. Mackanory     E1 5B  Goats Crag92. Green Eggs And Ham      E1 5C  Castle Rock93. Reward        E2 5C  Castle Rock94. Romantically Challenged       E1 5B  Castle Rock

95. Pinnacle Wall       E1 5A Castle Rock96. The Final Giggle      E1 5A  Castle Rock97. Harlot Face       E1 5B  Castle Rock98. Thirlmere Eliminate     E1 5B  Castle Rock 99. Wingnut        E2 5C  Castle Rock100. Angel’s Highway   E1 5A Castle Rock

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The full list ...

1. Central Buttress   E1 5B  Scafell Crag2. Heatwave 95    E2 5B  Piers Gill Crag3. Shaun & Haley      E2 5C     Piers Gill Crag4. Sleeping with the Stars  E2 5B  Piers Gill Crag5. Piers de Piece   E1 5B  Piers Gill Crag6. Wheel of Misfortune   E2 5C Undercarriage Wall7. Fastburn       E2 5B  Flat Crags8. Gillete Direct         E2 5C  Neckband Crag9. Razor Crack    E1 5A  Neckband Crag 10. Gandalf’s Groove Direct   E2 5B     Neckband Crag 11. Sweeney Todd       E2 5C  Neckband Crag  12. Cut-throat        E3 6A  Neckband Crag  13. Aragorn    E2 5C  Neckband Crag 14. Intern        E1 5B  Gimmer Crag15. Gimmer String   E1 5B  Gimmer Crag16. Capella        E1 5B  Pavey Ark17. Poker Face    E1 5B  Pavey Ark18. The Confidence Man      E2 5B  Cove Crag19. The Future’s Bright     E1 5A  Cove Crag20. Slab, Ridge and Arête       E1 5B  Cove Crag21. Nobble Nibble   E1 5B  Cove Crag22. Bright Beck Corner     E3 6A  Bright Beck Crag 23. Confusion Wall    E4 6A     Bright Beck Crag 24. The Tinkerer         E1 5B  Bright Beck Crag 25. Little Jack    E1 5C  Bright Beck Crag 26. Aphasia        E2 5B  Sergeant Crag Slabs  27. Quicksilver      E1 5B  Sergeant Crag Slabs  28. Holly Tree Crack       E1 5B  Sergeant Crag Slabs  29. The Death Stroke       E1 5B  Sergeant Crag Slabs    30. Between The Lines   E1 5B  Sergeant Crag Slabs 31. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now E1 5B  Heron Crag    32. Flamingo Fandango    E1 5B  Heron Crag 33. Big Foot       E2 5C  Heron Crag34. The Question       E2 5C  Heron Crag35. Little Corner    E1 5B  Heron Crag36. Barefoot        E2 5C  Heron Crag37. Joie Pur       E2 5C  Heron Crag38. Traverse of the Frogs  E2 5B  Heron Crag39. Amistad Con El Diablo      E2 5C  Bleak How40. Bleak How Buttress   E2 5C  Bleak How41. Cellulite       E2 6A  Fat Charlie’s Buttress42. Cholesterol Corner     E1 5B  Fat Charlie’s Buttress43. Supermodel       E1 5B  Fat Charlie’s Buttress44. Reassuringly Stocky   E1 5C  Fat Charlie’s Buttress45. Praying Mantis   E1 5B  Goat Crag46. The Sting        E2 5C   Goat Crag

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Angels Highway, Castle Rock - Number 100.

together form the western promontory of avolcanic plug topped by the town’s Castle. It’s animpressive piece of rock, especially the headwallof the main crag. The Castle’s outer rampartscome so close to the crag that access to the top ofthe climbs is a serious challenge.

Sam set his sights on Chemin de Fer – the clas-sic E5 Extreme Rock route – a diagonal crack linetowards the left hand side of the main wall. Wenoted that the boulder problems and sportroutes were well chalked up. In completecontrast, the traditional routes appeared to be

chalk-free - a phenomenon that Sam and Edhad seen repeatedly across the country duringtheir summer travels.

Chemin de Fer required considerable effortand Sam finally peeled off just below the pointwhere the crack slants leftwards. ‘Didn’t warmup enough’ was his frustrated quip. He loweredoff for a rest and we had lunch beneath one ofthe larger boulders. A couple of other climbersappeared with a crash mat and began boulder-ing. Sam’s second attempt went much fasterand he reached his original high point in a frac-tion of the time taken previously. He was ableto find a comfortable resting position, arrangeprotection for the final section and was soontopping out on the skyline.

If climbing the route had been hard, strip-ping it – it was beyond my secondingcapabilities - was a far more serious undertak-ing. It’s always awkward to strip diagonalroutes from above, especially the steep andimpending variety, and Chemin de Fer provedto be no exception. Straining to retrieve hisgear from the middle section of the crackdragged the doubled abseil rope a few inchesto the right. It slotted into a v-shaped notchand locked solid. It proved impossible to pullthe rope down from below. This required himto launch a clandestine assault on DumbartonCastle’s defences by scrambling up the vege-tated rocks at the right hand end from thebeach and scaling a lower section of the

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The trip to the Burren - King Crozzel F7b+, Climbers -Sam and Ed Hamer. Photo - Hamer Brothers

British weather can be disheartening – espe-cially in the mountains – as anyone who has

ever planned a trip to Skye will attest. That said,we should be thankful for the extraordinary vari-ety of climbable rock outcropping across ourislands. Conditions would have to be apoc-ryphally grim for the BMC ever to announce that‘there will be no climbing in Britain today!’ Themessage is simple: if it’s pelting with rain at Stan-age or Raven Tor, forget the indoor walls inSheffield - why not try Pentire Head instead? Itcomes down to time, transport and a flexibleapproach to venues.

I’d missed out on the better part of a busyclimbing year with my two sons, preparing drilltargets for a copper exploration programme inoutback north Queensland. Despite the indiffer-ent weather, they’d criss-crossed the British Islesthroughout the summer visiting dozens of differ-ent climbing venues. They’d succeeded inclimbing a string of iconic traditional routes,interspersed with quality sport climbs and deepwater solos for the Berghaus-sponsored GreatBritish Isles Climb Off.

They’d intended to start in Scotland, but sadlythe weather was against them. As a result, they’dbeen forced to head south, first to Cornwall, thenSwanage and finally Pembrokeshire in search ofdry rock. In between, they’d made brief forays toNorth Wales. On one of these, Sam had baggedthe historically significant route – Strawberries –at Tremadog. The weather, however, hadremained consistently uncooperative.

A second trip home for me at the end of thesummer had not been planned. One minute Iwas swatting flies away from malachite-stained

outcrops on the banks of the Leichardt River, thenext I was winging my way home via Tokyo for anunexpected 10-day break before the drillingcommenced in earnest. When I arrived home inDerbyshire, Sam and Ed were on their way backfrom the west coast of Ireland, where they hadbeen dodging a succession of fierce Atlanticsqualls on the limestone sea cliffs at the Burren.They’d all but abandoned the prospect of gettingto Scotland.

I checked the weather forecast in Derbyshirethe day after landing, and to my surprise foundthat a change for the better was imminent. Aftertwo frustrating months that had seen the ClimbOff avoiding the worst of the rain and wind in thesouthern and western coastal extremities, the firstweekend in September looked set to buck thetrend. It didn’t look too warm, but high pressureand a northerly airstream across the whole coun-try provided the first incentive to venture north ofhe border.

Sam was keen, and realising it was probablythe only opportunity to complete the Climb Off’sprimary goal, he unpacked and then quickly re-packed. We set off at 05:00 the next morningdetermined to avoid the traffic. Driving by turnswe cleared the Manchester conurbation wellbefore rush hour and by 07:30 were having break-fast at the service station in Tebay. At 09:00, wewere coasting around the southern suburbs ofGlasgow, heading for the Erskine Bridge.

Parking next to the football ground in Dumbar-ton, we made a brief reconnaissance of the crag.Access to Dumbarton Rock couldn’t be easier.Scotland’s premier urban bouldering venue andone of the country’s hardest traditional routes

Cobbling it Together

Dan Hamer

Stripping gear from Dalriada proved every bitas difficult as the previous day’s antics on Cheminde Fer, and we finished up on top of the northpeak with me roping him down to the anchors hehad placed at the top of the route to release hisabseil. We then strolled over to the main summitand climbed the rocks marking the true top tobask in the late afternoon sunshine.

Sam and Ed’s experiences across the BritishIsles during the Climb Off say much about thecurrent state of British rock climbing. Recordnumbers pay to climb on indoor walls; boulder-ing is justifiably popular and Mediterranean sportrock is a big draw. However, outdoor lead climb-ing on traditional routes in Britain appears to beunfashionable. It’s a pity that so many of our bril-liant crags and the iconic routes on them areneglected by the current generation of climbers.

British rock has much to recommend it, despitethe vagaries of British weather. Although thesummer of 2015 will not be remembered as avintage period for British traditional climbing bymost climbers, Sam and Ed would probablydisagree. They travelled more than 3,000 milesaround the British Isles in the two months of theClimb Off. They climbed at venues in England,Wales, Ireland and Scotland - the Cobbler beingthe last. They didn’t climb any new routes or evenmake early repeats of anything super hard – thatwasn’t their objective.

As they explained to me back in Derbyshirebefore I left for the outback, they climbed ‘for thesheer hell of it.’

perimeter wall. Fortunately, there were nosentries on duty to deter access!

After all this effort, he had little energy orenthusiasm for a second route. We pitched ourtents at a camp site near the start of the WestHighland Way and headed to a nearby restaurant.During the subsequent meal, Sam considered thevenue for the final day of the Climb Off. Iassumed that he would be keen to look at one ofthe harder crack lines at Dumbarton Rock.Instead he asked: ‘How far is the Cobbler fromhere? Dalriada’s the route to do!’

Dalriada is a stunning line. It’s one of the mostphotogenic mountain routes in the country - animpossibly undercut arête on the crag immedi-ately below the north summit of Ben Arthur - theCobbler. Would it be practicable? We weighedup the odds over coffee.

It had been dry for 36 hours. The forecast forthe next day was decent. Sam was certainlyclimbing well enough to have a go. It would bethe perfect route to finish the Climb Off. Whatwas there to lose? We decided to wait until themorning and take a trip into Glasgow to look at aguide and a map. We got back to the campsite at21.00, confused by the extended daylight.

Next day we were encouraged by clear skiesand brisk temperatures. We drove into the centreof Glasgow, to one of Tiso’s outdoor shops, andsearched for a guide. One look at a photographof Dalriada was enough. We bought the guideand an OS map of the area around Loch Lomondand set off northwest across the Erskine Bridgeagain.

We parked at the foot of the zig-zag track inArrochar, at the head of Loch Long, and set offtowards the Cobbler. It was already midday whenwe reached the tree line. From here we got ourfirst view of the dramatic skyline and a sensa-

tional profile of Dalriada. The next section of theapproach climbed the east bank of a stream to aknot of large boulders. A few hundred yardsbeyond the boulders, the track splits into two.One branch continued straight ahead to a saddle,whereas the other forked left and climbed steeplyinto the couloir beneath the Cobbler. Conditionswere perfect. Sam couldn’t believe his luck!

We gained height easily on the way up thecouloir as the view to the south expanded rapidly.We leap-frogged several walking parties on thetrack and reached the saddle between the twomain peaks of Ben Arthur around 13.00. I haveseen many impressive lines in a career in themountains extending over more than fivedecades; Dalriada is right up there with the bestof them – a fierce-looking, serrated arête with asuccession of overhangs outlined against theblue and at almost 3,000ft. I was pleased that I’dbrought a pair of prism belaying glasses. They’rea must for routes like Dalriada unless you want acrick in the neck!

Placing gear on the lower section of the routeproved extremely taxing, especially as Sam wasclimbing on a single sport rope. He had to adjustseveral runners to make sure the rope ransmoothly across the various overhangs. A tricky-looking crack went more easily than expectedand he soon reached the sanctuary of a ‘handsoff’ rest beneath the upper headwall. He had agood shake out there and this proved crucialbecause the route retained his interest to the verytop! He was out of sight on the final section and Ihad to monitor progress from the movement ofthe rope. I paid it out slowly as he inchedupwards and it was the shout of congratulationfrom a photographic vantage along the terracethat alerted me to his success.

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Dalriada, The Cobbler E7 6B, Climber Sam Hamer. Photo -Hamer Brothers

Ican’t remember exactly when I first metGregory. It was probably sport climbing some-

where. Back in the day he used to be almostexclusively into clipping bolts. To be honest, Ididn’t get on with him so well at first. He was too'new school' for my fusty traditional ways. Butgradually, over the years, I began to like Gregoryand we became good friends. Many a relaxedhour was spent basking in the sun below Spanishsport crags; we even climbed the odd longerroute together.

Two years ago I bumped into Gregory in Camp4 and although we’d never climbed anything seri-ous together we made the audacious decision totry to climb Zodiac. Much time was spent prepar-ing for the route. We had to borrow lots of gearoff other people including a haul bag and aportaledge. With a haul bag packed and ready togo, we made the forty minute walk to the base tofix the first few pitches. All was going well until itall went wrong near the top of the first pitch.While top stepping on a small RP, it ripped. Some-how I managed to get the rope wrapped roundmy leg in the fall and I face-planted head first intothe corner. As I wasn’t wearing wall gloves I alsomanaged to rip a huge flap of skin off my littlefinger. Safe to say, we backed off, me and Gregoryparted ways and I spent the rest of the trip crag-ging in Indian Creek.

It wasn’t till a couple of weeks ago that me andGregory felt comfortable enough to try to climbsomething big together, just the two of us. Hazelhad to leave the valley for a few days to do a talkin Banff, so it seemed like the perfect opportunityfor us to climb something together.

This time we decided to try a slightly easierroute: Lurking Fear. Being more of fan of climbingthan hauling we were keen to try and climb theroute quickly so we could be light enough to jugwith a bag rather than haul. I was keen to try andclimb it in a single push if possible.

'Even if it takes 2 hours a pitch that’s still only38 hours on the go!'

Hazel pointed out that there was some fault inthis logic. I’m still not quite sure what it is though.

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Lurking Fear

Peter Graham

The face plant, post Zodiac

The Capitan. Lurking Fear climbs just to the right of the sun shade line. Photo - Peter Graham

After dropping Hazel off at the airport, wemade a few final preparations and walked up tothe base of the route, reaching the bottom of thefirst pitch just as it went dark. To get a head start, Iclimbed the first pitch in the dark to fix it ready toblast in the morning. It took a bit of getting usedto climbing with Gregory again, as I made my wayup the 5.9 A0 bolt ladder. Sometimes he wouldshort rope me on a tricky section right when Ididn’t want him to. But that’s just his way I guess.He’s a temperamental soul and if you don’t payhim enough attention he’ll short rope you rightwhen you really don’t want it, when you’re crux-ing out 20 foot above your gear. By the top of thepitch we seemed to getting along well however,and I abseiled back down to the comfort of asleeping bag and a can of King Cobra. I drifted offfeeling confident about the following day. Beingmade of tougher stuff than me, Gregory stayedup to watch out for bears.

We woke up at 2 a.m. and after a quick break-fast I stashed the sleeping bag and othercomforts and set off jugging up the fixed rope. Ioffered the next pitch to Gregory, but it turnedout it was my lead again. Fortunately it was justan easy bolt ladder with a few hooks, so I wasn’ttoo bothered, but when I got to the belayGregory informed me that he wouldn’t be able toclean the pitch either! The lazy bastard! So down Iwent and then back up again. It turned outGregory wasn’t up for leading or cleaning any ofthe pitches, he was only interested in belaying. Iquestioned why I’d ever though it would be agood idea to climb with Gregory in the first place.What was in it for him? But I guess you can’t climbwithout a belay, so at least he was serving apurpose. And so it went on. Up and down andback up again. Every pitch. Without any rest. Isoon began to realise that it wasn’t going to be

sustainable to climb the route in one push, espe-cially as Gregory wasn’t pulling his weight. Byaround 9p.m. we had managed to climb tenpitches and the one man-sized ledge only a shortpendulum away was too tempting to miss. I laidout the two foot by one foot piece of foam fromthe back of my rucksack and curled up in my bivibag until it got light again. The ledge was onlybig enough for one so I made Gregory spend thenight hanging from a bolt, as punishment for hislaziness.

I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed. As wegot higher on the route the angle eased and thepitches started to flow faster as there were morefree climbable sections. The odd ledge also gavemuch needed relief from sitting in my harness.

We reached Thanksgiving Ledge, two pitchesfrom the top,just after dark. In the cave I found alog book.

'First big wall solo, 7 days,' read the last entry.Soloing sounds like hard work. I was glad to haveGregory along with me.

According to the topo the last two pitchescould be linked together, so I made for the top.

One final effort in the dark. 'Watch us heremate!' I shouted to Gregory as I cranked up thefinal 10a sandbag crack. Gregory remained silentas always, but I knew he was paying good atten-tion.

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From top left, clockwise: The first bivi, second bivi, El Capitan, selfie of right foot, 2nd selfie of right foot Centre: the ‘G’ unit. Photos - Peter Graham

Route be a viable proposition for a mid-range UKclimber with a reasonable amount of Alpineexperience on less committing and technicalundertakings?

The first, and most obvious, thing to point outthat it is, by any standards, a long route: between800 and 900m in length depending on the exactline taken whether the lower grade 3 pitches areincluded. This translates into around 18-22pitches, although again this depends how muchof the easier ground is run together. It issustained at F5a-6a with limited fixed protection,equating to about UK VS 4c-HVS 5a. Neil and I hadpored over topos and descriptions and felt likewe knew every pitch. Over the years us we hadboth undergone an intermittent but reasonableAlpine apprenticeship. We were regularly climb-ing around E1, were physically fit, and felt readyfor the challenge.

After a brutal slog up to the twee but friendly(and pricey) Sasc Furä refuge at 1904m we madea reconnaissance of the approach to the base ofthe North Ridge at 2560m. Although a usefulexercise – the way is not all that obvious by headtorch at 4.30 a.m. - it highlighted how little accli-matisation we’d done. Hearts pounding and lungspumping, legs leaden, we wondered how onearth were we going to do this in the early hoursof tomorrow morning with a full rucksack then goon to do a massive Alpine face?

It was 4 a.m. in the refuge and we tried to cramdown some bread and jam. There were about fiveteams, mostly Italian or Swiss, heading for theCassin and others for the North Ridge. It is aboutone and half hours to the base of the NorthRidge, from which there is a short abseil to theledge giving the 'Attaque Direct' the ‘AttaqueOriginale' via the Cengalo Glacier is no longerviable due to its retreat and generally diabolical

state. We could hear it collapse periodicallyduring the course of the day.

We arrived first at the foot of the Diedre Rebuf-fat around 6.15 a.m. The corner was still damp asthe morning sun crept down the face, and theclimbing felt hard for F5a. We ran the followingeasier pitches together, now in the full glare ofthe rising sun. The next F5c+ was a serious risingtraverse with some pitons in place, but I was gladof our full rack of cams. Despite our head start the

In 1937, over the course of three days, RicardoCassin and his two friends Esposito and Ratti

forced a line up the massive NE Face of Piz Badilein the Bregaglia on the Swiss-Italian border. It wasan amazing feat of mountaineering, route-findingand endurance. Two members of another Italianparty attempting the route who had, alreadyexhausted, joined Cassin’s team, died from expo-sure and exhaustion during the traverse over thesummit and descent into Italy.

The Via Cassin, orsimply 'Cassin', is now afrequently-ascended butmuch sought-after 'tick'for the Alpine climber. Itis one of the six greatAlpine north faces (theothers being the CimaGrande di Lavaredo,Eiger, Grandes Jorasses,Matterhorn and Petit Dru)but is also considered theeasiest. The now standardapproach is non-glacial,the route is pure rock-climbing and the rockgenerally sound. Objec-tive dangers are thusminimal - apart from theweather. Its aspect andform (Badile means'shovel') means that a storm would quickly makethe Cassin an extremely serious place to be, withany precipitation on the upper reaches beingfunnelled directly down the route. In addition,the descent can be as problematic as the ascent,

with the choices of a gruelling abseil down theNorth Ridge or traverse over the summit anddescent of the Voie Normale on the South (Italian)side.

However, any climber who has seen the Badileand the perfect line of the Cassin will be drawnagain and again to pondering its ascent. On ajoint FRCC/AC/CC trip in 2010 Andrew Paul andJamie Goodheart from the AC managed an ascentof the North Ridge before the weather closed in,

but I missed my chance. Having seen the moun-tain from far away on the other side of the ValBregaglia I had vowed to return. In the interven-ing years my leading grade had improved to thepoint that I started to wonder: would the Cassin

The abseilonto the ac-cess ledge

An Occasional Alpinist Attempts the Cassin

Pete Metcalfe

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HVS (5a) but, remember, this is at altitude wear-ing a rucksack with another 10 pitches to go.

The second "crux', a short traverse under a roofthen a layback corner, turned out to be straight-forward and shortly we found ourselves wellabove the second Bivouac Cassin and at the baseof the Exit Chimneys. We were now feeling quiterelaxed and were possibly even mentally addingthe 'tick' to our climbing CVs. There were still acouple of teams above us in the chimneys - theyseemed to be moving quite slowly.

There were still another six pitches and over200m of climbing to go. Clouds were swirling upfrom the Cengalo and the upper part of the facewas obscured. Swear words were floating downtowards me as Neil fought with the desperatelyslippery, narrow and awkward initial pitch in thechimneys. Now the clouds were just above us andlooking decidedly black and I was starting to getreally cold. Being hit by a storm whilst in thesechimneys would be a disaster - drowning couldbe a distinct possibility. All the other teams hadnow disappeared and I felt very isolated on thisvast face.

'Safe!' came a welcome call from above. It wasalmost as horrific as anticipated. After some judi-cious pulling on gear I reached the stance; thenext pitch looked a least a little less strenuous.Hastily I took the lead and got another pitchunder our belt.

The weather now seemed to be holding offand Neil ran out another 60m at about F5b. Theface kept coming at us until the very last, withanother pitch culminating in a strenuous pullonto the ridge. It was 5.30p.m.Thick clumps ofcloud were jostling around us, obscuring every-thing at one moment then revealing surroundingtops. We heard ominous rumblings across thevalley and could sense electricity in the air as we

simul-climbed the last of the ridge to the summitin about an hour. Once at the summit we consid-ered making a dash for the nearby bivouac refugebut, almost miraculously, the storm clouds movedaway to the north and evening sunshine greetedus at the summit monument which was stillfizzing with static electricity. We decided on the

other teams were pulling away from us withincredible skill and slickness.

After a steep F5b pitch we ran out around threerope lengths all the way to the Cengia Mediana,the large ledge at mid height. Although this felt

strenuous and committing it was in retrospectthe only way to keep to schedule. The ledge islarge and comforting and was currently accom-modating the majority of our companionswaiting for teams above them to complete thecrux, an open groove followed by a steep cornerand an easy traverse out right. Eventually it wasour turn: Neil took the lead. It feels a sustained UK

The crux groove and corner pitch

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Heading towards the Cengia Mediana on P5

prepared to think 'speed!' for the best part of daythen you should be well prepared. But as ever, it’sup to you to decide and take responsibility forany decision.

Practicalities

Accommodation

A friendly, quiet valley base on the Swiss side isat Camping Mulina on the way out of Vicoso-prano at the base of the Maloja Pass. Sasc FuräRefuge (SAC) is the base on the Swiss side. TheGianetti Refuge (CAI) at 2534m on the Italian (ValMasino) side. Both give discounts for members ofaffiliated clubs such as the Austrian Alpine Clubor AC. My FRCC membership card didn’t seem todo the trick. Self-catering available and hot waterfor sale at ~3euro/L.

Access

From Bondo take the unmade road up ValBondasca to the parking at its end the (10CHFcharge from ticket machine before barrier). Oneand a half hours walk from here to the Sasc Furärefuge. Add another one to one and a half hoursto reach the area around the base of the NorthRidge where there are plenty of bivvy options.

Gear

We ran with double 60m ropes but 50m shouldbe OK as abseils on Italian side are set up fordoubled 50m ropes. Many European teams wereusing triple rated singles, however, which iscertainly worth looking at. Fixed protection islimited to pitons, although now most stances areequipped with double bolt belays. Take a good

selection of cams and asingle set of wires.Twelve quickdraws willbe enough but takesome longer ones andslings as they are usefulto avoid rope drag onthe longer pitches.

The approach anddescent can be done inapproach shoes. If theaccess ledge is snowy(ask the guardian at theSasc Furä) then strap-oncrampons such as Katu-las might be useful; theycertainly will be if walk-ing back from Italy overthe Passo della Porcel-lizzo.

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long descent to the Gianetti Refugein Italy and a well-deserved bowl ofsoup and large beer.

So, is the Cassin a good objectivefor an experienced UK-based climbercompetent around E1, with decentbut not vast amounts of Alpineexperience? Difficult to say. Wemanaged it, obviously, but maybewe were just lucky - weather reportshad suggested storms later in theafternoon, and if these had movedwhilst we were on the face then itwould have been a very differentstory. We could have done withcutting an hour or two off our time -3 p.m. was our target for reachingthe ridge. Acclimatisation mighthave helped speed our climbing;however the best way to improveyour speed on long routes is to prac-tice doing them!

I would therefore suggest that, ifrestricted to the UK for training, youshould seek out multi-pitch routeson mountain crags and aim to climbseveral in a day. A combination ofhard and easy pitches run out ormoved together on would be ideal.In the Lakes, a suggested itinerarywould be Grooved Arete on PikesCrag (180m VD) followed by CentralButtress (E1, 120m) and Moss GhyllGrooves (MVS, 100m), then PikesCrag Ridge with the Isis start (S,120m). If you can manage that easilyin a day wearing rucksacks, havespent a few day acclimatising, watchthe meteo with eagle eyes and are

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Left: In the exit chimneysRight: The summit of the Piz Badile

Some climbs or climbing days reside long in thememory, with many details still clearly visible

in the mind's eye, while others leave little traceand one can recall little or nothing of them.Ninety per cent or more of sport climbs bygeneral consent are in the latter category and areinstantly forgettable. They are the fast food ofclimbing: essentially unsatisfying but that doesn'tmean to say we don't enjoy them in the moment.

What makes for a memorable day's climbing?Colin Kirkus famously declared 'You know Alf,going to the right place at the right time with theright people is all that matters. What one does ispurely incidental’ ; but I'm not totally convinced.While I would agree that a mediocre climb couldeasily be made more memorable by virtue ofcongenial company, a quality route is much morelikely to satisfy and give retrospective pleasure inrecall. Doing a route in the wrong company canalso be memorable, but not in a good way.

So a good route is probably essential and forme it probably needs to be trad. What aboutlength and difficulty? My most memorable routesare ones where I was challenged to a greater orlesser degree. Without some doubt - howeverslight - as to the outcome, an important compo-nent is missing, though it is true that even quitean easy route can linger long in the mind when ithas some particular defining feature. An examplewould be the famous Torridon V Diff, Cioch Nose,where the exposure is mind-numbing. People dothese days seem to make a big thing of multi-pitch climbing and certainly this can make for amore memorable day.

Another factor for me is the location and posi-tion of the climb, so a crag with a walk-in (and up)

and spectacular views has a head start. A day in agrotty hole in the ground like Hodge Close,however good the climb, is going to struggle tocompete with a day on Gimmer. Then there is thehistorical aspect of the route; if the climb hashistorical significance, such as Kipling Groove orCentral Buttress, this adds a lot to the experiencefor many people. On the other hand, if a route hasonly recently been put up so that few others havedone it before me then something else is addedto the pleasure. It is also undeniable that repeat-ing a route is going to be less memorable thandoing it for the first time.

Looking back on the summer of 2014 the routewhich stands out in my mind above all others is arelatively new route pioneered in 2012. The routeis a three pitch offering on a favourite crag whichfaces south and gives splendid views over thesouthern Lakes. It appeared for the first time inthe new Langdale guidebook published in 2013.The line is direct, the rock is good and the diffi-culty of the climbing is sustained at 4b and Iclimbed it with a good friend on a beautifulsunny day.

We set off up the Gill on the Friday of the BankHoliday weekend along with many others. Somewere climbers, mostly young and vigorous. As wewouldn't be trying to race anyone to the foot ofthe crag we had to hope, because our objectivewas only described in the latest guidebook (andin addition many climbers rely on selectedguides, ensuring that they will all be queuing forthe same routes as each other), that our slowupward progress would not lead to us having tofollow other teams up the crag. Casually chattingwith our fellow climbers at the foot of the crag we

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Food / water

Despite its northerly aspect the route is in thesun most of the morning and the upper partscatch the afternoon sun. Take at least 2 litres ofwater each and plenty of easily accessible snacks.Chocolate, cake and energy bars are sold at therefuge.

Guides

The topos in the Alpine Club guide and theBregaglia Climbing 2008 guide available onlinedescribe the original route, which has now beensuperseded with a version featuring longer pitchlengths and an alternative finish that avoids thegrotty rock of the original. It is worth seeking outthe version (available in French, Italian orGerman) that gives the modern line, particularlyas this coincides with the bolted stances. Thereare numerous intermediate stances utilisingpitons of various vintages and (un)trustworthi-ness.

Descent

There’s some debate about whether it’s bestattempt the North Ridge descent back to the SascFurä or to continue down the south side of themountain into Italy and the Gianetti Hut. Abseildescent of the route would be a massive under-taking, but an emergency descent could certainlybe made to the Vire Mediante from any part ofthe upper section. Obviously we can’t give anydetails regarding the North Ridge option otherthan to say we were warned off it by many peopleincluding the guardian at the Sasc Furä. Accord-ing to most sources it requires around twentyabseils and difficult route finding. The alternativeis to traverse the summit ridge at about IV(45min-1hr) then descend the Voie Normale in

about five abseils. The description in theBregaglia Climbing 2008 guide is less than helpfulhere. From the strange space needle monumenton the summit scramble down the loose gully onthe left (looking down), then follow the line ofabseils at 25 intervals (look for large rings)marked by red paint splashes. At the base of thegully follow the obvious path R to a final abseilfrom the large metal cross then scramble downthe E side of the ridge. About 45 minutes fromthere to the Gianetti.

The walk back to Switzerland via the Porcellizzoand Trubinasca passes is gruelling but possiblyworth doing for the scenery: it took us the bestpart of a day. The best option is undoubtedly toarrange a lift from Val Masino or to get droppedoff at the start. It is also probably possible to getback to Bondo by public transport as there is atrain from Sondrio to Chiavenna and a regularbus service from there to San Moritz; a taxi wouldprobably be necessary to get from Val Masino toSondrio.

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The Persistence of Memory

Roger Wilkinson

consists of fragments of baked-potato-size downto walnut size, held together by finer-grainedmaterial (volcanic ash or tuff ). In some places it ispossible to detect layers which look like the bedstypical of sedimentary rocks, where volcanic dustrained down in intermittent storms of red-hotash. The large fragments would have beenvolcanic bombs, ejected from a nearby vent (theyare too large to have been thrown any greatdistance) and falling as deadly semi-molten blobsof lava, solidifying as they fell. Fortunately, suchsub-optimal climbing conditions did not obtainin late August 2014, and I was able to makesteady if unspectacular progress towards the cruxsection of the route, finding the late summersunshine plenty warm enough.

So, a few metres after leaving the belay I findmyself traversing rightwards below an impendingwall, above which steep slabs lead upward.Shortly, the impending wall ends where a promi-nent right-facing corner, one side steep, the otherslabby, leads invitingly upward, but guarded bywhat turns out to be the technical (but not themental) crux of the route, a steep bulge ofdiminutive proportions which at first sight seemsto be nothing at all. However, holds for bothhands and feet to pull over the bulge are in shortsupply, and it is all too clear that, even should onemanage to get halfway over the bulge, there isalmost nothing to pull on to complete the move.Fortunately this little awkwardness is somewhatprotected by good, if rather knee-height protec-tion. In due course I stand on top of the slopingbulge, balanced precariously in the lower part ofthe groove, looking at a smooth, steepening slabin a narrowing corner, without a corner crack forgear or holds. Fortunately, the guidebookdescribes it well, and I am able to feel over thesteep wall on my left onto another slab, where

the cindery rock offers several excellent thoughsmall holds. I pull gingerly over the wall on to theslab which, apart from its holds, mimics the slaband corner which I have just quitted.

By this time I’ve reached a position where a fallwould take me about half way down the firstpitch, with protection but a distant and irrelevantmemory, but the comfort of gear is still a distantprospect. However, the climbing is never toohard, and the rock and holds are good. All that’sneeded is to hold it all together, keep cool andcontrolled, and repeat the previous sequence ofmoves – reach over the steep wall on the left, findthe holds and pull over on to the third slab,telling myself that I would need to try quite hardto fall.

At last, (to use the modern but, I always feel,infelicitous appellation) a bomber piece of gear! Iclip the left-hand rope which has served no usefulpurpose – simply being a constant reminder ofthe lack of gear – since leaving the stance. Cometo that, it’s a good while since either rope wasanything more than a dead weight. A sigh ofrelief escapes the lips and a smile begins to formas the appealing steep slab, showing unmistak-able signs of protection placements, beckonsupwards. I’m starting to enjoy myself. Or perhaps Ihave been doing so all along but didn’t reallynotice, having rather more pressing things tothink about. The slab narrows as I climb and I findmyself pushed steadily towards the right arête,which eventually must be turned to slither acrossa wall into a groove which leads up and left.Despite appearances it is really hard to find belays– blocks are loose, the corner cracks widen so thatgear is in danger of dropping out and the walls ofthe groove are blank. I can feel partner’s impa-tience seeping up the ropes, as they remainstationary for about ten minutes. Eventually I find

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ascertained that no-one else had the new guide,and they were all heading for the long-estab-lished classics. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at thefoot of the Rake and under a cloudless sky, confi-dent that we could take our time and enjoy ourintended route without any hassle. Several of thearchetypal climbing teams were represented: thehoary old crag rats (in addition to ourselves),reduced in their dotage to reliving the VS adven-tures of their youth on Rake End Wall; the pair ofyoung blokes who’d like to look like the hoary oldcrag rats (though not so ancient) but confessedtheir inexperience by checking with us which wasStoat’s Crack, and then struggling up a verticalfield to reach the foot of the route when a slightdetour would have made it a walk; and a youngfellow from Essex with his somewhat nervous girl-friend about to embark on their first-evermountain route, Cook’s Tour.

Our route was not hard to find. It starts from alevel stretch of Jack’s Rake, close to Aardvark andGwynne’s Chimney up an obvious line of weak-ness. I couldn’t help wondering why this had lainundiscovered for so long: the line at the start isnot only obvious but the rock is clearly good andclean, and the climbing looks (deceptively, as ithappens) easy. Because of the architecture of thecrag at this point it looks like an easy scramble upto a big area of vegetation, apparently avoidingthe main challenge taken by Aardvark, soperhaps this is what deterred earlier explorers.

A coin was tossed or some other method usedto determine that partner would take the leadand thereby get two pitches to my one. Thoughinitially a bit miffed by this, one has to be philo-sophical in these cases. Later, perhaps inretrospect rather than when actually engaged inpitch 2, I decided that I’d had the better of thecoin tossing.

So partner had the joy of first setting foot onthe route, and soon it became apparent that thetwo cracks forming a sort of blocky groove weremuch steeper and much more awkward thanthey appeared from below. Mercifully, the gearwas good, at least for the easier moves, but after acertain amount of stepping up then down, rightthen left and a certain amount of harrumphingand ‘watch me's’, he was installed on a comfyledge about 20 metres above the Rake and I wasfollowing, hoping I made it look easier than hadmy companion.

Swinging leads is a great way to climb a multi-pitch route, though I don’t think time is savedunless both climbers carry their own rack. Thesedays most people carry a rack far more compre-hensive than is strictly necessary, at least inretrospect. But with age comes declining powersand more willingness to compromise, and ashared rack comes to look more and more of agood idea when anything other than a roadsidecrag is in view. So at each stance the whole rackneeds to be switched from one leader to the next,a rather tedious and tiresome necessity. On theplus side, you do get a good reminder of whatyour partner’s half of the rack looks like and howit is organized, and you get more time to chatabout the route, the view, the weather and ofcourse the quality and difficulty of the route.

The second pitch begins in an unthreateningmanner, consisting of easy-angled slabs of thesuperb rock typical of the crag, and with comfort-ing protection. During the period when hugeflows of sticky acidic lava spread slowly acrosswhat is now the Lake District, forming theBorrowdale Volcanic Series of rocks whichprovide most of the area’s crags, there must havebeen a volcanic vent very close to where we wereclimbing. The rock is extremely rough and

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Winter climbing in the High Tatra (or morecorrectly Vysoke Tatry) has always had

something of a mythical status amongst Britishclimbers. For those of us old enough to remem-ber, the 60s and 70s saw some very impressivealpine winter ascents from a variety of EasternEuropean teams trained in the Tatry. Theseascents were characterised by an ability to spenddays on end on the most extreme faces enduringthe harshest of winter conditions. Somehowthese displays of endurance and technical skillwere taken by western climbers to typify routes inthe Tatry, and not just the very skilled teamscoming across the Iron Curtain. This myth contin-ued until the dismantling of the Berlin Wall andthe gradual opening up of travel to the ‘near’ east.

I first visited the Tatry in February 1991 follow-ing a chance meeting with some Slovak climbersand a very drunken night on a Chamonix camp-site, involving tripping over a guy line on the wayto get more beer, an exchange of addresses andthe assurance that ‘Tatry climbing very good - youcome!’ A couple of telegrams later and I arrived inPrague airport to be greeted by one of my formerChamonix drinking companions. The followingthree weeks were a real eye opener and I beganto realise just what a fabulous range of mountainsthe Vysoke Tatry are - something for everyoneand not just a hard core of the most gnarly of thegnarly.

Since that point I have made numerous trips tothe mountains - both in winter and summer - butalways without meeting any other Brit climbers.Many times I have climbed with Slovaks butincreasingly of late I have climbed with a varietyof climbers from the UK - some with limited

winter experience, some young (14 years old) andsome downright good winter climbers. All haveenjoyed the experience and all were keen toreturn. My most recent visit was with fellow Felland Rocker Matt Pigden shortly before Christmasthis year (2015). Read on:

Due to a distinct lack of willing partners - Iprefer to think that this was due to the spontane-ity of the trip and the fact that Christmas wouldsoon be upon us, rather than any personal char-acteristics - I was planning a solo trip to the Tatry.As always I was hoping to tick several goodroutes, enjoy some winter sunshine and avoidany ‘too exciting’ incidents. I had even managedto borrow a Yates ‘Soloist’ and had deluded myselfinto believing that I had a self-belaying systemthat I could use in the Tatry in winter. Fortunately,Matt came to my aid at the eleventh hour and Iavoided having to use the ‘Soloist’ in anger. I nowhad a partner and any thoughts of becoming thenew ‘Andy K’ were thankfully sidelined - soul-searching, cold and loneliness replaced bypleasant banter, cold (still) and good company.It’s funny, but very fortunate with hindsight, howthings work out.

The plan for the trip was simple. Wizzair wouldfly us straight from Luton to Poprad in Slovakiaand then a 20-minute taxi ride would take us tothe walk in to Chata Pri Zelenom Plese at the baseof one of the most magnificent winter climbingvenues in the Vysoke Tatry - the north face ofMaly Kezmarsky Stit. It worked a treat and havingflown out at 8.25 we were sat in the hut at 16.00relaxing and admiring the mountains. Good start.We were the sole paying occupants of the hut

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anchors but no stance in the groove (which ispart of Cook’s Tour), so an uncomfortable hang-ing belay (which is to be my home for the nexthour) has to suffice. To make my position evenless comfortable I must take in one rope comingup normally while the other passes through a lastrunner high on the now-invisible slab round thearête, which in addition creates rope drag.

Time passes slowly as partner prepares toascend and finally ‘Climbing’ drifts up from below.I go into that semi-trance-like state which canovertake the challenged leader who now bringsup his second on automatic pilot, while danglingin an increasingly uncomfortable hanging belay.On arrival partner pays the obligatory 'good lead'compliments, which in this case even went as faras 'Glad you were on lead' or some such. Well,now, in retrospect, I was glad I was on lead for amemorable pitch. But there is still one pitch to go,and a glance at the guide makes it clear that it’smore or less follow your nose upwards from thealleged stance which will remain my home for thenext half hour or more. High above us loomswhat appears to be a corner crack, which seemsto lean out beyond the merely vertical and is adaunting prospect.

Again, the Rite of the Rack; but soon enoughpartner is trying out the small holds on the steepright wall of the diagonal groove. It’s uncertainwho is most relieved when the first piece of gearfinally appears, as a fall in the first few metreswould be total wipe-out for the belayer trappedin the firing line. A ledge is reached, but abovethe wall bulges disconcertingly as a few steepmoves must be made to access some large butsuspicious-looking flake holds. Suspicions areincreased when some of the flakes emit a ringingsound when hit. Gingerly, partner gains anothernarrow ledge behind the ringing flakes, pulling

on anything but the obvious big holds. Later, withthe security of the rope above me, I find that theflakes are well jammed and safe to pull on, but onlead partner wisely didn’t trust them.

A short traverse right, with a good foot ledgebelow an impending wall, leads into the corner.Plenty of good gear appears and soon partner isbridging encouragingly and progressing in a blurof arms, legs, feet and cacophonous flailing gearrack. What had seemed to be from below a diffi-cult challenge turned out to be a jug-fest andperhaps one of the easier stretches of this fineroute.

Yes, Coati, on Pavey Ark, only three pitches and60 metres long, was the only route we did thatday, but the day as a whole fulfilled all therequirements needed to make it a memorableone. We could have gone to a smaller, roadsidecrag, perhaps a bolted venue, got a lot more ticksand climbed a lot more metres, but by now ourday would have been forgotten.

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Tatry Adventures

Tony Walker

but I needn't have worried as the ice and turfwere quite chewy and things went well. We weresoon in the snow bowl below the Polish team andthe start of our route. Things did not look goodfor the Poles though, as the odd peg and kara-biner fell from on high. Mmm … must be tricky!Our route passed to the left and ascended a lesssteep corner, but was still in the upper range ofScottish V, and magnificent. A couple of rathertricky ice and rock pitches led up to a terracerunning out leftwards to the base of a very steeptorquing groove onto an icy slab - the crux of theroute. Conditions weren’t too bad but all theplacements were covered with a layer of cruddysnow that had to be cleared to find anythingworthwhile.

Helpfully, there was a fair amount of gear in-situ that I gratefully clipped as I scraped my wayupwards. We topped out and Matt thought thepitch tricky - very comforting as it correspondedto my impression too! In the hut the Polish ladsarrived back at half past eight having taken thebest part of twelve hours to climb four pitches.Apparently, they weren't too impressed by theconditions and also … it was obviously a hardroute. We returned their dropped gear.

The next day the weather was much better sowe headed out for the big corner (StanislavkehoKomin) to try and improve on the previous day’sPolish attempt. Back at the start, I led up theicefall again and then Matt headed up the initialgroove of the corner proper. This looked quitesteady from below but proved anything but.Steep rock and turf - with reasonable gear - led tosome committing moves out right to a thin icesmear. After a while and a very optimistic icescrew runner, Matt reached the belay and my turncame. Brilliant pitch (as they all were) but veryinvolved. The next pitch was straightforward in

comparison - two pieces of gear and a nice Scot-tish V ice fall led to a double bolt belay - lubblyjubbly.

Above the belay, the main groove went up forabout 70m or so and proved to be very engaging- really good but definitely tricky. Steep bridgingwith reasonable gear that took some digging out.Eventually some wide bridging (for short leggedpeople at least), led out over an overhang viasome nice torques and little patch of nevé to thestance, but with no bolts this time, just a coupleof old pegs. A very typical Tatry pitch - a bit ofeverything and it takes longer than you mightexpect. By this time we were getting a little shortof daylight but Matt headed purposefully up thenext groove. After lots of tenuous scraping andtorquing he ended up out of gear at a marginalstance with no obvious prospect of anythingbetter to come. We were a little out of optionsand we decided to admit defeat - impendingdarkness and lack of adequate resources (gear)dictated a retreat. A pity, but probably a wisechoice, and, despite the retreat another fabulousday on the hill.

Day three and the start of the weekend - thehut was quite busy and weather definitely Scot-tish - very windy and plenty of spindrift blowingaround. Over breakfast I was secretly hoping thatMatt might suggest that it would be prudent towalk out and have a nice relaxing day before ourflight home tomorrow. Unfortunately, he lookedeven keener than usual and so, despite the‘hoolie’ outside, we decided to climb. I suggestedthat we climb a shorter route on the left handside of MKS and try and get back to the hutaround 3p.m. We could then begin our walk outin daylight. It probably goes without saying but,despite the number of people in the hut, therewas no one else trying to climb that day (mad

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until quite late when two Polish climbersarrived. Jokingly I said to Matt that by Sod’sLaw they would want to try the same route asus - and they did! They looked young and fit(okay relative to me!), knew the route and onlyhad one day so we agreed to climb anotherroute whilst they tried the ‘big’ corner(Stanislavkeho Komin). This route is one of themost obvious on the wall taking a huge 400mcorner to a large terrace (Nemecky Rebrik orGerman Ladder). The route continues above foranother 500m over somewhat easier ground tothe summit. Most teams are content withclimbing the corner (hard Scottish VI) but thePolish lads were going to get up at 5a.m., climbthe corner and then continue to the summit.We were impressed!

Next day dawned a little murky but with agood afternoon forecast and an easy retreat tothe hut we headed out to climb ‘L’Avy Y’ oppo-site the Stanislavkeho Komin. The Polish ladswere obviously very keen and had alreadybeen on their route three hours when we leftthe hut. There wasn’t much new snow aboutand the plod to the base of the route wasstraightforward, apart from when it steepenedtoward the base of the route. As usual wecarried on a bit too far up the steepening slopeuntil prudence dictated we put on cramponsto avoid a fast descent down some very hardold snow.

A small but steep mixed/ice pitch preventedeasy access to the base of the route proper. Inprevious years this had been banked out butwas now quite a challenge and somehow Iended up on the lead. I was even more nerv-ous than usual as Matt had let slip that he wasa member of the UK dry-tooling team! I triedmy best to climb well and not fumble around,

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Matt on the short but steep approach from the chata.Stanislavskeho Komin is the large corner directly

above Matt.

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dogs?) We decided to climb a relatively modernthree pitch route called ‘Koncert sa Nekonal’ (‘Theconcert will not take place’), another great routewhich was climbed in somewhat less than idealconditions. Each pitch was very engaging andworthy in its own right - brilliant. The weather

improved as we got higher up the route but Matthad a real battle on the first pitch against theendless plumes of spindrift coming off thesummit ridge ('real battle' being my interpreta-tion of quite a bit of swearing combined with theodd muffled scream). This kept me highlyamused, sorry, concerned, whilst belaying in anever deepening snow drift. The second pitch wasfabulous - steep turf led to a vertical rock grooveand a very ‘bijou’ stance. Matt led the last and asingle abseil over the back of the summit ridgeled to an easy walk back to the chata.

Once back we had a quick lunch of tea andcake, then packed our bags and prepared to headdown. However, just as we were shoving the lastbits of gear into our sacs, we were accosted by arather merry Czech climber carrying an unla-belled bottle of some type of strong spirit andseveral glasses. There was no possibility of leavingwithout trying at least a glass or two! It was verytypical Tatry and made the walk down quitemellow.

Matt had never visited the Tatry before but Ihad been numerous times and we both agreedthat we needed to go back as soon as possible.There are so many routes to do and fabulousexperiences to be had. So … FRCC winter 2017meet anyone???

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Left :The first steep mixed pitch of L’Avy Y. Thepitch followed the ramp line close to the steeperrock with some difficult climbing. The rock wallabove my head at the top of the photo gave thecrux pitch - a very steep technical crack for 15m.

Below: Matt committing to the steep slabs ofKoncert sa Nekonal in less than ideal conditions.

Right: The superb big ice pitch on StanislavkehoKomin. Although tricky (V), this pitch gave a bit

of relief from the sustained mixed climbingabove and below.

Unsurprisingly, given the number of times wehave done the route, we were quickly moving onto the next crag, Ban-y-Gor, which is just acrossthe neck of a huge meander of the Wye, and facesnorth. Here one is getting into the realm of WyeValley esoterica. The routes are generally steep,quite tough and somewhat buried in the trees.Protection possibilities are often limited so a lotof routes, even when originally done free, arenow bolted. Generally this is a crag for the harderclimber. For the day I wanted to do a route I hadnot done before, Muddy Waters (**, 6a); in fact Ihad not even seen it, as it is towards the far end ofthe crag.

After a bit of a rough trek in, the route lookedclimbable but turned out to be fairly tough at thecrux. The guide book says long reach - I think youwould have to be six feet plus to climb it by justreaching up. A couple of attempts later I found a

way to gain sufficient height. The route finishesup a great little crack which is could do withbeing longer. We both had to push ourselves a biton this one.

Next was Tintern Quarry, a short drive up theroad, which is an enormous hole in the groundwith lots of scary bad rock but also some decentstuff. Choosing a route was difficult. Sue hadsuggested The Unkindest Cut of All (6a+). Whatwas she thinking of? Surely not my birthday. Theonly time I had done this route before I had reallystruggled to clip the bolt at the crux, let alonemake the moves. However, for want of a betteridea, this was it. Got to the crux, looked at theholds and found some power. Felt pretty pleasedwith a quick climb. Sue also knocked it off in shortorder. Given how well we were going I shouldhave gone for Dust Devil, which is the line of thecrag and goes at HVS with a mixture of bolts and

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Looking for a way to celebrate a biggish birth-day (the one where the government starts

giving me some money back) I thought a longday climbing in the Wye Valley would be fun. Itwould also be a celebration of thirty-six years ofclimbing in the area.

I wanted something different and decided ondoing a route on each of the six main crags. Theweather in the week of my birthday was fine anddry. My wife Sue suggested that the actual birth-day, being a Saturday, might mean we could findour routes already occupied, so we went forFriday.

I didn’t have a schedule and had only settleddefinitely on the first three routes and the orderof the crags, but with the long hours of daylightthe main issue would be stamina rather thantime, a 9 a.m. start would still give time to spare.

The first crag was Wynd Cliff on the Welsh side,as it gets the early morning sun. The crag has thefewest routes but the highest concentration ofquality with most routes in the VS to E2 gradebeing worthwhile, but very little below VS. Gener-ally the routes are well protected and strenuous,following steep crack lines, although Phoenix(HVS) and Zulu (low E2) have fairly bold starts. Thecrag is divided into two, with steps and a staircasebetween them providing an easy descent, andgreat views over the river to Wintours Leap. Thechoice of route was easy. Questor is best VS in theWye valley and I think can hold its own with mostsingle pitch VS’s in the country. With warm dryrock the climbing flowed enjoyably and we weresoon back at the car. Feeling pleased to have gotoff to a good start we headed back to England.

Wintours Leap has a lot to offer, with a greatoutlook directly above the tidal stretch of the Wyeand generally peaceful, with the road being onthe far side of the river some distance away. It isthe big crag of the Wye valley, in height andlength, reaching nearly 300 feet on GO (GreatOverhanging!) Wall. As with the majority of theWye Valley crags, most of it has been quarried atsome point, although long enough ago (in thesecond half of the nineteenth century, to providestone to build the Avonmouth docks) for it to bepretty stable. Natural rock is found, at the top ofmany climbs, and also on Fly Wall. As a resultthere are a lot of multi pitch climbs, but alsosingle pitches at the right hand end, on Fly Wall.

Unusually for limestone there are quite a fewroutes below the VS grade, some of which arequite good, such as Central Rib and BottleButtress (so called because of the broken glass onthe easy ground at the top of the route, courtesyof the local youth).There are also sports routes,although the quality is generally low in the easiergrades. So for my day out there was a lot ofchoice. Another favourite is Zelda; this meantdropping the grade to HS but it is good climbingall the way and nicely exposed on the 2nd pitch.We got to the foot of the climb to find anotherteam ahead of us. The leader was struggling tofind the way on the second pitch, with his partnerreading him the guidebook. The second was stillon the stance when I arrived and also had boththeir rucksacks. Fortunately the leader sortedhimself out and his mate set off before Suearrived, with both sacks, one strapped to theother, which looked pretty full.

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Wintour’s Leap from upriver at Lancault. GO (Great Overhanging) wall is the notable white wall left of centre,WoodCroft Quarry is the dark patch going right, and the further right is Fly Wall. Zeldais to the left of GO wall

A Wye Valley Tour

Ian Stirrups

which would have given Sue a lead andcompensated for the walk. But we didn't.

The last crag is Symonds Yat; it is a fair bitfurther up river and so a bit of a drive. I was awarethat I was running out of steam, and Symonds Yattends to be steep and strenuous. We headed forthe Hole in the Wall area which is very accessibleand has a good selection of all routes at allgrades, including in Snoozin Susie a good twopitch VD, a rarity on limestone. I had hoped tofinish on Red Rose Speedway, a superb routesteep crackline, but at top end HVS I felt it wouldbe too strenuous. I still wanted to finish on anHVS. Scooby Doo would with hindsight wouldhave been a good choice as it is well protectedbut I went for Mocking Bird which is marginalHVS and staggered up it, struggling to get indecent gear on the initial crack. Next door tothese routes are The Russian, good but a bit over-rated, and Red Rose Speedway. Anotherpossibility was Pam’s Pride, perhaps the secondbest VS in the Wye Valley, at the south end of thecrags. However I always find the initial sectionrather tricky and with less than reassuring gear, soit didn’t seem to be one for the end of the day.Whit (VS) on the Pinnacle would also have given agood finish.

Symonds Yat is second only to Wintours inlength, and is unusual for the range of grades,making it a good venue for those looking forroutes below VS. The location is even moreremarkable, as the Yat is a tourist trap, and onsunny day the crowds gather at the Saracen'sHead down by the river, from where a short ropeferry enables them to cross. It is a favourite withoutdoor centres for canoe descents of the Wye,and pleasure boats convey the less agile on toursdown the river. The climbing area is a magicworld, far above the attractions of the river, barely

visible in the trees. However the quality of theroutes and rock is rather variable and so alongwith lots of decent climbs are quite a lot of poorones. Nevertheless I have found it a good sourceof fresh routes. Careful selection of the no-starroutes can yield some decent climbing.

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trad gear. There are a few trad routes here butmost of the routes are bolted. Lower gradeclimbers might be tempted by 30 Foot Wall whichhas 4’s and 5’s but is mostly less than 30 foot highwith sharp and shattered rock. Helmets are defi-nitely obligatory at Tintern as the walls are oftentopped by unstable scree. In addition there iscurrently an access issue.

From the quarry it is a grind back up to the car.Shorn Cliff is the next crag and can be reachedfrom the same parking. It is the only crag requir-ing much of a walk, about half an hour. The walkin is a tedious track and it’s uphill on the wayback. Shorn Cliff is a gem of a crag. The pleasantapproach is to cross the river at Tintern, windyour way up through the woods, paths and foresttracks for most of the way, then a final steep pulluntil the crag emerges from the trees. Unlikemost of the Wye Valley crags it is not quarried, butnatural rock, mainly steep slabs with solutionholes/cracks providing subtle natural protection.All the starts are shaded, but you quickly emergeto views west across the valley, perfect on a warmsummer's evening. Returning through the woodsat dusk, with the moon rising over Tintern Abbey,reflecting on the river, is the essence of softsouthern English climbing.

As I was going well I decided on Organ Grinder(HVS), a strenuous, slightly impending layback upa large flake, a really memorable line. However afew metres up the route the power seemed tohave gone and the brain didn't seem to be sort-ing the moves with the same clarity as earlier. Soit was a bit of a struggle, although Sue cruised it.There is a good mixture of routes at Shorn Cliffwith steep cracks, walls and slabs, all single pitchwith abseil descents but usually a decent length.With hindsight I should have gone for one of theroutes on the slabs of the Great Cave area, whichhas a number of amenable and good HVS’s, and afew easier routes. State of Independence at VS is alittle gem, featuring a concretion overhang.Concretions are a feature of the crag. They lookfragile but seem to be OK. Run for Home, givenE2 but I think E1, makes extensive use of them forholds and threads protection. As we were well upon time we should have done another route,

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OrganGrinder.

Climber -Paul Sheridan

ZeldaP1.Climber

unknown.

ourselves were conveyed to the island, and amaz-ingly none were lost into the sea. The night wasapproaching but we managed to get everythingcarried to the camping area and chose our spotsfor the week - tents up - brew on and home fromhome.

Guidebook wise we had volume 1 of GaryLatter's selected guide to Scotland but also wehad copies of the draft for the new guide for theOuter Hebrides, via Brian Davison, editor-in-chiefof the SMC team. Evident from Brian, and alsolater discussion with Rob Anderson and TomPrentice, who are putting together guides for outof the way places such as Pabbay, is the fact this isa difficult job, and they welcome comment andchecking by anyone in the area. In the Lakesaccess for checking crags is often easy, but it is adifferent matter for the likes of Creag Dibbidaleon Lewis and Berneray, Mingalay and Pabbay. Soin due course we fed back what we could.

A lot of the accesses to routes need abseils andwe were equipped with two static abseil ropes -one 65m and the other 100m (chunky abs !). Wealso had a selection of rope protectors to helpsafeguard the ropes from fraying and being cuton the extremely old, hard and sharp Lewisiangneiss rock (more later).

In the morning we rose to clear sunny skiesand seals basking on the beach. Unfortunatelymy navigation was all to pot and I led our littlegroup off in the wrong direction, which was notgood especially for Chris’s knee. We eventuallyworked it out and arrived on the western side,providing a view of the Great Arch and gulped atthe routes there. We settled for lines on thenearby South Face of the Banded Geo which isaccessible by a gentle abseil to a solid andamiable base. This is a popular crag with a selec-tion of excellent one pitch routes with the likes of

Redundancy Man (HVS), Bye to the Widow (HVS)and the Shipping Views (E1).

We found the more direct and usual way backto camp - though Chris was struggling with the

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After Mocking Bird the aforementioned Sara-cen's Head was the logical next venue, the

perfect way to round off a grand day out!What is it about islands ? There is something

special about going out across the water to anisland - be it on a lake as in Swallows andAmazons or across the sea to an island especiallyif it contains crags. The likes of Skye (even withthe bridge): Arran, Lundy and Kalymnos come tomind. On a sunny day the Outer Hebrides can beseen from high up on the mainland of Scotland orfrom Skye - Lewis and Harris to the north, thenworking a way southwards along the horizon toBarra. This magical world is accessible by theCalmac ferries which ply back and forth acrossthe seas.

The islands of Mingulay and Pabbay are at thesouthern end of the Outer Hebrides to the southof Barra. In 1993 Graham Little and Kevin Howett,together with Chris Bonington and Mick Fowler(what a team !) paid a visit to Mingulay andclimbed the first routes there - what a rock climb-ing paradise they found !! Two years later aGerman team paid a visit to nearby Pabbay andclimbed the first new routes there, closelyfollowed by Graham and Kevin - soon the secretwas out about these two islands and it became‘the place’ to go for many climbers. I was incontact with Kath Pyke who was going there withJim Lowther in 1996 - and thought ‘Must getthere sometime’ - I have had quite a lot of thesethoughts and I am pleased to say quite a fewhave now been ticked off.

Getting to Pabbay and Mingulay was some-thing of a logistical problem - there is the mainferry to Barra (Castlebay); however these islands

are located across what can be rather wild seas.Donald MacLeod runs boat trips on the BoyJames boat from Barra and has been takingclimbers out to these islands for many years. Hewill arrange trips with at least six up to twelveclimbers. We tried to get a local Penrith team(Eden Valley MC) to go but never seemed to getenough people - however in 2015 the idea of aFRCC meet developed which hopefully wouldbring the necessary numbers together to havethe trip. Dave Menadue agreed to organise themeet, liaising with Donald, and the messageswere put out to find out who was interested - andsoon the numbers were sufficient for the trip tobe a goer - at last !

Eventually twelve of us gathered in Oban withloads of baggage for the week. Transportationwas helped with the use of Graham’s van forgetting most of the baggage onto the boat andso to Barra. The crossing takes about five hours,which was a delight, with the Inner Isles passingby then Barra and the Outer Hebrides gettingcloser. We were met at the far end by Donald andour baggage was conveyed down a stairway (itwas low tide) into the hold of his not too substan-tial boat. This was an extremely good physicslesson about the floating powers of boats onwater. There had been some doubt about leavingthat evening with the weather and swell, but wewere soon off into the gathering evening, bounc-ing across the waters. I kept telling myself thatDonald knows more about the floating ability ofboats than I do. The sea is a big place and thisarea feels very exposed to weather from theAtlantic. Eventually we arrived in the bay on theeast side of Pabbay and our baggage and

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Pabbay - Banded Geo (South), Redundancy Man (HVS),climber - Dave Menadue. Photo -Ron Kenyon

PABBAY - 2015

Ron Kenyon

As I was somewhat the passenger, Dave led thenext pitch with moves out across the roof onhuge holds to easier rock above. We all toppedout on two great routes. Chris and Eric were inthe process of abseiling - Chris had gone downbut Eric spent some time inspecting the ropebefore he returned to the top with a section of

rope where the sheath had been cut through !!Chris was at the bottom and was awaiting Eric, sowe tied a loop round this section and off downwent Eric safeguarded by another rope. Thishighlighted and gave a warning of the problemof ropes being cut .

I was able to get some photos of Chris leadingSpring Squill - then at this point I was somewhatsurprised at myself. It was about 5.00pm and Isaid to Dave why not go down again and doSpring Squill but this time along the traverse, justabove sea level, from the zawn to the left. Wethen descended to check on the traverse and itwas a goer. The traverse follows a natural line andis relatively easy as long as it is not under water ortoo wet. After a solo start we opted for a ropeand ended up with four shortish pitches to get usback to ‘that stance’. Off Dave went again scut-

tling up the wall - similar climbing with apronounced awkward crux to finish. The toppitch is much easier and I had the pleasure ofleading this to finish a fantastic day’s climbing.

Pabbay is very exposed to weather coming infrom the Atlantic and as well as a constant windthere were often squally showers. This combina-tion was good to a certain extent in that thedamp after the showers was soon blown away -but we would have preferred blue skies, no windand no rain ! There was enough to keep usamused with various other crags dotted aroundisland - Risinish Wall across the bay from thecampsite and Evening Wall, a great little cragaround the headland.

Poking out into the Atlantic is a peninsula withthe Gully Wall and the Poop Deck. The Poop Decknecessitates an abseil approach and its steepnessis evident as soon as one starts the abseil - it has afine selection of generally harder routes

Alastair and Chris took their fishing rods;however as soon as they started fishing, sealspopped up their heads out of the water to seewhat was going on, and the chance of catching afish was nil.

Near the campsite are the remains of a house,which was built in 1890 for Ronald Morrison andhis family, so they could move out of their nearbyblackhouse. They lived here until around 1910when everyone left the island. The house contin-ued in use as a shelter for the grazing tenantsuntil the late 1930’s. The island belongs to and islooked after by the National Trust of Scotland andthe building is part of a Scheduled Ancient Monu-ment, and an important reminder of the Pabbaypeople who farmed and fished there for millen-nia.

Graham and Bob were active on the crags buthad a mission to climb all the summits on the

47

knee. The highlights of the evening weretwo distinctive bird sounds - the firstbeing the drumming noise of the snipeand then the comb-like noise of the corn-crake. We saw the snipe flying about andAlastair believes he saw the corncrakelater.

The next day all except Graham andBob headed for the Banded Geo area. Inthe guide Spring Squill (E1) gets four starsand is a must with its adjacent Stealing aSeal’s Gaze (E1). After having seen theroutes on the Great Arch and the sideview of the Banded Geo I was gettingsomewhat apprehensive with a dislike ofscary abbs into sea cliffs especially follow-ing very little climbing and a fall onBlanco at Gogarth in 2014 where I hurtmy ankle. An abseil point (below the 3boulders) was established, but with a bigsign saying ‘ABSEIL POINT FOR SPRINGSQUILL’, the 65m abseil was rather daunt-ing ! Dave led the way followed by Rob,Alastair and myself. Near the start of theabseil part of the rope felt slightly stiff asit passed through my abseil plate as Islowly descended towards the sea andeventually reached the others on areasonably substantial ledge. SpringSquill and Stealing a Seal’s Gaze start upthe same way - somewhat steep but onfantastic holds. I was climbing with Davewho set off first to look for the Seal’s Gazefollowed by Rob on Spring Squill. Daveeventually gained a belay (we believeslightly higher than normal) and I set offfollowing weaving up on the most fantas-

tic rock. I was pleased to have the ropegoing in above me and to gain the stance.

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The traverse into Spring Squill. Climber - DaveMenadue, Photo - Ron Kenyon

Despite the weather we had had a great week.It was useful having some determined climbers topush things along and great being away for aweek with a gang of like-minded people as wellas the seals, corncrake and snipe. In 2016 a meethas been planned to Mingulay - some say it is likePabbay on steroids (Dun Mingulay seems likethat) whilst others say there is much for themiddle grade climber - well time will tell ! What-ever, Pabbay in 2015 turned out to be a great trip.

FRCC MEET - 23rd to 31st May 2015Attendees - FRCC - Dave Menadue (Meet co-ordi-

nator), Graham Townsend, Bob MacAdam, RonKenyon, Al Davis

EVMC - Chris King, Eric Parker, Pete Botterill, RobIllingworth, Alastair Rutherford

Guests - Andy Cross and Loz Monckton

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island (five in total) and called these tops the“Graham-Bobs”.

On the Wednesday Andy picked up a weatherforecast for rain but better later - but it got worse.Thursday was squally showers. There was adiscussion about getting out earlier - with fear ofnot getting off on Saturday, but a satphone callwith Donald indicated fantastic weather onSaturday though we could get us off by boat fromBarra on Friday. After a conflab we decided tostay - there was some unfinished (in fact notstarted) business. To the left of the Great Arch aretwo top class routes - The Priest (E1) and Proph-esy of Drowning (E2) - wouldn’t it be great to getthese done? The weather gave a window ofopportunity and Dave with Rob and Chris withEric, grabbed the chance. The abseil is 100m to asmall ledge just above the sea. The anchors wererigged and Dave set off down with rope protec-tors. A ledge at about half way was a concern,with rope movement against it, and protectorswere placed. The belay was eventually reached

and he was joined by Rob and they sorted them-selves out for Prophesy of Drowning - a stunningline starting as for The Priest then moving rightinto the groove and corner system. Chris and Ericfollowed them down and set off up The Priest.There is a cove here and it is it easily possible toget the ‘classic photo’ of the routes - when at thestance on the route one is however committed toupward progress. Needless to say the climbingon both routes is stupendous - following groove-lines and steep walls.

The week was coming to a close and as Donaldreported the last day (Saturday) was a scorcher.Dave and Rob had climbed The Prophesy but notThe Priest so Dave teamed up with Alastair andRob with myself for the Priest. Abseil rope inplace all we had to do was get over there and doit. I tried to ignore thoughts of the abseil but itturned out to be not too bad and the ledge in themiddle of the abseil was not too much of a prob-lem. I must admit I was again a passenger, withRob doing the leading and what a route. It israther steep on pitch two, with an interestingcorner, then the final pitch traversing out left insuch a wild position and gaining the top, and thatgreat feeling after having climbed such a greatroute.

It was then back to the campsite to sort every-thing out for collection by Donald in the evening.We had bags packed and carried them to thelanding place when Donald passed us in his boaten route to collect climbers on the nearby Mingu-lay. Eventually he arrived and with boat loaded,we bounced back to Castlebay as the rain came inagain. Our boat back to Oban went in the Sundaymorning and most of us pitched the tents on theseafront for the night then headed to the hotelfor a meal and a well-deserved pint.

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Left: The abseil down The PriestRight: The Priest (E1), Climbers - Chris King and Eric

Parker, Photo - Ron KenyonBelow: The group ready to be collected after a week on

island, Photo - Ron Kenyon

Accidents and Rescue

John Wilkinson

Christina Paul

Paul Exley/ Martin Carr

Richard Tolley

50 51

Kirkby Stephen MRT wave a sad farewell to thelast Sea King from RAF Boulmer

Right: Cloud on the Aiguille Verte, BarbaraSwindin

Progress, but after lunch we decided to tryHopkinson's Gully on the Pinnacle Face. It was asplendid route, which I led in nails, Jack being abit bruised and stiff. We descended Slingsby'sChimney and returned to Brackenclose to assessthe damage to Jack's leg. His thigh was skinned,badly bruised, and he was stiffening up fast.Dinner time was approaching and so we set offfor Middle Row. Fortunately some kind memberhad donated a bicycle, so we put Jack on it andpushed him up the road to Wasdale Head. Onarriving at Middle Row we discovered that therehad been an accident on Pillar Rock involving aClub member, Joe Griffin, who was also staying atBrackenclose.

In 1945, with the exception of the RAF Moun-tain Rescue, there were no organised rescueteams in Britain. The first team to be formed inthe Lakes was the Keswick Mountain Rescueteam, organised by Rusty Westmorland (President1950 - 57) in 1946. Those injured on the fells hadto be rescued by scratch teams of anybody whohappened to be in the area. Only the previousyear Arthur Dolphin and I were making our wayback to Wasdale after a strenuous day's climbingon Kern Knotts, when we were approached by aman who was en route to Wasdale to report aclimbing accident. He asked us to carry thestretcher from Sty Head to Green Gable Crag,where we found the dead bodies of a couple whowere staying at Burnthwaite Farm. It was my firstexperience of death in the hills, but sadly not thelast. The alarm having been sounded in WasdaleHead, we had to await the arrival of a party fromBurnthwaite with the stretcher from the hotelbefore we could carry the couple back toWasdale.

Back at Middle Row a party including JossNaylor's father, Joe, and some of the Leeds

climbers, had just left for Pillar with a stretcher,but more help was needed. I bolted down one ofMrs Naylor's dinners while Barbara cycled back toBrackenclose for my boots. Around 8.15 p.m. fiveof us set off for Pillar Rock, and the High LevelRoute was traversed as darkness fell. When wearrived at Robinson's Cairn we could see flash-lights on Green Ledge, so we headed down tojoin the rescue party.

Joe had been leading Grooved Wall and wasnearing the stance just below the crux overhangwhen he was carried down as a large block brokeaway. Not having any runners, and being aboutthirty feet above his second, Bernard Black, aLeeds University medical student, Joe fell aboutsixty feet before he came on the rope, whichBernard tried in vain to hold, injuring his hands inthe process. Joe's fall was only arrested when hereached the foot of the crag, a fall of some ninetyfeet. He was suffering several injuries includingspinal fractures, and on the stretcher he said thathe had no feeling in his legs. We set off down thefellside and blundered our way through theForestry Commission's plantation until wereached the river Liza, which we had to ford (theFell and Rock bridge was not constructed until1960). A runner having gone ahead to arrangefor an ambulance to meet us at Gillerthwaite, afew more helpers arrived, including the YHAwarden, who was unfairly critical of our efforts.We reached the ambulance at 12.30, which thentook Joe to Whitehaven Infirmary, where he even-tually made a good recovery. A farmer's wifekindly invited us in for tea and cake, and then theparty set off up Ennerdale, carrying the stretcherback to Wasdale Head. It was a beautiful moonlitnight as we walked back over Black Sail Pass anddescended into Mosedale. We arrived at Middle

53

Nineteen forty-five was a memorable year, theyear World War II ended. Now aged eighteen,

I was fortunate that, as a university sciencestudent, my National Service was deferred untilhopefully I graduated in 1947. However, this wasthe year that I was now old enough to apply tojoin the Fell and Rock. Over the previous fouryears I had acquired more than sufficient climbsto satisfy the committee (in those days 20 rockclimbs, or twenty 2500 ft tops in the Lakes).Proposed by David and Ron Jackson, I waselected along with Jack Umpleby and John Jack-son (Hon Member 2001), who was still on activeservice with the RAF in India.

The Easter vacation was spent at Middle Rowfarm, Wasdale Head. Getting to Wasdale bypublic transport was arduous at that time. Thisinvolved leaving Todmorden on the 4.40 a.m.train, with changes at Rochdale, Bolton, Prestonand Oxenholme, followed by a bus from Winder-mere to Ambleside and then another to theO.D.G. Hotel in Langdale, arriving at 10.30 a.m., ifthings went according to plan. Wasdale was thenreached via Rossett Ghyll, Esk Hause and StyHead.

The high spot of the week was a day on PillarRock with Arthur Dolphin, who had joined theclub the previous year, and was staying at Brack-enclose with a party of the Leeds UniversityMountaineering Club. Arthur, one of the bestrock-climbers in the country at the time, led up agreasy Hadrian's Wall in fine style. I had with me adescription of Sid Cross's new route, ShamrockTower (VS), and we made the second ascent of anenjoyable climb.

In July David Jackson and I were back at MiddleRow. We had seen a description in the Bracken-close hut book of Bill Peascod's new route EastButtress on Haskett Buttress, a crag on theEnnerdale face of Great Scoatfell, so we decide totake a look at it. Descending from the summit ofGreat Scoat Fell into Mirk Cove we discovered, notHaskett Buttress but, by mistaken route finding, apreviously unclimbed and unreported crag whichwas subsequently named Scoat Fell Crag. Thecrag looked inviting, with a clean buttress to theright of a dirty gully, and yielded a splendid 240ftclimb Twin Ribs (HS), our first new route of theyear. The following year we added another newroute on the wall to its right, Octopus (VS).

In September my sister Barbara, Jack Umplebyand I had our first stay in Brackenclose, along witha party of the Leeds University M.C. To save carry-ing a lot of food to Brackenclose we had arrangedto eat at Middle Row Farm, where Mrs Naylor puton superb meals for five shillings (25p), a realtreat in a time of food rationing. In the hut I metup with Lynda Kellett (later Pickering, Secretary1948-58, Hon Member 1968), with whom I hadclimbed on Pillar Rock a couple of years earlier.An excellent climber, Lynda expressed a desire tolead Botterill's Slab, so the following day foundJack, Lynda and I on Scafell. UnfortunatelyBotterill's was wet so we decided, misguidedly, tohave a go in nailed boots. I led the first pitch andJack carried on up the main slab without thebenefit of any runners. About twenty feet up Jackcame unstuck and slithered down the slab withsparks flying off his tricounis. As he passed me Imanaged to take in a bit of rope before arrestinghis fall. Suitably chastened, we retreated to Rake's

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A Year to Remember

John Wilkinson

We all know that bad things can happen atthe end of a long day in the mountains;

concentration wanders, dusk begins to fall, andthe mind focuses on a 'good' cup of tea (in mycase), food and a rest. It had been a excellent dayout, walking the High Stile ridge, east to west, forthe umpteenth time. We extended it a bit thisday, as we had plenty of light, and were appalledat the condition of the descent from Red Pike, sowe wandered down by the side of Scale Force,and from there across that rather unpleasant,boggy stretch of ground before you pick up thelower track running along Crummock Water.

The track was in sight, perhaps 500m away,when we crossed a slightly steeper section ofmorass. And I slipped, as I have done plenty oftimes previously, but this time was different.Somehow I pivoted as I slipped, sat back on mylower leg, and heard two great cracks as my leggave way. I knew immediately that it was broken,and the urgency in my voice convinced Andrewof the truth of that fact – there was no suggestionto have a rest and then move on.

When you sit down in a bog, without water-proof pants, your nether regions quickly becomecold and wet. And on cue, the cloud, which hadbeen creeping in all day, thickened and began todispense a steady, penetrating drizzle. Togetherwe manoeuvred me on top of my rucksack,retrieved my emergency blanket and spare cloth-ing, and attempted to phone the emergencyservices – but no signal. Andrew was thendespatched to find one.

I was feeling fairly confident that help wouldarrive soon, and it did, in the shape of a youngcouple from Taunton, with a baby. They did have

a signal (all networks not being equal), and awaterproof picnic mat, which the young woman(I am ashamed to say I cannot remember hername) wrapped around me, and herself. Shestayed to keep me warm. I was wet and in shock,and was getting pretty cold. The father caughtup with Andrew, who by that time had obtainedsignal and contacted the rescue, and bothreturned. The rescue, having received two notifi-cations, quickly realised that they were for thesame incident.

Now this is where good fortune cuts in. Ithappened that Cockermouth Mountain Rescuewere scheduled to have a training exercise thatevening; not only that, it was to be a joint exercisewith the Kirby Stephen team. We didn't knowthat when we called, but within an hour a bluelight came flashing along the valley, then another.It was perhaps and hour and a half before theteam came into view along the track from Butter-mere, and my first reaction was that thereappeared to be a cast of thousands.

Once they arrived it became clear that I was inthe hands of a well-oiled machine. A temporaryshelter was quickly erected (very welcome, as thedrizzle had turned to heavy rain), one teammember acting as primary tent pole, while theparamedic team went through a structured prob-lem assessment, and put a temporary splintaround my leg. I didn't realise at the time, but therest of the team were assembling the stretcherand making preparations for getting me off thehill. When all was ready the tent was removed,and I was expertly lifted onto the stretcher, whichwas then lowered, via a rope around a tree, thencarried down to the main track to the waiting

55

Row Farm at 6:30 a.m., where Mrs Naylor had asplendid breakfast waiting for us.

The weather was excellent, and since Jack wasnot sufficiently recovered to climb, I teamed upwith one of Arthur Dolphin's protégés, thesixteen year old Des Birch. We had a brilliantcouple of days on Scafell, climbing the Great East-ern route by the Yellow Slab, and OverhangingWall by the White Slab; Linnell's piton for aid onthe second pitch (of the latter route) hadcorroded away and so Des led it free, probably forthe first time. We also climbed Central Buttress,alternate leads, and Des led the flake, laybackingthe top block with ease.

Jack had now sufficiently recovered to secondclimbs, so we went round to Scafell and got ourown back on Botterill's Slab, this time in rubbers.Round on the East Buttress I led Morning Wallwithout the benefit of combined tactics in thesentry box, as recommended in the currentScafell Guide at that time. We rounded off theholiday with a first ascent of Eagle’s Chain (VS) onthe Napes, a rising traverse starting at the foot ofAbbey Buttress, crossing Long John and Eagle'sNest Direct, to finish up the last pitch of TricouniRib. This was our second new route of the year,and a fitting end to an action-packed holiday.

Christmas and New Year were spent fell walk-ing from Brackenclose, where we ran into JoeGriffin, now almost fully recovered. Joe went onto become one of the best and boldest climbersof his generation (Guide Books Editor 1964-67,and co-author, with Geoff Oliver, of the 1967Scafell Guide), a great companion with whom Ihave shared mountain experiences over manyyears.

There have been other memorable years since1945, but for me that year was special as it wasthe year I joined the Fell and Rock, had some

great days on the crags and fells, and beganfriendships which have lasted a lifetime.

54

Fractures on the Fells

Christina Paul

Pre-amble: On the weekend of the Conistonmeet and dinner at the Crown Inn, June 2015,

Martyn Carr and Paul Exley walked up to DowCrag on a pleasant enough morning, with the aimof doing a route. The tops of the routes were incloud but it was dry after rain the day before. Ronand Chris Kenyon walked up with them, as Ronwas hoping to get some photographs for theDow Guide book.

Martyn’s story ...

Iwas happy climbing Abraham's Route on DowCrag at Severe 4b, well within what I felt compe-

tent to do. Paul was leading, running the fourpitches into two. When I arrived at the top Paulthought he may have climbed a few feet past thenormal walk off and suggested I carry on throughand find a level place to pull the ropes in. So I setoff up what looked like steep but walkableground.

Whatever happened next occurred so quicklythat I have no clear memory of it. I must haveslipped on wet rock or grass because I fell. I hadthe sensation of passing rock at high speed andsuddenly coming to a jolting stop. At this point Ibelieve I was upside down in my harness, becauseI was looking at my right hand dangling belowme and wondering why so much blood was drip-ping from my fingers down the crag. I was notaware of any pain.

Quite quickly I realised being upside down wasnot a good idea, but hanging free made turningthe right way up less than easy. I looked at my

hand and could see it was quite seriouslydamaged - I could see finger guides and bonesexposed and a lot of bloody flesh. Looking downmy right leg I could see that the sock and climb-ing shoe were quite red. During this wholeepisode I kept slipping in and out of conscious-ness.

I was next aware of a climber below (later toldhe was Rob Dyer of the BMC) talking to me. Thenthere was a young woman (Rob's partner) on myleft, apparently secure and putting a bandage onmy right wrist. She put a light coat over mebecause I was shivering - presumably with shock.She told me her name but I forgot it until morethan a week later (she was Mel Brown). She saidshe would hold me to keep me warm, to which Iresponded I thought I might fall off again in thatcase.

They asked me the name of my climbing part-ner and after some thought I remembered it wasPaul. They shouted for him to lower me a littleway to a small ledge, and I think this happened,because although the ropes stayed tight I was nolonger swinging in space.

Rob was then talking to someone abseilingdown to me. This new arrival was from an RAFMountain Rescue Team exercising on the cragand he was equipped with a radio. Whether Ibecame unconscious or fainted I have no idea butcannot remember Mel and Rob leaving.

To me it seemed only a short time until I heardand then saw a helicopter nearby, and suddenlythere was the winch man on the small ledge chat-ting to the other RAF guy and getting me into acouple of slings attached to the wire. He took a

57

ambulance, by which time I was verging onhypothermic, even with the heated insulatedemergency bag. Thereafter the journey was verysmooth, and I was in a older ladies' heaven, awaywith the fairies on gas and air, surrounded by fityoung men (and women). All the talk on the wayto the ambulance was of the Fred Whitton, theBob Graham and other challenges which theywere preparing for. My thanks were met with theresponse that I was in fact doing them a favour as,having had a real call-out rather than a trainingexercise, they could get to the pub earlier.

What I would have done without them doesn'tbear contemplating, or what it could have beenlike had my accident been on the upper slopes ofRed Pike, or in the Himalayas. It would havebeen a long, and definitely hypothermic, wait onthe fell side, even with my emergency gear avail-able, and a real challenge for those who mighthave carried me down. I have nothing but praisefor the team who delivered me from the fellsideand subsequently for the much-maligned NHS.

Postscript:

Once in the ambulance I was taken Whitehaven A&E,where my leg was put in a temporary plaster, then backto Birkness for the night. My especial thanks to NormanHaighton for vacating the bear-pit, as there is no way Icould have climbed the stairs to the ladies' dorm. Thefollowing day saw a return to Bristol, then a visit to theregional Orthopaedic Unit, and an operation on theTuesday. My thanks to all in the club who supported meover the subsequent months.

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Dow Crag Incident

Martyn Carr/ Paul Exley

mouldy sling and rusty karabiner which weren'tworth liberating. Whilst keeping an eye onMartyn and paying out the rope, almost on auto-pilot, I was looking forward to lunch andwondering what to climb next. Martyn wasabout to step up between two huge boulderswhen I saw him slip backwards, out of my sight. Iexpected that he would land on his feet thencontinue upwards.

Instead, the next I saw of him was as he wascartwheeling downwards, a blur of arms, legs andwhite climbing helmet. He was several metres infront of me - exactly the wrong direction for mysingle belay sling. ‘F*ck. I could die here’. My reac-tion, after that realisation, was to move as farleftwards as the sling allowed and brace myself inthe best, death-defying, stance possible.Moments later, after Martyn had tumbled aboutforty metres, there was an almighty wrench onthe rope. I found myself sitting on the edge ofthe ledge with the ropes wrapped round my legs,underneath me. Martyn's full weight was on theropes because, it turned out, he was hanging freein space. I shouted down but there was noresponse except, perhaps, a groan and later aquiet plea of ‘Help me’. Out of sight and semi-conscious, he was absolutely incommunicado. Iwas left with very few options. Martyn was hang-ing from my belay plate; I was hanging from thesling - which now looked even thinner. Ittwanged when I plucked it. But it was still thereand looked as if it might stay there. So far, every-thing had worked. The ropes, my belaying, thesling. Failure of any would have had both of usfalling to the sharp boulder scree sixty metresbelow, scree that doesn't take prisoners. Insteadof reading this article you would have been read-ing about us in Obituaries.

Shortly afterwards, lots of activity began for, bygreat good fortune, an RAF Mountain RescueTeam was climbing on the crag and, after phon-ing for a helicopter, theymoved over to whereMartyn was hanging. Iain and his daughter fromKendal scrambled up Easy Gully and set up acouple of firm belays before Iain abseiled down tome, belayed me to Rocks in cracks out of myreach and put prussik loops round the rope downto Martyn. Ron also appeared and helped todirect operations, as well as calling out the Conis-ton Mountain Rescue Team. At last I felt that Icould relax a little, helped by Iain's conversation. Istill don't know how long it had taken to get tothis stage - my watch was down in the sack, ahabit developed during my apprenticeship ofjamming up gritstone cracks. Iain grovelledunderneath me and managed to free the ropesfrom my legs so that, when asked, I was able tolower Martyn a metre or two. This was, maybe, anhour and a half after the fall.

At length the helicopter was heard, then seen.After a few minutes of hovering, no doubt toassess the situation, it flew off for a circuit ofGoats Water before returning, closer to the crag.The side door opened and a winch man waslowered several metres on an exceedingly thinline and well away from the crag. The helicopter -a Sea King on one of its last missions before beingretired - inched ever closer to the crag so that thewinch man could reach Martyn. I was becomingconcerned about the helicopter's proximity. Icould feel the down-draught and, looking up,could see the tips of the rotor blades directlyabove me and seeming to be not all that far away.Members walking on the Old Man saw the actionand hoped it wasn't anyone they knew.

Some minutes later, I saw the winch man's linebecome slack and reasoned that he must have

59

knife and sliced through the ropes and I remem-ber thinking that Paul's was quite new and 60metres - but no more!

We swung clear of the crag, spinning slowlybeneath the Sea King and rising towards it andinto the aircraft. Before they made me lie downon the stretcher I was able to wave to Ron who Icould see quite clearly, and hoped Paul could alsosee, to know I was alive and conscious.There aregaps in my memory of what happened. I wassurprised when talking to Paul three weeks laterthat he estimated that the time from fall to beingwinched into the helicopter was about an hourand a quarter; I'd have said 20 minutes!!

What a lucky man I have been. First, that Paulwas alert enough when I fell to lock off his Stitchtplate, and fit and strong enough to hold mywhole weight for a long time. Second, that therewere lots of people about to offer assistance to usboth, and third, that the kit we all invest in actu-ally worked when needed.

PostscriptI was flown to Carlisle where after an assessment of myinjuries in A&E they set up a video-link with the PlasticSurgery team at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcas-tle, who advised on ‘packing’ the wounds ready for meto be transferred there. I spent twelve days in the RVIhaving the wound on my hand stitched up and skingrafts put on my right leg. I was fitted with a neck-braceto stabilise my neck, having fractured a vertebra on myunplanned descent. During the time I was in the care ofthe wonderful NHS, club members visited, offered andprovided overnight accommodation to my wife,brought reading matter and strawberries, made phonecalls both to me and Sue and sent dozens of cards, againto us both, and finally helped transport me home. Whata club, what a great community of climbers and friends.

Paul’s story ...

At Ron's funeral down in Sheffield I'd heardabout the recent passing of Les, one of the

club's most successful Alpinists. Only a weekearlier at the funeral of John, a long-standingmember of Leeds MC, I had heard about anotherfriend who had terminal cancer. There seemed tobe a lot of death about.

This recognition wasn't uppermost in my mindas I plodded with Martyn up to Dow Crag, grate-ful to drop the sack at its foot. It was good to seePresident Ron there - he was taking photos forthe forthcoming guide book. The weather,although fine, wasn't as good as we had hopedand we knew that there had been rain recently.For a high crag it didn't bode well so we chose aroute well within our grade, Abraham's. Ourbrand new copy of Lake District Rock described itas 'A fine classic route of increasing interest.'These last two words turned out to be prophetic.Martyn preferred me to lead and I ran the fourshort pitches into two longer pitches. Instead ofbelaying at the top of the last pitch, I thought tocontinue to the top of Easy Gully, scrambling upthe still-wet grass until brought short by Martyn'sshout telling me that I only had a few metres ofrope left. I had forgotten that his rope was 50m;mine was 60m.

A descent of the slippery grass was uninvitingand I was on a good ledge - fine, I thought, forjust bringing up a second. Belays were sparse.The only one of any value was a large boulderembedded just above me, but I could only get mylong sling round the right-hand side of it andpartly over the top. Not ideal. It was a modernthin sling but I'd had it so long I'd even forgottenwhere I'd found it. Martyn climbed the pitch andset off above me to Easy Gully, passing an old,

58

The fast and skilful rescue of Martyn Carr fromDow Crag, last June, by one of the last RAF Sea

King Helicopters was a timely reminder of thevalue and effectiveness of the service that givesreassurance to all who spend time in the Britishmountains.

Helicopters are an essential resource for Moun-tain Rescue teams in the UK. For 60 years theyhave been available at very short notice in almostall weather conditions, often assisting teams butsometimes completing the whole rescue missionwithout ground support. Speed is the key benefit.Typically taking less than an hour from initialalarm call to reach the casualty site, they cantransport seriously injured casualties in the LakeDistrict direct to life saving medical facilities in aslittle as 20 minutes.

Helicopters have significant advantages overfixed wing aircraft for work in search and rescue.They can work in bad weather conditions andthey can hover and winch (if they have that capa-bility); they can deliver injured casualties direct tohospital requiring minimal space for landing.Some rescue helicopters, such as the Sea King, areamphibious and can land on water to effectrescue. There are a few disadvantages – theycreate a lot of noise making communication diffi-cult and also generate a very strong downdraft,when hovering, which can cause wind chill andblow equipment about.

The first RAF rescue squadron was formed in1953 at Linton on Ouse flying yellow painted Bris-tol Sycamores. To the present day the RAFretained the bright yellow livery for all their SARhelicopters.

The first civilian rescue was made in February1953. Devastating floods and tidal surges affectedthe east coast of England and large areas ofHolland. Westland Dragonfly helicopters from theHMS Siskin Naval airbase at Gosport in Hampshirerescued more than 800 people, many fromrooftops.

History of aircraft types

Up to very recent times all the military helicop-ters used for Search & Rescue were made underlicence by Westland and based on Americandesigned aircraft. Following the Dragonfly, theWestland Whirlwind was in service from 1955 –1979. These helicopters had severe limitations ofrange and weren’t particularly reliable resulting inseveral spectacular crash landings. The Whirlwindwas replaced by the Westland Wessex which sawservice from 1976 – 1997. The Wessex broughtseveral major operational improvements, includ-ing twin engines, much greater range and alsoradar to assist low visibility capability. I rememberwatching and being very impressed by a Wessexcarrying out a rescue in the Sgurr Alasdair GreatStone Shoot in the Cuillins in 1976. It was hover-ing between the rock walls and carefullyascending into thick mist to reach the casualty.

Although the Wessex remained in service for21 years, they were gradually replaced by theWestland Sea King HAR3. The Sea King deliveredgreater range and airspeed, being able to stay inthe air for six hours and having a top speed of 125knots. The most significant operational improve-ment of the Sea King was the Decca DopplerTactical Air Navigation System, allowing the

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landed on the crag. After a further ten minutes orso, his line went tight again and the ropes belowme went slack. Then the winch man was swing-ing on that thin line out there, with Martynsupported across him. I noticed that his climbinghelmet was still on his head and looking intact - ablessing, as it probably meant that he hadn'tsuffered any serious head injury. The Sea Kingheaded off to Carlisle. Just then the Coniston MRteam arrived - a wasted trip as it turned out. Ronhad taken a lot of unexpected photos.

Iain climbed back up and belayed me to thetop of Easy Gully. On pulling up our ropes, Ifound that the ends of both were frayed wherethe winch man, presumably, had cut them. Ireasoned that, after a long fall and Martyn's hang-ing for so long, it would have taken a long time toundo the knots!

My descent of Easy Gully was accomplishedwith great care and my sandwiches eaten verythoughtfully. Thence back to the cars with theRAF. As we were leaving Martyn's car earlier, he

had said, 'Just in case anythinghappens, the car keys are in myrucksack lid'. So I drove cautiouslydown to Low House to prepare forthe Vice-President's dinner and totell the tale of the day a dozentimes, some of them to the OldMan team.

Since then, I have thoughtendlessly about the accident and awhole range of things that mighthave been better managed.

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Helicopters - their role in Mountain Rescue

Richard Tolley

Looking back on my own experiences of tenyears with Kirkby Stephen MRT, there have beentimes when the helicopter intervention has madethe team’s job easier by avoiding a long and diffi-cult carry out and others when rapid transfer tohospital has certainly improved the outcome forthe casualty. On a rescue on a snowbound roadhigh above the Eden Valley, an RAF Sea Kingcame in at night in very bad conditions to help usrescue a dozen or more stranded motorists. With-out their help we would have had great difficultysafely evacuating the ill-equipped motorists asour Land Rovers were stuck behind huge snow-drifts half a mile away. In the winter of 2015 wewere on Helvellyn searching for a missing walkerin atrocious conditions. Whilst being pinned tothe ground by 100mph winds on the ridge belowHelvellyn Lower Man, I could see an RAF Sea Kingtrying to hover below the summit ridge, attempt-ing to winch the casualty from the slopes aboveRed Tarn. They were forced to give up and thestretcher had to be carried out by MR teammembers. When we spoke to the aircrew down atPatterdale base they told us that they were meas-uring wind speeds in excess of 90 knots whilsttrying to effect the rescue.

In June 2015 Kirkby Stephen MRT had a finaltraining session with the last Sea King based atBoulmer which was due to taken out of servicewithin two months. When we bid a sad farewell tothe Sea King I couldn’t foresee that the sameaircraft would be lifting Martyn off Dow Crag aweek later!

RAF Mountain Rescue

Alongside helicopter SAR, the RAF has alsoestablished four full time Mountain Rescue teamsbased at Kinloss, Leuchars, Leeming and Valley.Team members are known as ‘troops’ and are

expected to complete 80 days of training ‘on thehill’. Interestingly team membership is seen asindependent of service rank; the most experi-enced team member would be in charge ‘on thehill’. The event that led to the formal setting up ofthe teams was the tragic crash of a bomber inNorth West Scotland. In March 1951 an RAFLancaster bomber, on a night navigational flight,crashed into the rocks of Beinn Eighe. Its wreck-age was located a few days later on the vast TripleButtresses of Coire Mhic Fhearchair. The rescueservices at Kinloss were inadequately equippedand lacked the expertise to reach the plane,which was balanced precariously on 2000 footcliffs. The last of the crew's eight bodies was notrecovered until August and the incident sentshockwaves through the highest echelons of theRAF and the Ministry of Defence.

The PTI instructor who was called in to head upthe training of the newly formed teams became awell-known figure on the British climbing scene.At the time Johnnie Lees was a sergeant andphysical training instructor in the RAF. Thatautumn he was asked to run a mountain trainingcourse for the rescue service in Snowdonia. Earlythe following year, he was posted to Anglesey asmountain rescue team leader; it would be noexaggeration to say that modern mountainrescue owes a lot of its sophistication and rigourto that appointment. After leaving the RAF Leesbecame a mountain guide, establishing a reputa-tion as a strong climber, especially on outcrops,and also married climber and author GwenMoffat who became the first female mountainguide in Britain. In 1955 Lees took part in the UK’sfirst rock climbing outside broadcast. The verydelicate Suicide Wall in Cwm Idwal was chosen forthe broadcast and Lees climbed the route inbendy walking boots as second to Joe Brown

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aircraft to operate at night and in virtually allweather conditions. Large passenger capacityand space for at least two stretchers and medicalequipment also greatly improved the operationalcapability of the Sea King. In 1996 the Sea KingHAR3a was introduced. This latest version carrieda stabilisation and auto pilot system that allowedthe pilot to perform complex approach and hovermanoeuvres under auto-pilot.

In recent years a military SAR helicopterresponding to an emergency in the Lake Districtmight have flown from RAF stations at Boulmer,Leconfield, or Valley on Anglesey and HMS

Gannet, Ayrshire. However, it’s not unknown for ahelicopter turn up from RAF Lossiemouth inNorth East Scotland. Both of the Sea Kingversions and their highly professional RAF andNavy aircrew have given fantastic and reliableSearch and Rescue service until the summer of2015. Affectionately known as Paraffin Parrots, itis not surprising that the mountain rescue teamsof England and Wales viewed the eventualdemise of the Sea Kings and the introduction of aprivatised SAR service with some anxiety andconcern.

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Kirkby Stephen MRT assist stranded motorists into the Sea King. The only safe way to evacuate the casual-ties from the snow bound B6276

flown some 17,500 missions saving around 8,400people. In 1983 Bristow started operations onbehalf of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency at 4bases around the UK – Stromness in the Orkneys,Sumbugh in the Shetlands, Lee-on-Solent andPortland. The helicopter used in those days wasthe Sikorsky 561, a close relative of the US militaryBlack Hawk. From 2013 Bristow operated theSikorsky S92 from Sumbugh and Stromness.These proved to be very capable in mountainrescue situations. As far as the Lake District isconcerned, Bristow will operate the S92 fromHumberside, Caernarfon and Prest-wick.

We are one year into the transitionand at the moment the progress isvery positive and the new aircraft are agreat step forward in rescue capability.I have had one training session withthe S92 and was impressed. They areobviously very modern aircraft, fasterat 165 knots and with greater rangethan the Sea King. An S92 can traveland return over a radius of 250 mileswith 30 minutes on scene. Althoughvery different to the Sea King theymatch or improve their performance inalmost every area. Another reassuringfactor is the fact many of the BristowSARH aircrew have transferred from the RAF orRoyal Navy Sea Kings. One problem that groundbased rescuers have to deal with is the higherlevel of down wash. This is caused partly by theincreased power but also the rotor disc designproduces a more concentrated area of downwardpressure. Reports from other Lake District teamssuggest that the transition is going fairlysmoothly. There have been one or two teethingproblems, however it is expected that these

minor problems will disappear in time. There wasalso a report that the down wash of an S192caused a spindrift storm for rescuers on SwirralEdge this winter.

For the next few months or so we might stillsee the Sea Kings operating in the Lake District.However the Bristow aircraft will become increas-ingly evident as the changeover progresses. Ofcourse the Helimed air ambulances will alsocontinue to be a regular sight over Lakeland. Wecan rest assured that all these helicopters makethe Lake District fells a safer place for us to enjoy.

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when George Band, the intended second, failedon the route.

Air Ambulance / Helimed

Helimed or the air ambulance is also a greatresource often called to work with Lake District

mountain rescue teams. They have some limita-tions when compared with the military or Bristowaircraft. They aren’t able to winch a casualty frommid-air hover and have limited space, allowingonly one stretcher and perhaps two or threeseated passengers. They also can only operate inclear conditions in daylight hours. Despite theselimitations they are involved in many mountainrescue situations.

Local to the Lake District area is the North WestAir Ambulance with three Eurocoptor aircraftbased at three sites in Lancashire. Great North AirAmbulance based in the North East also has threeEurocoptor aircraft with the closest base to Lake-land being at Langwathby in the Eden Valley. On

balance the Helimedmachines are probably mostoften used to assist LakeDistrict rescue, especially onthe more straightforward,land, package and gomissions. However SARaircraft are there for themore difficult situationsrequiring winching, badweather or night operationthat the air ambulance isn’tequipped to handle.

Change for the future

By 2010 the Sea King fleetwas between 40 and 50years old and would obvi-ously soon needreplacement. Estimates forthe cost of this change werein the order of £3 billion.Following consultation in

2010-2011 the Ministry of Defence and theDepartment of Transport decided to outsourceand awarded the contract to Bristow. Thechangeover would begin in April 2015 and becomplete by summer of 2017. Bristow will oper-ate out of ten bases around the UK. Bristow is nostranger to search and rescue. They have beenproviding SAR in several countries since 1971 -Australia, Canada, Norway, Russia and the Falk-lands. Operating in these countries they have

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Right: The Great North Air Ambulance attendingan injured casualty in the Howgill Fells

Above: HMS Gannet hands over to Bristow - Prestwick, Jan 2016

Mountain Adventures - Scotland and Overseas

Alan Hinkes

Mike Cudahy

Robin Hildrew

Paula Carter

Mark Gear

John Moore

Jim Gregson

Mont Blanc Range from Les Arcs. Barbara SwindinSki Tracks in the Snow. Photo - Bill Comstive

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Lifeboat Stations and raising money for the RNLI.The 2015-mile trip took him more than fourmonths. Now that's what I call a challenge.

Luckily there was plenty of walking and explor-ing to keep me interested in the area. Even lowdown there is the unique machair grassland,grazed by sheep. Above Leverburgh is Roinebhal,(460m), which like most of the big hills on Harrishas a stark, bare rocky look about it, grey andmostly shrouded in clag while we festered inLeverburgh. I got John to drop me off at the otherside of Roinebhal, near Rodel so I could traverseacross its bare rocky summit plateau back toLeverburgh. Apparently the granitic anorthositerock is similar to moon rock! There is an oldquarry with white exposed anorthosite cliff faces,where I started my walk on the south side of thehill, which I couldn't resist exploring and scram-bling on. In the 1990s there was ragingcontroversy here as a super quarry was planned,to extract the anorthosite and ship it away from apurpose-built harbour as hardcore for motorwayconstruction. The giant quarry, worked over 60years, would have eventually left a scar five timesthe height of the White Cliffs of Dover, blasted outby over 30 tons of explosives a week. Now thatwould be incongruous in somnolent South Harris.Legging it back down the rocky slopes to Lever-burgh, there was good news waiting. The boat toHirta was on at 7.30 a.m. the next morning.

After four nights in Leverburgh, John and Iboarded the boat with a few day trippers andsailed out into the foggy, choppy Atlantic. The seais not really my medium. I am more of a terrafirma chap: mountains, crags, caves, potholes etcand the two and half hour crossing was choppy. Imostly clung on outside in the spray to preventvomiting. There was nothing but fifty shades of

grey, mist and sea merging into one amorphousmass. Pure Battleship Grey.

Suddenly the sickening bouncing and buckingceased, so I reckoned we must be in the lee of themain Island. Sure enough we had sailed into thenatural harbour of Village Bay and in the nick oftime. Another few minutes and I would havepuked. We were ferried in dinghies to the shorejetty as the cloud lifted like a welcoming table-cloth being pulled aside, to reveal the stark rockyoutline of the island. Village Bay has the only flat-tish land for buildings and National Trust Scotlandhas renovated some of the dwellings. There isalso an incongruous military base built in the1950s and manned mostly by civilian contractors.

Fortunately for us, John's daughter was basedon the island for the RSPB so we had a localknowledge to help us make the most of ourlimited time. With no time to waste we went up torecce the highest sea cliffs and bag the summit ofConachair. I had hoped to be impressed andenthused to possibly return to climb the highestsea cliff. After seeing it I psyched out. It is verysteep and scary, covered in Sea Campion andother vegetation, as well as puking Fulmars and aterrifying drop into the wild North Atlantic. Steepand scary - the Lake District it is not.

My plan the next day was to walk round mostof the island in one long airy ridge walk. Perchedon top of the island, looking out onto the vastexpanse of the Atlantic, I imagine this could bean agoraphobic’s nightmare. Brave souls canemulate the scarily brave antics of the long gonelocals, who used to balance on exposed cliffedges 300m above the water. Some prominentrocks are named for these challenges such as theMistress Stone and Lover's Stone. I decided totackle a less dangerous feat, the Chimney Chal-lenge, which is a short fell run up a grassy gully

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Remote appeals to me and in the UK you donot get much more remote than the islands of

St Kilda, poking up in the North Atlantic Ocean 41miles west of the Hebrides. A friend of mine hadspent a few weeks there one summer on a workparty, had thoroughly enjoyed the experienceand had enthused me to visit. Getting permissionto stop over can be a problem as only a fewcampers are allowed at any one time, boats needto be booked and the weather and sea state hasto be settled for a landing.

The main island of Hirta possesses the highestsea cliffs in the British Isles, a vertical drop of over300m into the sea from near the summit ofConachair (430m) the highest point of the St Kildaarchipelago. Nearby, rising 196m (643') straightout of the ocean is Stac an Armin, the highest seastack in the British Isles. The whole area is knownfor its profusion of seabirds - Gannets, Fulmars,Puffins and Great Skuas or Bonxies, as well as rareViking Soay sheep and sneaky beaky missile test-ing. The geology and topography is spectacular,with exciting walking and scrambling and maybesome rock climbing for the very adventurous andbrave.

The locals climbed the cliffs and sea stacks tocollect eggs and birds for food. Some Scots like tothink this was the first rock climbing for fun and itis even possible that bouldering and traversingfor training was practised by the St Kildans ontheir houses and lower cliffs. This would pre-dateHaskett Smith’s ascent of Napes Needle in 1886by several centuries. There is no doubt that the StKildans were brave and talented rock climbers,tackling guano covered, gnarly, V Diff climbs withextreme exposure on vast sea cliffs and stacks.

Out of the blue, a random email arrived from afriend in the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club.John Dalrymple is a very keen birdwatcher andgeneral font of knowledge. He had a readyplanned mini-expedition to St Kilda ready to roll.All I had to do was tag along and share the cost.

I couldn't resist and we left North East Englandin mid-June, anticipating fine weather. Most of usknow the long drive to Scotland, through Skye toUig and across the Minch on CaledonianMacBrayne to Tarbert. We kept our spirits up,thinking of the tasty Puffin Pies and roast Soaylamb waiting for us on St Kilda. Apparently thelocals who evacuated in 1930 snacked on Puffinsas we do crisps. Puffins are now a protectedspecies so Puffin Pie was off the menu, as wasSoay sheep; we had to take all our own foodacross with us for the four nights we intended tocamp on Hirta. We also had to take extra emer-gency rations in case the weather deterioratedand we became stranded for several days beforea boat could return for us.

No surprise, as we arrived in Leverburgh it wasraining, windy, clagged-in on the hills and quite ahigh sea state out in the Atlantic. In fact it hadbeen a bad season in 2015 and not many tripshad made the crossing yet. Holed up in theCalMac Ferry waiting room, out of the wind andrain, John cooked up one of the best curries Ihave tasted anywhere, including in Nepal, Indiaor Pakistan. We had no option but to hangaround and wait, which we were informed wouldbe for a few days before the sea state was calmenough. Interestingly, Nick Ray was sheltering inthe Leverburgh Lifeboat Station on his epic solokayak trip round Scotland. He was visiting all 47

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St Kilda

Alan Hinkes

good decoy sticking out of your ruck-sack, acting like a barrage balloon inan air raid. It made me imagine afantasy land of Bad Bonxies in the westand harmless St Kildan Wrens in theeast.

We only had three nights on Hirta,but got to check the sea stacks out onthe return boat trip.

The sea was calm as we approachedthe humongous bulk of Stac an Armin,(196m). It would have been possibleto make a landing or jump onto to theslippery seaweed covered lower rock; Ireckon crampons, slip-on snow spikesor nailed boots would help. There wasa 50m fixed rope anchored to thesheer looking face, but I did not fancythe jump or the guano and birdinfested climb. No doubt it might beslightly better when the nestingseason had finished and a big Atlanticstorm had cleaned the rock a bit withcrashing waves. Being a Marilyn, Stacan Armin must be a very frustratingsummit to bag. Nearby Stac Lee(172m) looks even less appealing toclimb. I was glad I had left my cragginggear at home and had happily enjoyedsome fabulous varied hill walking,

scrambling, fell running and good food and craicwith John.

I did not find Crag X but had a great adventureon the edge of the world.

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on Clash na Bearnaich, from sea level to over220m. I even got a certificate with my time on it.

There is a great variety in such a compact areaon Hirta - geology, geography, history, biology,flora, fauna, bird life and more. There are stillwrecks from crashed aircraft and thousands ofcleits, which were storage sheds for bird carcassesand eggs. The Bonxie or Great Skua is one of themore dramatic experiences on Hirta, some might

think it frightening. I have never known such anaggressive bird. The Bonxies are mainly on thewestern side of Hirta and had virtually colonisedGleann Mor, which I nicknamed Bonxie Valley.Venture in it if you dare! The innocent fluffyyoung chicks are hatched on the ground and ifyou approach the Bonxie parents will ferociouslydive bomb you. Personally I got a grip and foughtback with a trekking stick, which also make a

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Above: Ruaival - rocky exposed ridge leading up to theMistress Stone

Left: North-West Hirta, Glen Bay on the left

Below: Stac Lee, Stac an Armin & Boreray

Still, a nod's as good as a wink. Off I went againand this time extending a leg forwards with theski tilted so the edge caressed the surface - orsometimes dug in. In the latter case there wouldusually be a violent crossing of the legs followedby equally violent contact with firm nevé. Afternumerous bruisings and near castrationspatience was exhausted. A bold approach wasrequired. Had I not seen graceful ski jumpers glid-ing through the air to effect perfect landings? Iwould allow the skis to take the fall line then, atnot quite terminal velocity, leap skywards. Withmy consummate body awareness skills I wouldswivel mid-air and come down facing some otherdirection.

I now achieved some spectacular results, notall of them expected or welcome. One outcomeproduced observable disturbances in the piste.Occasionally, I remained upright having achieveda change in direction. The most alarming resultwas when I overdid the airborne swivel andlanded facing uphill with the skis gleefully takingthe opportunity to resume the fall line, this timebackwards, though not for long.

Len had now completed his ice palace and wetook refreshment within. I asked for his observa-tions on my tussles with the skis. 'An honourabledraw,' he said, 'but you have the moral victory asyou haven't broken anything.' He paused. 'Notyet, anyway.'

On our way back down we left the skis perchednonchalantly by the fence ready to snare theirnext victim. A decade-long hiatus in my skiingcareer then followed until at some time in the 70s(not my age, you understand) I acquired a pair of'skinny' skis (a bonafide present, since you ask).They were very rudimentary with no metal edgesand fish scales underneath, so no wax required.They did well enough over the local golf course,

especially when it snowed, but I took them intoquite impossible places covering all my familiarrunning ground in the Peak District. The only timethey performed graceful, curving runs was when Itook them off to have lunch and they set off backhome solo on a glazed surface of sloping moor-land. On another occasion I was enjoyingwhite-out conditions on the Cat & Fiddle moorsand feeling very disorientated. This increasedwhen I observed my ski tips above my head. Nextmoment I was on my back having briefly hurtleddown one side of a grough and half way up theother. Being older and wiser I decided not to goback and try for the full somersault.

I started taking the skis to Scotland, where theyrevelled in a sense of freedom and occasionallyran amok. Seeking expert advice I called in at theoutdoor shop in Braemar. By now I had aban-doned 'fish scales' and was immersing myself inthe mysteries of wax. 'What I want’, I told theyoung chap behind the counter, 'is a wax that willhelp me go uphill quickly and downhill slowly.' Alook somewhere between scorn and pity passedacross his finely-cut outdoor features. Completelyignoring my request, he sold me some sticky andsome not so sticky stuff and brusquely told me itwould meet all contingencies. As I began to chal-lenge this on both practical and philosophicalgrounds I felt the missus tugging at my sleeve.

I proved him wrong, however. Coming down asteepish track I intuited my speed was exceedingboth the drag of the wax and my, as yet, embry-onic snow plough brake. A curve in the trackmade it imperative I convert the brake into a turn.I had seen my missus do this with some ease andexerted my mighty will, to the usual effect; theplough disintegrated into first parallel thendiverging lines. Resist panic and split trousers,plan B needed. Directly ahead was a tall post; the

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Skilful, with superb balance, daring but withperfect judgement and a fine eye for line,

always in complete control; these are just a few ofthe ways it would be impossible to describe myabilities a'ski. While I have enjoyed some reputeas an ultra-distance hill runner, few are aware ofmy career as an adventure skier; there may bereasons for this. However, it does not do to hideone's light under a bushel. I hope a little modestlight shedding is permissible, particularly if itinspires readers to emulate my feats.

My skiing career began some 50 years ago on aplastic slope in Ellis Brigham's basement. In myearly 20s I was a natural and had almost no diffi-culty descending the 20yds of plastic severaltimes. It would be misleading though not entirelyincorrect to say along with T.S. Eliot that 'In mybeginning was my end'. Officially, I never did anydownhill skiing again. It wasn't, again to quoteEliot, that I got bored with 'arriving where Istarted', simply that I could not afford skis, bootsor ski holidays. In any case emulating a stair treadon an escalator was less appealing than glidingthrough lonely snowy wastes. I was thus, at leastby ambition, a natural cross-country skier cum skimountaineer. What I mainly lacked was skis.

One day at Coire Cas car park my mate Lenproduced a pair of skis: red ones. He said he'd'liberated' them from the lower car park the previ-ous night because they were leaning all aloneagainst a rail; sort of 'abandoned'. A very subtleethical discussion followed which culminated inus scuttling off up the hill with the skis. Wereached some suitably benign slopes where Ipointed out to Len that he'd failed to liberate any

ski sticks or ski boots. He said something enig-matic and started building an igloo.

Remembering my easy mastery of the subter-ranean plastic slopes, I thought my balletic gracewould eliminate the need for sticks and I foundmy old boots could be held in place by pressingdown on a lever at the heel. They were notexactly secure, but some instinct told me thatinsecurity of tenure might be no bad thing wheredownhill skiing was concerned.

From the start the only thing the skis wantedto do was follow the 'fall line' downhill. What Ihad more in mind was sweeping curves as I'dobserved on 'Ski Sunday' on TV. I tried varioustechniques starting first with sheer will power,something I've always been good at. Using force-ful visual imagery (my academic speciality) andprojecting my dominant will I invariably and inex-plicably finished directly below where I'd started;increasingly Eliot's words (he was no great skierhimself ) echoed in my mind: 'And the way up isthe way down, the way forward is the way back.' Ieven tried cheating by starting off pointing wellacross the slope, to no avail. Always the ski tipswould nose out the fall line like hounds on a foxtrail.

By this time Len's igloo was half-finished. I toldhim his liberated skis had been abandoned forgood reason, they wouldn't go round corners.

‘Try using the edges,' he advised. 'Edge of what?'I asked. 'Those metal strips along each side.''Ah! But how?’'Dunno.’

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For those in Peril on a Ski

Mike Cudahy

akin to a proper Arctic experience (not that Iwould know). I'm afraid I waxed my words tooliberally. He of the hand crampons turned paleand opted for a low level walk instead, albeit onthe wild trail from Feshie through to the Geldieand the Dee. The man I most welcomed to myside was a proper skier and survivor of the MtBlanc 'Haute Route'. He insisted on driving ourvan round. I was left with Geoff, who was my onlyrival in the incompetence stakes, plus the missus,whose reasons for joining us were obscure butunlikely to have included my liberal waxing.

Our adventure1) began inauspiciously. My littleparty had started up the lower slopes of Carn BanMor when the missus realised she had failed toinstruct our driver in the arcane ritual of bringingour temperamental van to life. Leaving her sackwith us she departed to convey the appropriateincantations to John. Treating her sack and skigear as a relay baton, Geoff and I struggledupwards. She reappeared as we were about totackle the long steep bit, thus depriving me ofdelivering the noble speech of self-sacrifice I'dbeen composing. Soon however, we were enter-ing into the majesty of the Moine. We were also,unfortunately, heading into the mystery of theMoine. There are few landmarks up here and adrifting mist was obscuring all of them. Nevermind, good chance to show off my navigationskills, though triangulation would be difficult withnothing to triangulate on and, obviously, stepcounting would be out.

Assuming my VAV 3), I said my estimates placedus 350m south of Carn Ban Mor summit. (This wasswank since we had been following a beaten trail

and could not be anywhere else.) Continuing withthe VAV I said I'd set a SE bearing aiming for a colat least 200m wide where I would re-adjust.

'How will you know you're at the col?' asked themissus. 'Because we'll be swooping down about 80mand after that the ground rises to a spot height.When we've gone up a bit I'll know where weare.''Gone up a bit doesn't sound very professional,'she said. 'It's a technical term,' I explained. 'What happens if we miss the col?'asked Geoff.'We'll either end up in Coire Garbhlach or the

River Eidart.’I should not have said that. It's 'Negative

Rehearsal' and introduced a maggot of doubtinto the proceedings. However, placing my trustin my compass and my compass safely in mypocket, I pointed the skis SE down the fall lineand set off into the mist. Everything workedperfectly! If I had been sure beforehand that itwould, I could have enjoyed it. But that would nothave been an 'adventure', would it?

As if rewarding our audacity, the mist began toshred. The whole vast area came alive with shift-ing patterns of light and shade. Far above theshining shoulders of Cairn Toul were partlyrevealed, reminiscent of Marvell's 'Coy Mistress' ,unwilling yet unable to resist displaying herbeauty. Maggots of doubt vanished. This wasadventure and dream enough.

Our progress E across the rest of the MoineMhor was without major incident, just an occa-sional punctuation mark from Geoff or me. Soon

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skis, complete with my legs, were inevitablyheading either side of the post. A painful antici-pation crossed my mind, but I was still in controlof my arms. Commending my spirit and otherparts to the gods I made a determined grab at thepost. The result was spectacular. As I embracedthe post with all the passion of a desperate loverthere was a loud 'crack' and the post and I hurtledinto a deep ditch. The missus, gliding to animmaculate halt, looked aghast into the ditch.The sight, dreadful as it was, reduced her to tears- of laughter. I was still wrapped around the postwhich, in an effort to save itself, now lay on top ofme. Leaving post and dignity in the ditch I extri-cated what was left and re-assembled myself.

‘Thought you deserved a little amusement,' Isaid. 'How clever,'she said, 'I'm sure I couldn't do that.''I'd really like to see you try,' I replied.But she didn't.

Now, I do not wish to depress you or put offany putative skiers out there. Outstanding in mylist of jolly adventures is one where nearly every-thing corresponded to one of those firesidedreams we all have but frequently fail to find acounterpart in reality. On this occasion we had anopportunity to ski from the Glenshee ski areaacross the White Mounth Munros to our base inGlen Muick. 'Go for it, youth!' said my very experi-enced and rather (too) devil-may-care mate Neil.'Will we need crampons up Glas Maol?' I asked.'Nah! Why burden yourselves?' he scoffed. (Hewas not coming, by the way, just me and themissus).

Half way up Glas Maol's bald dome I was inter-ested to observe the missus slowly sliding backtowards Glenshee, skis and sticks still tuckeddeterminedly under her arms. Before I could say'ice axe' she'd regained control; composure she'd

never lost. After that we had nothing but pleasureskiing over what my SMC guide calls 'subduedeminences'. From Glas Maol and Dreish in thesouth to Lochnagar in the north this is a sort ofextended plateau with bumps. Our route took usover Carn a'Claisie, Tolmount, Fafernie andt'Sagairt Mor, rarely dropping below 3,000ft(900m). Then came a long descent under theblack, beetling crags of the Dubh Loch down toGlen Muick. Several times I was able to look backto slopes where I'd described elegant sweeps andturns, each change of direction punctuated by aneat hole in the snow.

After taking early retirement I moved up toScotland and was able to imperil myself on skieach winter. For several years I laid on a winteradventure1) for those few of my mates whose‘winter green’ 2) bottles had not fallen off the wall.These cheerful escapades would typically entail afew days journeying across various areas of theHighlands. Locomotion was by foot, bike and,occasionally, ski. One such adventure had seen usvisiting a couple of remote bothies plus a novelascent of a steep hillside where one of us (ex fell-runner, not a mountaineer) found it expedient toattach his crampons to his hands - mainlybecause they kept falling off his feet. Possiblyunnerved by this experience he took to clutchingthe shoulders of the man in front during theensuing descent, thus unnerving 'two for theprice of one'.

Perhaps this was why there was worried snick-ering and whinnying when I outlined my plan forthe final day. This was a ski traverse across theMoine Mhor from Glen Feshie to the Linn of Deenear Braemar. This wonderful desolate highplateau lies under the gaze of Braeriach and CairnToul, Monadh Mor and Beinn Bhrotain at anelevation of around 900m. It would, I argued, be

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1) In contradistinction to trendy outdoor organisations promising 'adventure', my definition of the word retainsthe 'outcome uncertain' aspect.2) Wintergreen’: pungent embrocation popular with harriers – similar properties to snake oil.3) Very Assured Voice.

in the waning light was that I was poised to dropdown a 1m high river bank. With a quite unex-pected and stomach churning lurch I shot downthe near vertical bank and crashed onto the riverice which promptly gave way. Near the top of myquite lengthy list of horrible ways to die is fallingthrough a snow bridge into a raging torrent andbeing dragged under. What saved me this timewas not S-R compatibility but that evolutionaryimplanted reflex you see in babies when you liftthem up and suddenly drop them: they fling theirarms out. (Do not try this when mum is aroundand always try to catch the infant before it hitsthe deck.) Anyway, I instinctively flung my armswide as I landed on my back. This wedged meacross the hole but did not prevent my netherregions from a dip in the Dee, the icy Dee. Mypredicament was like that of the elderly gent who'phoned Boots and asked if they stocked heavyduty incontinence pads. 'Yes, Sir', said the assis-tant, 'Where are you ringing from?' 'From thewaist downwards!' croaked the old gent. At themoment this was the least of my worries. My legsand skis had combined to form a reef knot and if Imoved my arms I would be snatched forthwithinto the icy tunnel of death. I was snookered!

It was at this point that my abiding faith inteam spirit was vindicated. Having resumed hisskis, Geoff was sufficiently close that, although hehad lost sight of me (for obvious reasons), hecould hear my piteous wails. I remained calm,apart from the odd screech as the Dee infiltratedmy trousers. I gave Geoff precise instructions onhow to release the ski bindings (in case he'dforgotten), then, with a heave-ho from him and amighty bound from me I was free! When Istopped trembling I cautiously thrust my stickinto the hole. It might well have been torn frommy grasp by the force of the water. But it wasn't

and this was because the water was about 8cmdeep and flowing gently over granite slabs.

However, I really was wringing from the waistdown and I swear I could hear a diabolicalchuckle from over by the Devil's Point (it mightjust have been the missus). The wings of darknesswere beating around us and hypothermia wasstalking through my under-garments. I set a furi-ous pace over the remaining miles, slowing onlyfor a cautious crossing of the Luibeg Burn.

Soon we were scrunching down the stony trackfrom Derry Lodge to rendezvous with the othersat the van. 'Have a good trip?'asked John. 'Notbad; pretty uneventful, I replied.

FOOTNOTE: I have now retired from adventureskiing. In my case, this means any kind of skiing.However, quite recently I acquired (a gift, since youask) two sets of snow shoes. Noticing they had knarlysaw-toothed under-parts I thought they might alsodouble up as crampons. So one day, with the missustagging along, I went on a mission to check them outon the Fiacaill (ridge) of Coire an-t-Sneachda. But that'sanother story.

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however, we faced the cross-country skier'sdilemma: how to lose 500m with minimum loss ofdignity and zero loss of working parts. My firstline of descent was to a hallowed spot, Loch nanStuirteag 4). Beyond this the contour lines jostledfor space and great skill would be needed; orpossibly parachutes.

We descended to the snow-covered lochan ingood order, then it was every man for himself(apart from the missus, of course). The snow wasgood and I began to execute a series of verygently descending traverses across the slope,sometimes not even stopping for punctuation.Just as I was muttering to myself 'Jean-ClaudeKilly 5), eat your heart out,' a wisp of mist rustledclear of my ski tips. Instantly revealed was a huge,steep-sided re-entrant with a tiny black pool farbelow. Like those red skis long ago my currentnumbers made a bolt for the fall line.

At this point the information processingdepartment went catatonic. I was about to hurtleinto the abyss when, what we call in the trade'stimulus-response compatibility' kicked in.Before you could say 'ice axe' I found myselfmaking a hole in the mercifully soft snow. Ifyou've worked up your S-R compatibility youdon't need much brain power; handy for bothPavlov 6) and me. As I lay there checking variousparts and wondering if the depth of the re-entrant was an illusion (it wasn't), I looked back tothe missus and Geoff. The former was under thecontrol of her snow plough. Geoff was mainlyunder the control of gravity, which was certainlyhaving its way with him, more often down thanup; he was looking like the Abominable Snow-man.

Rather to my surprise we all reached the floorof Glen Geusachan in one piece. There were still14km to go to the van and daylight had begun towane. The glen floor was a mix of wroughtyheather and soft snow. In these conditions thesnow began to stick and ball up underneath theskis. To say this impeded progress would be apolite way of putting it. We were not polite.Sometimes both skis would ball up to an aston-ishing height; sometimes one ski would free itselfand power ahead, leaving the other behind withpainful consequences. With 14km of deep snowto traverse I was not going to abandon ski andpost-hole all the way home. Geoff and the missushad no-wax (fish scale) skis, but I'd applied someof the stuff I'd bought in Braemar. It never haddone what it said on the tin and now I decided toget rid of it. Extricating my multi-function Swissarmy knife, I used the tool for removing boyscouts from horses hooves to scrape off most ofthe wax (and some of the plastic) from the skis.This was modestly successful and I drew ahead ofthe other two, who were removing their skis aftera particularly bad balls-up. Pausing to dip into thenose bag, I was accosted by the missus whodemanded I also remove my skis in the name ofteam spirit and democracy. I was well aware itwas what she would have done, but I wassurprised to find her applying equally high ethicalstandards to me. I soon disabused her of thenotion.

Drawing ahead, I could see we were about todebouch into the lower end of the Lairig Ghru.Ahead lay the River Dee, completely hiddenunder snow. With the better snow cover I got intomy stride or, rather, slide. What I failed to observe

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4) I think a Stuirteag is a Gaelic sturgeon5) A start of Ski-Sunday6) Not astar of Ski Sunday

splendid views of the Torridon hills and particu-larly the mighty bulk of Liathach.

Day 1

A promising morning, dry, and with a very lightbreeze. We drove to Incheril, 1km fromKinlochewe, where the car would stay for the next6 days, shouldered our packs and set off towardsthe east shore of Loch Maree. We tried to keep toa regime of a rest every 30 minutes, but it didn’talways work, especially on uphill section. As weclimbed up Gleann Bianasdail patches ofsunshine broke through, making it very warmwork; the track climbs high to avoid a gorgebefore dropping again to the shore of LochanFada. The SE end of Lochan Fada was the notionalcampsite, but as we’d descended to the loch wehad spotted a promising patch of grass about ½km further along the shore in a better position forthe first two Munros. Once established in myThermarest chair I could comfortably survey thescene and start on the evening meal. The foodpacks were easy to prepare if not beautifully tasty.The first signs of pattering rain were heard on thetents, and this continued steadily, though notheavily, throughout the night.

Day 2

By dawn the rain had stopped and the sceneoutside was breathtakingly beautiful – acompletely windless morning, with the surface ofthe loch like a mirror. It was the sort of morningwhere in a few weeks time the midges wouldhave made life unbearable. No such problemstoday – too cold. Steve was sure he had spottedred-throated divers on the other side of LochanFada. There were a few patches of sun, but alsothe threat of showers developing, but only oneshort heavy one as we climbed up the SW ridge

of the first Munro, Beinn Tarsuinn. The top wassufficiently clear to give us some views, thoughnot a full panorama. After descending steeply tothe Bealach Odhar, we followed a rising traverseline to avoid the knob of Meall Garbh, betweenBeinn Tarsuinn and the mighty quartzite-cappedpile of the highest of our targets, Mullach CoireMhic Fhearchair. I have to confess a low momentas we reached the base of its steep S ridge - I feltpretty weary and wondered whether I shouldn’tjust let Steve go on up on his own, as he wasalways faster than the older man, especiallyuphill. However, a rest and some high energyfood, plus a determination not to quit this early inthe game, persuaded me to climb on andstrangely, the steep scramble up steep sandstonesteps, then large quartzite blocks, concentrated

the mind so that I forgot about tiredness. Enroute we met a party who were on their wayround all the Fisherfield Munros in a day. Wedidn’t envy them this marathon! We got someviews from the top of the Mullach too. Any

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My fascination with the magnificently situatedand remote peak of A’ Mhaighdean (The

Maiden) began in April 1969, when I was teachingat Gordonstoun. The school Mountain Rescueteam responded to a colleague’s challenge thatwe couldn’t manage to do A’ Mhaighdean in aschool weekend. We did, of course, with twocamps in different sites along the SW shore ofLochan Fada. I returned to the area in March1975 with a Sedbergh School CCF expedition. Wetrekked in from Loch Maree and camped in snowon the NE shore of Lochan Fada about 2 km fromits NW end. The following morning the tents wereburied in soft fresh snow, but after diggingourselves out we all climbed A’ Maighdean andenjoyed splendid arctic views and trekked onthrough to Shenavall bothy the next day.

My third visit to the mountain was in March1992, again with Sedbergh CCF, but approachingthis time from a base at Shenavall. On a gloriouslysunny day of hard frost a colleague and I movedat a brisk pace up Gleann na Muice and cram-ponned our way up the eastern slopes of A’Mhaighdean, rounding the trip off with my firstascent of Ruadh Stac Mor on our way back toShenavall. No ascent was the same, and the peakhas retained its fascination for me because of thecombination of remoteness, spectacular situationand panoramic views, especially to the north.

I completed my Munros in 2005 and embarkedon an open-ended plan to climb in the years tocome as many Corbetts as time, energy and goodhealth allowed me. My long-term friend andclimbing colleague from Sedbergh School, SteveSmith, still needed to reach the four westerly

Munros in the Fisherfield Forest. These presentedsignificant access problems, but ones whichcould be solved by approaching the hills fromKinlochewe on the western side of the Forest andplacing camps beside Lochan Fada. I saw theopportunity of a fourth chance to climb A’Mhaighdean, and also of tackling two equallyremote Corbetts, Beinn Lair and Beinn a’ Chais-gein Mor, by extending the back-packing tripbeyond the western end of Lochan Fada to theBealach Mheinnidh (at a height of 1500’), aconvenient starting point for both hills, andreturning to Kinlochewe via Letterewe and theeastern side of Loch Maree, a six day back-pack,with five nights in the Wilderness. Steve gener-ously agreed to join forces in the attempt onthese six hills. He also offered to provide moun-tain bikes, so that two further Corbetts could betackled on day trips using private estate roads toenable the long distances to be made more feasi-ble. So the plan took shape.

Steve researched and acquired lightweightfreeze-dried meals to reduce the weight carriedand we both prepared individual ration packs tosuit our tastes and pared down the essential kit towhat we felt were acceptable limits. Our differingapproach to this exercise meant that Steve’s packwas noticeably lighter than mine.

We left Sedbergh on Wednesday May 7th,aware that with a dubious weather forecast thetrip was not going to be an easy dry run. But youcan always hope! The first night was spent in theexcellent surroundings and comfort of the Torri-don Youth Hostel. A clear evening gave us

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Into the Wilderness of Fisherfield  -  May 2014

Robin Hildrew

The ring of stones - see overleaf

fourth ascent of A’Mhaighdean, the magnificenceof the panorama had not diminished.

The rain continued intermittently. This was notthe best moment to discover that my newly re-proofed Paramo jacket was not waterproof. Atleast I stayed warm so long as I kept moving,which was necessary, as we had still to ascendRuadh Stac Mor. From the col below this summitthe ascent through steep sandstone cliffs lookedfearsome, but there was of course a way - up rocksteps and scree, followed by a tortuous slope ofhuge unstable sandstone boulders. On thesummit by mid-afternoon, we were still blessedwith some views, despite the swirling cloud andinsistent light rain. By 6p.m .we were back at thetents and I was able to change into a welcomedry shirt. The rain stopped about dinner time.There were even a few patches of brightness butwe did not expect any better for tomorrow.

Day 4

We had intended an early start, but overslept.The light rain continued all night; by morningthere were still rain showers passing through, sowe packed up once again in the wet. The routeled us along the lochside, once more over roughand tortuous terrain, until reaching the end ofthe loch, from where we were able to move easilyalong Gleann Tulacha, over almost level grass andbog vegetation. Gradually we began to climb, allthe time marvelling at the beetling line of cragsalong the NE side of Beinn Lair which totallydominate the glen. A somewhat steeper sectionled up to the Bealach a Chuirn as we followed anintermittent but helpful path. From the bealachwe picked up the stalkers’ path and the going wasso much easier at last; it led round below the finalcrags of Beinn Lair, joining the main Carn More –Letterewe track. A short final uphill section

deposited us on top of the Bealach Mheinnidh.The rain ceased for a time and we selected a siteon level and seemingly not too boggy groundand pitched camp. After a quick brew we left thecamp for Beinn Lair. We climbed steadily up to theedge of the stupendous cliffs we had traversedbelow, up to the summit plateau, pausing on apromontory to savour the truly awesome viewsback down towards Lochan Fada, Fionn Loch andCarn More. In an hour we reached the hugesummit cairn, visible for a mile or more as wecrossed the plateau.

As we cooked dinner the rain became heavier,and we were glad to be snug in the tents..... Onlywe weren’t. The rain increased, the water table

rose, little streams began spreading and at about8.00 I discovered water flowing under my ground-sheet. Immediate evacuation was essential! Wepacked up, unpegged the tents, and moved

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memories of my last ascent up here (in 1966!) hadcompletely vanished. Shortly after leaving the colwe found a most strange sight: a neat and care-fully constructed artistic creation of stones in akind of ring about a foot high on a base of a largeflat sandstone slab. Why anyone should have builtsuch a thing in such a remote location, and whatits purpose is, was quite baffling.

Day 3

The rain had returned, not heavy, but insistent.We rose at 6a.m. and, inevitably, we had to strikecamp in the rain (at least there was no wind too),and made an early start along the loch shore.There was a hint of a path, but it was hard to

follow and we found ourselves often traversingsteep grass or heather. Steve spotted a skein ofgeese overhead in a perfect V-formation, headingNW above Lochan Fada – perhaps heading forthe Arctic. With relief, after two hours we reachedthe next campsite and pitched tents in the rain. Itwas tempting to linger over a brew but Steve waskeen to be up and off in pursuit of the plumMunro of the trip, A’ Mhaighdean. The ascent wasnot particularly steep, but involved 3 km ofcontinuous grass and heather (quite a changefrom the soft snow of 1975), with the spectacularviews saved for the very end, on reaching thesummit rocks and seeing the whole magnificentpanorama of Fionn Loch, Dubh Loch and CarnMore thousands of feet below us. On this, my

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Left: Dubh Loch and Fionn Loch from A’Mhaighdean

Above: NW end of Lochan Fada with crags ofBeinn Lair

Sadly the good weather was not set to last.After a rest day and establishment of a camp atGairloch we had two more Corbetts to tackle onday trips, using mountain bikes to shorten theapproach. The first, on May 15th, was Beinn AirighCharr, saving 7km each way on the estate roadfrom Poolewe to Kernsary. A good stalkers’ trackled most of the way, but rain and wind intensifiedas we reached the summit in thick cloud, so wedid not linger there. The return ride was largelydownhill and amazingly speedy, arriving inPoolewe within twenty minutes!

The final day, May 16th, dawned bright andsunny, an encouraging, but misleading, start. Wefollowed the Gruinard River for the 9 km ride upthe estate road to Loch na Sealga. Our target,Beinn Dearg Bheag, lay a further 5 km away. Withsome difficulty we traversed the rough easternslopes of the mountain, until we could climb verysteeply through breaks in the crags at its south-

ern end and eventuallyemerge onto the summitridge, just below a largerocky block surmountedby the summit cairn. Wecrouched below it toshelter, had a bit of food,and visited the cairn forthe obligatory photos.The next problem - whichway down? Reversing theascent route wasdistinctly unattractive.The alternative was tofind a way down the NWflank of the mountain

along the line of a burn. We left the summit ridgevia steep grassy gully, and emerged from the mistand to see the burn below flowing in the rightdirection along a grassy bottom. We were thenable to take a traverse line across to the col to thenorth of the mountain, before a 3km bog-plodback to the bikes. Mercifully the rain abated whenwe were about half-way there; life began to feelmore agreeable. Once back in camp at Gairlochthe reviving showers, warm, dry clothes, and agood meal were all that was needed to restoreour spirits, and we were able to reflect on howour survival instincts had enabled us to deal withprobably the toughest mountaineering challengeof the whole trip.

It was a time to celebrate the successfulconclusion of the whole ambitious plan: fourMunros and four Corbetts in a ten-day spell ofsustained physical activity, in the face of somedistinctly unpleasant weather conditions. We feltwe had good reason to be well satisfied with ourachievements.

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them bodily to higher, somewhat drier groundnear the stalkers’ track. All the while the rain waslashing down! If there was to be a low momenton the expedition, this was probably it, but all ourconcentration was focussed on re-pitching camp,keeping essential clothing and bedding dry, andgetting once more hunkered down for the night.We succeeded and survived. The rain finallystopped at hours later.

Day 5

At last a change in the weather! It was a coldnight, hardly surprising at 1500 feet, but the daydawned dry. Unusually, the day began with along descent to Carnmore along a very rough andstorm-damaged track. We were now enjoying realsunshine for the first time. What a change it madeto the landscape. The steep climb up from Carn-

more went well, following the fine stalkers’ trackwhich then led up more gently to its high pointabove Lochan Feith Mhic-Iillean ,where we left itfor the 2½ km climb up to the rounded plateau ofBeinn a Chaisgein Mor.The views from thesummit were breathtakingly beautiful. We had acomplete panorama in wonderful light encom-

passing whole Fisherfield Forest, with all theMunros. To the north Poolewe was visible, andbeyond it, and across the sea, the OuterHebrides. This one day made the whole trip andall its discomfort utterly worthwhile. After recross-ing the causeway we had the tiring final ascentback up to the Bealach Mheinnidh. It had taken8½ hours to reach this most remote of allCorbetts, but what a day we’d had! There was noquestion of moving camp. Dinner and bed werethe only two things needed.

Day 6

The full moon appeared for the first time lastnight! We’d known it was there, as it had nevergone fully dark, but it was lovely to see the clear,moon and starlit sky, even though it was anotherpretty cold night. We rose to a still and dry morn-ing, with some early cloud which promised toclear into another sunny day. We packed up andset off down towards Letterewe. After someuncertainty we managed to locate the publictrack through the Letterewe grounds onto theLoch Maree shore path. Although sunshine couldbe seen everywhere, a rogue shower suddenlyappeared, dampening us for a short while, untilthe sun and warmth happily reappeared. A steepdescent brought us to the Gleann Bianasdailbridge. Full circle! There was however anotherone and a half hour’s walking to put behind usbefore we could recover the car and check intothe Kinlochewe Hotel bunkhouse to enjoy thedelights of a shower, shave and change ofclothes. After six days we felt like new men. Wefinished the day with a splendid three-coursemeal in the hotel dining room. The pièce de résis-tance was of course the dram of Macallan orDalwhinnie which rounded off the evening!

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Left: Fionn Loch and Beinn a Chaisgein Morfrom Bealach Mheinnidh

Above: Torridon hills from camp on BealachMheinnidh

Clear road, blue skies and we had found a park-ing space. Things were looking up. The ascent wasin the lee of the mountain – still looking good.Well above the snow line we decided to doncrampons and extricate ice axes from ourbaggage. Twenty metres below the summit it wascold and windy but O.K. Mike held back to allowme to gain the summit first. Thanks! As I top out Iam rammed by a wall of wind that stops me in mytracks. The summit and its shelter are only 10 feetaway but I can hardly move. Almost crawling, Ieventually reach the shelter but its entrance is onthe windward side and the trig is inside it. I edgeround the side of the shelter and am brought to acomplete standstill. No chance of moving forward– just standing still was an effort. Mike hunkersdown behind the wall – smugly - as he has noneed to go nearer, having already been there. Thetrig is only four feet away but might as well be amile. I move in next to Mike for a rest.

I risk lifting my head above the shelter of thewall and then, summoning all my resolve, tacklethe rime-covered wall straight on. I use my ice axeto anchor myself and gradually ‘ascend’ the wall,throwing myself over to land at the foot of thetrig point. Five more to go.

Tuesday – Ben Vane

Tuesday dawned with azure sky, sunshine andno wind. Still very cold though. It was time tohead off for Ben Vane. Perfect conditions prevail,but it is a very steep climb. We gained the summitwithout resorting to crampons but there wereone or two dicey moments. The summit is spec-tacular – flat, glassy iced and calm, with360-degree views. Now there are only four moreto go - including Ben Lomond, which at thismoment is standing out tantalisingly in thedistance.

It’s nearly sunbathing temperature, but weneed to get down. We make a slow descent toappreciate the Alpine-like panorama - a contrastof deep blue and shimmering white. Blades ofgrass glint with diamond encrustations. Cram-ponned boots break through creaking, crustyslopes of snow. Ice axes puncture the drifts, leav-ing deep blue holes. We pass fantastic icesculptures reminiscent of wind sculpted sand-stone from the Grand Canyon, but in shades ofblue and dazzling white. What an exquisite day.

Thursday – Meall Chorrainach/ Choire Leith

This is our third attempt this week. The roadwas still completely blocked on Tuesday. A slightthaw allowed us to get the car close enough, buta 2km trek up the road was required to reach ourstarting point. Snow on the hill was soft andawkward. A thin veil of mist hung over the high-est ground and a very defined cloud levelskimmed the top of Corrainaich. Breaks in thecloud created a patchwork of sun and shade onthe surrounding snow- spattered mountains andglens, although the mist did not create the navi-gation problems we had anticipated. Meall a’Choire Leith was a much lower top and well clearof the cloud base.

A speedy descent down the snow slopes wascancelled out by a struggle over tufty peat hagsand bogs to regain the road. Our progress alongthe dam road was more efficient for us on footthan for the ‘4 wheel driver’ who had tackled onedrift too many and had become well and trulystuck. We picked our way past and condescendedto inform the police on our return to Killin.

Half term had ended with four down and nowonly two to go. I was happy with that, consideringthe conditions we had encountered.

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The slog uphill began through snow that hadbuilt up into increasingly deep and expansive

drifts. Spindrift whipped up more forcibly asheight was gained. The tops were more in thanout of clag, but it was lifting often enough to seethe route clearly.

Tackling the snow on the leeside of the ridgeresulted in knee-deep wading and constant sink-ing up to my thighs. I was getting tired. I wantedthis top but was it worth the effort in these condi-tions? Occasional gusts of wind hit me likehammer blows. I decided to try for the shoulderon the skyline ahead and make my decision there.Plodding up and up with a curtain of ice crystalsspinning overhead, I stopped for a breather justbelow the shoulder. A violent gust of wind hit meand I was blown over backwards – my head downthe slope but still knee deep in snow. Withinseconds my face was encrusted with spindrift andfresh snow as a blizzard set in. Taking control Irighted myself and sat huddled, protecting myface from the icy onslaught. Seconds later thebarrage weakened. So did my resolve. A glanceupwards indicated increasing wind force and Itook the first opportunity to plough back downthrough the drifts – doing as much ‘bottom glis-sading’ as possible.

One nil to the hill, Sgurr a’ Bhealaich Dheirg.It was February half term. Mike and I had

headed once more up to Kinlochleven, with highhopes that I would at last complete the Munros. Ionly had six to bag and seven days in which to dothem. Day one over and I’d failed on the first onealready.

.

Sunday

I woke up at 7.30 looking straight up themountainside from my bedroom window. Treeswere at an angle of 45 degrees, only just visiblethrough a horizontal blizzard. Snow continued tofall until 12 p.m. when skies cleared and turnedblue. Idyllic? Not quite – what clouds there weretravelled at exceptionally high speed.

An afternoon’s walk beneath Beinn a Bheithirwitnessed two adventurous figures disappearingin vast clouds of spindrift, which swept from theridges and summit crest. Rather them than me.

Listening to the radio later that evening weheard that someone had gone missing on BenNevis over the weekend – last seen on Friday.Sobering news.

Monday

Due in Killin today – a prepaid booking so wehave to go. Gone is the chance to complete theMunros this trip. A glorious morning but thewind is still boisterous. Yesterday’s dump of snowmakes journeying dubious. But we do notencounter any great problems, just spectacularviews through Glencoe, Rannoch Moor, Orchyand onwards. Cobalt skies, shimmering snow.

We arrived at Killin and established ourselves atthe bunkhouse, then set off to tackle MeallCorrainach and Meall a’Choire Leith . Frustrationlevel was reached when we realised that the roadover to Glen Lyon was impassable and wequeued behind a cohort of vehicles to ‘aboutturn’. There was one last chance for the day, MeallGhaordie.

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The Final Countdown

Paula Carter

on a grassy ledge and waited. Ten minutes laterthe panorama opened up for us – and port andwhisky somehow found its way into our hands.Celebration was duly done!

Eventually we began the descent, following thecrest of the corrie ridge to enjoy views back to thetop, where the cliffs dropped steeply from thesummit ridge. The long path down gave a superbvista of the southern end of the loch – I’d neverrealised how many islands there were.

My first Munro (unknowingly) was Maol Chean-Dearg in Torridon, in 1984, before the term wasknown to me and when I was a novice withClitheroe Mountaineering Club. Doing theMunros has taken me to places in Scotland Imight never have visited and made me realisehow much more there is to be done, but please,No Corbetts!

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May – Sgurr a Bhealaich Dheirg (and SgurrFhuarail)

We left Kinlochleven at 9 a.m. to skirt the lochon its northern side, blue skies above with a thincrescent moon held high. Sunlight gilded thetops.

A haze of bluebells spread beneath a wood-land canopy, which included every hue of greenimaginable - bright lime to deepest viridian. Thecarpet of bluebells was interspersed with whorlsof ferns whose unfurled bronzed fronds sportedtightly coiled tips. The loch was held by a stillnesswhich created perfect symmetry: two moons, twoPaps, two of everything. A perfect prelude to theday. Could it be matched?

Passing Ben Nevis gave a view of gulliespacked with old snow and a recent smattering ofnew.

We reached the beginning of the walk alreadyelated. My elation momentarily declined as I sawMike paying too much attention to a rotting stagwhich had a fantastic pair of antlers. He wasthreatening to behead it and carry skull and tineson his back. Thankfully he thought better of itand backed off.

The day maintained its perfection and a coupleof hours later we sat on the summit enjoying anexhilarating panorama. To the north-west layTorridon with the white pointed massif of BeinnEighe highlighted in a spot of sunlight. Flurries ofsnow showers skimmed all the tops, leaving themfreshly dusted. To the west, the Cuillin of Skyewere silhouetted against a pale blue horizon. Thesurrounding sea was deep ultramarine and there,far in the distance, were the hazy shapes of theHebrides. To the south, the Ben dominated theskyline. Gullies filled with snow were evidenteven from this distance. A sudden shaft of

sunlight lit up the domed top of Aanoch Mor, stillsporting the morning’s snow fall.

We sat and sat and sat. Other Munroists joinedus and left us as we sat mesmerised. Eventuallythe decision to move was made and we followeda mica-encrusted path that glittered and twinkledas we made our way up Sgurr Fhuarail for thesecond time, before our final sharp descent to thecar. Only Ben Lomond left but it would have towait. The weather turned against us again thefollowing day.

August

So, here it was, the day of my final Munro. Theforecast said that all the clag and showers woulddissipate over the day – but who believes Scottishforecasts? – Fickle at the best of times. I decidethat I will keep going as long as I’m not walking inthick mist. I have promised myself that my lastMunro WILL have a view from it.

The walk by Loch Lomond is not promising,but as we turn off the West Highland Way tozigzag through bracken and birch towards theknobbles of Ptarmigan Ridge, the mist swirls andreveals a shoulder of Ben Lomond – so be it – I gofor it.

Approaching from the Ptarmigan Ridge givessuperb views north and west and has to bepreferred to the slog up the tourist route. It iseasy going all the way, but with sufficient drop offeither side of the ridge to create interest. A finalshort sharp climb leads directly to the summit.

Clouds scudding across the sky reveal distantpeaks, a classic view of the Cobbler, mountaintops appearing and disappearing from of sight. Itwas going to be left to luck as to whether wewould see anything from the top. As the trigpoint came into view, the wind strengthened andthe clouds closed in. We tucked ourselves down

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Craving sun, warmth and multi-day hut-to-hutwalking, but don't fancy the jet lag incurred

visiting New Zealand? Then read on ...Having handed over Warden duties at Waters

Cottage to Assistant Warden Dee Gaffney forseven weeks, I was on my way to South America,straight after the last series of Committee Meet-ings for the year. I was away from late November2014 to mid January 2015. The idea was to visitthe Argentinian Lakes District ahead of the busyperiod from Christmas through to the end ofFebruary, which is also before the tabanos -horseflies - become a menace. The trip startedwith a couple days at Iguazu Falls on theArgentina/ Brazil border, then I flew to Bariloche,close to the border between Argentina and Chileand hub for the Lago Nahuel Huapi National Park.This is quite a commercial place, with a thrivingski season - they see a lot of snow here during theSouthern winter - and arriving in early summer,the white stuff was much in evidence. Indeed,there had been a snow storm in town, elevation770m above sea level, only a week or so before.

Whilst I had booked my flights for this trip backin February 2014, I had suffered a blood clot - aDVT, or deep vein thrombosis - behind my rightknee in late August. My only risk factor was beingthe wrong side of age 50, and for a few months Idid not know if I would even be able to travel toSouth America; I could barely walk for a fortnight.Two trips, one to Central Asia and the other toMorocco, had to be cancelled - thank heavens forBMC Travel Insurance - but things slowlyimproved with the help of anti-coagulant drugs

and compression stockings, and in early Novem-ber the hospital gave me the all clear to travel. 

The problem was, three months of relativeinactivity had robbed me of my fitness. So after aday ferreting out info around town, my first dayon the hill was going to be an easy stroll at most.It was cool and clear, so I stayed at low level,riding the local buses to Bahia Lopez, at theextreme west end of the road network in thePark, then doing a short walk to a viewpoint - ormirador - overlooking the Brazo Tristeza arm ofLago Nahuel Huapi. After, I discovered anunsigned path to another mirador above themain part of the lake, and went up a wee woodedhill, Cerro Llao Llao, for views back to my earlierwanderings. Nearby I caught a different local busback into town.  A four hour warm up, feelinggood, so next day I took a bus to the ski area ofCerro Catedral, only to find that the uplift was notin operation today. NOT expected, on a Sunday!Undeterred, and feeling the need for a decentcardiovascular workout, I plodded up the approx-imate line of the lifts - 1,000m elevation - in acouple hours.  This gave access to a high levelridge, mainly walking, occasional use of thehands, but not really scrambling.  The views allaround were impressive, particularly to glaciatedMonte Tronador on the frontier range.  My recon-naissance ended an hour or so along the ridge,followed by a return to the valley through the sadsummertime detritus of an out of season ski area.

But the recce had been very worthwhile.  Themain objective in the area is the traverse of thehigh ridges, hut to hut, in the National Park and itwas obvious that for the moment there was too

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Argentinian Lake District

Mark Gear

Above: View W from Penthouse 1004,Bariloche

Right: Cerro Lopez from Cerrito LlaoLlao, Nahuel Huapi NP

ble, given the early season snow conditions.  Thelie of the land is a twisting ridge with five mainarroyos - valleys - descending east towardsBariloche as possible escape routes, and by theend of my stay here I was to be familiar with mostof them!

So on the intended first day of my four daytraverse I signed the necessary disclaimer at theNP office to allow me to do the route as describedabove.  I caught the bus to Catedral ski area, andthe cabin/chairlift up onto Cerro Catedral at2,000m. 

The weather was perfect as I took an hour toreach the point where I turned back on my earliervisit, the snow patches noticeably smaller thanthey had been 10 days ago.  Then onto newground, although more of the easy scramblysame, to reach the pass of Cancha de Futbol inanother hour.  There are large flat gravel areashere, but not really big enough for a game offootball ...  At this point Refugio Frey is down tothe left, Jakob to the right.  The latter was my way,a long descent into Arroya Rucaco, steep andloose, although runnable scree/dirt near thebottom.  Then into the cool forest for a stretch,hearing the ‘Clonk! Clonk!’ of Patagonian wood-peckers.  I imagined the refugio was at the headof this valley, but I had not looked at the map inenough detail.  The path came out into moreopen scrubby forest, then onto a plateau of scree,and finally climbed an easy snow slope withthawing zig-zag tracks to another crest!  Jakobwas down the other side of this, and the view wasincredible, with the lake far below and the pinna-cles of Cerro Cuernos del Diablo on the horizon.Another steep, loose descent - not runnable thistime - then away through forest, the path all treeroots, to reach a bridge over the lake outflow andso the hut.  The place was quite busy, with maybe

twenty folk in residence; perhaps a foretaste ofthe busy period to come.

Although the warden had very little English, Imanaged to query the route ahead with him, andthe story was that you needed crampons, an iceaxe, helmet and a mountain guide!  At the time Ididn't entirely believe him, thinking that thiswarning was designed to discourage the interna-tional backpacking brigade, many of whom havenever even seen snow, although what I saw thenext morning bore it out.  But on the strength ofwhat he said I decided not to risk the high levelroute, and instead return to Bariloche.  This wouldcomplete a circuit through the southern end ofthe range; I could then come back and do anorthern circuit to conclude my exploration.

Overnight it was cold, and there was a frostoutside the refugio on rising.  After breakfast(cooked on a wood burning stove) I went for anhour and a half side trip to Laguna de LosTempanos.  Very nice, although to reach itinvolved crossing some hard frozen snow slopesof icy névé.  From here, I could see the way uponto the crest - looked very steep and intimidat-ing - and the route beyond appeared to be atypical Alpine ridge.  Not the sort of thing to dowearing Yaktrax and using a trekking pole!Perhaps it will not be until later season (January?)that the route becomes 'doable' by walkers ratherthan properly equipped climbers.

The way out of here was a long, long walkdown Arroyo Casa de Piedra.  That said, it wasquite nice, and something new.  Mature foresthigh up, more open lower down, with lovelyviews of the river and the mountains.  I reachedthe gravel road at the end after four hours, withstill 5 km to go to where I could catch a bus. Imanaged to thumb a lift for a kilometre or so ofthis - in a beaten up junker (always pays to say

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much snow to attempt this.  So I took the bussouth two hours to the town of El Bolson, 400mlower and more in the rain shadow of the highfrontier peaks.  The mountains are still quite highhere, though...  A week doing a four day routeand climbing a couple of 2,000m+ tops followed,and after that I reckoned the thaw was now wellenough advanced, and the dicky leg sufficientlytested, to warrant a return to Bariloche.  What'smore a spell of fine, settled weather had becomestationary over the region - not to be wasted.

My bible was the Lonely Planet guidebook'Trekking in the Patagonian Andes’.  Whilst thisdescribes the high level route in Lago NahuelHuapi NP over four nights, staying at RefugiosFrey, Jakob, Laguna Negra and Lopez, thisseemed slightly illogical to me, as on day one youmust descend 250m to Frey, and then on day tworeascend to the same point in order to continue;my solution was to plan on four days, headingdirectly to Jakob on day one.  However, beforesetting out there was some doubt about whetherthe route from Jakob to Laguna Negra was feasi-

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Laguna Jakob and Cerro Cuernos del Diablo, Nahuel Huapi NP

good; the menu, which I include here to give thereader an idea what to expect, was vegetablesoup with bread, followed by meat and beanstew with white rice and more bread, finishingwith a dessert of tinned peaches, dulce leche (thecaramelised sugar and milk spread that is popularin this part of the world), nuts and wafers.

There were only three other folk staying when Icrashed early, totally knackered.  Unfortunatelythree more arrived soon after, and sat up chattingand laughing with the warden until pastmidnight!

Day four was another gorgeous day; it washard to believe that rain and mist were forecasttomorrow.  After breakfast and observing a foxsitting on the rocks nearby I was away early for along, sometimes rocky descent of the path toArroyo Negro, fortunately soon in the shade.There was a two tier water slide/fall to enjoy, andthen a couple hours down the valley to ColoniaSuiza.  This arroyo is quite different from Casa de

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‘Buenos dias!’ to people you see parked by theside of the road) but still rather foot sore onreaching tarmac.

So after an afternoon and evening of R&R inthe fleshpots I was back out on the morning ofday three.  I didn't start too early, given what I hadseen the day before; it would not pay to reach thesnow line until the morning thaw was underway.I took the local bus to Puente Lopez, and startedwalking up the eponymous arroyo to RefugioLopez from there.  It's a steep 1,000m climb fromthe road , taking a couple hours.  For a good waythe dusty trail cuts through the line of the hutaccess track, until finally joining it to approachand spiral around the hill on which the hut(painted pink) sits.  They have a wee swimmingpool round the back for their water supply ...  Itook a breather here, loaded up with more waterfor the rest of the day and advised the guardi-enne of my intentions.

The climb up from the refugio to Pico Turista isonly about 300m, but it's steep and rocky - a tadscrambly - for a fair way, following red paint dots.Eventually it is easier to plod up snow slopes,already tracked, but higher still it was back ontorock (less tiring) before a final snow crest and apass to the left of the prominent dark triangularpeak of Punta Negra.  From here it is just a strollto the right to the summit.  Fantastic view, includ-ing Monte Tronador nearby, further out VolcanOsorno and further still Volcan Puntiagudo, boththe latter in Chile.  Think I saw a condor too ...

Returning to the pass, there was a long, longdescent of a bouldery slope into a bowl southwest of this branch of the range.  The path wasonly intermittent, waymarking poor, and therocks sharp, angular and unstable; any slip wouldprobably have resulted in a blood letting.  Sufficeto say, I took my time and was very careful.  While

busy with this, it occurred to me that the onlything worse than coming down here would begoing up it!  Eventually I was able to run somesnow patches, cut right to a stony plateau, anddescend to a marshy meadow fringed withstunted Southern Beech.  This was the only shadebetween Refugios Lopez and Laguna Negra, so agood spot for a late lunch, even if there werebuzzing tabanos.

The way ahead looked daunting to jaded legs,now on their fifth consecutive hill day.  CerroBailey Willis rose like the Red Cuillin on steroids...The sometimes indistinct path climbed into acorrie on its north side, and I slowly slogged up tothe head of this and a prominent cairn at a pass.Joy of joys, the route did not go to the top of thepeak, but instead traversed more stable blockyground to the next col, and the first view down toLaguna Negra.  There was a short ascent, then along descent to below the great rocky tower ofCerro Negro, before cutting left down more snowand then gentle slopes to the sometimes peatycorrie above the lake.  From here the refugioappears only a short way across the water, but toreach it you have to walk two thirds of the wayround the shoreline to the east, quite a bit of thisfollowing tracks across old thawing snowdrifts.  Afew of these seem to overhang the laguna, sosomeone might be in for a wetting on the daythey collapse!  There was even a little mauvaispas, a rocky step equipped with (slack) fixed ropeand mini stemples, before more snow and at lasta path over a rocky knoll to the lake outflow andthe hut.

This is an unusual place.  It has a triangularfootprint, which helps it survive avalanches in thewinter.  The warden had a smattering of English,and I had the Pension Completo; DB&B.  This wasreasonable value, and the dinner particularly

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Cerro Bailey Willis from descent of PicoTurista, Nahuel Huapi NP

able, but very relaxed, no TV, free Internet and Wifi,a filling breakfast starting at 7 a.m. included in theprice, firm mattresses and helpful English speakingstaff.

- Consult Club Andino Bariloche for trail condi-tions, Tourist Information for bus timetables, and atthe National Park office register your plans.  All are ashort stagger from the Bariloche Centre, and youcan usually find someone speaking English heretoo.

- Weather forecasting in the area seems to be quitereliable.  Try:http://es.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Catedral/6day/midor:http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=27282&sty=m_spot

- Best map for trekking is Aoneker San Carlos deBariloche, 1:50,000.  You CAN buy it in advance inthe UK at Stanfords or similar, but it is muchcheaper - only A$50 - on arrival.  Main trails shownon the map are generally easy to follow, beingequipped with signs and paint dots on rocks andtrees; secondary trails don't exist!

- Reservations cannot be made at the refugios inthe National Park, but in early season they are onlybusy at all at weekends, particularly on Saturdaynights.  Most are a 3 - 4 hour walk from the nearestroad.

And some tips:

- Don't change your US$ at the bank.  There seemsto be a semi official black market, operated in shopson the main drag - Mitre - where the rate is 50%better.

- Refugios are equipped with mattresses, of vari-able quality; you may prefer to bring athermarest.  Hut slippers are not provided, so flipflops are a good idea for boot-bruised feet.

- Bariloche uses prepaid magnetic cards for mostbus journeys.  The cards can be bought atnewsagents for A$11 each, and the minimum credit

chargeable is A$10; most bus journeys cost eitherA$6 or A$12.  At the end of your stay give away your(hopefully exhausted) card.

- Argentina is a great place for carnivores, butvegetarian options are pretty good too, and fordehydrated trail food veggie is the way to go.

- Good cakes at Jauja on Moreno; Selva Negra -Black Forest Gateau - particularly recommended.

- At roughly latitude 40 degrees south, dawn is at5.30 a.m. and dusk at 9.30 p.m. in December.  After-noon temperatures in the valley are a comfortablemid 20s Celsius.  The area does not seem to beprone to the high winds experienced in the betterknown areas of Fitzroy and Paine, ten degrees oflatitude further south.

- If it comes to it, don't let the idea of going aloneput you off; I met lots of interesting folk to chatwith, and my Spanish is minimal.  And when youfeel the need to speak to someone at home, buy aprepaid international telephone card for A$20; 50minutes talk time on a Sunday morning! 

*Actually, it’s The Lakes District - but why spoilwhat is a good title  for the F&RCC Journal?

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Piedra; it feels wilder and rougher, with a greaternumber of boggy bits crossed by tree branches,and more mature forest.  it also drops at a steadyangle and is shorter.  For much of the way down Iwas accompanied by a friendly dog, a BorderCollie/Greyhound cross; I think she had come upwith a couple of local runners, and decided to goback down with me!  Argentina seems to have alot of semi-stray dogs about, some running inpacks, others begging titbits at bus stops andoutside shops.  I lost her at the village, which hasa sleepy Swiss log cabin vibe about it.  An hour tolook around, and I was on a bus back to Bariloche.

The day after the predicted rain arrived, and Ihad a good fester.  It was now time to move on,and the next day I rode the buses again into Chilefor more trekking destinations.  The trip woundup with Hogmanay on Easter Island, and visitingSantiago and Valparaiso thereafter - but that'sanother story.

How to do it:

- KLM out of Amsterdam is usually the best airlineto fly from Europe to South America.  Directovernight flights from Schipol are available toBuenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, but if like meyou are time rich, money poor, consider a routingwith more stops.  This saved me several hundredPounds.  On the way out I had an eight hour layoverin Sao Paulo, Brazil, not a bad thing. With my ther-marest and a travel pillow in cabin luggage, andTamazepam in my money belt, I managed a fewhours shut eye, so was a lot fresher on arrival.  Onthe way back from Santiago I had a stop in PanamaCity, although without the layover this time.

- Once at Buenos Aires International, you will haveto transfer to the Domestic terminal for an onwardconnection to Bariloche.  MTL run shuttle busesevery 30 minutes, starting at 6 a.m., but BA traffic isawful, so allow 90 minutes for the journey!

- LAN appear to be the most punctual domesticairline, certainly better than Aerolineas Argentinas.

- Once in Bariloche, there are buses every couplehours or so - last at 10.15 p.m. - into the centre.  Theairport is 15km out of town.  Better is probably ataxi, known locally as a remise, but this will cost upto A$200.  US$1 = A$12.5 at time of writing (but seetips below). 

- In town I based myself exclusively at the hostelknown as Penthouse 1004.  This is very central, onthe 10th (top) floor of the Bariloche Centre, withlovely views across the lake to the mountains -particularly at dawn.  Not the cheapest place avail-

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Waterslides between Laguna Negra andArroyo Negro, Nahuel Huapi NP

the lavas and faults haveeroded to form cliffs andgullies.

North East Africa is cut byseveral branches of the GreatRift Valley system. The SimienMountains plateau lies in thenorthern part of theEthiopian Dome, an area ofuplift, formed during earlystages of the crustal rupturewhich caused the rifting. TheSimien and other ranges inEast Africa are not ‘real’ moun-tains in the geological(orogenic) sense. Rather theyare volcanoes or uplifted faultblocks of metamorphic andvolcanic rocks erupted as rift-ing began to split East Africa.

Another natural historicalattraction of the trek is theease with which the animalsand birds can be seen at close quarters. Thecentral Simien area is a national park but still hasits local crop farming and herding inhabitants.Wildlife is protected and plentiful. It includestroops of surprisingly relaxed but ferocious-look-ing gelada monkeys who have the unfortunatehabit of wandering into camp to graze andrummage. We saw ibex, klipspringer gazelle andan Ethiopian red ‘wolf’. Overhead are eagles andLammergeier vultures. The ‘dip’ slope of theescarpment is rolling country with the exotic floratypical of East African uplands, including giantgroundsel and lobelia.

The ups and downs of the traverse gave us agood programme of acclimatisation. It is surpris-

ing how ‘living’ and exercising at altitude canmake life almost normal at 4000m. This was fortu-nate since at the end of the escarpment was asteep descent to Greenland ‘hotel’ in Chiro Liba(2700m), then across the river and at the end ofthe day a hard 450m climb to Ras Dashen ‘base-camp’ at Ambijo on the edge of a scruffy villagecalled Misma (3150m).

A cold 5.00am start next morning was followedby seven hours steady, sometimes breathless,uphill walking ending with a shortish but quite

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Ras Dashen (4543m), the highest peak inEthiopia, seemed an attractive addition to my

ever more slowly accumulating collection of fourthousand metre peaks. I was therefore verypleased to team up with a trekking friend and agroup of jolly, entertaining and well-supplied(with Jameson whiskey) Irish mountain walkersfor a trek in the Simien Mountains, in a planculminating with a scramble to the summit of RasDashen.

Ethiopia, a strange, Christian country, has fasci-nated me since reading tales of Prester John.Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novels and his autobio-graphical account of time as a warcorrespondent, during the ruthless Italian inva-sion of Abyssinia in 1935, are good light readingfor anyone interested in the country’s relativelyrecent history. Apart from the short and brutalItalian occupation, Ethiopia is the only country inAfrica which maintained independence from thecolonial powers, under the governance of a seriesof eccentric emperors culminating in the famousHaile Selassie. In later years it became a Sovietclient state and there are still signs of the formercommunist connection today – in the form ofhard-drinking Russian ‘advisors’ who one occa-sionally encounters in Addis Ababa social life.

Our travels began with a bumpy local flightfrom Addis to Gonder, ancient capital and thestarting point for our mountain journey. Fromthere we continued with a much bumpier fivehour/100km mini-bus ride to Debark, where thebureaucracy of national park permits and porterteam assembly caused the usual tedious delay.

Finally we departed, accompanied by Kalashnikovand Lee-Enfield 303 toting ‘park rangers’ and agaggle of cheerful urchins.

This part of Ethiopian countryside is desper-ately impoverished but the people, despite theircircumstances, are touchingly friendly. Tourismhas not yet created the beggar class and the onlydishonesty I encountered on the whole trip wasan attempted pocket pick while travelling in amicro-bus in central Addis.

From Debark, we rambled eastwards acrossopen, gently rolling country to our first night’scamp at Buyit Ras on the upper plateau. TheSimien Mountains are dominated by an impres-sive 2000m, north facing escarpment along theedge of which the trail to Ras Dashen switch-backs, making the trek more like a exaggeratedcoastal cliff path than a normal mountain walk.

From Buyit Ras, the trek followed the undulat-ing escarpment crest, mostly about 3500-4000melevation, took five days, with overnight camps atGich and Chenek before a big descent to crossthe valley to Ras Dashen base camp at Ambijo.The trail is a great experience with views southacross the plateau to central Ethiopia and northtowards Eritrea across badland terrain far below.We encountered locals making shopping trips bywalking 1500m up the escarpment to reachDebark. The dramatic cliffs are formed by innu-merable basalt lava layers. The rock itself erodesto spectacular towers and pinnacles, up several ofwhich we scrambled for views. Where the path ison bare rock, dykes and veins of basalt criss-cross

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Ras Dashen and a Geological Ramble in the Simien Mountains ofEthiopia.

John McM Moore

The Simien Escarpment. Ras Dashen inthe distance. The trail follows the edge of

the cliffs.

separating from Africa and the African plate is di-viding into two along rift fractures. During theprocess of plate separation, the crust stretches andthins before it breaks apart allowing eruption of‘new’ volcanic, ocean floor along what is the begin-ning of a mid-oceanic ridge. The area of crustal

stretching and thinning includes the low lying, aridterrain of the Afar adjacent to the Red Sea and Ara-bian Sea coast.During the period of crustal stretching, thinningand uplift in the early stages of rifting enormousquantities of ‘flood’ basalt lavas are erupted. TheSimien Mountains lie in the northern part of an ex-tensive area of lavas erupted as early rift faultswhich split the Ethiopian Dome. On-going move-ment keeps faults active. Uplift and erosion duringand after faulting created the plateau, scarps andmany other dramatic geomorphological featuresin the Simien Mountains.

Map: Simien Mountains, Ethiopia 1:100k Centrefor Development and Environment, University ofBern, CH. 2010.

Wood J. and Guth A. East Africa’s Rift Valley: A Com-plex Rift System. Michigan Technical University.Geology.comhttp://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtmlA short illustrated description of part of the GreatEast African Rift for the non-technical reader.

Geol map jpeg Tectonic Geology of the Ethiopia,Red Sea, Gulf of Aden Area. Wood J. and Guth A.http://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtml

Structure map jpeg Tectonic Plate boundariesand dome structures in North East Africa. Wood J.and Guth A. http://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift.shtm

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exposed grade 2 scramble over fractured basaltto the summit of our mountain. An ascent ofnearly 1400m starting from over 3000m is amemorable experience and certainly not one totake on without a reasonable amount of acclima-tisation, as I have learned the hard way on otheroccasions.

Views from the summit were dramatic, extend-ing across miles of open country to misty, distant

horizons. This is an unusual landscape – nojagged mountains, only tens of kilometres ofrolling, scrub-covered hills and dramatic blackcliffs. We were glad to return dusty, after twelvehours walking, to Dashen beers and an impro-vised shower.

The return journey entailed another twelvehour trudge across country, with calls to samplehome grown coffee, to another camp on theedge of the escarpment at Sona. Next day thedownhill began seriously with a 1200m descentto the river and Mekarabya. It was warmer alongthe river with views upward to our route alongthe escarpment edge 1500m above, ending atMulit from where the evening light of pastelcolours highlighted a world of towers and pinna-cles, complete with an Old Man of Storr look-alikeneedle. The last section brought us back to theworld of fields, walls and barking dogs, ending ata very scruffy bar in Adi Arkay whence after muchhand shaking and back slapping we were bussedback to Debark along a mountain road whichwould not be out of place in Nepal.

Then it was back to Gonder for some sightsee-ing among the seventeenth century castles and ascary tail wind take-off to Addis, as the culmina-tion of great and highly recommendable peakbagging trek. For me it ended with a couple ofdrinks with the Russians and frankincense (Christ-mas present) purchase at the Addis souk.

Geological Note

The area where the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and EastAfrican Rift Valley meet is a unique geological cu-riosity. Tectonic plate boundaries in the floor of theArabian and Red Seas encounter the northern endof the rift system near the Ethiopian coast in whatis termed a ‘triple plate junction’. This is an area ofintense tectonic activity where the Arabian plate is

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Above: The Greenland hotel. Chiro LebaBelow: The Escarpment from below Sona on the de-

scent to the river Ansiya Wenz.

out from the tangle we found that one ofSandy's skis had released and a pulk tow-bar was badly damaged.

As the storm raged on and the hourgrew late, with darkness now approach-ing, we re-assessed the situation anddecided that the least risk lay in digging infor an emergency bivouac to wait fordaylight. This we did after checking thatthe rest of the slope above us would notsend down further debris onto our posi-tion. After the effort of digging we gotunder cover and into shelter, insulatedfrom the snow and wind. The night wouldbe cold for sure, but survival skills andexperience count so we were not undulyanxious.

In the early hours the winds abatedand quiet calm took over. The cloudscleared to a bright moonlit sky and look-ing out we could work out our preciseposition - annoyingly just three kilome-tres from our destination. As the dawncame, bringing sunshine, we harnessedup for the last lap. One short sharp uphillstretch led to the long run down to thebig hut. Reaching the door, I encounteredan old friend, the lovely lady who runs theplace. She was overjoyed to see us,having worried somewhat over our non-arrival the previous day, and we wereushered inside to an immediate enor-mous breakfast.

We actually then stayed for a wholeweek, with day after day of superb weatherwhich allowed us to make some splendidmountain outings. I also found time torepair the damaged pulk bars As is oftenthe way, we found that other hut guests

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With plans firmed up and arrangements inplace for a return trip to Greenland, it was

time for us to think about another lengthy skimountaineering venture over in Norway - a tele-mark skier's fix, which would also double as goodphysical preparation for the Arctic.

Sandy and I had talked about the possibility ofusing pulks (a sort of sled for moving kit) inNorway and we had made a deal to rent twosmall ones, towing which on hut transfer dayswould be an interesting experiment. Off we went,then, to the Jotunheimen mountains, which inthis year, 2015, were heavily snowed up. Wefound our ski legs and had some good days outuntil the time arrived to load the pulks and moveon. Our route would take us along a big frozenlake to a small hut, then another day's travel to afull-service hut further west. Traversing the lakewas a long haul over bare ice into a head wind soit was good to arrive at the small hut, alreadywarmed up as there were other occupants. Thepulks seemed to work well.

The following day brought deterioratingweather - hill fog and rising wind - but the routewas known to us so we set off in any case. Early inthe winter season, not all of the routes betweenhuts are marked so we were not surprised even-tually to stop seeing the marker sticks. Visibilitybegan to get very poor and Sandy and I actuallygot separated for a while and out of contact. Afterwe'd found each other again, we decided to linkthe two pulks together with a few metres of thinrope so that we would remain in contact. The fogthickened further and the wind strength and

speed increased. Without at first realising it, wewere pushed off course onto the wrong direction.

Later on, by the time we'd expected to bedescending, a fortuitous lifting in the fogrevealed mountain features we recognised andwe could re-orientate ourselves, but at the cost ofa change of route, albeit another one we hadexperience of, so we pressed on. The hourspassed but the storm did not. Perseveranceground down the distance and we regained amarked trail section. The quantities of snowcoupled with the high wind had though, causedmany markers to fall and disappear, so we usedslow compass work and memory to moveforward. Knowing that at a certain point we'dneed to make a pronounced left turn into a smallvalley, we strained to see as the wind redoubledits efforts to knock us over. We did turn left, andafter a short while I realised that the location wasnot correct, but I also knew that this way rejoinedthe intended route a bit further on. In gloomylight I pushed my skis forward to a point wherethe slope fell away more steeply. As we had thepulks, choice of line was more restricted so Icalled to Sandy behind me that a few sidestepsdown would be needed.

One step, two steps - then a muffled "whumpf".The slope released and took me, then the pulk,then a second later because of the thin linkingrope also took Sandy and her pulk down in afrightening rush. Luckily the avalanche did notbury us and we tumbled to a halt after a scaryslide of forty or fifty metres. We established thatneither of us was hurt, but in sorting ourselves

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To The Tops - and Even a Bit Over The Top 2015 - Norway and Green-land

Jim Gregson

Above: Falketind and Hurrungane peaks fromLangeskavlen, Jotunheimen

Below: Approaching summit of Bukkehoe, central Jotunheimen.

allowed us to make an impressive bunch of firstascents of unclimbed peaks, plus some good newroutes to previously climbed summits, with varia-tions on days when we made some great ski tourswith fabulous descents.

Our outings included four north face firsts onpeaks in the Seven Dwarfs group, a new routeand traverse on Castle Peak, a first ascent ofFarfarer Peak (the Dennis Davis Memorial Route)plus first ascents of the south faces of Hvithornand Lewty Peak. We also made a big new route onthe north face of Mount Mighty (Snake in theOutback), a repeat of Longridge Peak and a new

route on it from the east (Cryogenic). Two peoplemade the very lengthy approach and return tomake the first ascent of the big Lancstuk peak.

When we returned from Cryogenic onLongridge Peak, there were some anxious faces incamp. Their owners had skied out west fromcamp and after only a short distance had discov-ered a fresh set of polar bear tracks coming downthe glacier. The ski tour was aborted in favour of areturn to camp with its firearms. The next day wewent to inspect these tracks and, yes, they wereimpressive. Obviously, a BIG polar bear had goneby, leaving very large and deep footprints withcharacteristic dragging clawmarks. Fortunately hedidn't see us and we didn't see him but he had

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included friends from Australia and Germany sowe had good company for the evenings. We alsomet a few others - two young Norwegian womensoldiers who had turned back from the stormwe'd endured, and two Danes who'd had a sleep-less noisy night in another small hut while wewere sitting in our snowhole. We smiled indul-gently at their tales.

After our great week we moved on again, overtwo days via a small remote hut. From there wehad to cross over a high pass with the pulks. Inthe course of a steep descent, fog again rolled in,complicating things as we sought a gentler line.All of a sudden, my skis tipped down and I fell,followed by the pulk. I immediately thought "Thismight hurt!" then was pile-driven into deep snowwith the pulk crashing into my chest. It did hurt,as I frantically yelled to let Sandy know that I wasalive. Without even seeing it I had skied straightover the top of a small crag! I might say I was finehaving landed in snow rather than boulders, butall was not well. Another pulk tow-bar waswrecked, but worse, for me, I now had severebruising and one or more cracked ribs - and onlyhalfway through our holiday.

Sorely, we pulled to the next large hut andgave ourselves another week of comfortable stay.There was another workshop session to fix thesecond busted tow-bar set, but despite my ribproblem we did get out most days for some goodskiing, including an ascent to one of the bigmountains we'd eyed up for several years.

The rest of our Jotunheimen trip was mostlyvery good apart from some awkward pulk workon a couple of days. My ribs were sore, but moreof a problem when turning over in bed ratherthan out on the hill. We met more friends and gotsome excellent skiing done. On reflection thepulks were not ideally suited to the Jotunheimen

mountains; the terrain is a bit too much up anddown and neither steep ascents nor steepdescents are very easy when towing a loadedpulk, so more thought may be needed aboutshedding weight from rucksack loads to becarried.

After returning from Norway only three weekswere to elapse before we would leave for EastGreenland. I'd pulled together another group,from friends and Alpine Club contacts, making ussix in all. Sandy and I were making a third visit tothe striking and beautiful mountains of NorthLiverpool Land. By the time we flew out to Icelandmy ribs were almost back to normal. From Reyk-javik we drove for six hours to the northern townof Akureyri and from there took a charter flightover the ocean and pack ice to the small airstripat Constable Pynt. Straight back into markedlysub-zero conditions.

We had to wait for a day for the Tangent SnowDragons snowmobiles to return from extractinganother group from the Staunings Alps. Thisgroup had been quite seriously avalanched andsustained some injuries so were pulling out early.The next morning we loaded up the 'train' of foursnowmobiles and their big Siglin cargo sledges togo north for about 80km to the icecap of NorthLiverpool Land. By using GPS steering we weretaken to and dropped off at a spot just 50m fromour basecamp location of 2014. This positionallows very good access to the mountains on skis,but more importantly maximises the time whentents are in sunshine. This is very important in thetail-end of an Arctic winter.

Conditions, both of snow and weather, gotbetter and better after the first couple of verycold days. We spent a day or two on shakedowntrips, and then had a prolonged spree of wonder-ful skiing and climbing. The long sunny days

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Basecamp 2015, North Liverpool Land

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been close - while I slept with a loaded rifle, oneof the group admitted to a couple of sleeplessnights!

As our time ran down we made a few more skitours plus a visit to the two prominent nunataksin the glacier close to basecamp. A satphone callinformed us that due to some mechanical/electri-cal problems with some of the snowmobiles wewould in fact be picked up by ski-plane right frombasecamp. The Twin Otter aeroplane duly came into land close by the tents and we had a quick andcomfortable twenty-minute flight back to Consta-ble Pynt , and then onward over to Iceland thenext day.

This closed out one of our very best Greenlandexpeditions where we'd had a lot of laughs, lotsof good company and plenty of enjoyable climb-ing and skiing. Maybe the rigours of Norwayearlier in the year had in fact, been very goodpreparation and training for our latest Arcticadventure.

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Above: On first ascent of Farfarer PeakLeft: Longridge Peak

Right: Farfarer Peak seen from LongridgePeak, N Liverpool Land

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The Club and the Lake District

Hatty Harris

Steve Scott

Ron Kenyon

Martin Cooper

Richard Tolley/ Phil Elliot/ Chris Sherwin/ Ron Kenyon

Peter Lucas

Above: The Coniston Fells from the Langdale Pikes. Photo - John Pulford

Right: The Langdale Pikes. Lesley Comstive

like a tremendous publication. There is such aknowledge of Scafell in these two and in others inthe team.

One of the jobs of being President is to leadthe service on Great Gable on RemembranceSunday, which I was looking forward too. Unfor-tunately I fell off a crag during 2014 and was inhobbling mode in November so I attended theservice at St Olaf’s at Wasdale whilst Hatty led theservice on the summit. I was not going to missthe 2015 service. However, the weather was prob-ably one of the worst days for this event ever.Initially it looked good but a storm came in,deterring many going to the top, though about250 persevered. Unfortunately the local rescueteams were also in action, helping people downfrom the mountain.

On the huts front we had two near misses: The floods in December 2015 were probably

the worst local floods ever and Beetham Cottagewas flooded – luckily the carpets were lifted andthe damage was limited – however, a warningabout what nature can do!!

In March 2016 there was an electric fault atBrackenclose, which set fire to the storeroom(containing paint) at the backdoor – the store-room is no more but we still have the hut.

The Lake District National Park owns a lot ofproperty in the Lake District (about 4% of theland). They are looking to sell some of this andconcentrate on the control and running of theNational Park. One of the properties they own isHassness, with Dalegarth, adjacent to Birkness.The Club has made use of the entrance (and exit)at the Hassness end ever since we bought Birk-ness in 1951 and, at the time of writing, we hopethat this can be formalised before a new owner isin place.

What about the Lakes in general? The LakeDistrict has continued to be a major peopleattraction, although it is understood that only atmost 10% of people go more than 100 yards fromthe road (onto the fells).

The Lake District National Park was establishedin 1948 with the nearby Yorkshire Dales in 1954.The area between them, around Shap Fell and theLune Gorge, is an important area of naturalbeauty and after a long campaign it was finallyagreed in 2015 to extend and, in effect, join thetwo National Parks along the line of the M6.

At the end of 2015 Storm Desmond devastatedCumbria with flooding on a much higher scalethan there had ever been known before. Therewere other floods created throughout the countyduring the winter. For example, in Appleby theflood level was about 22 inches higher than aprevious high in 2005 (remember a cubic metreof water weighs a tonne!) The most notableeffects were the removal of the A591 road overDunmail (re-opened in May 2016), the washingaway of the bridge at Pooley Bridge (temporary

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Ed Note: In past years it was customary to include withinthe Journal a short record of the principal events andchanges which had taken place in the life of the club,over the period of the Journal. For whatever reason, thisconvention has fallen by the wayside for several decadesnow. We thought it was time to revive it ...

Overview - The President

It has been interesting viewing the Club as Presi-dent. When John Barrett telephoned me many

months ago about whether I wanted to be Presi-dent there was much trepidation when I said yes.The Club is well established with a long history ofactivities on the fells, crags and mountains. Theposition of clubs in the current world haschanged, with many having less physical links,using modern communications. However, at theend of the day, members have a liking to get out,whether on those fells, crags or mountains – insummer or winter – on their own, on a meet or inothers groups.

Being President gives you a chance to lookbehind the scene. It is an amazing mix of people,many giving much time for the Club in the manyareas involved – huts, guidebooks, meets,archives, website etc. As with many moun-taineering clubs, and voluntary organisationsgenerally, the age profile of the club is a concern;to address this concern a Membership Group wasset up to look at ways of attracting new members;I would like to thank Dale Bloomer for chairingthat group. Many ideas have been put forward –some taken forward – other perhaps left for afuture date. Having said that, there is some room

for optimism in the attendance at youth meets,and in the age profile of contributors to this Jour-nal – there are some outstanding exploitsundertaken by younger members.

I have had a long involvement with guide-books and I was really pleased with thepublication of the Lake District Rock selectiveguide and delighted when it won best guidebookat the Banff Mountain Festival in 2015 (see SteveScott's article later). Following on from this, thenew Borrowdale guide is shaping up to be a realcracker – how things have moved on since I firstmade ventures to Shepherd’s Crag in the 1960s!The next guide, Lakes South – will be the last ofthe current definitive series – will these be thelast hard copy definitive guides to the Lakes? Wenow have a selection of crags on apps which areproving popular – are these a sign of the future?

At long last the book on Scafell by Al Phizack-lea and Mike Cocker is getting close to beingfinished and will come out this year. This looks

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Two Years in the Life of the Club

Ron Kenyon, Chris and Ellie Sherwin, Richard Tolley, Martin Cooper, Phil Elliot, Pete Lucas

BMC Youth Meet 2015

FRCC Young Persons Meet 2015 - in Doves Nest

It is, however, vital that this important activitydoesn’t become a financial burden on the cluband we are therefore trying to prevent this in anumber of ways. We should ensure that thecontent is up to date, accurate and interestinglypresented so as to encourage climbers to buy thebook. We should also consider the shelf appeal ofthe guides and limit the print runs to ensure thatwe aren’t left with excessive stock. I am pleased toreport that this strategy is working well andguidebooks have provided the club with healthyprofits over the last two years.

In June 2015 we launched Lake District Rock,featuring the best rock climbing in the district.This volume has proved to be extremely success-ful, winning first prize in the guidebook categoryat the prestigious Banff International MountainFestival. Lake District Rock is selling in suchnumbers that a reprint will be required withintwo years. Guidebook Editor Steve Scott has writ-ten more about this guide elsewhere in theJournal.

Since 2014 Al Davis has been producing soft-ware to work with the Climbers Club GuidebookApplication. The App is free but the crag packagesoftware is being sold through the CC and FRCCwebsites and allows users to download all theinformation needed for climbing on a crag tosmartphone, tablet or other device. The range ofcrags available is increasing all the time and isbeing extended outside the district to includewell known venues, such as parts of StanageEdge. The individual crag packages sell formodest amounts but they are providing a steadyincome stream for the club and they allow us todevelop expertise in a technology that mighteventually replace the printed guide.

Throughout 2015 the five-strong Borrowdaleguidebook team worked hard to finish their allot-

ted tasks to ensure that the guide would be readyfor this summer. Helped by good weather a greatnumber of final route checks were completed andalso many crag photos and action shots weretaken. The Borrowdale Guide will be launched inlate July 2016 and from a personal point of viewthis will mark the end of nine years work on theguide.

Once Borrowdale is launched our attention willbe turning to the remaining areas in the seventhseries. Much of the work for these areas -coveringConiston, The Duddon Valley and Eskdale iscomplete and it is hoped that their launch will bea highlight of the next two years.

The Huts -Martin Cooper

The past two years have been times of celebra-tion for the Fell and Rock Climbing Club huts

and a time of near disaster. In the meantime, ofcourse, members and hut wardens have workedhard on routine maintenance and improvement;new septic tanks installed and a new car parkingarea at Birkness. The huts are one of the club’sgreatest assets. The diligence and hard work ofmembers in looking after them is much appreci-ated by all.

October 2015 witnessed the Fiftieth Anniver-sary of the opening of Beetham Cottage. Acelebration event took place a few weeks earlier,attended by sixty members, including some whohad been present at the opening of the hut in1965. An outdoor buffet was enjoyed by thosepresent, who were then entertained by a speechby Guy Plint who had known Bentley Beethampersonally. The speech was well received and isavailable to listen to in the club’s Oral Archive.

The Huts: A Story of the FRCC huts from the1930s, by Maureen Linton-Lee, was published and

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bridge in place from February 2016), the closurefor some time of the bridge at Eamont Bridge,displacement of bridges in the Greta Gorge; threeseparate sets of flooding in Glenridding.

West Cumbria has developed into the 'EnergyCoast' with the planned development of threenew nuclear reactors at Sellafield. Views on thisproject will undoubtedly be mixed, depending onyour views of nuclear power, but it is undoubt-edly the case that it will increase investment inthe area. It is projected that there will be £15billion invested in West Cumbria in the coming 15years. Transport links are seen as important andimprovements in these, including the reopeningof the Penrith to West Cumbria Railway line(North Lakes Rail), are being considered.

One of the highlights of the year is the annualdinner, together with the AGM. I was pleased towelcome the various guests to the top table atthe 2015 dinner, especially Leo Houlding, who Ihave known for many years in various guises, andwe were entertained by some of his many 'nearthe limit' adventures. Dave Birkett will be theguest speaker after the 2016 dinner, and I amreally looking forward to his tales. This year willalso be the final year of the hotel manager, SteveSimpson, and we thanks him for his many years oflooking after us.

Finally, some members have received recogni-tion for their exceptional contribution to the club,or more broadly to society, in the last two years;their efforts should be noted:

Honorary Members

Audrey PlintJames McHaffieJohn BarrettMaureen Linton

Sir Chris Bonington

Chris was awarded the Piolet D'Or Lifetimeachievement award in 2015

Cokie Van der Velde

Cokie was awarded the Barclays Bank Outstand-ing Woman of the Year award, for her work help-ing with the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

Betty Cain

Betty celebrated her 100th birthday in 2015. Shejoined the club in 1936, with life membershippurchase by her father, Darwen Leighton, ClubSecretary from 1912-20. her first boots weremade by K Shoes, and delivered to her home byHoward Somervell, who also nailed them for her.

Richard Hargreaves

Richard has been involved, for many years, in theestablishment of the Balkan Peace Park, stretch-ing over the borders of Albania, Montenegroand Kosovo.

Angela Soper

Angela was made an Honorary Member of theBritish Mountaineering Council in 2015.

Guidebooks - Richard Tolley

We are experiencing an interesting and chal-lenging period in the long history of FRCC

rock climbing guidebooks. The increasing influ-ence of the digital age and other factors havecaused a significant drop in sales of the printedguidebook. Despite this decline, the FRCC has astrong commitment to continue its role as theprovider of Lake District Guides.

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Joss Naylor Challenge (14)

The route is from Pooley Bridge to Joss's house inNether Wasdale, 48 miles, 17,000' of ascent and 30tops. The challenge is for the over 50s

Fell and Rock Lakeland Fells 244 listed tops (22)

Strong arguments were put to me to include thoselisted in the FRCC's book The Lakeland Fells, where thebook includes the Wainwrights plus the 2000' tops andsupports our own publication.

Wainwright Listed Tops (31)

These had to be included because of the popularity ofdoing the Wainwrights.

Munros (57)

When I first joined the club there were two main topicsof mountaineering conversation in huts: the rockclimbs members had done and the number of Munrosclimbed. For those who had done few of either itwould be a quiet night.

Corbetts (12)

The hard core of the Munroists were also doingCorbetts. Both the Munros and the Corbetts require alot of long term commitment to complete.

Alpine 4000m Summits (5)

When it comes to mountaineering, completing theseby any notable list is a fantastic achievement andrequires recognition

Classic Rock 24 Hour (14)

In my opinion, for a fit fell runner and climber, it wouldbe a harder challenge than the Bob Graham Round. Tomy knowledge, no one else in our club has attemptedit, other than those recorded.

Cuillin Ridge (34)

A mountaineer's challenge

8000m Peaks ascended by FRCC Members

The record is not for those doing all but for doing any.This was included as a result of Alan Hinkes being made

an Honorary Member.

As part of the commemoration of the centenary ofthe First World War the 'Memorial Round' was es-tablished, being a walk over all of the twelve sum-mits purchase by the club in 1924 in memory ofthe members who died during the war. The 'round'can be done (17 miles/ 21 km) or two days (21miles/ 33km) overnighting at Brackenclose or Salv-ing House. The following members have com-pleted the round:

Lynne Mullingon 4-5 August 2014Phil Mullington 4-5 August 2014Simon Jefferies 17-18 March 2015Les Meer 2015Alan Dickinson 3-4 January 2016Amanda Turner 3-4 January 2016

The list of challenges and those who havecompleted them will be on the new website. Alink will be included in the Chronicle and thenewsletter when available. I apologise for anyerrors in the list of achievements and I will editthem if you draw my attention to them.

Archives - the Gable Plaque - Chris and EllieSherwin

Club members and/or journal readers will beaware of the installation of a new memorial

plaque on Great Gable (FRCC Journal No. 84,2014) and the effort made to retain its integrityand that of the surrounding summit area.

But what of the old plaque? A year at the Imperial War Museum North in

Salford as a key display item in their anniversaryexhibition: ‘From Street to Trench’ in 2013/14enabled some 430,000 visitors to the museum to

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sent to all members in October 2015. Maureenhad tasked herself with updating the existinghistory of the club’s huts, published previously inthe Journal and to 'Provide a framework on towhich members may attach their own memories'.Maureen’s booklet contains a mine of informationabout the huts and is superbly illustrated in olderblack and white photographs as well as withexcellent more recent colour pictures. It is alabour of love and something members will treas-ure.

Mountaineering Challenges - Phil Elliot

Helen Elliot and I were the FRCC Peak Districtrepresentatives from 2005 to 2012. The first

few years were during a period of change in theBMC, moving from the club block vote to onemember one vote. Interesting times, trying to putthe club's views to the meetings, where the domi-nant voices were those of established climbersand those with commercial interests in climbing. Ifelt at that time a number of those present atthese meetings had a negative opinion about theactivities of the FRCC, perhaps as a result of ourmembership being a mix of climbers and walkers.It shows how progressive we are when we look at

the March 2016 issue of the Summit. There is amountain scene and in bold letters it saysRUNFREE. Currently the BMC has had to acknowl-edge the importance of encompassing theactivities of runners, walkers, climbers and moun-taineers.

At one of these Peak District meetings it wasasked if anyone was doing the High PeakMarathon and would be prepared to write an arti-cle for the local news letter. Helen offered to writethe article and a senior member said to her, 'Doyou know how far it is?' Helen pointed out that itwould be the fifth time she had done the event. Ifelt it was the unfounded opinion some peoplehave of the FRCC which prompted the commentand we therefore needed some sort of record ofour members' fell walking and climbing activitiesto promote the status of the club. Also, manymembers are very modest about their achieve-ments. After discussions I started to record theactivities of our members. A list of the challengesfollows, with the number of achievers (in brack-ets) at time of writing:

Bob Graham Round (31) 

The Bob Graham Round is a nationally recognised 24hour challenge. The distance and ascent createsfrequent discussion at around 68 miles, 26,000ft,traversing 42 Lake District summits.

Lake District 3000' Tops as a continuous Round (23)

This is a natural challenge for most mountaineers andfell runners interested in distance running. A descrip-tion is included in The Big Walks by Ken Wilson andRichard Gilbert .

100 Different Climbs in the Lake District (25)

Surprisingly very few members have requested theirname be added to this list – I am sure there are manymore out there.

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‘If I should die, think only this of me: Thatthere's some corner of a foreign field That isforever England.’

Through our new friendship David has alsoinvestigated newspaper reports of lectures givenby our member Howard Somervell. One at KendalTown Hall in January 1915 which was a fundrais-ing event for his medical work in India. Thesesoldiers were convalescing after being woundedin the Great War. Somervell believed this to bethe first time that India had helped our country.

The Wainwright Society has also made a linkwith the plaque, following a visit to the display,whilst at the Armitt Museum and a featurefollowed in their magazine ‘Footsteps’, issue 52, Winter 15/16.

AW gives pride of place in his summit descrip-tion in The Western Fells to the Memorial. GreatGable’s summit is held in special respect by theolder generation of fellwalkers, because here, setin the rocks that bear the top cairn, is the BronzeWar Memorial tablet of The Fell and Rock Climb-ing Club … It is a fitting place to pay homage tomen who once loved to walk in these hills andgave their lives defending the right of others toenjoy the same happy freedom …’

The plaque is about to be unveiled at theRuskin Museum, Coniston ready for the springseason of visitors. Another link here is that thefounder of the museum, W. G.Collingwood,designed the relief map which issuch a tactile feature of the plaque itself.

The tour will continue until winter 2018 and weare currently in optimistic discussions with thethe Benefices of St. Mary, Gosforth; St. Michael &All Angels, Nether Wasdale; and St Olaf, Wasdaleto secure a final location for the plaque in thechurchyard of St. Olaf’s. Ideally when viewing the

plaque, the backdrop of Great Gable would bemost fitting for those remembering:

‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whencecometh my help.’

We hope that this journey will continue tostimulate the attention of a generation who havelived in a time of relative peace and prosperity.

The unveiling of the plaque in 2019 is intendedto coincide with the centenary of the Peace Day

commemorations in which the club was activelyinvolved on Scafell summit 100 years ago.

‘Looking up at the night sky,I gaze at the stars as I lie.I hope for peace,For now at least.’

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share our club’s heritage. To extend the opportu-nity to view the plaque it is now embarked on a‘grand tour’ of The Lake District.

The intention is to give as many Lakeland resi-dents and visitors as possible, a chance to see theplaque and appreciate the story surrounding it.Many may not have been able to make the walkup Great Gable to see it in its original home.

The result has been a healthy response fromthe community allowing a self-funded, criss-crossjourney around the park for the remaining yearsof the First World War commemorations. Fromlibraries in Kendal to county archives in Carlisle;from a museum in Coniston to a visitor centre inKeswick, the plaque will honour those named onit who fell in the war a century ago.

I think we all knew that this would be a popularexcursion for the plaque but it is the fruits of thisjourney that are of particular interest to the club.Could we find out more about those membersaffected by the war and would our efforts insti-gate others to investigate their own connectionsto this period in history?

At the most basic we are raising money – via adonation box for copies of the clubs ’We Remem-ber’ booklet telling the story of this plaque and itsreplacement. Money collected at each venue isbeing given to The British Legion. This bookletwas also circulated to all schools in the towns andvillages surrounding Great Gable, some of whichhave made trips to see the display and more, wehope, will be encouraged to venture up to thesummit to see the new version in situ.

Whilst at Kendal Library the plaque was accom-panied by an exhibition created by the in-housestaff and focused on the Lakeland members whowere killed in action or later lost their lives due toinjury. Here we came across an independent mili-tary researcher,David Shackleton, who has spent

the better part of ten years clarifying records ofthose from the Lakes killed in action during 1914-18, for the War Graves Commission. He hashelped to pin-point some question marks in ourown records, particularly when men changedregiments in the blur of the frontline exchanges.David had recorded each and every one of ourmembers listed on the plaque and visited theirgravesites, where possible. This information hasbeen kindly passed onto our archive as anotherpart of the jigsaw. Looking at the photographsRupert Brooke’s lines from The Soldier cameflooding back:

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number? Obviously some form of criteria wereneeded.

In her excellent article, written to celebrate 75years of the Club and the Library, (FRCC Journal,1981), Muriel Files questions the value of theLibrary to the Club. She makes clear that theLibrary contributed to the sense of authority andresponsibility of the Club, not only to itself, butalso to the Lake District and to the wider moun-taineering world. It was clear that we needed toretain this ethos in our selection of items for theCollection. Reasons for retaining items wouldinclude: rarity, historical interest, member author-ship, relevance and finally, monetary value.Whereas, criteria for removal of titles were: dupli-cation, easy availability elsewhere, low probabilityof need, e.g. foreign language guides and jour-nals, and irrelevance – potholing, travel guidesetc.

So it was that in early February 2014 a ratherfraught Librarian, accompanied by a merry bandof helpers, assembled in a building curiouslyknown as the Beehive which was part of theUniversity of Cumbria at Ambleside and, conve-niently, was only about 200 metres from theArmitt Museum. Confronting us were 150 large,labelled, cardboard boxes representing the entirecontents of the FRCC Library which had beenbrought by removal van from Lancaster Univer-sity. Over the next few months a variety ofvolunteers, fortified by tea and cake assisted inunpacking the boxes, assessing which bookswere to be kept and putting those marked fordisposal to one side. The system seemed to workand eventually, from out of the chaos, order wasrestored and the boxes selected to form themajor part of the collection were removed totheir new home in the Armitt. Here, Alan Jack-man and a variety of assistants worked tirelessly

to re-shelve the books amongst the original FilesCollection.

All that now remained to be done was todispose of the unwanted books and create a cata-logue of the titles in the Collection. It had beendecided that, following valuation by Geoff Cram,those titles earmarked for disposal would beoffered initially to Club members on a first-come,first-served basis. From the hundreds of titleslisted surprisingly only 200 were purchased.Fortunately we have managed to sell most of theremainder via the Armitt’s second-hand bookshop and all the proceeds have contributedtowards the upkeep of the Collection. The taskmerging the two collections and of creating anew computerised, searchable catalogue for thecollection was carried out over a period of severalmonths by Alan Jackman and the Librarian.

Finally, to celebrate what I hope will be a longand fruitful association between the FRCC andthe Armitt Museum, the FRCC-Files Collection wasofficially opened by the mountaineer Alan HinkesOBE on 6th June, 2014 at a party attended bymany of the Club members involved with themove, including Trustees and staff of themuseum.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the manymembers and non-members who turned out tohelp with the huge task of relocating the library.Special thanks go to John Barrett, Hatty Harris,Alan Jackman, and Deborah Walsh and her staffat the Armitt. Space prevents me from listing thenames of all the other volunteers who gave theirsupport so generously; they know who they are.

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The Library Move - Peter Lucas

When in late 2012 and after 45 years, out ofthe blue, Lancaster University announced

they wanted the Club Library removed from theirpremises, I suspected my quiet life as HonoraryLibrarian was about to come to an end. Subse-quent events over the next two years did nothingto dispel my misgivings. Fortunately, we haduntil July 2013 to find alternative accommodationand formulate plans for the library’s relocation.The Club swiftly moved into action and at theinstigation of John Barrett, a Library WorkingGroup was set up comprising Hatty Harris, JohnHolden and Peter Latimer and me to plan ourcampaign.

From that first meeting, it was clear a consider-able amount of work would be involved. Severalpressing issues where immediately apparent -where was the Library going to go and if we didfind somewhere, would the new venue have suffi-cient space to accommodate nearly 5000 booksand other items, all of which needed over 70metres of shelving? One further issue which wehoped we didn’t have to address was also raised:if no suitable place could be found, do wedispose of the Library and if so how?

From the outset it was agreed by the Workinggroup that to make it more convenient for FRCCmembers to access, the new location for theLibrary should be in or close to the Lake District.Hence, the next few weeks involved a series ofemails and telephone calls to libraries and muse-ums in Cumbria, including Carlisle, Coniston,Kendal, Keswick and the University of Cumbria.All of whom, although very sympathetic to ourplight, for a variety of reasons were unable tohelp. At one point, there was even seriousconsideration given to housing the Library in a

National Trust property in Grasmere. The only bitof good news I received was that LancasterUniversity wouldn’t start their reorganisationprogramme until the beginning of 2014. Never-theless we still hadn’t found a new home for ourlibrary; was the closure and disposal of the librarygoing to be become a reality?

However, a short time later even better newsarrived, in the form of a short note from AudreyPlint who had recently visited the Armitt Libraryand Museum in Ambleside. Deborah Walsh, thecurator, had told her that the Armitt were keen tobuild up a mountaineering research collection atthe Armitt and would be interested to hear fromthe FRCC. Whilst I was aware that the Armitt helda collection of books donated by the late Murieland Bobby Files, I mistakenly thought that as asmall museum and library they wouldn’t have thespace to accommodate our books. However, ittranspired that the Armitt were very keen toaccept our collection and following meetingswith representatives of the Armitt, an agreementwas reached to amalgamate the two collections,henceforth to be known as the FRCC–Files Collec-tion. It was also agreed that the FRCC wouldfinance some new shelving for the combinedcollections and pay an annual donation towardstheir upkeep. In future, members of the FRCCwould unfortunately no longer have unrestrictedborrowing rights; the Collection was to be forreference only.

The only drawback to the arrangement wasthat shelf space at the Armitt would be limited,even with the new shelving. In addition, therewas a significant amount of duplication betweenthe two collections; hence some severe pruningwas going to be necessary. The question was,how do you reduce nearly 5000 assorted books,guides, maps and periodicals to half that

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Becoming involved in guidebook work for theFRCC seemed to happen quite by chance with

an almost throwaway comment from Nick Whar-ton about the editorial vacancy. Flooding hadseriously damaged Stephen Reid’s house and therefurbishment and repairs were taking up amassive amount of his time, which, together withhis business and other personal commitments,meant that after 13 years and 9 titles he wasmaking way for a new editor. During this periodof rapid technological change the Club’s rockclimbing guides had been transformed, the mostobvious development being the move frommeticulous hand-drawn diagrams to full-colourphoto-diagram coverage together with paperand print improvements. Under Stephen’s edito-rial command the FRCC had introduced aselective climbs guide, Lake District Rock, in 2003.This included 500 routes and was largely culledfrom the existing definitive series with Al Phizack-lea’s diagrams enhanced by the addition ofcolour. At the time that I came on board in 2012the guidebook team met only once a year, tradi-tionally in The Golden Rule. The meetings werecomfortably laid back, yet the commitment andenthusiasm of the volunteers shone through.

In Stephen’s transfer briefing there was no indi-cation that a replacement for the hugelysuccessful 2003 selective climbs guide ‘LakeDistrict Rock’ was planned; indeed stock levelswere still reasonable. Steadily selling 1,000 copieseach year, the book had proved the popularity ofthe concept but was starting to look outdated.

During late 2012 and early 2013 the pressingwork was to publish the updated winter climbs

guide and the new edition of the (then long outof print) Langdale guide. With these out of theway I felt that we should be planning for thereplacement selective guide and initial ideas werepresented towards the end of 2013. The proposalwas for a book with a completely revised formatand layout to give a modern clear look and feel.The other significant factor driving this decisionwas the anticipated appearance of a selectiveguide to the District from Rockfax and the likelyimpact that this would have on our salesrevenues. Competition from such a strong estab-lished brand would have a clear negative impacton our revenue and the ongoing ability of theClub to fund a definitive series of guides to thearea.

With support from the Club’s committee it wasagreed that work would start and a crags androutes list was prepared together with designwork. Ben Ranson, at a loose end between jobs,agreed to take on the design and page-setting,

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Some Events in 2015-16 ...Above - the Beetham Anniversary Celebrations.Below - New Year at Rawhead.

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Less of a guidebook, more a way of life

Steve Scott

AWARDWINNER

Another feature of the Wired template was theuse of Ordnance Survey mapping data. This ofcourse meant that all of the maps would requirecreating from scratch, a task taken on by Don.

Finally, as 1500 routes were to be squeezedinto the 480 pages of the guide, the text wasedited or completely revised to shorten descrip-tions, especially for single pitch routes.

Preparation and meticulous checking of all ofthe material prior to any page-setting is thenormal process for producing a guide. Yet by

Christmas 2014 Peter Sterling was already page-setting the Langdale section that he and MaxBiden had been working on, in order that theguidebook team had a proof to consider at theirFebruary 2015 meeting.

This sample met with universal praise andapproval and the various authors were starting todeliver their corrected texts. David Simmoniteonce again agreed to embellish the guide withhis stunning action images and, despite themountain of re-sizing and new photodiagram

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and by the end of the year a template had beendeveloped together with sample pages usingmaterial from the (soon to be published) Scafell &Wasdale guide. Ben then found proper employ-ment and the project stalled. Much discussionhad taken place regarding whether the materialincluded would be routes or crags driven. Manyof the guidebook team preferred a routes-drivenpublication, although a number of others wereconcerned that a crags approach would be better.In the end a spreadsheet was produced thatlisted routes by crag for all of the authors tocomment on and, with 1500 routes listed, thiswas finalised as the content.

A regular meeting of the guidebook producingclubs to discuss issues and share ideas had beenmooted in the past and during the winter of2013/14 Neil Foster resurrected the idea. Asymposium of all of the ‘not for profit’ guidebookproducers was arranged early in 2014, the BMCwould host and all of the clubs that produce rockclimbing guides were invited to attend. The maintheme was a discussion about the state of themarket and how definitive guidebook productioncould be supported for the future. Within a fewmonths it had been agreed to work in collabora-tion on a branded selective guide series tounderpin the definitives and a template was to bedesigned that all of the clubs would use. A namefor the brand was needed and, from a commentoverheard at Kendal Wall, Wired was chosen.

The Climbers’ Club had been working on aPembroke selective guide for some years and itwas thought that this would be the first Wiredguide to be brought to the market. The FRCC hadtheir list of crags, yet the page-setting had notmoved beyond a couple of sample pages. ByDecember 2014 we had a template but no avail-able in-house technical expertise for

photo-diagram production and mapping. In addi-tion the current series, started under Stephen’sguidance, that included photodiagrams had yetto be completed with Borrowdale and most ofthe South Western area ‘under construction’. Itwas critical that a strong enthusiastic and effi-cient technical team was created. This teamincluded Don Sargeant, who had produced mapsand diagrams for the Scafell & Wasdale guide,Peter Sterling who had edited and produced theCC Tremadog guide and Jane Beagley of Verte-brate Graphics. Necessarily, all of the existingauthors became involved with checking and edit-ing existing text and diagrams. Phil Rigby, whohad completed much of the original photo-diagram production, Max Biden and Al Phizackleaall provided crucial photographic material.

Being a new and untried concept with jointpublication between FRCC/Wired and a signifi-cant financial investment, this title was a massiverisk for the committee. They backed the proposaland the authors and technical teams had a proj-ect. An ambitious summer 2015 deadline forpublication, a mere six months away, was thenembraced by the whole team.

One of the major issues that we faced was thelarger size of the book. The new guide would beA5 (portrait) and none of the existing materialwas in that format. All of the existing photodia-grams that were to be used needed to be re-sizedto match this larger format. This involved collect-ing original images for all of the crags and PhilRigby and Al Phizacklea were key to achievingthis. We also garnered material from various othersources and are indebted to all of the photogra-phers and Vertebrate Graphics for their supportand assistance with this task. Once we had thismaterial the resized diagrams were created andchecked.

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winners were announced, at which point I wasable to let Ron in on the secret, and he was ableto announce this amazing news at the AnnualDinner on October 31st. The following week I wasstanding in front of over 1,000 people on a stagein Banff, representing the Club and the Guide-book Team, receiving the magnificent Banff BookAward trophy presented by the Association ofCanadian Mountain Guides.

Postscript

Lake District Rock has retained its popularity and, withalmost 2000 copies sold in the first year followingpublication, it has been a huge success inspiring manyto visit and climb in the Lakes. Wired now has another

title, Pembroke Rock, from The Climbers’ Club. Therapid appearance of these titles has generatedsurprise, enthusiasm, support and awareness of theWired concept and motivated the other member clubsto start work on titles in their areas. The confidenceshown by the committee in the guidebook team andtheir support and willingness to accept the commer-cial risk has paid off. Lake District Rock (2015) will beout of print by 2018 and we are now collating correc-tions for a revised 2nd edition.

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work, together with gathering original actionimages, the various sections, one by one, slowlytook shape.

The distribution of Wired guides was to be on alarger and more commercial scale using majoroutlets such as Waterstones and Amazon. Thisrequired a corresponding commercial marketingeffort. An article was commissioned by Climber,poster and advertising campaigns were devel-oped and extended social networkingestablished.

Another key innovation, although not unprece-dented in FRCC guidebooks, was to selladvertising space. Trevor Langhorne agreed totake this on and successfully arranged for the saleof ten pages of advertising including the rear.cover. This enabled the Club to offset £4K of the£25k production cost. Printing is undertakenfrom data files that are transferred electronically.The publication date required the .pdf file to bewith the printers by early May to meet a plannedpublication date during June. To shorten the leadtime and simplify administration a Europeanprinter was chosen and Latitude Press wereinstructed.

By early April almost all of the material hadbeen gathered and much of the book created forfinal checking by a much smaller proof team. Thiswork, together with the inclusion of the highresolution action photographs, advertising andcovers, was completed by the beginning of Mayand the file was copied onto a memory stick fordelivery to the printers. To-ing and fro-ing overthe next fortnight meant that significant revisionswere made to the print file and the final versionwas downloaded overnight from the internetrouter in Mallaig Harbour office during a jointCC/SMC meet. Another first!

Then everything goes quiet…

The existing guide was declared ‘out-of-print’and any remaining copies recovered from theretailers. The guidebook committee took a deci-sion to pulp the remaining 2,700 copies. Thismeant that in 12 years 12,300 copies had beensold, a stunningly successful guide and probablythe most popular guide the Club has produced. Aconservative decision was made to print 5,000copies of the ‘new’ edition, although due to aglitch in the finishing process some 4,400 copiesactually became available.

Pre-publication marketing activity was steppedup. Two separate articles appeared in the June2015 edition of Climber with some 12 pages ofcoverage and a national advertising and localposter campaign began. Lake District RockFRCC/Wired arrived at the Cordee warehouse inmid-June and the pre-ordered copies hit thebookshelves. It was the first Wired guide to bepublished and by late summer it had becomeanother best-selling FRCC guide following in thewake of its predecessor. Declared by mostcommentators to be fresh and inspirational byDecember, some 1500 copies had been sold.

During September I received an invitation tosubmit a publication for the Banff Book Competi-tion and with the deadline for entries rapidlyapproaching I responded with some detail andimages and Ron immediately arranged for booksto be delivered to Canada. We soon learned thatLake District Rock had been shortlisted, with fiveother titles. In mid-October I received an emailfrom Banff to tell me that the judges had chosenLake District Rock as the winner of the Guidebookcategory – but that I wasn’t to tell anyone! For aweek I kept this to myself until the category

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Ennerdale, and ‘Mickledore Chasm’ on Scafell, asthey were then termed. Guide books, ancient andmodern, were eagerly scanned for information, butin vain. There was none to be obtained. A reportreached us that some local friends, the Westmor-land Brothers and Miss Westmorland, had actuallyscaled the Pillar. The rumour was verified in thecolumns of a local newspaper, in which the partypublished a clever rhyming account of their intrepidexploit. We determined on a reconnoitring expedi-tion, and Good Friday, 1874, the one and only dayavailable, found us leaving Penrith at 7 a.m. forKeswick, en route to find out for ourselves all wecould of the terrible Mickledore Chasm— whateverthat might be—and the whereabouts and characterof the Ennerdale Pillar Stone. Much was crowdedinto those memorable twelve hours. In goodweather we tramped by Derwentwater, Borrowdale,Sty Head Pass, and Esk Hause to the summit ofScafell Pike, our enthusiasm increasing with everyfoot of the way. Mickledore Chasm we found to bethe ridge connecting Scafell Pike with Scafell, anddividing Wasdale from Eskdale. We crossed thenarrow neck, scanned with care the wall of cliffsbarring our progress westward, and agreed upontrying to surmount the difficulties when time andopportunity permitted. Down by what is nowknown as Hollow Stones and Brown Tongue, wescurried to the Huntsman's Inn at Wasdale Head,then kept by Auld Will and Dinah Ritson. There wasnot much time for resting that day. After a hurriedluncheon we bade adieu to the inn and its occu-pants, crossed Black Sail Pass into Ennerdale, andfrom Scarf Gap Pass viewed the rugged and steepnorthern side of the Pillar and its Mountain. Yes,there it was to our intense interest, but more likesome vast cathedral pile than a ‘pillar stone’. Thefamous rock was not for us that day, but we hadlocated the stronghold. Over the summit of ScarfGap we plodded down to Buttermere, scamperedon to the village for a hurried tea at The Fish, andthen tramped through Newlands to Keswick, where

we arrived in time to catch the 8 o'clock train forPenrith.

Those guys could walk – some day out makinguse of the railway which created the need to getback to Keswick for the 8.00pm train – a true 12hour challenge – ‘The Seatree Challenge’ !

The link provided by the bridge has now gone– I am not sure what will happen to the bridge. Itis probably not feasible to build the supports andlift it back into place; it will probably be disman-tled and removed or it may just stay there. It waspart of the cycle/walk way and another bridgewill probably be built as a replacement. For anumber of years there have been moves byCedric Martindale and the company CKP RailwaysLtd towards the reinstatement of the railway.Recently there has been another group, linkedthe CKP Railway Ltd, looking to bring all the dicestogether for this reinstatement of the railway,either from Penrith to Keswick or all the way toWorkington. Possibly pie in the sky but time andother factors will tell if this happens.

In the meantime this bridge lies there toremind us of the tremendous forces of naturewhich were let loose in December 2015.

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At the beginning of December 2015, aftermonths of wet weather, ‘Storm Desmond’

dropped 1.15 trillion litres of water on Cumbria –this was equivalent to 22 inches across thecounty. This was on a scale much higher than anyprevious storm and brought about devastatingdamage throughout the county with floodingand landslides, as well as specific infrastructuredamage such as the washing away of a largesection of Dunmail Raise and the bridge at PooleyBridge.

The Greta Gorge between Threlkeld andKeswick contains the old railway line which wasused as a popular walk and cycleway. The railwaywas built in 1865 and a number of steel bridgescrossed the river at various points. During the

storm two of the bridges lost their supports andwere washed along by the tremendous power ofthe raging river. One of these bridges is nearBrundholme, accessible from the A66 above. Avisit is recommended to appreciate the destruc-tive power of nature with its ability to move sucha huge structure.

The bridge, in the past, has carried manypeople on trains until 1972, and latterly on foot orbicycle. In the 1910 FRCC Journal there is an arti-cle by the then FRCC President George Seatreeentitled ‘Reminiscences of Early Lakeland Moun-taineering’ which recounted George’s exploitsback into the 19th Century. He lived near Penrithand some of the exploits made use of the railwayfrom Penrith to Keswick – one of these was a

grand day out to go and look atPillar Rock and Mickledore, twolocations which had not thenbeen seen by him and wereshrouded in mystery. Thefollowing is his account of thatday -

In the early 'seventies it was mygood fortune to become associ-ated with Stanley Martin, a nativeof Under Skiddaw, then resident inPenrith. He was a keen lover of thefells, a wiry and untiring pedes-trian, good for almost any distanceover any type of country. Togetherwe took counsel, and beingequally keen to try our luckamong the crags, we ponderedover the vague and mythicalstories about the ‘Pillar Stone’ in

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A BRIDGE TO THE PAST

Ron Kenyon

Nearly two full pages of text are devoted todescribing the route (my 1984 Dow Crag Guidedevotes just 208 words to the same route. LakeDistrict Rock in 2015 uses 121). How was Murray’sRoute originally described? First of all, there is alevel of formality created by the use of the thirdperson: 'Here one starts with a good rightfoothold,' and by the use of the now grammati-cally unfashionable pronoun, 'Whom'. Added tothis is a choice of nouns and verbs which to thetwenty first century ear are distinctly archaic:'aforementioned', 'excellent anchorage', 'has to beeffected', 'would not yield.' A not unexpectedgender bias occurs in the choice of word for thesecond climber, throughout the descriptionreferred to as the 'Second Man.' (Female climberswere involved in some new routes climbedaround this time).

Most significantly, the use of adjectives todescribe the climbing is in complete contrast tomore modern guidebooks. A useful distinctionmay be made between adjectives which areessentially informative and those which are moreclearly evaluative.

'The traverse is continued into a crack on the leftwhich is followed for 12 feet'

gives information only.'A very awkward change of feet has to be effected

with the aid of unsatisfactory hand holds ... round amost unpleasant bulge,'

evaluates the climbing for the would be ascension-ist in a way which is no longer adopted by guide-book writers.

The 1984 guidebook description of Murray’sRoute limits its evaluative vocabulary to 'withdifficulty (crux)'and two uses of 'awkwardly'. Therest of what is written is a series of factualdescriptions of where the route goes next; infor-mation rather than evaluation. The one point at

which this more modern convention is dropped isin the description of the pitch two belay as a,'Comfortable Haven.' The 1918 description wasequally evaluative, calling the belay 'Excellentanchorage.'I well remember feeling comfortablyanchored there, in Abraham’s Cave in May 2004.Of more concern was how I would get out of sucha comfortable place.

Many of these same features are to be found inthe Fell and Rock’s early guidebooks. For exam-ple, the route descriptions in the 'Guide to PillarRock and Neighbourhood' (1935, Second Series)uses the formality of the passive voice, chooses todescribe the second or third climber universallyas male and liberally sprinkles the route descrip-tions with evaluative as well as informativeadjectives. On Walker’s Gully, 400 feet, Severe(first climbed in January 1899 by O.G. Jones, G.D.Abraham and A.E.Field) 'An exposed trough withvery poor holds,' is to be found on pitch three,while pitch eight, the ‘Through Route’, isdescribed as an, 'Arduous and energy-wastingjob. 'Finishing the route via pitch eleven is both'Exacting' and the setting up of a suitable belay,'An exhausting undertaking.'

The guidebook writers were, if nothing else,painfully honest in their descriptions. A modernguidebook using such language would do aperfect job in making sure that such a route wasseldom, if ever climbed again. Unfortunately, forthe climber of 1935, there were far fewer routesto choose from, a total of forty five routes only onthe whole of Pillar Rock in the 1935 Guide andonly fourteen routes at Severe or harder.Compare that to a hundred and nine routes in2016, with seventy-one graded Severe or above.(UK Climbing, 2016)

The following extracts, compiled for the Jour-nal by Graham Hoey, from the Langdale Guide

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The first time I came within the vicinity ofScafell Crag I didn’t know where I was. I had

set off from the foot of the Hardknott Pass on abrilliant, sunny Easter Monday, aiming to walk theEskdale Skyline over Crinkle Crags, Bowfell, EskPike, Scafell Pike and Scafell, before descendingto Wasdale Head. There were blue skies, distantviews and enough snow in Lord’s Rake to makethe last peak of the day interesting. What I meanis that at that time I had no knowledge of thehistorical significance, in rock climbing terms, ofScafell Crag.

The next time I found myself in Hollow Stones,again traversing between the two Scafell peaks, Ihad begun climbing and had read Hard Rock.Above me were two American climbers settingoff up the climb which I now knew to be one ofthe most famous and most sought after routes inthe Lakes, Central Buttress. I don’t know how Iknew they were Americans. They weren’t carry-ing much gear. They slowed down at The Ovaland by the time I had ascended Lord’s Rake andreturned to Mickledore by Foxes Tarn, they hadn’tmade any further progress. They abseiled backdown.

I had already decided that I would probablynever climb Central Buttress. It seemed such aworld away from the climbing I was doing. ButScafell Crag had become important in my ambi-tions and imagination. If I was ever to considermyself a real Lakeland climber I would have toclimb here. The guidebooks were so full of thehistory of the sport in the Lake District. The pull ofthe rock, the locations and the history were too

strong. Eventually I could resist no longer; Botter-ill’s Slab and Moss Ghyll Grooves were ticked off,Slingsby’s Chimney on a damp and greasy dayeluded me.

What is it about the Fell and Rock ClimbingClub’s rock climbing guidebooks that are sopersuasive? How can such small (no longer),pocket-sized and esoteric books have catapultedgenerations of climbers onto the fells and crags?In the Centenary Journal (2006) Stephen Reidprovided an excellent and comprehensiveoverview of all of the climbing guides which havebeen produced for the Lake District, by the FRCCand by other groups and individuals. I do notwish to cover the same ground. Instead, I want tolook at the language and stylistic features ofnearly a century of guidebook writing. How hasthe style of Fell and Rock Climbing guideschanged? How do changes in the language ofguidebooks reflect both changing times andchanging attitudes to the sport?

The motivation to write this article came fromtwo directions. Added to my own personal inter-est in the topic, a series of extracts from the firstLangdale Guidebook (1925) had been sent to theJournal editors, a submission far too homely andhumorous not to use somewhere. But what rele-vance does the language of the nineteentwenties guidebooks have to the present day?

Before the publication of the first Fell and Rockguidebooks, new route descriptions appearedregularly in the Journal. In 1918, B. Martin writesabout two new routes on Dow Crag, includingthe route that became known as Murray’s Route.

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Naming of Routes: The Changing Language of Lake District ClimbingGuidebooks

Martin Cooper

E Route (West Face) – Very Severe; rubbers.

On arrival at this point give thanks for past bless-ings and pray for future favours.

Dipthong (West Face) – Very Severe; rubbers

The whole course is very steep and tentative, andshould only be climbed on a dry, windless day,when one is in perfect training and with a pair ofnew nice-fitting rubbers.

Ash Tree Slabs

The author of this climb and the D Crack climbsuggests a combination of the two; covering as theydo, practically the whole length of the Western face,they prove a full course of soup, fish, meat, and'afters,' with a cigarette or pipe on the balcony atthe finish.

Juniper Buttress

…and above it an Insurance Company’s Class Abelay. From it, those lacking in pertinacity maytraverse into the gully on the left.

Pallid Slabs

The slabs now steepen considerably, but goodincut holds promote ascent for some 35 to 40 feetto a point where incipient overhangs point to a griz-zled mantelshelf on the right… Mounting on this,an invigorating stride is made to the left.

…to a derisory thread belay is obtainable, towhich an adhesive second may be bought as a safe-guard for the next move on the right, whichcommences with a high step and continues upsteep turf.

A number of the features identified earlier arealso present in these Langdale descriptions:archaic vocabulary, a mixture of third as well asfirst person narrative, detailed information aboutthe routes and an excessive amount of evalua-tion, albeit in a more light-hearted style. Whatwas going on here in the first attempts by the

club to provide guidebooks for the growingclimbing community?

It is, of course, almost impossible to reallyappreciate what the experience of climbing longroutes in the Lake District a hundred years agowas actually like, despite the extensive literaturefrom the time and the survival of excellent photo-graphs. Nobody pulls on nailed boots any more,to climb in the rain on greasy rock, without anysignificant gear or protection. The tone of theseguidebooks, however gives us some pretty goodclues. It was important to share informationabout just how difficult certain pitches might be,how unpleasant the experience might turn out.At the same time, the Langdale descriptionsabove use a good deal of metaphor and humour,conveying an attitude to rock climbing whichbelied its seriousness and level of risk, suggestinginstead that the users of these guides werepredominantly concerned with having a goodday out, a successful ascent perhaps beingregarded as a bonus. Are we, by comparison, tooserious about climbing?

The First Series of Fell and Rock Guidebooksfollowed a similar format: opening acknowledge-ments, history, topography and approaches tothe crag, before the description of the routes. Forthe Second Series, a wider perspective wasadopted to introduce the historical section. Forme, the opening paragraphs of the Scafell Guidewere an enormous inspiration as I sat in thesunshine at the campsite at Wasdale Head in June1996, contemplating an ascent of Botterill’s Slab.

'It is probable that the sight of the great cliffs ofthe Scafell massif has sent a thrill of awe to thehearts of more than any other scene of savagegrandeur in the British Isles. For the climber thereis still an atmosphere of romance, of the historicwanderings of the pioneers over these rock faces,

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1925, give a flavour of the style of the First Seriesof Fell and Rock Climbing Guides.

Regarding History

I feel that, with regard to the history of this valleyand its environs, the wayside flowers in their scat-tered nooks and corners give a greater joy than if Iplucked them ruthlessly and attempted a clumsybouquet.

Approaches

Socially, in their favourite haunts, climbers may betermed democratic aristocrats, for while they attainto proud and lofty heights, they at the same timeare usually to be found 'on the rocks. 'So let us tothe rocks!

Gimmer

The grips, mostly, are conveniently spaced, incut,and comforting, though not always grateful fromthe point of view of size. Belays, though not obtru-sive, are very effective, and are to be foundpractically on all stances.

The writer would advise careful attention tobelays, for, apart from the Amen Corner, Gimmerholds out no saving interception to the unfortunateclimber who has once lost contact.

Aids to progress (Artificial)

Rope: I would advise for all climbing a 100 footrope for two climbers; this gives 90 feet of 'theembracing trinity of strengths twixt thee and me'

Footgear: Build up a solid apprenticeship in nails: itwill prove valuable when rocks are wet, greasy oriced. It is more pleasurable to adopt nails than torubber round on easy, rough, or unwieldy rocks.When rocks are dry and in any degree difficult orsevere, take to rubbers and sense the intensedelight of ideal rock gymnastics.

Chimney Buttress (South Face Route)

Traverse again to the left about 8 feet, and rise towhat is known as the 'piano pitch'. You may here

execute an oratorio, or be satisfied by a short barsuch as 'rock of ages cleft for me'; it all depends onyour form and ability.

Bracket and Slab (South East Face)

First surmount a minaret of rock and step left to asmall heather ledge; then proceed up the centre ofthe slab to a bilberry ledge. Continue up the rockson the right to a bilberry garden. If fruit is in season,gather handfuls while you may.

B Route (West Face)

A belay of unpretentious quality is to be hadunder the wall at the top.

…the congregation assembles in Amen Corner,and secures itself to the juniper roots with whichthe floor is festooned.

…The devout second will sympathetically murmur'Amen' to any remarks let fall by his leader whilststruggling with this wall, eight cubits in stature.

This cleft is really an indefinite crack, and, like thematrimonial state, is more difficult to enter than toremain in…

C Route (West Face)

A very interesting climb, and as full as good thingsas a Christmas pudding.

Thomson must have been a man with small feet tochoose such a ledge; (as a belay) the best one cando is stick one’s heels against the small rock projec-tions on the sloping floor, place the rope under andover, and beg your second to your side with a smileand confidence.

If the second has received his first introduction toGimmer over this course and is feeling easier forhaving 'got it over' he may, with more justificationthan the man who ascended Slab and Notch, writesome postcards, for he may now untie and wend, asmost men do.

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routes and archived material on the club websiteand the availability of downloadable apps. Thewebsite allows the whole climbing community tobrowse the wealth of material that there is to readon the history of climbing in the Lake District.More interesting, for the first time it allows opendebate about routes. For an example, Walker’sGully on Pillar Rock, mentioned earlier, has beenthe subject of a recent debate on the websiteabout the feasibility of climbing the last pitch‘back and foot’. This will perhaps not help much inpractice, if you are actually keen to go out to dothe route. How many people climb Walker’sGully? Instead, it is something else to read on adark winter’s evening.

By contrast, a downloadable app is definitelyintended to aid your enjoyment at the crag. Wereyou wondering why everyone at Shepherd’s Cragthese days is on their mobile, not climbing? Assuch, it seems unfair to comment on the use oflanguage on the app. It tells you what you needto know, and no more. It was never intended tobe good reading. The photo diagrams are clearand well produced. I haven’t tried it at the cragyet. Personally, I doubt if the appearance of routeinformation on apps will stop climbers wanting towrite more fully and eloquently about LakeDistrict rock climbs in other forms. You have tothrow your phone away eventually.

I will end - for the sun has come out and I wishto use my guidebooks to go climbing - with asubject which could have been an article in itself.As climbers, in the Lakes and elsewhere, firstbegan to make their way up steep rock faces,they chose the obvious topographical featuresthat they had ascended to name their climbs.Thus the first routes on Pillar were called, 'Slaband Notch Climb', 'Old Wall Route', 'East PisgahChimneys', and 'The Arete.' Next, climbs were

named after the first ascensionist, 'Slingsby’sChimney, Jones Route Direct from Lord’s Rake.' Bythe end of the nineteen forties more daring, allit-erative names with classical references appeared.From the nineteen sixties and seventies, all hellbroke loose as the naming of climbs becamealmost as important as the climb itself and wavesof references to death, drugs, sexual exploits anddeeply worrying psychological states of mindwere appended to a particular line up an obscurerock face.

'The North Climb' on Scafell was first claimedby Robinson and Seatree in 1869. (T. Jones,Cumbrian Rock, 1988. The route is now also calledThe Penrith Climb). On recounting their feat toWill Ritson, proprietor of the Wasdale Hotel,Robinson and Seatree were met with the famousretort,

'Nowt but a fleein’ thing cu git up theer'It was therefore a very fitting name for Dave

Birkett to give to his 2005, E8 route on The GullyWall of The Screes, linking his incredible feat oftwenty-first century climbing to a phrase firstallegedly used in the same valley over a hundredand thirty years earlier. I’m sure that Dave wasparticularly pleased to use a piece of CumbrianDialect.

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but also from the feeling that there are secretsthat the mountain has kept through all theseyears ... (CF Holland, 1936).

While Holland’s words may seem like unjusti-fied hyperbole eighty years later, the grandeur ofhis prose style does captivate the reader andconvey the special place which is Scafell Crag.This introduction was retained in subsequenteditions of the Scafell Guide but disappearedwith the publication of the 2014 Scafell andWasdale, CB Centenary Edition. I would not like toargue with that decision, particularly in theknowledge that Al Phizacklea has now edited awhole book for the club on the subject of Scafell. Iwould, however recommend to readers thewhole of Holland’s introduction and I wouldcertainly recommend Botterill’s Slab.

More recent guides have been produced withdifferent pressures bearing down on the guide-book writers. The sheer number of routes torecord and describe, the ability to reproduce farbetter and far more colour photographs, the exis-tence of competing guidebooks and thedesire(until very recently) to still produce guide-books small enough to take on a multi-pitchclimb, have led to a compression of the amountof written text allowed to each climb. This hasmeant that evaluative adjectives have beenlimited to the overall route introduction: 'A deli-cate climb, 'A fine route', 'Enjoyable and exposedclimbing. 'Route descriptions now more straight-forwardly describe routes. Here the use ofadjectives is extremely limited: 'difficult,’ ‘steep’,‘harder’,more easily' and 'awkward' being themost common.

But it is not only the need to use fewer wordswhich has changed. Modern climbers want toclimb, not read the guidebook all day, but theystill want adventure. Setting off for Dow Crag,

Gimmer or Pillar is simply not as adventurous anundertaking as it must have been in the nineteentwenties. Modern guidebook writers haveobliged by providing just enough information oneach route, but not too much. The occasional useof a more striking adjective will indicate thatsomething out of the ordinary should beexpected. The top pitch of Chartreuse, Scafell EastButtress, was described as a 'brutal crack' fromthe outset (first ascent 1958). Subsequent guides,including 2014, have still used the same word,'brutal'. The route is still on my list.

The 2014 Scafell and Wasdale Guidebook,brought out to coincide with the first ascent ofCentral Buttress on Scafell Crag, is a superbproduction, with a host of new features, too manyto mention here. However, there is one newdeparture worth a mention in the context of thisarticle, the use on occasions of gently humorousand ironic comments in route descriptions. Forexample, Saxon is, 'Serious, bold but, mercifullyshort,' The Great Flake on Central Buttress nowrequires 'large cams' and 'fat wallets', and'Awesome finger strength and raw talent' arecited as minimum pre-requisites for the E9 (DaveBirkett) route, Return of the King. A more user-friendly approach to language, as well as thetremendous colour photographs, make this morethan just another guidebook but also a specialbook about a special place. I bought it as soon as Isaw it. So I will admit to Fell and Rock ClimbingClub bias at this point. The club’s next guidebook,The Lake District Rock selected guide (2015), notto be outdone, won an international award.

Will these superb new guidebooks signal amassive revival in climbing on the Lake District’shigh mountain crags? We will have to wait andsee. Two other pointers to the future whichshould be mentioned are the publishing of new

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Introduction.

In one episode of their eventful lives a remark-able pair of sisters with a passion for mountains,

Mrs Helen Bryan and Miss Evelyn Pirie, ran aclimbing hut strategically placed for Dow Crag inConiston. This was the 1930s: climbers such asBentley Beetham and Ruth Hargreaves took themout on the crags. Both became Fell and Rockmembers with a unique relationship with theclimbing world.

After the death of Helen Bryan’s last survivingdaughter in 2006, the first Visitors’ Book and LogBook of the Doe Crag Climbers’ Hut came into theFell and Rock Archives. With them was a bundleof typewritten poems by Helen, most of whichrelate either to love of mountains, or to herwartime experiences. These papers unleashedmany memories: my brother George and I knewHelen and Evelyn when we were children inConiston. The ladies were nicknamed Bryan ‘nPirie in the Club and the village. Books, memoriesand poems, augmented by information from Felland Rock, and Pinnacle Club publications, formthe basis of this article.

Formative influences.

Pirie men were in the Indian Army for severalgenerations. Helen liked to say flamboyantly thatshe was born on the North West Frontier(between modern Pakistan and Afghanistan)where her father was serving at the time. Bothdaughters were born rather further from thefront, in the Punjab, in 1892 and 1896 respec-tively. Helen and Evelyn thus grew up asmemsahibs in the heyday of the Raj, with an ayah

and knowledge of Hindi. Adventurous tasteswere nurtured by stories of Great Uncle ColonelHarry Tanner, of the Survey of India, who ranpundits on the Sikkim – Tibetan border. The girlsalso acquired experience of the hills, a view ofEverest, an acquaintance with Buddhist monas-teries. Their mountain passion was established inthe highest places.

Father married Alice Ida Keller in England in1890. The Keller family were wealthy. Helen andEvelyn’s grandfather, Leopold Keller, was a gold-smith and diamond merchant. The sisters had alarge family of affluent cousins living in the southof England.

In the first world war, Major General Pirieserved with the Indian Army Ambulance CavalryBrigade. Helen, aged 22, unsurprisingly alsochose war service and became a Voluntary AidDetachment (V.A.D.) nurse. By 1915, she was innorthern France, based in one of many Britishgeneral hospitals in Boulogne, in the formercasino.

Helen’s war contained plenty of intensely hardwork, blood, death and the sound of guns.Evelyn, meanwhile, lost the man she might havemarried, killed in Flanders.

During the war, Helen met and married Lieu-tenant Charles Walter Gordon Bryan, R.A.M.C., asurgeon stationed at no. 14 General Hospital,Wimereux. Their eldest daughter was born in1917.

The Doe Crag Climbers’ Hut.

I know little about Helen and Evelyn’s lifebetween 1918 and 1932. Helen had two daugh-

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The naming of new climbs

About the naming of new climbs,

they were very conservative, the old masters:

the first excursion on a crag

might be christened Route A;

you could guess what the second would be.

Northeast Buttress was easy to find

if you were properly orientated

and Diagonal went from bottom left

to reach top right, or vice versa.

They kept a sense of decorum, too.

It would have been quite inappropriate

for a gentleman to call two of his new routes

on Pillar Rock, Sodom and Gomorrah.

They appeared eventually in the guidebook

with the more becoming titles

Route 1 and Route 2.

you knew where you were

when they named climbs like that.

John Maguire

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Bryan ‘n Pirie of the Doe Crag Climbers’ Hut.

Hatty Harris

widow, with her daughter Pamela aged about 12,both from Castle Carrock, and Phyllis’s sisterRebie. The Murrays wrote Fell and Rock as theirclub affiliation, although not members them-selves.

After family came business. A.T.Hargreaves andA.B.Hargreaves visited together, along withWilliam Clegg. The Hargreaves (who were notrelated to each other) quoted as their clubs Ruck-sack and Climbers’ Club respectively, althoughbest known to us as Fell and Rock. Clegg speci-fied Fell and Rock. All were leading rock climbersof their day and pillars of this Club. A.B. Harg-reaves was noted as a leading proponent of theprovision of cheaper accommodation for climbersin the Lakes, rather than the reliance on hotelscommon at the time. He was instrumental insetting up the Robertson Lamb Hut (Wayfarers) inLangdale and was its first warden. A.T. was thefirst warden of Brackenclose from 1936 and VicePresident 1943-5. A.B. did two stints as Fell andRock Treasurer, the first of ten years from 1934,and went on to be Vice President (1947-1949) andPresident (1952-1954). This first visit to the DoeCrag Hut, on which they stayed a night and spenta day on Thunder Slab above Levers Water, wassurely a tour of inspection of the new premises.

Blanche Eden-Smith, a leading woman climber,arrived next from Grange over Sands. She playeda leading role in both Pinnacle Club and Fell andRock (Vice President 1935-7) and like the twoHargreaves, had a practical interest in the accom-modation available. Then came R.E.Heap, ‘LittleRuth’, who later married A.T.Hargreaves and was afine climber in her own right, with her thenhusband Frank G. Heap. Lower down the pageBentley Beetham, of the 1924 Everest expeditionand a teacher at Barnard Castle School, recorded

his first visit: he became one of the most loyalguests. An unconventional visitor, he played withhis listed ‘Climbing Club’ affiliation, once writing‘most’ in that column. Early in 1933, Wm. HeatonCooper (usually a day visitor), W.G.Milligan andH.M.Kelly all put in an appearance. Subsequenthut use implies that their inspections were satis-factory. Milligan, with A.B.Hargreaves, wasinstrumental later in buying the land for Bracken-close, so he, too, had a particular interest in theworking of a Lake District climbing hut.

The pages of the Visitors’ Book show that thehut was quickly accepted as a centre for Conistonand Langdale climbing, and Dow Crag in particu-lar. Between 1933 and 1938 it hosted ninePinnacle Club meets, eight Fell and Rock, sixRucksack Club and five Preston MountaineeringClub. Other clubs with between one and threemeets each were the Gritstone, the MAM, OxfordUniversity Women’s M.C., the Tricouni, the West-morland and Cumberland Rock C.C., the D.O.A.V.(sic) and Bentley Beetham’s school club, theGoldsborough. The maximum number of resi-dent guests at a time may have been as high as21. Individual visitors, with and without climbingclub affiliations, also came.

The Doe Crag Climbers’ Hut acquired specialstatus with the Fell and Rock. Before Brackenclosewas opened in 1937 the Fell and Rock had nohuts of its own but listed ‘Official Quarters’ in eachclimbing centre in the Handbook. These wereusually hotels. In 1934, at Coniston, Official Quar-ters moved from the Sun Hotel to the Doe CragClimbers’ Hut (‘proprietors Mrs Bryan and MissPirie’). In 1936 ‘a Club bookcase is now at theDow (sic) Crag Climbers’ Hut, not the Sun Hotel’.In 1938 First Aid outfits (proposed by a sub-committee of the Rucksack Club and FRCC)should be available at ‘the various rock climbing

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ters, but her marriage was not a success. Evelynremained single. There were visits to the Alps:both ladies became proficient skiers and readmountaineering books. Then in 1932 theybought land from the Le Flemings (the Conistonmanorial landowners) at Parkgate, south of Conis-ton village on the Torver road. They built anunostentatious house with ex-military woodenhuts in the grounds, and opened a climbing hut.

The choice of location was logical. Thelegendary Mrs. Harris (no relation to H.H.) ‘ thisideal hostess of the fells’ had died in 1928 andwith her, hospitality at Parkgate. W.T. Palmer paida warm tribute to Mrs. Harris in the Fell and RockJournal. Behind Parkgate, a track leads straight uponto the Walna Scar Road and so easily to Dow.Bryan ‘n Pirie thus filled a gap in the market forclimbers on Dow seeking comfortable accommo-dation, cheaper than a hotel.

Bryan ‘n Pirie had a personal Fell and Rockconnection too, that very likely put them in touchwith the concept and location of the Hut. AKeller cousin, Phyllis Evelyn Keller, married DenisG. Murray in 1918. Murray had joined the Fell andRock in 1913 and Dorothy Pilley Richards remem-bered him as a climber of dashing style. Duringthe First World War he served in the Royal NavalAir Service, was shot down in Dutch waters in1915 and interned. In 1918 he did first ascents ofMurray’s Route and Murray’s Crack on Dow Crag,both Severe, with W.J.Borrowman and BrianL.Martin. The latter in particular became a closefriend of Bryan ‘n Pirie. Murray died young in1930; his widow, Phyllis, and daughter lived atCastle Carrock near Carlisle. This gave Bryan ‘nPirie a Cumbrian mountaineering connection:incidentally a Fell and Rock one also.

In October 1932, the Doe Crag Climbers’ Hutopened. The first pageof the Visitors’ Booksignals several interest-ing connections. Thecolumns are headedName, Address, Dates ofarrival and departure,and then ‘Notes’ crossedout and ‘Climbing Club’substituted in red ink.This was not a B & B orGuest House (assuggested by A.H.Grif-fin) but a climbing hut.The first guest wasMajor General C. Pirie(father) from London,who stayed three weeks.Next came PhyllisMurray, Denis Murray’s

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frequent visitor and a stalwart supporter of bothclubs. Nancy Ridyard and Molly Fitzgibbon bothlived locally but called quite frequently, as didMabel Barker. This hut was a major climbers’centre for Dow, with many guests heading for theLangdale Crags as well, or even Wasdale for theday.

Bryan ‘n Pirie were complete novices to rockclimbing. They never became of more thanmoderate ability, nor led, but many climbers,often eminent, took them and Helen’s daughtersout. They were not the conventional Lake Districtlandladies: the climbing world that they hostedreciprocated by including them in their activities.Bentley Beetham started them off, taking Evelynup C Buttress on Dow on April 11th 1933 andHelen up D on the 17th. Evelyn went out moreoften than Helen and participated in PinnacleClub and O.U.W.M.C. meets. However, both ladiessampled several different crags. There was a dayon Kern Knotts and Needle Ridge Arete with‘Bones’ Harland, Langdale (Middlefell Butress andGimmer) with Brian L. Martin, Burtness Coombewith A.T. and R.E.Hargreaves and a day on Pillarwith H.M.Kelly (North Climb, Central Jordan andSlab and Notch). They provided the Hut andseveral very fine climbers repaid with ascents. In1933, Bryan ‘n Pirie joined the Pinnacle Club and,in 1934, the Fell and Rock.

Helen, the elder and dominant sister, could beimpetuous and imaginative, as well as severelypractical. Her mountain poems attempted,sincerely if not always very successfully, tocapture her passionate love of the hills; at thevery least they document their mountain destina-tions. Bryan ‘n Pirie were enthusiastic travellersand explorers. They visited Scotland, includingSkye and Torridon, with the Pinnacle Club. Fromthe early glimpses of the Himalaya, their experi-

ence of higher mountains had expanded to theAlps and the Pyrenees. There are references of atrip to Iceland, although unfortunately no details.

Much better recorded is a trip to the High Atlas.Bentley Beetham started to explore the AtlasMountains of Morocco in the 1920s when theywere virtually unknown mountaineering territory.In 1934 he had confidence in the Bryan ‘n Pirie’srope skills, plus the ladies’ robustness for explor-ing, and invited them to join his party. Thisconsisted of Bentley Beetham himself,J.B.Meldrum, S.R.E.Philips, Helen C. Bryan and E.Pirie, who all sailed in a Dutch liner fromSouthampton to Tangiers in August. Beethamand Meldrum spent some time climbing alonetogether, but the whole party also explored as agroup. They spent four days at a higher camp, atabout 10,000 ft, from which a Lammergeier wassighted. From this camp they traversed a rockridge of Djebel Bou Ouszab with a magnificentview of the south face of Toubkal. At its foot LacD’Ifni lay like a sapphire. At the col they roped.Bentley led, then Evelyn while Meldrum broughtup Helen.

The black-walled mountain rose to Heaven itself.A snowflake floated down, while there,ten thousand feet beneath, a jewel lay,turquoise and aqueous in Sahara’s hand.We roped and climbing, made each tower our own,until the friendly summit, hardly gained,fulfilled desire.

Evelyn’s account for the Pinnacle Club Journalattempts straightforward description, buthumour and suppressed excitement shinethrough. Helen characteristically bursts intopoetry.

The mountain skill at which Bryan ‘n Pirieexcelled was skiing. A charming entry in the Log

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centres.’ These included The Old Hotel, Langdaleand the Dow Crag Climbers’ Hut. By this date,Helen Bryan had served a stint on the Fell andRock Committee and the Doe Crag Climbers’ Hutwas firmly, though not exclusively, a Fell and Rockbase.

Special features of the Hut were the strongfocus on climbing, thanks to its convenience forDow Crag. Furthermore it offered cheap accom-modation: four shillings and six pence for B&B in1938, teas one shilling and three pence. A signifi-cant attraction too was the welcoming kindnessof Bryan ‘n Pirie, often mentioned in the log, sothat they created a social focus also. A couple of‘New Year meets’, and an ‘Easter Meet ‘ crossedclub boundaries with partying for all as well asdays on the hills. The Hut achieved prominence

with both Pinnacle Club and FRCC, displaying aneasy mixed-gender ambience, which was unusualin those days, when most clubs (but not the Felland Rock) were single-sex. It is interesting tocontrast the hut of A.H.Griffin’s Coniston Tigers,on the lake shore, which was male-only andmostly for a Barrow-based friendship group. Acomparison with Brackenclose, the first Fell andRock hut, which the Doe Crag hut pre-dates by afew years is surely pertinent too. Here theemphasis on climbing, the mixed gender ambi-ence and sociability were (indeed are) also found.A.B. and A.T. Hargreaves and others set up Brack-enclose with recent experience of the Doe CragHut.

Sid Cross first visited 1934, when at the heightof his climbing powers. He became a frequentvisitor, sometimes with Alice Mary Wilson, wholater became his wife ‘Jammie’ Cross. During thisperiod, Sid Cross and A.T.Hargreaves were work-ing on the 2nd Fell and Rock Dow Crag Guidepublished in 1938. The Doe Crag Hut was proba-bly the main base from which Sid and A.T.worked.

Other prominent FRCC members either calledor stayed. Tall, shy Brian Martin (see D.G.Murray),with a strong reputation for both Alpine and LakeDistrict climbing, became a close friend. GeorgeBasterfield and Graham McPhee, HowardSomervell (Everest 1922 and 1924), Jack Longland(Everest 1933), R.G.Plint, Charles Pickles, JohnAppleyard (who lived close by), E.O. ‘Bones’Harland his brother in law, Charles Tilley and W.G.Milligan are all listed. A huge day party broughtby Sid Cross to tea included Geoffrey WinthropYoung as well as G.R.Speaker, the Pollits, theHeaton Coopers, and Willy Pape. Among thewomen, many were both FRCC and Pinnacle Club.Dorothy Pilley, despite living in the south, was a

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Cranwell Mountaineering Club, the YorkshireRamblers and the MAM. Close contact was main-tained with the climbing world and also the Felland Rock .

Then, suddenly in 1950, Bryan ‘n Pirie moved toHerefordshire: Langdale, they said, was too wet. Itmay also have been lonely when the huts wereempty. However, from Herefordshire, Helenedited the Pinnacle Club Journal.

The Hereford episode was brief: Bryan ‘n Piriemissed the Lake District. In 1952 they were backin Coniston, at Gateside, a few hundred yardssouth of the present MAM hut at Low House.Here they had purchased the properties of aformer local butcher. As well as the Victorianhouse, there was the wooden slaughterhouseacross the road, which took the small car and thelarge collection of old-fashioned skis. The formershop was let as a self-catering holiday cottage.‘Derelict outbuildings’ and the orchard were soonsold. Bryan ‘n Pirie may have been upper-middleclass in origin, but money was always an issue.They had their capital in building and needed anincome. They ran Gateside as a guest house, anddid teas. Their old friends were back and severalmeets are recorded in the Log Book: the PinnacleClub came several times. Indeed, Helen was Presi-dent for two years in the 1950s, even though shedid not qualify for full membership as she did notlead climbs. Keswick Mountaineering Club, Cleve-land Mountaineering Club, the Gritstone Cluband the Pennine Mountaineering Club all came:presumably if the meets were of any size,members stayed in other local venues. In June1955 there was a Fell and Rock meet: ‘a first classcouple of days.’

As a guest house, Gateside took families. JimCameron, a professional local climbing guide and

Fell and Rock member,often had clients staying atGateside and he met them there. Jim had movedinto Dow Crag House, the former Climbers’ Hut,although it was no longer run as a hut. Other oldFell and Rock friends were frequent visitors,notably Ruth Hargreaves, Brian Martin andA.B.Hargreaves as well as Jack and Audrey Kenyonwho had a cottage in Coniston. (A.T. Hargreaveshad died tragically in 1952 in a skiing accident inAustria). There is no record from Gateside ofHelen or Evelyn going on the fells themselves:they were getting older and Helen in particularhad a bad heart. They continued endlessly cheer-ful and generous with hospitality andencouragement, especially to children tacklingthe mountains.

A young Fell and Rock member stood chattingin the Gateside kitchen one day while Helenmixed dough for scones. A cigarette hungneglected from her lips, the ash growing longerand longer … until, inevitably, it collapsed intothe dough.

‘Oh bugger!’ exclaimed Helen, and went onmixing.

The incident epitomizes the woman: an instantemotional response – rather earthy in this exam-ple - succeeded by entirely practical action.

Finale

Club climbing huts were still a novelty at thetime of the Doe Crag Hut. The Climbers’ Club hadopened Helyg, the first hut in Britain, in 1925. TheS.M.C’s Charles Inglis Clark Hut followed in 1929and the Emily Kelly Pinnacle Club Hut in 1932. Inthe Lake District, only the Robertson Lamb Hut(1930) preceded Brackenclose in 1935. At thetime that the Doe Crag Climbers’ Hut opened in

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Book is for February 24 -27 1933, when at the firstPinnacle Club meet at the Climbers’ Hut deepsnow prevented access to hills. ‘A toboggan andmany pairs of skis were most generously lent byMrs Bryan and Miss Pirie’ wrote Blanche Eden-Smith. The meet was a huge success althoughthe first attempts on skis were not always so, tojudge by some cartoon sketches of entangledPinnacle Club members. Bryan ‘n Pirie becamefounder members of the Lake District Ski Club in1936. In the winters of 1935, 1936 and 1937 theLog Book records days out on promising Lakelandhills: Sticks Pass, Skiddaw, Blencathra, Stybarrowand Raise Dodds, Helvellyn. Ruth Hargreaves wasnearly always with them, usually A.T.Hargreavestoo. Other companions included John and EveAppleyard, Frank Heap, A.B. Hargreaves, E. Hodge,William Clegg, Bentley Beetham and Helen’s twodaughters.

Evelyn published an article outlining the skiingpotential of the area; it suggests she came upfrom London to ski before the Climbers’ Hut days.In the Pinnacle Club Journal Helen gives anaccount of an exciting 15-day ski mountaineeringtrip to Switzerland, with A.T. and Ruth Hargreaves,Frank Heap and the guides Herman Bumann andAlexander Taugwalder. A.T.Hargreaves becamean outstanding ski mountaineer, but was intro-duced to skiing by Helen and Evelyn.

In 1938, Sid Cross and A.T.Hargreaves hadfinished the Dow Crag Guide. Early in 1939, Bryan‘n Pirie sold the Doe Crag Climbing Hut as a goingconcern. However, as Sid Cross wrote, ‘the greatConiston days’, like so much else in 1939, wereover.

The Second World War and Beyond.

Bryan ‘n Pirie were far from ‘over’ in 1939, butsomething of a pattern of pulling up roots andmoving was a feature of their lives. They nursedduring the war at Calderstones EmergencyHospital, Whalley in Lancashire. Evelyn drove anambulance. Helen’s poems of the period, some ofher best crafted, give information about herpatients: an amputee from Dunkirk, men fromCrete and Greece, and a Norwegian lad from theretreat at Narvik:

His eyes spilt laughter, but in the shadeLay death unspecified and numbly laidTo rest in burnt disaster.

Meanwhile, the Fell Rock opened Raw Head in1944. In 1945, a new page in the Doe CragClimbers’ Hut Log Book is headed ‘Rawfell’ inlarge, inked capitals. Rawfell is the bungalowalmost hidden in its own garden next door toRaw Head. Under Raw Head in the FRCC Hand-book it stated ‘The key is kept by Mrs. Bryan,Rawfell, Great Langdale via Ambleside, to whomit must be returned on leaving’. Bryan ‘n Pirie hadtaken up residence in Langdale where they werealso keyholders for the Robertson Lamb Hut,established in 1930. Keys to Fell and Rock hutshad to be collected on arrival from a local resi-dent in the days before members had theprivilege of a key each. Bryan ‘n Pirie also saw tolaundry: ‘Sleeping bags must be used: cottonones may be borrowed from Mrs. Bryan at acharge of 6d each (payable to Mrs Bryan). Afteruse the bags must be returned to Rawfell’. Ofcourse, Rawfell could not accommodate guestson the scale that the Climbers’ Hut had done, butHelen and Evelyn took a few, and also did teas.Bobby and Muriel Files stayed once or twice, andthe log book records meets of the RAF College

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Face Climb

I have come to see how it is donethis ascent into treasure houses.I want purity of spaceits silenceamong the solemn rock towers

I follow you easy dynamismas we climb an idea.my body rises without forcehands caress crystalsfeet pause on small holds

Below, the glacier like silk recedes and I am Icarusconfidence highclosing the sunthrough a line of bolts.

You reel me in janglingheaps of gear,wide-faced with the space below.

This is how obsession begins, with the heady smell of melting wax.

Joyce Hodgson

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1932, the idea of club huts was growing and thenumerous Fell and Rock visitors to the Bryan ‘nPirie’s must surely have been influenced by theambience.

A tantalizing question is how Helen and Evelynselected Parkgate, Coniston as their location. Itseems too good for chance. More likely it wasthrough the Murray family connection and theFell and Rock; perhaps even an influential figurelike A.B.Hargreaves pointed Bryan ‘n Pirie to theplace where there was a real need.

The association of Helen and Evelyn’s lives withmountains highlights some interesting points,both about them and about women in the climb-ing world. Women climbers of the 1920s and1930s had experienced the first world war. Theyhadn’t suffered the casualties of the men ofcourse, but there were formative and life chang-ing influences. In this context, many middle andupper middle class women, like Helen, were intro-duced to hard, exhausting, unglamorous work.Certainly Bryan ‘n Pirie lived in the expectation ofrolling their sleeves up and getting on with it. It isnoteworthy too that, at a time when many ofeven the greatest women climbers were thewives of climbing husbands, Bryan ‘n Pirie, as thenickname suggests, were a pair of thoroughlyindependent women, united until Helen’s deathin 1963.

Bryan ‘n Pirie gave much to the Fell and Rock,and to other guests. Infinitely kind and generous,they exuded good humour, and forthrightconversation as they chain-smoked their waythrough the day. An ebullient, cheerful socialatmosphere swirled around them so that theirhuts, like the best Club premises, became farmore than cheap, convenient accommodation.

Acknowledgements. Thanks are due to: Guy andMargaret Plint, Audrey Plint, Angela Soper, Richard andJane Hargreaves, Chris and Ellie Sherwin, AlistairCameron, George Harris, John McM. Moore.

Footnotes:1) Doe or Dow? The first FRCC guide (1922) uses Doe,the second(1938), uses Dow which has become the modernspelling. However, the Log Book of the Bryan ‘n Pirieclimbing hut has ‘Doe Crag Climbers’ Book’ embossedin gold letters on the spine. I have therefore retained‘Doe’ in the name of the Climbing Hut, but used Dowelsewhere in the text. Some confusion when quotingother sources has been inevitable.2) Many of the names of climbers quoted in this articlewill be found under lists of former Club officers in theFell and Rock Handbook. The guidebooks of theperiod are also informative.

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From the new Borrowdale guide - Hind Crag, Robinson- Severe - Climber : Tevor Langhorne

Photo - Richard Tolley

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New Climbs

Trevor Langhorne

From a Distance - E7 6c StennisFord, Pembrokeshire , climber Sam

Hamer. Photo - Hamer Brothers

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rising traverse right and follow the fine rough slabsabove.First ascent: (09/09/2014) Martin Scrowston, Paul CBennett

Coke Can Katy 21m  HVS 5a An intimidating start leads to more relaxed climbingabove. Start at a recess 5m right of Random Drift belowa short steep groove. Ascend the groove and pull upleft to surmount a bulge, move up rightwards passingsome dubious blocks. Follow a direct line passing anoverhang at its left edge.First ascent: (18/06/2015) Paul C Bennett, MartinScrowston

Central Buttress

Old Genes 14m SThe short hanging slab on the left of the overhangingbuttress. Scramble up left to gain the slab, bold climb-ing up the short slab leads to a steep wall with goodholds.First ascent: (06/10/2014) Martin Scrowston, ColynEarnshaw

Norman's Route 17m  SAn exciting trip with wild exposure for a route at thisgrade. Start at the centre of the overhung buttress at aleft slanting ramp. Follow the shattered ramp on largeprotruding holds to gain the left arête, pull up toaccess a slab and follow its right edge to finish.  Firstascent: (05/09/2009) Martin Scrowston solo

Not the Norm 18m VS 4cSteep and exciting. Start as for Norman's Route at theleft slanting ramp. Ascend the ramp for 3m thencommit to the steep wall above and follow a direct lineof large hand holds to exit at the left end of thecapping overhang.First ascent: (16/03/2015) Martin Scrowston, Dave Till.

Selfish Gene 17m  E1 5bStart at a rightwards slanting ramp in the centre of thebuttress. Climb the short ramp, ascend the steep walldirect on large holds to a good ledge. Pull up steeplyto surmount the bulge right of the large overhang,step left to finish.First ascent: (25/09/2014) Paul C Bennett, MartinScrowston

Mutation 15m  VS 4cSteep and bold. Start at the right end of the buttress.Climb the steep wall on good holds right of a mossystreak to a large ledge; more steep climbing and bigholds to finish right of the Yew tree.First ascent: (25/09/2014) Martin Scrowston, Paul CBennett

Evolution 16m  HVS 4cStart three metres right of Natural Selection at a thinright slanting crack. Climb the steep wall on big holdsto a large ledge. Direct up another steep wall to a shat-tered overhang, move left to finish up yet anothersteep wall.First ascent: (16/09/2014) Martin Scrowston, Paul Kear

A Dream of White Houses 25m  HVSA fine exciting adventure that takes the obvious darkleft slanting ramp under the large overhang. Start asfor Evolution; follow the diagonal juggy ramp leftwardspassing a small wobbly block directly below thecapping roof. An exposed traverse left leads to a junc-tion with Not the Norm at the left end of the overhang.First ascent: (04/06/2015) Martin Scrowston, Paul CBennett

Natural Selection 23m  HVS 5aFollows the striking rightwards slanting fault line thatdissects the length of the crag. Start 2m right of Selfish.Steep climbing gives access to a sloping ledge;

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New route activity has been slow over the pasttwo years, no doubt due in part to the poor

weather we have suffered. There have beenalmost no additions to the high crags. Unseason-ably mild winters have slowed the pace ofwinter/mixed climbing development although afew substantial routes have been recorded. Fulldetails of all recorded new routes can be seen inthe climbing section of our websitehttp://www.frcc.co.uk; these are often supportedby action photographs and topos. The bulk of thenew rock routes are short with a good proportionin the accessible grades as well the usual desper-ate offerings. Wear, tear and Mother Nature leavetheir mark on the crags affecting pre-existingclimbs; some of these changes have beenrecorded on our website and are included here.

LANGDALE

The most significant developments have been theexploration of a number of small crags such asThrang Crag West, Upper Scout Crag, new areas onSide Pike and Birk Knott Crag above Blea Tarn; alloffer short pleasant routes on good rock and atmodest grades. Without the efforts of the ‘Scrow-ston and Bennett team’ this would be a very shortreport. Full details of Thrang Crag West and UpperScout Crag are included here to give a flavour ofthe nature of these outcrop routes. A smattering ofother routes has been recorded, with only threebeing more than a single pitch. One short buttough addition is Central Crack (E4 6a) on Grave GillCrag

Thrang Crag   (page 17)Alt: 210m   GR: NY 318 058  Direction: SouthThree small and sunny buttress above and left of

Thrang Crag. All the routes are worthwhile, someare very good. Approach as for Thrang Crag, justkeep going upwards and left. Descent, closely follow the top of the crag left-wards passing behind a large oak tree to access ashort decent gully. Alternatively carefully downclimb Dust Bunny (D). Routes are described from left to right. Photodia-grams on the website

Left Buttress

Dust Bunny   15m  D 

Three metres left of the left edge of the buttress is anobvious short rough pillar. Climb it.First ascent: (12/09/2014) Carole Scrowston, MartinScrowston

Clone 16m S

Start below a right slanting groove at the left end ofthe buttress. Climb the groove to a small bulge, stepup and left to follow the rough slab above.First ascent: (24/08/2014) Martin Scrowston

Mitosis 17m  VS 4bA good route with a choice of exits; start 2m rightof Clone at the second groove. Follow the groove to ashort steep slab, bold moves via finger pockets leadsto better holds and the cracked slab above. An alterna-tive finish is possible by traversing right from abovethe short slab up an obvious diagonal line.First ascent: (09/08/2014) Martin Scrowston, Paul CBennett

Random Drift 22m  HVS 5aExcellent climbing with sustained interest. Start at thethird groove in the centre of the buttress. Ascend thegroove for 5m to a steepening. Make a committing

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First ascent: (20/09/2014) Freya Scrowston, CaroleScrowston

Lutefisk 36m  VS 4cA route for adventurers revealed during a sheeprescue. It links the best features available on thissection of the crag and is a good option if its fishyneighbours are damp. Start just right of Girl Scout,climb up and right on big holds to gain a large ledgein a corner. Hand traverse right to gain another ledgebelow some large flakes, move up utilising the largeflake to yet another ledge left of a right slantingramp.(Possible belay) Climb the ramp (crux) and finishup the wall above.First ascent: (10/07/2015) Martin Scrowston, ColynEarnshaw

Small Fry 16m  MVS * A good companion route to Girl Scout on steep roughrock. Start 5m left of Girl Scout at a short steepbuttress. Climb the centre of the buttress to a break,step right to ascend the steep wall on large holds.First ascent: (30/05/2016) Martin Scrowston, FreyaScrowston

Salmon Leap, it has been reported that the cornerof this route is about 5b but well protected, it is eas-ier to climb its left wall using the corner crack forprotection and a few holds on Sid the Sardine

Harrison Stickle (page 128)Wage Slaves 42m  VS 5a10m right of the start of Credit Crunch there is a wall witha left slanting crack up its centre.1 12m 5a Climb the slanting crack in its entirety, alter-natively after 2m continue straight up. Belay at theledge.2 30m 4c Climb the steep crack 1.5m right of theblocky crack of Credit Crunch. Continue easily to joinCredit Crunch.

The base of the crag can be reached by a 25m abseilfrom a convenient spike to the left of a ledge halfwayup the second pitch.First ascent: (05/07/2014) Tom Walkington, Leo Walms-ley

Raven Crag Buttress (page 148)In contrast to the many very short routes that havebeen recorded there are a couple of more substan-tial offerings on Raven Crag Buttress.

Exoplanet 65m  E2 5bTakes a line left of Bilberry Buttress.1 20m 5b Pitch one of Bilberry Buttress Eliminate.2 20m 5b The arête between Savernake and BilberryButtress.   Climb 6m up the corner of Savernake to agood nut. Step down slightly and use a neat sequenceof small finger-holds to reach the arête and usefulwires in a horizontal flake crack at waist height on thefront face. Up the arête to the thread belay of BilberryButtress.3 25m 5a/5b Climb the wall right of Pluto P3 startingup a short wide crack.  Nicely spaced positive holds.First ascent: (05/06/2014) Peter Graham (P2) RickGraham (P3)

End Elevation 43m  VSAnother surprising find close to the classic HS Revela-tion giving good climbing up the pleasantly exposedarête on the left edge of the buttress. Start as for Eleva-tion and after 5m move left to the edge of the buttressand follow it to a broken ledge. Move up to gain ashort hand traverse leading left once again to accessthe extreme edge of the buttress, follow the arête tofinish by an oak tree with a perfectly positioned rockseat to belay from.First ascent: (25/07/2015) Martin Scrowston, JanaEdwards-Lihocka.

Route comment: Carrion Climbing on Mendes Wallis reported as being loose and “adventurous”

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continue steeply up the ramp passing a junctionwith Evolution to finish by wrestling with the Yew tree.First ascent: (02/10/2014) Martin Scrowston, Paul CBennett

Right Buttress A scruffy rambling buttress that contains two sur-prisingly interesting, traditional style routes.

Full Circle 24m SStart at the toe of the buttress. Follow the crest of the

bulging buttress, snake upwards utilising the best ofthe clean rock and passing some circular rock art tosome large ledges. Step left onto a large flake to exitvia the steep head wall.First ascent: (12/09/2014) Martin Scrowston, CaroleScrowston

Elemental 23m  SStart just left of a Hawthorn tree. Gain the right slant-

ing groove and follow it steeply passing some smallledges, easier climbing above leads to a large grassyterrace, step down to a spike by a small rowan. (Possi-ble belay) Ascend the bulging wall above the spikebelay, move left over broken ledges to finish up theshort wall.First ascent: (01/10/2014) Martin Scrowston, ColynEarnshaw

Scorchio 20m SA gentle slab leading to a steep finish.Start right of a small hawthorn 15m right of Elementalat the extreme right end of the buttress. Step up andleft behind the hawthorn to gain the slab, follow itsclean right edge to a steepening. Move left and finishup the steep broken wall above.First ascent: (29/05/2016) Freya Scrowston. CaroleScrowston

Upper Scout Crag, Salmon Leap Area (page 41)Photoddiagram on the website

Sid the Sardine 32m  HVS 5a **A good route that takes the large slab on the left sideof the buttress. Start at a short groove 2m left ofSalmon Leap. Follow slabs and ledges to a small over-hang, climb this on its right to gain the large slab.Ascend the slab to a second overhang, turn this on itsleft and follow a thin crack up steep rock to finish leftof the tree.First ascent: (01/07/2014) Paul C Bennett, Paul Kear,Martin Scrowston

Thing Fish 34m  HVS 5a **A good companion route to Salmon Leap providinginteresting and exciting climbing.  Start below a leftslanting groove at the right hand end of the large hori-zontal ledge at the base of the buttress and 3m rightof Salmon Leap. Climb the groove and slab to a diago-nal ledge. Move up to gain a large perched block (bigsling useful). Surmount the block then make anexposed and committing move left to gain the hang-ing slab above the overhang. Follow the slab to itsapex; ascend the steep wall above on surprisinglygood holds.First ascent: (21/06/2014) Martin Scrowston, Paul CBennett

Girl Scout 20m  VDA pleasant route that provides a fine extension to thefull Scout Crag experience. Adventurers can warm upon Lower Scout, progress to a route on Upper Scoutthen conclude by topping out on this short pinnaclewith the benefit of the extended view. From the top ofScout Crag skip up and right through the bracken for20m to the base of the obvious pinnacle. Climb thepinnacle by its left arête to a large belvedere. Follow acracked groove up the short wall on the right to finish.There are three very good VS routes further right, bestclimbed during a dry period.

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comes as no surprise that many short routes havebeen added to crags such as Stonestar South andUpper Buck Crag. There have been a few moresubstantial additions, notably Mr Cuddles and FossNight Nerves and What’s all the Foss about?

Access Issue: The owners of Common WoodQuarry have banned climbing at this small sportvenue.

Route Comment: Leprechaun on Low Crag is re-ported to be very hard for MVS, possibly VS 5a andworth a couple of stars

Brow Side Alt: 175m GR: SD 238 987 Faces:South WestPark at the cattle grid south of Troutal. Approachas for Burnt Crag along the track; go through thegates and up the hillside following the wall. At thetop of the wall there is a stile on the right - go overthis and traverse the hillside for 150m towards thecascades. 

Mr Cuddles 12m  E8 ***Embrace the arête and don't let go. Emotional!First ascent: (10/04/2016) Craig Matheson

Foss How Crag (page 247)

Foss Night Nerves 13m  E6 6b **The direct start to Rough Diamond. Start at the lefthand edge of the crag by a large foot hold. Boulderup to a resting position on the leftwards facing rampand some gear. Turn the overlap on the right andfinish up the Rough Diamond headwall.

First ascent: (02/10/2014) Nathan Pike, Sarah Pike

What's all the Foss about? 13m  E6 6c **

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Gimmer Crag With a bit of imagination there are still worthwhilediscoveries

Tieraway 100m E1 5b *Pleasant climbing up the very right-hand side of theTiers area. Start under the huge roof in between thestarts of Availed of Tiers and Three Tiers Climb.1 20m 5b Well protected. Climb into a grassy grooveon the left side of the roof and go up it to a hugedetached block. Step right and make a strenuous pullover the second roof via an excellent jagged crackwhich is followed to a terrace. Belay in the corner atthe back of this (as for Three Tiers Climb). 2 35m 4c Start up the rib of rock above the belay (asfor Availed of Tiers) but take a diagonal line easily uprightwards to a bulge. Move up right and back left toovercome this and finish just right of a mossy crack.Scramble up to belay near the foot of the right–facingcorner of Availed of Tiers in the wall above.3 25m 4c Climb a wide crack in the right side of thewall right of the corner until a rising traverse can bemade up a scoop on the left. Go straight up a shortcorner and grassy cracks on the right of the wall above.4 20m. Easy climbing up the broken rib on the right.First ascent: (09/06/2016) J Hughes, SJH Reid (alt)

Birk Knott Crag Alt: 900m   GR: NY 298 042 Faces: South WestThis small sunny crag situated close to the Blea Tarncar park and provides a handful of short easyroutes set in an idyllic situation and is well worth avisit for the views alone. You can climb almost any-where at around severe with the odd 4c move ifyou try hard enough. ‘This crag is indeed a delight-ful spot for an afternoon/evening and very easilyaccessible’ – Max Biden.

Dow Crag (page 30)Only one new route has been reported on Dow,but at 315m this 2 star New Girdle Traverse gives a“full on” day out, an overall description is given toensure maximum adventure.

New Girdle Traverse (yet to be named) 315m   E2 **A Lord of the Rings for Dow?  Although not quite thesame quality it contains some brilliant climbing andamazing exposure on A buttress.  Starting as for Necklace Route, a big rising traverseabove the big cave followed by harrowing downclimbing to belay on Sidewalk. Abseil. Cross low onUpper B Buttress to join the first pitch of Nimrod,descend Easy Terrace. If you leave your bags here youcan stop for a pie and a brew, which you can't do onLord of the Rings!Traverse low across Lower B Buttress to groove onMurray's Super Direct, belay on Murray's Route. Crossabove Abraham's cave and up cross and reverse thecrux of Abraham's Route B to Giant Grim.Here we admit it would be better to follow The OriginalGirdle to Easter Gully, but we abseiled Hesperus to tryto find some independence - all a bit artificial. The lastpitch climbs the South America crack then followsEaster Rising (the wall right of Hopkinson's Crack) tofinish.  Long and tiring, especially for the over fifties.First ascent: (09/06/2016) Al Phizacklea, Keith Phizack-lea, alt leads

SLATE

Nothing new has been reported, however rock in-stabilities continue to affect Hodge Close fracturinghas affected at least Idaho Connection Wave, CarpeDiem

DUDDON

Given the amount of rock visible in the Duddon it148

New Dow Crag Girdle Traverse.Keith Phizacklea poised above the huge overhang

begins the descent to The Sidewalk belay. Photo: - Al Phizacklea

Scafell Pinnacle (page 59)Route Comment: Lower Man by Jubilee Line may becloser to E1 5b than the HVS 5a given in the guide.

Red Gill Buttress (page 85)Red Gill Rib 47m  HVS 4cStart as for Red Gill Wall

1 11m Climb the wide crack2 10m Climb the broken crack in the left of the walland the wider crack above to a big grassy ledge3 26m 4c Step left onto a rib, and move left again tothe main arête. Climb this to a ledge, and continuedirectly over the bulge to the top.  Sparsely protectedand a bit intimidating.First ascent: (10/09/2015) Al Phizacklea, Keith Phizack-lea

Scafell Shamrock (page 86)Barrow Brothers Climb 31m  VS 4c ***A three star adventure, excellent climbing in a remotepart of the crag; the overhanging buttress to the rightof Shamrock’s main Buttress.Access - Follow Lords Rake past the 2 cols. until at thelowest point just below Red Gill Buttress.  Traverse thehillside right (looking out) level with the lowest pointof Lords Rake to a cairn on the edge of the buttress -abseil down just left of the cairn to a grassy ledge.Retreat from here will be difficult, you are committedto the route and it has more buzz than any of its gradein the Lakes! Start at the right end of the grass ledge. Pull up a shortrib to enter a recess below a big overhanging corner.Move out left to a good Friend 3 slot, then step downand left across a wall (single RP 4 or 5 runner) to reachthe base of the main crack.  Climb this, (excellent jamsand runners) to the top.First ascent: (10/09/2015) Al Phizacklea, Keith Phizack-lea

East Buttress (page 93)It is appropriate that what is possibly the most sig-nificant new route in this summary is found on thebest crag in Lakeland/England.

Barad-dûr 55m E6 ***A superb climb which weaves an eye catching line upthe impressive overhanging pillar between Ichabodand Phoenix. Best to belay on the ground for a fullview of the action.Climb directly to the niche stance on Ichabod/Phoenix,utilising a series of steep cracks. Follow the Phoenixcrack to the resting ledge. The line up and rightwardsto the fin and hanging groove, is obvious enough, butthe method of achieving this is not – bold, strenuousand potentially perplexing. The reward of success is arest further up on the right edge. Move directly to theroof and traverse leftwards with interest, to a thincrack which splits the headwall above the left handend of the roof. Layback spectacularly over the bulgeand climb directly on some good holds to a smalljammed block. Stretch right from here to a good jugand pull across rightwards to sloping ledges on thefront of the pillar. Follow the scoop and easier angledwall to the top.First ascent: (03/05/2014) Rob Matheson and CraigMatheson

Pikes Crag (page 155)

Route Comment: Wriggling Route / The Chancel Eagle eyed enthusiasts have noticed that the linenamed The Chancel (FA 1983 & 2012) in the newScafell guide and Lake District Rock is almost iden-tical to the line of Wriggling Route (FA Peascod andKellett 1943 – the original description is in the 1944FRCC Journal page 49). This has yet to be resolved.

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Described by some as the Strawberries of Duddon. Asearing and uncompromising line left of RoughDiamond, finishing up the left of the tough head wall.Start as for Foss Night Nerves and follow it in to RoughDiamond. Continue up using the left hand crack andthe wall above to finish at the top of the arête. Wrestlethe bush back to the belay.First ascent: (02/10/2014) Andy Mitchell

ESKDALE

A number of short routes have been added toplaces like Bull How and Demming Crag. Al Phiza-cklea and John Holden have added three goodroutes to Green Crag on Ulpha Fell, one of which,Green Goddess 17m E1 5b, is described as by far thebest route in the area – high praise indeed.

SCAFELL AND WASDALE

A number of outstanding routes were climbed inthe run up to the publication of the CB CentenaryGuidebook, subsequently the pace of develop-ment has been very slow but there has been onemajor route on The East Buttress, Barad-dûr (E6)and some other additions on Scafell Crag and anamazing find on Shamrock , Barrow Brothers Climb(VS)

Scafell Crag (page 25)

Hanging Chimney, Al Phizacklea reports that ismore like E2 5c than HVS 5a and looks like it hasn’tbeen climbed for decades

Collier's Climb Left Hand - superior finish 12m  VS *

Start up the top pitch of CCLH to a horizontal break at4m, then step right onto the slab and climb a flake towhere the slab becomes less steep - moss above -

avoid this by a traverse right to a runner and easierground above.First ascent: (10/09/2015) Al Phizacklea, Keith Phizack-lea

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Craig Matheson getting intimate with Mr Cuddles

Photo - Ian Cooksey

1 25m 5a Step off the block and pull rightwards to thetop of the ramp. Move back left and climb a shortcorner with difficulty (as for Deja Ewe) then traversethe rising line leftwards to its high point. Go straightup the short wall (as for Ewes Ahead) to a large ledge(good cam in top left corner). From the very right edgeof the ledge, climb straight up a short wall to an evenbigger ledge. 2 15m 5a Climb diagonally up leftwards to a rib on theleft and move up until just under a horizontal crack.Step right onto a small foothold on a rib on the rightand climb straight up the right side of a large flake tobelay a little higher. Scramble off left or climb pitch 3of Prophylactics.First ascent: (03/09/2014) SJH Reid, T Daley, R Jervis

BUTTERMERE

There have been no significant additions to thesecrags.

High Crag (page 116)Route Comment: High Crag Girdle Traverse hasbeen described as “very pokey” for both leader andsecond, probably worth E1 and almost three stars.

EASTERN CRAGS

A limited number of short routes have beenclimbed on crags such as Upper Nab Crag(Thirlmere), Kirkstone Buttress and Buckbarrow(Longsleddale). The main news items come from StJohn’s in the Vale, namely the continuing develop-ment of Bram Crag Quarry and the ever expandingcrack on the north side of Castle Rock.

Bram Crag Quarry (page 49)Lake District Rock contains what was, at the timeof publication, the up to date guide for this crag Ex-ploration has continued and there are now many

more routes at this popular sport climbing venue.Full details can be purchased through the smart-phone app at:http://www.climbers-club.co.uk/shop/mobile-guidebook-app/

Castle Rock (page 69)The top left side of the North Crag is continuing tosplit from the rest of the crag. The crack has beenmonitored since it was first noticed in August 2011,at first movement was slight but its rate is increas-ing. The slippage has been measured since early2012, and a pattern has emerged, movement iscontinual with there being a slight closing of thecrack each spring – possibly due to shrinkage ofearth in the crack as it dries out after the winter – itis also apparent that the amount of slipping backis declining each spring. The British Geological Survey are planning to do ahighly accurate LIDAR (Light Detection and Rang-ing) survey of the crag and (hopefully) put in fur-ther measures to monitor the movement.What does all this mean for climbers? The photograph overleaf is taken from the most re-cent Eastern Crags Guide with the likely extent ofthe crack shown by the red line, everything insidethe red line is likely to collapse – sometime, it mayhave happened before you read this report, or itmay not happen for a thousand years. Given therate of movement it could well be earlier ratherthan later. The advice is not to climb on or belowthe area of instability. This means that walking below the left side onNorth Crag and the climbing any of the followingroutes should be thought of as very risky (off limitsfor the sane). The Watchtower; The Barbican; Preno-tion; Matheson Avenue; North Crag Eliminate; Side ofthe Hill; First Republic; The Last Laugh; Crusader andOverhanging Bastion. Additionally any routes that

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GREAT GABLE

There has been very little activity with one routeadded to The Napes (Longbow E1 5b **, includedin Lake District Rock) and a couple of easy ones onGreen Gable; there have been no additions toGable Crag.

Route comments: Leap Year on Kern Knotts may beharder and a lot more serious that the currentguidebook grade of MVS 4c. Similarly Kern KnottsWest Buttress is tough for MVS 4c

PILLAR ROCK & ENNERDALE

While no routes have been added to The Rockother crags in the valley have provided some goodnew routes. Stephen Reid has continued his prof-itable association with the wilds of Ennerdale andhas come up with some more gems.

Raven Crag (Ennerdale) (page 203)The sunny Southeast Face is home to some moregood routes.

Road Works 35m  E2 5c *Takes the left-hand of the twin grooves. Start downand slightly right of the groove.Climb the leftward-slanting groove/ramp to gain the main groove.Sustained difficult moves up this (micro-cams) gaineasier ground. Follow the crack above to the topFirst ascent: (03/07/2015) JF Hughes, R Jervis

Summer Breeze 40m E1 5b *Takes the right-hand of the two grooves and is low inthe grade. Start under the white streak in the centre ofthe wall. Step off an embedded flake at foot level andclimb up a huge flake on the wall moving left to a slimcorner. Climb the corner (large cams) to a ledge.Traverse left and make thin moves up the right-slant-ing ramp/groove above until it eases. Continue round

to the right in the line of the groove until moves upleft lead to a belay.First ascent: (03/07/2015) R Jervis, SJH Reid, JF Hughes

Great North-Western 50m  HVS 5a **An interesting climb on excellent rock. Start just rightof the lowest point of the wall.1 20m 5a Scramble upgrass and climb a steep open groove to gain a largeledge on the left. Traverse left, overcome a shortcorner and sidle leftwards again to a wide slantingcrack which is followed to a huge ledge.2 30m 4c Justright of a large boulder is an undercut V-groove split-ting the short overhanging wall. Climb this anddirectly up slabs to an overlap. Go straight over thisand finish up a right trending groove/scoop in thesteep wall (belay in a recessed groove to the right).First ascent: (30/09/2015) JF Hughes, SJH Reid (alt)

Black Crag Upper Buttress (page 308)Tower Buttress Direct Start 45m VS 4b **1 18m The pleasant slab to a large grass terrace, belayup on the left.2 27m 4b Climb directly up to the right arête of thecorner under the huge roof and follow it to join thewide crack and small overlap on Tower Buttress.First ascent: (03/09/2014) T Daley, R Jervis

Cove Crag (page 314)

No September Blewes 40m  E1 5b ** Just left of the main part of the crag are two sharplydefined ribs: this route climbs the right-hand one.Climb the rib with interest to a brief interlude belowthe final crack which requires a determined approach.First ascent: (03/09/2014) R Jervis, SJH Reid, T Daley

Pushmepullewe 40m  HVS 5a **An excellent and quick drying eliminate up the centreof the left side of the buttress. Start at a block just leftof the left-hand left-leaning ramp.

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clude; Astral Wall E3, Indian's Revenge E5 6a, LimpetLil E2 (easier for those over 6’/1.84m), Cook's TourHVS and Erection Arête E4 5c. New additions in-clude:

Tree Antics 12m  MVSStart at the second tree right of Blockbuster and bridgeup between the tree and the crag to reach excellentflakes then traverse right to ledge and corner.  Continueup leftwards to the top.First ascent: (02/05/2015) Ron Kenyon, Eric Parker

Stinkhorn Arête E2Climbs the direct finish up the arête of Meat is Murder.There is some low gear next to the sharp flake (slingon flake, good cam on left).First ascent: (30/04/2015) Pete Gunn.

Scallop 13m  E7 ***A direct line up the slab passing the obvious Scallopfeature, finishing direct as for Lenny Limpet. Start justright of Barnacle Bill where an excellent mantel gainsaccess to the Scallop feature, a very tenuous move atthe top of it, may see you gain the large sloper andsmall flake above, before finishing via the two shallowpockets. “Slabtastic - The best slab in Cumbria!" PeteGunn First ascent: (07/09/2014) Pete Gunn

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traverse below the extent of the crack is likely to bedestroyed in the rock fall, these are; Zig Zag, Ecstasyand possibly Agony. Looking on the bright side itwill be a spectacular event when viewed from asuitable distance and will leave a whole new sec-tion of crag for new routes!

BORROWDALE

After several years hard graft the new guide-book is finished, in fact by the time you read thisyou will probably have bought your copy(through, I hope, the Club’s online shop) and aredeveloping a new 'to do' list for days when thesun shines.

The big news from Borrowdale is not whatclimbs have been added to the guide but whatexisting climbs have been taken away. The guide-

book team has made a comprehensive re-assess-ment of the valley’s climbing and poor, looseand/or overgrown routes have been left out ofthe guide and archived to the website. A disap-pointing number of routes have been reclaimedby the luxuriant moss, which is the reason why somuch of the valley is an SSSI, this was to beexpected as many of these routes were originallyheavily (excessively?) gardened to revealclimbable rock.

New routes have been few and far betweenand mainly hard, for example, Bleak Beauty (E4)on Bleak How, Cameleon (E3) on Cam Crags andthe desperate and very highball Secret Garden(V7) on Jopplety How (a delightful part of GrangeFell). An impressive pitch was added to Hell’s Wallon Bowder Crag called Bloody Hell Fire (E6) andworth three stars, unfortunately the pitch linkstogether sections of the 3 star routes Hell’s Wall(E6), Mesrine

(E6) and Wheels of Fire (E4) with no new climb-ing. In contrast to the hard additions three veryworthwhile VS’s have been added to the NorthGully Wall on Hind Crag, the rock is amazinglyrough ignimbrite (formed from pyroclastic flows);the pick of the bunch is The Borrowdale Stare afull 45m pitch up a slabby arête, go and do it.

Perhaps the new guide will trigger a new waveof exploration, there is still good clean rock to beexplored but don’t expect it to be close to theroad!

EDEN VALLEY & NORTH LAKES

Armathwaite (page 79)Some of the previously unled routes have nowbeen led and there have been some impressivenew routes, mainly climbed by Pete Gunn. Previously unled routes that have now been led in-

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A taster from the new Borrowdale guide:Glaciated Slab- Trod Pimp MS -Ben Clarke-

Photo -Richard Tolley

pitches, then climbs an independent groove above.Start about 5m left of Bowfell Buttress below and leftof the obvious chimney fault line about 10m up thecrag.1 20m 5 Climb up and slightly right to the base of thechimney which leads to a block belay at its top.2 25m 8 Move left from the belay and then up and leftup a turfy groove to some in-situ tat. Move up andstep left into a left facing corner below a small roof.Move right around the arête and out of the corner andpull through the roof with difficulty. Belay below theobvious groove above.3 20m 7 Enter the groove above with difficulty andclimb it to it's top.4 45m 3 A turfy romp remains.First ascent: (17/01/2015) Peter Graham, Ben Silvestre(AL)

SCAFELL AND GABLE AREAS

Pikes Crag (page 153)Mare's Nest Ridge 210m  III/IV *Some difficulties are avoidable. Start at the foot ofMare's Nest Gully.1 60m Climb Mare's Nest Gully to an easing on the leftwith a good spike belay below the corner of thesummer route Mare's Nest Buttress.2 30m Climb the cracked corner right of the summerline, taking care with loose blocks at the top, to gainthe ridge on the left.3 60m Follow the ridge over or around a number ofgendarmes. From the final gap climb up and right for5m to a ledge below a left slanting groove.4&5 60m Follow the groove to the top of Pulpit Rockover several steep steps.First ascent: (31/01/2015) Adrian Dye, Matt Griffin butprobably done before.

Green Gable Crag (page 199)Fallen Comrades 35m  V *Excellent mixed climbing with reasonable protectiontaking the turfy crack to the left of the summerroute Timshell. Start 3m right of Epsilon Chimney at aright facing corner. Climb the corner on good hooks toa grass ledge, gain the prominent rightward slantingturfy crack/groove and follow it to a niche. Step rightonto the crux slab and delicately mantelshelf onto aflat hold before using turf blobs to re-join thecrack/groove which leads past a small pinnacle to aturf belay ledge above.First ascent: (17/01/2015) Adrian Dye, Matt Griffin

Great End (page 252)Ultraviolet Exorcist 110m  VI, 7 ** A line of grooves just right of Left Hand Groove finish-

ing up a steep thin ice smear. Start a few metres to theright of Left Hand Groove below an off-widthcrack. (Topo on website)1 30m 7 Climb the off-width, which is steep to startand continue more easily up and left to belay asfor Left Hand Groove.2 30m 6 Climb the groove just to the right of Left HandGroove and continue up the thin ice smear above. 3 70m A turfy romp to the top. Rick Graham climbed the first pitch direct (solo) in1995 via the hanging chandelier, which was wellformed at the time. First ascent: (18/01/2015) Ben Silvestre, Peter Graham(AL)

HELVELLYN RANGE

Brown Cove Crags (page 283)Paparazzi 100m VI, 7Start on the right of the shield of slab to the right ofSummer Step

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A Bit on the Side  22m  E4 5c **Climbs the impressive headwall, directly up from theundercling flake on Erection Arête. Protection is avail-able low down but a little run out on the crux beforegood protection and holds are reached just before thetop.First ascent: (20/09/2015) Pete Gunn & Davina Mouat

SOUTH LAKES LIMESTONE

Scout Scar (page 267)Two routes have been added.

Douglas 22m  F6bClimbs the gully wall between Undercut Buttress andCentral Area. Start as for Cliff's Route but climb theshort wall to the left of the crack and pull over left-wards into a hanging scoop. Move up and left thenclimb the headwall in a fine position using a thin crack.First ascent: (01/07/2014) Clive Allen, Robbie Allen

Scout Post 15m  F6bClimbs the wall to the right of Icicle. A hard start leadsto easier climbing in the upper half.First ascent: (30/11/2014) Clive Allen, Robbie Allen

WINTER CLIMBS

Despite some very fickle conditions over the lasttwo winters some significant new routes have beenrecorded.

LANGDALE AREA

Bowfell, Traverse Crag (page 52) Band on the Run - Direct Finish 70m V, 5 *From the top of the steep chimney, climb the shortwall above to arrive on the snowy ramp, belay at itstop. Climb the obvious steep, open corner in the wallon the left on amazing torques and hooks to the top of

the crag. The whole route was climbed in 3 pitches -the initial corner pitch, the Steep chimney pitch andthe final open groove pitch. First ascent: (14/02/2016) Mark Thomas and KateO'Donoghue

Bowfell, North Buttress (page 62)Into The Groove (or Riboletto Groove Direct)100m  V, 6 * 1 3 Start at the bottom of Cambridge Crag Climb andclimb it for a few metres before climbing diagonallyright and up to the base of an obvious corner with adouble corner crack at its top. Belay on the left.2 5 Climb the corner stepping right at its top and upthe snowy bay behind, belay on the right.3 6 Riboletto Groove, to the top of the crag.First ascent: (01/02/2015) Mark Thomas and RichieMockler

The Matrix 100m  VI, 6 **1 4 Start 4m right of Cambridge Crag Climb, at the baseof an obvious tongue of white turf coming down froma groove higher up, to the left of the upper'Gendarme'. Climb the turf to belay on the left at thebase of the groove.2 30m 6 Step right and up into the hanging grooveabove, with a white wall on its left flank. A steep pullout of a niche and up the narrow groove above, gear isvery difficult to find and place. Climb up to blocksabove on the left of the 'Gendarme'.3 5 Climb the continuation turfy corner above andfinish up the final moves of No Way OutFirst ascent: (02/02/2015) Mark Thomas and KateO'Donoghue

Bowfell Buttress (page 67)Ultraviolent Junglist 110m  VII, 8 *** A good natural winter line, which roughly follows theline of the summer Silent Witness (HVS) for its first two

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159

1 4 Climb the ice corner hidden on the right of theshield and cuts back left, then up and over a dagger ofrock to the ledge and follow the groove above on theright with a steep pull out right at it's top. 2 3 A long pitch; climbing diagonally right to the obvi-ous short step of ice, climb this, below and left of thelast pitch of 'Two Grooves', to arrive at a block belayand comfortable stance to the left of 'Two Grooves'. 3 7 A Short, Sharp, Shock! Step down and right, thenclimb back up the turfy crack to arrive at the arête onthe left of the upper crag. Step left and climb the over-hanging crack, using the lower chock stone, thendifficult, hooks to the top of the cragFirst ascent: (10/02/2015) Mark Thomas and KateO'Donoghue

High Crag, Nethermost PikeColin Wells has recorded two alternative gully finishes,Gully B Upper Left-hand Finish, II which takes the rightfork of Gully B until it is possible to traverse back leftup an exposed turfy ramp which leads onto the upperpart of AB Buttress and thence the top and Gully AGroove Finish, III which takes a steep turfy corner to theright of the steepening where Gully A is blocked bysteep rock (Probably climbed before but not recorded.)

St Sunday Crag (page 324)Return of the Frosted Beard 150m  IV, 5A good winter line following a series of vegetatedgrooves up the buttress left of East ChockstoneGully. Starts at a vegetated shallow gully about 17 mleft of East Chockstone Gully and 3m right of SlabRoute (Summer Guide page 243-4)/Slab RouteButtress (Winter Guide p 325) 1 50m 5 Climb easily up the grassy gully to a steepcracked corner on the left side of the slabs then makedifficult thin moves up the corner (well protected) togain the hanging turfy groove above.

2 40m 3 Tricky moves above the belay lead to a shortcorner; climb this and then easy ground to a blockbelay at the bottom of a v shaped gully.3 30m 3 Climb the v shaped gully to a block belay upand left, just below a prominent corner.4 30m 5 Make difficult thin moves up the corner andcontinue up the groove.Easy ground to the topFirst ascent: (17/01/2016) Adrian Dye, Huw Davies, KrisMclean

The Snow Badger Strikes Back 170m IV, 6 * The route takes the prominent turfy groove system onthe left hand side of Slab Buttress.1 50m 6 Climb the left hand groove over a couple ofbulges to a ledge and then climb slightly rightwardsup to a prominent spike.2 60m Climb leftwards over turfy ledges to below theleft hand groove in the tier above.3 30m 5 Climb the turfy groove, exiting steeply right atthe very top to an excellent belay on a block (commonbelay with Slab Route and Continuation).4 30m 5 Climb the groove directly behind the block toeasier ground.First ascent: (14/02/2016) A Dye, M Griffin

Heirloom Crag (page 349)The Will 50m  VI, 6 ** 1 Take the same approach up the centre of the lowertier as Heirloom/Heiress.2 6 The main pitch starts directly below the large over-hang to the left of Heirloom. Climb directly to this andstep right into cracks in the left wall of the main corner(joining the summer line of Relative Ease).  Follow thecrack to a ledge on the left, then up the off-width inthe corner on the left to a crevasse.  Finish up the left-facing corner of Heiress.First ascent: (17/01/2015) Andy Brown (main pitch),Julian Cox (approach pitch)

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Above: Paul C Bennett on Sid the Sardine, UpperScout Crag.

Above Right: Martin Scrowston on Evolution,Thrang Crag.

Right: Paul C Bennett on Coke Can Katie, ThrangCrag

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Book Reviews

Echoes, by Rick Bullock - Nick Hinchliffe

Adventures in Mind, by Heather Dawe - Wendy Dodds

Iceland Walking Guide , by Paddy Dillon - Chris Wright

Statement, the Ben Moon Story, by Ed Douglas - Terry Fletcher

One Day as a Tiger, by John Porter - Trevor Langhorne

Tour of the Bernina, by Gillian Price - George Harris

The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks - Anne Hartley

Fast & Free, Stories of a Rock Climbing Legend - Pete Livesey, by John Sheard and Marc Radtke - Al Phizacklea

Fiva, by Gordon Stainforth - Al Phizacklea

All but One, by Barbara Swindin - John Holden

4000m: Climbing the Highest Mountains of the Alps, by Dave Wynne-Jones

- Martin Cooper

Hassness How Beck: Photo - Tony Simpkins

book costing twenty pounds so it seems reason-able to expect the small details to be right.

That such an accomplished mountaineer didnot pass his winter Mountain Leadership assess-ment seems extraordinary, and the account ofthis and explanation of the decision to defer him(he had not spent any time taking groups ofnovices out) is a wry observation on the outdoorsindustry and the contrast between those whochoose to instruct and those who simply want toclimb as hard as they can. There is bound to besome tension there, and Bullock is commendablyhonest (as is Andy Kirkpatrick in one of his blogs)about not taking on commercial work or instruct-ing. Would that all those who want to make aliving out of climbing were so honest.

I have written elsewhere about a disturbingtrend to denigrate the clients and those lessgifted by some of the current climbing stars, andBullock avoids the former by choosing not toguide. He is not quite in contempt of us meremortals on the evidence of this book, but at timesthere is sometimes a hint such as 'work, warmth,comfort and mundane regularity simply doesn’tgive me enough reward'. The punch is pulled, butone feels it hovering. It is after all, those verypeople for whom it is enough, or who cannot finda way out from it, who rent out his house, buy hisbook, and patch him up in hospital.

The last third of the book feels tighter, moreconfident in style and recounts his trips to SouthAmerica with Al Powell, climbing new routes onQuitaraju and on the astonishingly beautiful Jiris-hanca. These are bold ascents in the modernsuper-light and fast style and leave the slenderestmargins for error or bad luck. Again his drive anddetermination shine through, shrugging off frost-bite or a twenty pound weight loss as the price of

a trip and getting straight back into training forthe next challenge.

Where the book fails to live up to it’s promisesis in the 'powerful and compelling exploration offreedom'. Bullock, in his own words, ‘I don’t likeletting myself down' gives us the key here. Some-one of his will power and drive who wants toclimb so badly can hardly expect us to besurprised that he saves up enough money to payoff his mortgage, rent out his house and becomea full time climber. This has been his plan forsome time and he is a man who sets himself goalsand then achieves them. Whilst it seems to be thecase now that climber’s autobiographies have tooffer soul searching and deep existential angstthe reality is that they rarely deliver. Maybe it isdeemed necessary to sell books, but this wouldbe a book well worth reading without thesegrandiose claims.

Nick Hinchliffe

Adventures in Mind – A PersonalObsession with the Mountains

Author: Heather DawePublisher: Vertebrate ISBN 978-1-906148-69-0

Heather Dawe is an athlete, artist and writer,describing herself as being inspired in her

writing and artwork by adventures in the moun-tains. She has been a rock climber from her youth,extending her activities to running, cycling andadventure racing.

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Echoes

Author: Nick BullockPublisher: Vertebrate ISBN 9781906148539

This is a book which promises a lot, having astriking cover image and some extravagant

claims on the dust jacket. Bullock is an accom-plished mountaineer who climbs at the higheststandard both on rock and ice in the UK as well asthe Alps, the Andes and the Himalaya. A coverendorsement by Sir Chris Bonington and a fore-word by Paul Pritchard make it clear that this is aman at the cutting edge and we are promised 'apowerful and compelling exploration of freedom-and what it means to live life on your own terms'.

So, does the book deliver all of this ? Well, notentirely.

The account of Bullock first climbing on histraining course to become a prison PE instructortells us that he was hooked on it, but we thenjump rapidly to him climbing E grades. It wouldhave been interesting to know more about thisrapid progression 'from zero to hero'. There aresome classic accounts of epics to rival the best ofthem, a winter attempt on the Colton MacIntyreon the Grand Jorasses and a terrifying account ofhis leading Birth Trauma at Gogarth’s North Stack,stand out as a testament to his determinationand drive. These are not climbs that most of uscould ever contemplate, never mind under thecircumstances of Bullock’s ascents.

There is some very good writing in the book,particularly his observations of nature and his noholds barred descriptions of working as a prisonofficer. The prison service is clearly not an easy

job, or one that can be taken casually.The visceralfear of violent encounters with often disturbedinmates is powerfully described and one has tobe grateful that there are people who areprepared to do that job. Bullock also suggeststhat they are often frustrated and as much letdown by the flaws in the system as are someinmates. He is a thoughtful critic of the currentsystem, dealing badly as it does with some of themost damaged members of society, and asks if alife of crime or one spent climbing are not 'justtwo intoxicating drugs to get some of us throughthe sterility of modern life', a reasonable pointperhaps for some climbers, but sometimes it isjust a hobby.

Where the bookfalls down is whenBullock employstoo many similescomparing climb-ing with prison, assome of these feelforced when theyshould ‘illustrateand ennoble thesubject, show it tothe understandingin a clearer view' asSamuel Johnsonwrote. Joining theprison service 'was as exciting as learning to leada rock climb with no experience at all' and dutyon a troubled New Year’s Eve being like soloing aNorth face feel forced, as if climbing is being shoehorned in where it does not need to be. Onecannot help but think that a good editor wouldhave advised some changes here, as well as elimi-nating several annoying typos such as wretch forretch, and avalanche shoot. This is a hardback

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extended visit. Afew years later,having doneextensive huttingand camping treksin Norwegian andSwedish Lapland,and having takenearly retirement, Ireturned toIceland for 10whole weeks.

I arrived in lateJune, on the lastday of springsnows, anddeparted at thebeginning of September, on the first day ofwinter snows. At first the fells were inaccessiblebecause of too much powder snow, then therivers became uncrossable because of snow-melt,then the blackfly become intolerable as summergets under way. But the scenery is barren, bleakand beautiful, and the flowers and bird lifemagnificent - I 'ticked-off' all my Icelandic breed-ing birds.

Inveterate guide-book author and hiker PaddyDillon describes the wonderful diversity ofIceland's landscapes - it's geothermal areas,coastlines, glaciers, geysers, waterfalls andvolcanic lava fields - in a series of 49 day walksand 10 multi-stage treks in and around the island,including the sometimes overlooked peninsulasin the west and north-west. Most of the daywalks are from the roadside, accessible by publictransport, and these options would be ideal for afirst-time visitor, but to get a real feel of the coun-try you need to hike some of the multi-stagetreks, for which you need to be self-sufficient:

there are many huts - some are wardened, butnone provide meals or sell food, and they can befull in popular areas - so it is best to camp, free ofcharge in the wild, but restricted in the nationalpark. Wear strong boots - volcanic lava is abrasive- long sleeves, long trousers and a midge nethat.  If rivers are too high to cross during the daycamp beside them and cross at night when flowsare lower: with virtually 24 hours of daylight youcan hike at any hour.

Paddy Dillon describes his walks and treks in aseries of twelve sections, working his way roundthe island in a counter-clockwise direction. Eachwalk or trek, or stage of a trek, has a preambledescribing start, finish, distance, ascent/descentand time, whether in hours or days. Terrain, facili-ties, maps, accommodation and transport aregiven, and each walk or stage of a trek has its ownmaps, but I found it annoying in having to refer tothe map at the beginning of each section withouta page reference to it.  Dillon details 100 days ofwalking and trekking, but omits several that Ihave done: only one walk from Akureyri, forexample, from where I did a different hike eachday for a week. There's plenty of hiking potentialin Iceland, and Paddy Dillon provides a goodselection of what's available.

Chris Wright

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The first twosections of the bookcover Heather’sactivities in a varietyof disciplines, withmountain marathonchapters appearingat intervals as herability progresses.Her first is used as anexample of whatdrove her to self-improvement.

At the end of 2000Heather wasknocked off her bike by a car going at 50 mphwith, amazingly, nothing broken but extensivebruising and cuts. This ‘near miss’ led to reflectionon life and living it to the full. Within nine monthsshe was competing in the Grand Raid mountainbike race in Switzerland, covering 130km with3500m of ascent, her hardest physical challengeat the time. Cycling then became her main activ-ity, competing throughout the UK and Europe, asrunning was limited after this accident .However,she did return to running, building up mountainmarathon and fell running experience, eventuallyreaching one of her goals of completing the eliteclass in a mountain marathon and later complet-ing the Bob Graham Round.

Heather is able to accept defeat and disap-pointment and to use the experiences positivelyto improve future performance. The analyses ofsuch circumstances are useful for those facingsimilar situations, providing a learning experiencethat can be put to good use in the future.Heather has been first woman in the Fred WhittonCycle Race, the Three Peaks Cyclocross and theMountain-X Alpine Adventure Race. She was not

put off cycling when in 2009 she had anothercrash, again no broken bones but the bicycleframe snapped in two.

The final section covers Heather’s detailedpreparation for an annual mountain bike racethat follows the Great Divide for 2745 miles, fromthe Canadian Rockies to New Mexico. Perhaps,not surprisingly, there were only 25 starters. Fourhundred miles, with little sleep, were covered inthe first 3 days, 12% more than planned. Heatherrealised that she did not have to continue, havingreached what was, on the 4th day, her limit.

I think the reader will enjoy learning what candrive an individual to tackle increasingly harderphysical challenges and the thought processesbehind them. This book will inspire some, whileothers can enjoy the descriptions of mountainousareas. Heather continues to be active but compe-tition is, at least for the present, on the ‘backburner’.

Wendy Dodds

Walking and Trekking – Iceland

Author: Paddy DillonPublisher: Cicerone - 2015 (2nd Edition)ISBN 978-1-85284-805-7

Some 50 years ago, while on a work party forthe MBA at Tunskeen in the Galloway Hills I

met Icelandic explorer Dick Philips and later wenton one of his tours in the Vatnajokull, where hehad established a hut. Roll forward 30 years and Iwas back in Iceland, travelling around the islandby bus, staying at youth hostels, and doing someday walks to extinct volcanoes and magnificentwaterfalls, which gave me inspiration for an

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to rising star Steve McClure to finish NorthernLights at 9a. Moon retired to bouldering, whichwas less all-consuming and better suited to hisnew roles of business owner, husband and father.The fire still burned, however, and he stillperformed at the highest level. His problemVoyager at Burbage, the most accessible crag toBritain's most climber-infested city, Sheffield,waited ten years for a second ascent - and not forlack of suitors.

The book is unlikely to tell you much aboutyour own climbing but as an insight into theinfancy of sport climbing in this country and thedemands on peak performers, especially in thehit-and-miss early days, it may make you thinkagain about wanting to be a rock star.

Terry Fletcher

One Day as A Tiger - Alex MacIn-tyre and the birth of ‘light andfast’ Alpinism

Author : John PorterPublisher: Vertebrate ISBN: 978-1-910240-51-9

Alex MacIntyre was born in 1954 and died onthe South Face of Annapurna in 1982. In his

few short years he packed in a list of moun-taineering achievements that ensured his place inthe list of the world’s greatest alpinists. This wellwritten book explores his life and the evolution ofthe fast and light approach in the greater ranges.The assertion in the title ignores the style of thealpine climbs of Cassin and Harrer. The greatWalter Bonatti pushed the alpine style bound-

aries in the 50’s and 60’s but chose to retire fromserious climbing, recognising that the logicalprogression for him was to take his approach tothe Himalaya and that the risks were more thanhe was willing to accept. A decade later a newgeneration, including Alex, transferred thisapproach to the greater ranges, often with tragicconsequences.

I have found this a difficult book to review. Atfirst it didn’t engage me as the first five chapters,and some parts of later chapters, re-visitedground that had already been covered inBernadette McDonald’s superb FreedomClimbers. Despite this reservation, there is nodoubt that this is a very enjoyable read. If youhave already read Freedom Climbers you mightwish to skim or even skip some of the first chap-ters. The chapters are quite short, making it agood book to read just before bed-time and thetext is supported by an extensive collection ofphotographs (those of a nervous disposition maywish to avoid plate 7 which includes BernardNewman in nothing but his red Y fronts!)

From Chapter Six onwards we start to get toknow Alex and from this point I was hooked. Thefollowing chapters are more or less chronologi-cally arranged. Alex was fortunate to go to LeedsUniversity at the time when there was a largegroup of very talented and fun-loving climbers inthe University Club. Would his climbing havedeveloped in the same direction if he had goneto Cambridge? Alex wasn’t 'a natural' but he wasboth committed and determined and his climb-ing, both in the UK and The Alps blossomedduring his time at Leeds; the author catchesperfectly the essence of these times. I waspleased that Cold Comfort, Alex’s fine account ofthe first ascent of the Colton-MacIntyre route onthe Grandes Jorasses (first published in Mountain

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STATEMENT: THE BEN MOONSTORY

Author: Ed DouglasPublisher: VertebrateISBN: 978-1-906148-98-0

For those of us on the outside, noses pressedenviously against the glass, the life of a profes-

sional rock climber looks nigh perfect as our herowafts effortlessly from crag to sun-kissed crag ona cloud of sponsorship, plucking routes as hegoes. Or so we like to think. Vertebrate has beensteadily shattering those myths with a series ofbooks by and about the most recent generationsof stars. First came Ron Fawcett's 'Rock Athlete'and then Jerry Moffatt's 'Revelations'. The thirdinstalment is this biography of Ben Moon by jour-nalist Ed Douglas.

Of the three, Moon's story is perhaps the leastsatisfying. This may be because it is not in his ownwords or perhaps he was less forthcoming thanthe previous two. Moon has always been a para-dox. Although his trademark dreadlocks madehim the most instantly recognisable climber ofmedia-savvy Moffatt.

As a result he always seemed to be the juniorpartner in the Jerry and Ben double act, despitehis routes now being recognised as harder. Noless a judge than Adam Ondra pronounced Moonto have been years ahead of his time.

The book gets off to a slow start with a longexamination of Moon's artist father, Jeremy,which seems to be there mainly to allow Douglasto make laboured comparisons with his son'sartistry on rock intermingled with some clunkypolitical analogies. But once it gets into its stride,

the routes begin tofall and the storystarts to flow.

Moon explodedonto the scene, aged18, with his State-ment of Youth, atPen Trwyn, one ofthe first completely-bolted sports climbsand given addedimpact by itsprovocative name.Moon and Moffattwere the arch expo-nents of what was then still called 'French-style'climbing and became the main targets for die-hards who predicted the end of the Britishtraditional style.

Moon was the arch-exponent of the redpoint,doggedly working routes with an almost patho-logical zeal to climb as hard as possible. He was,says Douglas, 'hunting the future' rather thanrepeating the past. The price was endless trainingand the process, in Moon's words, was not glam-orous. The route was the public tip of the iceberg;no one saw the mass of effort lurking beneath it,nor the mounting pressure to succeed and thesoul-destroying effects of failure. But the resultwas showstoppers like Agincourt (8c) at Buouxand Hubble closer to home on Raven Tor, thengraded E9/10 7a but now widely rated acontender for the world's first 9a. In the twodecades since he climbed it the route has seenonly a handful of repeats.

But testing yourself to the limit inevitably endsin failure and Moon met his match on Kilnsey'sNorth Buttress, where, despite three years oftrying he failed on his toughest project. It was left

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these routes look very enjoyable.There are two different circuits described in the

mountains south of St Moritz. One is a nine-dayround of Piz Bernina, that crosses into Italy for itssouthern section. The other is entirely in Italy. Itsnorthern stages overlap with the southern stagesof the Bernina circuits. The great mountain adja-cent to the second tour is Monte Disgrazia. Mostof the routes are Grade 2 – that is to say straight-forward, if a bit strenuous, hill walking.Occasionally there is a Grade 3 section. Whetheror not you wish to use them, or to take the alter-natives that are almost always available, is up toyou and hard to judge. Gillian Price does her best,but interpreting expressions such as ‘Watch yourstep and your balance as you clamber over roughrocks’ or ‘a precarious scramble’ or ‘precipitousdescent on mobile rocky terrain’ is very much amatter of personal choice. The kit-list includesmicrospikes.

The Piz Bernina tour is a complete round.Pontresina is suggested as the start, though youcan of course join anywhere. It is 119km and goesup to 3002m at its highest. A walk of nine days islaid out, though the very fit could choose to do itin six. The second tour, near Monte Disgrazia,goes through the Valmalenco region and is setout as an eight-day trek, though again it isexplained how it could be done in six days. Thistour is not a complete circuit, so you will have towork out how to join up start and finish. Informa-tion about trains and buses is included. Note thatof this second tour Gillian Price says it “requires adecent level of fitness along with some experi-ence of alpine environments”. Both routes makeuse of various refuges (huts) along the way.Appendix B lists them all, with web-sites andphone numbers.

The actual guid-ing seems to be veryprecise; short ofwalking out theroutes I cannot guar-antee that there areno confusingmoments, but theinstructions are veryclear about where tofork left, which turn-ings not to take andso on. I was pleasedto read at one point:‘Don’t take theapparent short cut…It is nothing of the sort.’ Ihave been caught out like that in the Alps. Thedistances are greater, the slopes steeper and theground rougher than one may be used to inBritain. Where a variation is added, either to avoida Grade 3 section or to add some recommendedextra, it is clearly set out. Where the same groundis covered twice in the book (the overlappingsection of the two tours, for example) the text isrepeated in full. This will undoubtedly be muchbetter than ‘turn back to page 51’ or whatever.

The Cicerone guides have a high reputation,and Gillian Price is an experienced writer forthem. This is her tenth. It seems to me to be justwhat you need, and all with waterproof covers,small enough for a pocket. It is full of attractivephotos too, and snippets of historical and localdetail. The first section of the book is a substantialintroduction to Alpine walking, which is thor-oughly practical and worth reading with care. Aswell as interesting sections about geology andnatural history there is a good kit list, a section on‘Procedure for Refuges’ and a well-thought out listof Dos and Don’ts.

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magazine), is the meat of Chapter Eleven; withthis ascent he (and Nick Colton) had succeededon a 'last great problem' that had defeated manyother teams. They had arrived.

Alex’s effectiveleadership of TheBMC in the late1970’s showedanother side ofhis character, asan effectiveadvocate anddiplomat helpingto steer theorganisationthrough somestormy waters,including thedebates about'certification' andthe role of adven-ture in education.I was surprised to learn that he also had a talentfor designing lightweight equipment for hisadventures including clothes, rucksacks and bivibags/tents and that they were realised by majorfirms such as Karrimor, Troll and Rohan.

After Chapter Eleven the main focus is on theincredible routes that Alex climbed in the greaterranges. Normally run on shoestring budgets,these expeditions tackled increasingly difficultand committing objectives. Woven into thefactual accounts of 'daring do' there are other,and to me, more interesting stories; the evolutionof his zen like philosophy of alpinism with itsemphasis on the process rather than getting tothe top; his changing relationships with hisfriends, including Porter and, finally, the increas-ing conflict in his own mind between his

desire/need to climb high and bold and hisstrengthening bond with his partner Sarah. Attimes this is hard to read as it is both intense andemotional. He knew he was sticking his neck outon every trip, there was no room for error yet hecontinued, obsessed. I was left wondering abouthis state of mind on his last expedition, his rela-tionship with Porter was shattered and he wasvery troubled. Most of us would have taken heedof our concerns and gone home, but we aren’tdriven to pioneer mega routes in the high moun-tains. It was almost inevitable that Alex would dieyoung; he will always be remembered as theintense young man with a shock of dark curlyhair.

These few words may be appropriate to thememory of Alex MacIntyre and all the others ofthe ‘fast and light’ revolution who died pursuingtheir dreams.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left growold:Age shall not weary them, nor the yearscondemn.

(From The Fallen by R L Binyon)

Trevor Langhorne

The Tour of the Bernina

Author: Gillian PricePublisher: Cicerone ISBN: 9781852847524Many readers of this Journal will be mountaineersfor whom the Alps mean high peaks of rock andice. However, many of you will know that the Alpsare also magnificent walking country, and thisguide book is heartily recommended. If you havenever been on this sort of expedition it would bean excellent introduction. If you have been, well

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sold on or retainedin the flock. Ewesare a farmer’s coreasset while tups dothe improving.Rebanks’s best tupsold for 5,500guineas. Hedescribes theimportance of localmarts, hill farmingbeing a communalaffair, and anydishonesty wouldbe remembered.There is a hilariousdescription of a half-day barter with a neighbourfor her flock; and she would only sell to Rebanksbecause he was a good stockman and he knewher stock was first class.

Most of the book is divided into four overlap-ping seasons. Summer is for hay-making onlower land for extra feeding in bad winters.Autumn is sales time, most of the income comingin between September and November. Wintercan last for eight months with little spring orautumn, the most testing time being from NewYear to March. This is when summer hay is used.Spring is lambing time, and Rebanks describeshimself as having 'a series of eggtimers in mybrain for a number of ewes about the farm atdifferent stages of giving birth'. Lower fields areused for ewes and lambs, especially if they havehad twins or triplets. Shows take place in May,and no sheep is likely to be shown when not instar condition; shepherds have a lot of pride.

As well as seasonal work, other un-newsworthyjobs include wall mending, hedge layering, hang-ing gates, clearing gutters, chopping logs,

treating lame stock, worming , trimming feet andfoot baths, blow-fly prevention, moving stockbetween fields and dog care. There are descrip-tions of dog training and the importance of theirwork. One farmer sent his dog out to 'gather thefells' while sitting at his kitchen table, but thatwas exceptional.

There is almost a shepherd’s language:raddles, mew of hay, yows, sieves, outgangs, dags,lockings; the difference between draft and stockewes and between intakes and allotments; shed-ding gate, cleggs, smit marks, peat hags, mulehogs and stints. Words you almost know themeaning of but not quite.

Outside events effect fell farming: foot andmouth wiped out 60 years of careful breeding in afew hours. There was Chernobyl; times of warwhen food production was increased. He andG.Henderson, in 'The Farming Ladder', tell of theparticular traditionalism of sheep farming. Afterthe clearance of trees and boulders, drainage andboundary marking in the 12th and 13th centuries,sheep farming barely changed since Viking times,and some families farmed the same land forgenerations, never mind centuries. There is littleclass distinction in the fell farming world. MrsHeelas had an annual argument over wages withher shepherd, and he always won.

Love of his work shines through Rebanks’sbook. He could sit with his back to a tree trunkand loved the view. His favourite job was walk-ing flocks up to the fells after a spell in the lowerfields and the feeling of freedom it gave him.Some of his language borders on the poetical: 'alittle orchestra of whistle and chatter from thestarlings'.

If there were any faults my own preferencewould be for an Index, perhaps a glossary, aseason chapter heading for each page, and more

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Three points caught my eye and awakened mymemories. One is that is best is to book theRefuges, and be sure to ring up if you cannot fulfila booking – otherwise a search may be set inmotion. Joining the British section of the AustrianAlpine Club is suggested as a way to getdiscounts. The second is that afternoons in theAlps often see thunder storms and torrential rain.This rarely figures in tourist photographs, butstart early and finish dry. The third is to take agood map and compass. You have a guide bookand the paths are mostly well way-marked. But Ihave twice encountered summer snow that madethe marks and paths invisible. On those occasionswe were very glad of our Lake District expecta-tion of map-work; indeed we once led someothers whom we encountered off the hill. Thesetwo routes are both covered by the Kompass1:50,000 Sheet 93. The relevant 1:25,000 sheetsare listed in the book.

This book is first class of its sort. It should inspirefolk to go. And then, when they do, it should seethat they have a safe and enjoyable time. If you arevisiting the area it can, of course, be used for allsorts of shorter trips than the full routes.

THE SHEPHERD’S LIFE

Author: James RebanksPublisher: Allen LaneISBN: 9780141979366

Iwould recommend this book to anyone whowants to know what is really happening in the

fields and fells of The Lake District. At the sametime as describing this James Rebanks chronicleshis progress from 'some kind of dysfunctional

genius that deserves a second chance' (his words)to an Oxford graduate, sheep Inspector andadviser to UNESCO on tourism’s benefits to hostcommunities.

Rebanks was classified as a non-achiever atsecondary where country lads were advised notto take up farming as a profession. But all hewanted to do was to work on his father’s farm inMitterdale, often alongside his beloved grandfa-ther. However disagreements with his fatherdrove him to a second life upstairs with his books,and winning prizes at quizzes told him he had abrain; make use of it. From no O-levels heacquired A-levels, a place in Oxford, and so on.

Rebanks admits that now, when income hasn’tincreased for twenty years, no decent living canbe made from solely fell sheep farming, but ismade possible when members of the family findother ways of making money, which can includetourism or working on other farms. In some waystourism is a necessary evil and only after a spell ina London office did Rebanks start to understandwhy people escaped to the Lakes. Although hefelt that fell farmers were ‘tuned to a differentchannel’ to tourists, he acknowledged thatWordsworth understood this and that visitors tothe Lakes had a responsibility to understand thistoo. Beatrix Potter, as farmer Mrs Heelas, wasalso greatly respected, and became an acknowl-edged expert on Herdwick sheep.

A lot of the book refers to the necessity, forsuccessful fell farming, to maintain a steady build-up of the flock over the years. Like Mrs Heelas, hekept mainly Herdwick sheep plus some Swaledalecrosses. These tough sheep are perfect for Lake-land conditions and do extra well if sold on tolowland farms. One of the most important jobs isdeciding which tup, or ram, should serve whichewe, depending on whether any lambs should be

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preferred by the North Koreans. I finished thisbook with a heavy heart, deeply dissatisfied andwith no desire to read it again. It seems a perfectexample of how to miss your target.

Al Phizacklea

FIVA

Author : Gordon StainforthPublisher: Golden Arrow BooksISBN 978-0957054301

Ifirst saw this thin, flimsy book at a friend’shouse. I’d never heard of it before, I didn’t even

know how to pronounce the title. (It rhymes withfever). ‘Borrow it’ said Andrew, ‘Apart from Touch-ing the Void it’s one of the best books about anepic you’ll ever read.’ I was immediately intrigued.

The story is about the Stainforth twins, Gordonand John, who at 19 had decided to climb theFiva Route which flanks the mighty Troll Wall inNorway as a prelude to greater ambitions. To saythat this turned intoan epic is an under-statement.

Gordon Stainforthis better known forhis coffee-tablemasterpiece ‘Eyes tothe Hills’. His abilityto recall this story ina minute by minuteaccount over 40years later and to setthis down on paperin such a way as todraw the reader into

his thoughts, fears and anxieties is sublime.When I was reading the early part of the book Ihad to force myself to put the book downbecause it was 12.30 am and I knew once I got tothe incident I wouldn’t be able to stop reading.Even so I couldn’t sleep – I was hooked. I finishedit in a single six hour stint the following day, it’s abrilliant read, and one of those rare books thatgrabs the reader by the heart and soul andbarrels you along this amazing adventure. If youever see a copy, get it and I promise you’ll be asgripped as I was.

Al Phizacklea

All But One

One woman’s quest to climb the 52 highestmountains in the AlpsAuthor: Barbara SwindinPublisher: Vertebrate ISBN: 0884233616920

This book details Barbara’s magnificentachievement of climbing all but one of the

Alpine four thousanders. Not only does it deal indetail about the long days out, but it also dealswith her development as a climber and moun-taineer. A significant feature of the book is herhonesty. Barbara tells it as it is and for anyonewho climbs there will be many points in the bookwhere he or she says 'I’ve been there'.

When I reached the section about the secondattempt on the Aiguille Blanche I was struck bythe number of incidents can happen on a climbthat will be remembered by those involvedforever. At the Eccles Bivouac Hut, when Barbaraneeded the loo, she set up a belay because the

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on his work for UNESCO, but perhaps a secondbook is on the cards.

We owe farmers like Rebanks a debt of grati-tude for keeping fell farming going and notallowing the landscape to be shaped by industrialscale and cheap food production, but sticking totraditional family fell farming. I look forward tomy next visit to the Lakes when I should know alittle more of what is going on in the fields andfells.

Anne Hartley

FAST AND FREE PETER LIVESEY

Stories of a rock climbing legendCompiled by John Sheard and Mark RadtkePublisher: 2QT Limited ISBN: 9781910077016

At last the long awaited biography of one ofBritain’s best and most controversial climbers

hits the street, to say I wanted a copy was anunderstatement. Except this solid book, all 330pages of it, isn’t a biography. It’s a rich compila-tion of various stories written by Livesey himselfmixed with memories from a multitude ofcontributors all singing the praises of Livesey.Many of these stories I remember from my youth;‘Travels with a Donkey’ and ‘I Feel Rock’ are light-hearted classics in their own right, and few underthe age of 45 will have read these before. It’s agreat way of capturing the magic, the emotions,the changes and the challenges of the ‘seventiesbecause that was a great time to be a climber.This book shows the good side of Livesey in ahigh quality manner, there were aspects of his lifethat I wasn’t aware of such as his caving, kayak-

ing, orienteering and fell running, all sports inwhich he excelled. This bit all comes together in arollicking good read.

I was particularly interested in finding out thetruth about Livesey’s shadier activities; to readabout the bad boy of British climbing. I hadheard so manytales of Liveseyover the years – Iwanted to readabout the chippedholds on Athanorand NagasakiGrooves, themystery of theunchalked crux ofBlitzkreig, the falseclaims of freeascents of LostHorizons and TheCumbrian, andwhat exactly did‘self belay’ onNagasaki Grooves and Dry Grasp entail; awayfrom the eyes of witnesses? The answer is a bigfat zero. They aren’t even hinted at, it’s allcompletely ignored. In this respect, this book is ahuge disappointment, a whitewashed version ofhistory in which the bad boy has emerged a shin-ing knight on a Pale Horse.

There is a chapter of Livesey’s climbs inCumbrian by Ian Cooksey, but there’s no hint ofcontroversy, no indications of malpractice andlittle acknowledge of the antagonism betweenhim and the FRCC which livened up those years.Rob Matheson told Mark Radtke that Livesey wasa ‘consummate liar,’ but Radtke altered this to saya ‘consummate professional,’ which shows howthe truth seems to have been cleansed in a style

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where they had expected neve, precariouslybalanced rocks where there should have been aneasy ridge, loose rocks just where they didn’twant them. The descent was easier but long andboth water and torch batteries had run out by thetime they reached the Glacier de Bonne Pierre.

‘As night fell we tottered on for hours by the lightof the stars, our headtorches long expired, torturedby the sound of running water in the jumble ofmoraine debris beneath the ridge.’

The overall impression which Dave’s bookcreates is of an amazing series of magnificentdays on the Alps’ highest mountains, illustratedby some quite stunning photographs, showingsnow-clad peaks, soaring rocky ridges, set againstincredible blue skies. The occasional shot showsclimbers ascending through thick cloud, but onehas to come to the conclusion that this was anunusual experience. The publication of '4,000m ...'may indeed help to reverse the trend, noted bythe author, of a decline in the number of bed-nights in Alpine huts. Why would you not want toclimb here, once you have flicked through thisbook? Dave’s experience descending the Matter-horn, an accident waiting to happen, because ofthe horrendous congestion and poorly equippedparties, only matches what one already knew.Apart from the objective danger of the mountain,only the over congestion at a few of the hutsmight deter the ambitious climber in followingDave’s footsteps.

The narrative continues apace, chronological,focused almost exclusively on the ascent of the4,000 metre peaks. Brief references to seriousproblems in Dave’s domestic life and at worksuggest a larger story looming in the back-ground, but this is not an autobiography. Insteadit is a celebration of a mountaineering challengewhich clearly dominated the author’s life for

nearly twentyfive years. Overthat time, Daveclimbed withmany differentpartners; he isgenerous in hisrecognition ofthe part theyplayed in hisachievement.

The bookalso containschapters ontraining, equip-ment, mapsand navigation, guidebooks, guides, huts, Alpineweather and health issues around climbing ataltitude. Also included is a chapter written forDave by John Allen on the inevitable debateconcerning lists of 4,000 metre peaks and thecriteria used for defining them. Dave's list of fiftytwo peaks is based on Robin Collomb’s, Moun-tains of the Alps, published in 1971.

Amongst the Appendices is a list of recom-mended reading. Included here is a book byanother Fell and Rock member, also reviewed inthis edition of the Journal, Barbara Swindin’s, AllBut One. Fifty two mountains versus fifty one.How significant is that? Not very significant,would be my answer. And yet, I count mountainstoo, although none yet over 4,000 metres. Iwould highly recommend Dave's book. Now Iwant to read Barbara Swindin’s.

Martin Cooper

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hut position was so precarious. News was alsoobtained that eight climbers had just been killeda few miles away on the Grandes Jorasses in aserac fall. The other etched memory would befighting a way off the mountain with the everpresent dangerof avalanche.

That passagereally sums upthe problemswith Alpinism;it’s hard, unfor-giving and moreoften than not,uncomfortable.But here isBarbara on asecond attempton peak 52 of 52still trying andfor the secondtime gettingclose to the linebetween life and death. Brave? Most certainly.Pointless? Absolutely. Life affirming? This is thepoint that all members of the FRCC will under-stand and have a decided view. Barbara is anextraordinary person. I can say that withoutworrying about misrepresentation or over-emphasis. How many people in Britain have done51.5 of the Alpine four thousanders? If furtherproof is needed, just think on this: she kept upwith Peter Fleming. How extraordinary is that?

John Holden

4000 m: Climbing the HighestMountains of the Alps,

Author: Dave Wynne-Jones, Publisher: Whittles , 2016ISBN: 9781849951722

Dave Wynne-Jones is to be congratulated onbringing out such a stunning book as 4,000

m: Climbing the Highest Mountains of the Alps.More than that, of course, he must be congratu-lated on his achievement of climbing all of thefifty two 4,000 metre peaks of the Alps. Dave hasbecome only the eighteenth British climber tocomplete this feat.

Predictably perhaps, Dave’s first 4,000m peakwas Mont Blanc, climbed in the summer of 1981.

‘Alarm bells rang hollowly in the base of my skull,where nerves were strung, wire-drawn taut. Snowcrunched reassuringly under my crampons instrengthening dawn light, but I was unconsciouslyhanging back, and the rope tugged insistently atthe waistband of my harness.’

Having successfully summited, Dave and histwo companions began their descent over MontMaudit, realising almost too late that they hadchosen a crevasse filled slope. Instinct or premo-nition saved them. Thus do we learn from theoutset that the ascent of these mountains isperilous in the extreme. The ascent of the Barredes Ecrins in 1983 via Pic Coolidge with DaveHicks entailed a danger-fraught twenty four hourday, both climbers learning the hard way how ,

‘Difficulties become compounded, building oneupon the other towards an epic. I believe it’s nowtermed ‘incident creep’.’

A lack of snow made the identification of theright couloir difficult, there was deep soft snow

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In Memoriam

Doug Brill

Bill Bristow

Dorothy Buffey

Basil Butcher

Harold Drasdo

Eric Finch

Eric Furness

Tony Griffiths

Gillian Hall

Craig Harwood

Ken Heaton

Don Lee

Jim Loxham

Alan Maskery

Margaret Mitchell

Paul Roberts

Alan Scott

Alan Slater

John Shepherdson

Les Swindin

Ron Townsend

Roy Townsend

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Lingmell Beck.Photo -JohnHolden

Together, they were a couple with a zest foradventure and not shy of hard work to get there.

So, there we have him. Doug – husband, father,grandfather, uncle, family man, magistrate, gold-smith, skier, climber, potholer, cyclist, adventurer,perfectionist, inspiration to many and friend tomany more.

Brill Family

William Donald Bristow

Bill, as he was always known, was born on 20December 1944 in Bridgend, South Wales

with the family moving to Nottingham in 1955.He went to Forest Fields Grammar School wherehe excelled in a variety of sports, most notablycross country, athletics and rugby with involve-ment at both county and regional level. Hedecided to follow his father into the teachingprofession, but not as a physics teacher but physi-cal education. He trained at the renownedsporting Loughborough College before startingon his teaching career.

The University awarded him an honorarydegree in 2009 for his services to youth develop-ment through sport in an administrative capacityfor County athletics and rugby.

He joined the University of London GraduateMountaineering Club, through the eligibility ofhis wife Carol, which is where Colin Grime, whoproposed him for FRCC membership, and I metthem. He was a regular attender at meets andotherwise active in that club serving as MeetsSecretary and assistant Hut Warden at FallcliffeCottage.

Within the UK he regularly visited Snowdonia,Scotland, the Peak District and of course the LakeDistrict. For many years he led a school camp in

Tilberthwaite an experience for for kids from amining area!

Bill joined the FRCC in 1990 and in the earlydays attended maintenance and other meets, inthe company of Carol, being by then an active fellwalker rather than a rock climber. More recentlyhe and Carol regularly stayed in one or other ofthe FRCC huts in the Lakes often at Birkness forEaster and Beetham Cottage for New Year.

There were two conditions which blighted Billin mid-life: Arthritis of his hips cruelly took awayhis physical prowess, not good for a PE teacher!But he often said with hip replacements the

arthritis was nothing compared to the Bi-Polarcondition he was diagnosed with in the early 90’s.The combined effects of both these conditionsensured Bill took early retirement in 1997 onmedical grounds.

Notwithstanding his health issues he and Carolhad four trekking trips in the Everest and Anna-purna areas along with a round the world walkingtrip with the Ramblers Association.

Bill was a keen Mason and an active member ofthe Radcliffe-on-Trent Male Voice Choir.

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Doug Brill (1942 – 2015)

Doug was brought up near Halifax from wherehis love for the outdoors was born. Bound-

aries widened as did his love of pursuits; campingat Ogden, Halifax. Potholing in the Dales with thescouts and later the Bradford Potholing Club.

These early fascinations with the countrysidewere soon to be shared when he met Sylvia whilstYouth Hostelling. In the early 1960s they enjoyedtheir first holidays walking in the Dolomites andCzechoslovakia and next to Norway where theyhoneymooned. A passion for Scotland alsostarted.

The death and subsequent search for a reser-voir keeper in the winter of 1965/66 onHeptonstall Moor in Calderdale led to Doug play-ing a leading part in the foundation of the CalderValley Moorland Rescue, along with Sylvia, a teamthat is still helping others today. (Doug extendedhis support to both Mountain Rescue and theSearch and Rescue Dog Association). He attendedsearches for missing people on mountains and inurban situations including the Lockerbie air disas-ter of Christmas 1988.

When sons Simon and Guy arrived on thescene, Doug’s enthusiasm for life and adventurewas instilled into them from an early age. Thefamily all became members of the FRCC.

Doug became an assistant warden at SalvingHouse in 1997-2008. The warden Roy Buffeynoted that 'I could not have had a better assistantthan Doug who could turn his hand to anythingand if not he knew someone who could! He wasinvaluable when we had both the hut 50thanniversary and the club centenary taking on therole of master of ceremonies.'

Doug acted as the FRCC representative on theBMC's Yorkshire and Humberside committee

(1992-95). In this role, he acted as a conduitbetween the BMC and FRCC concerning allmatters affecting members in the region, alsopassing on to the BMC any relevant requests fromthe committee and brought back any informationthat would be of interest to the club. This was a

little-known activity and was mirrored by othermembers in most of the BMC areas.

The various FRCC ‘ski gangs’ were a source ofmuch activity and Doug joined Richard Tolley andothers to this end. In fact skiing was a constantsource of pleasure up until 2014.

Doug’s sense of public duty also took him intothe Magistrates’ Courts as a Justice of the Peacefor 27 years of service. He was well known in theCalder Valley town halls for taking care of themayoral regalia.

In his so-called retirement, he never relaxed hisdrive for travel and adventure with Sylvia. Theywere always on the go planning their next tripbefore they got home from the one they were on.

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Geneva to Ceillac and the hut-to-hut tours includ-ing Mont Blanc, l’Oisans, Queyras, Vanoise.

The seemingly perpetual bliss took a breakwhen an ankle injury on Skye kept me out ofaction for three years. Undeterred by thatDorothy was happy and capable to undertakesolo trips that led to becoming a Walk Leader inAustria and the Pyrenees. Her excellent Frenchalways got results; she also succeeded whenothers spoke neither French nor English.

In among the trips and working we managedto fit in ten years as Wardens [note the plural] ofThe Salving House from 1997. Only withDorothy’s contribution did we succeed in manag-ing a cosy comfortable hut. I had the practicalskills; Dorothy provided the essential organiza-tion, keeping everything running smoothly.Highlights were the celebration of the hut’s 50thyear in 2003 when Rosthwaite village hall wasfully booked for the meal, followed in 2007 by theClub’s Centenary, when we hosted a full hut for anoutstanding weekend ably assisted by theDuxburys and the Brills.

Many of Dorothy’s friends were unaware thatshe had inherited polycystic kidney disease thatdeteriorated over twenty years. Bravely sheunderwent dialysis until a kidney transplantbecame available. Although a good match givingus hope, it was short-lived with a steady declinetowards kidney failure. She was then diagnosedwith endometrial cancer that soon spread tolung, liver and bones.

With typical determination Dorothy attendedthe Club’s Dinner weekend (her 25th) at ShapWells in November 2014 and was touched by thenumber of friends that went to her room for achat. Even though she was very feeble Dorothy,as always, dominated the conversations.

Six weeks later, at home, I watched her slipaway peacefully. Dorothy’s photograph in the hallreminds me daily of fifty wonderful years sharedwith a very special lady.

Roy Buffey

Basil Aubrey Butcher CLIMBER, ARCHAEOLOGIST, ENGINEER (1920 – 2016)

Basil Butcher died on the 3rd of February 2016.He was 95. His funeral was attended by

friends and colleagues including the Presidentand several FRCC members. The eulogiesreflected a life well lived and loved, and his coffinwas appropriately painted with snowy alpinemeadows leading to mountain peaks and blueskies.

Born in Yorkshire, Basil moved as a boy toNewcastle when his father was appointed StationMaster, and he was educated at the RGS. Basiltrained as an engineer and by the outbreak ofWorld War Two was at the Vickers Armstrongworks on the Tyne. Exempt from military service,he had the opportunity to engage himself inclimbing and mountaineering.

Basil helped form the Northumbrian Moun-taineering Club in 1942. The Club's existence wasshort lived, as many members were called up formilitary service, however it reformed in 1945.Basil was amongst the Club's 29 foundermembers, and became Joint Secretary. He hadaccess to a cottage close to Crag Lough; with thisas a base and climbing with another FRCCmember, Keith Gregory, many classic lines werepioneered there.

Working together, Basil and Keith also exploredthe Cheviots and stumbled upon the Henhole,

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In 2013 Bill was diagnosed with bowel cancer,which had spread to other parts of his body andin the subsequent 2 years underwent 2 majoroperations, plus 3 courses of chemo. In true Billstyle he was tenacious in living life to the full inthose last few years, often completing chemo inthe morning and dashing to choir practice in theevening.

Bill died on 2nd December 2015 having madedetailed plans for his funeral which was held atSouthwell Minster with over 500 present. Theorder of service was headed ‘Bill’s Final Bash’ withhis choir playing a prominent part in the serviceand culminated later in the day with fireworks.

Michael Parkinson

Dorothy Buffey(1936 -2014)

It was 1965. I had booked B&B in Aviemore forskiing when a friend at the Borough Engineer’s

office introduced me to his colleague, Dorothy,‘recruiting’ me to give her a lift along with Dennisthe chaperone. Conditions were excellent and weskied daily. Three years later we were married. Ourcourtship was centred around a continuum ofskiing, hillwalking, camping, cycling and birdwatching.

Dorothy loved everything outdoors. Trips to allparts of the United Kingdom were interspersedwith others to Europe. Marriage meant a houseand whilst I spent many evenings renovating,Dorothy studied for a City and Guilds Certificatein Cooking. That led to her working part-time atKeighley College as an outreach teacher. Dorothythen went to Huddersfield College obtaining aTeaching Certificate returning to Keighley College

on a full contract. It was natural for her to concen-trate on her passion, Outdoor Pursuits and shedelighted in the inter-action with students andbeing part of their development.

Our scope for adventure widened immenselywhen I joined the FRCC in 1991, Dorothy in 1992.Her infectious personality attracted many goodfriends within the club; something we truly treas-ured. More skiing followed with weekends onGreat Dun Fell and whole weeks in Scotlandalong with winter walking. Dorothy climbednumerous Munros revelling in our back-packingtrips through Scotland, wild camping, with agrand bivi on Beinn Tarsuinn. Equally notablewere our hut-to-hut-tours in the Lake District.Quite memorable were our trips to France, Italyand Austria for more skiing and winter moun-taineering. Dorothy particularly loved theindependence of expeditions: the GR5 from Lake

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Harold Drasdo

Iwas a first or second year schoolboy at my localschool, waiting at the bus stop to go home. We

all used the local trackless (trolley) bus, but thesetwo used the red West Yorkshire bus; one with arope slung round his neck, the other with a ruck-sack. Enquiries revealed that these two strangeindividuals were going climbing on OgdenMoors, a pastime wholly outside our experienceback in 1945/46. Thus I first made the acquain-tance of the Drasdo brothers.

Five or six years later, I was a hardened walker.Every weekend was devoted to ticking off thetwo thousanders in the Pennines. If I missed thelast bus home to Thornton, I would often findmyself sprinting across Bradford to catch the lastbus to Allerton with this scruffy individualdressed in rags, with an old rucksack on his back.On the long walk home, along unlit country lanes,talking about the day's adventures to oneanother, I found out that he hitched up to theLakes every weekend, to climb. He had onlymissed one weekend in fifty-two, and he workedon Saturday mornings!

Then fate intervened, in the shape of H.MGovernment, and I went off to Hong Kong, whilsthe went to Alsager to become a teacher. It isstrange looking back over this period to think hehad just hitched back after making the firstascent of North Crag Eliminate, one of the greatlandmark climbs of the Lake District.

On leaving the army, I took up climbing insteadof walking, and one day when soloing at Ilkley,we met up again. It was the summer of 1955,when the sun seemed to shine forever. We stayedlate, chatting on top of the rocky valley crags, andI offered him a lift home in my van. It was themagic word, transport, and before I knew it, we

were off to Derbyshire, to the world of Joe Brown.It was a successful foray, and Harold, burstingwith enthusiasm, insisted that the Lakes was theplace to be. I was entirely at Harold’s mercy. I hadno guidebooks to the Lakes, and he had had tosell all his gear, including his guidebooks, to finishhis course. We had to rely on Harold’s memory! Ina conversation with Dolphin two or three yearsago, Arthur had mentioned that he would value asecond opinion on his Bowfell routes. So, the daywas settled, Bowfell it was. The gear was beingsorted at the bottom, and a pathetic little pile itwas. But the rope! It was a three strand rope, withone strand completely cut through. I didn’t fancyseconding on it, let alone leading. 'It held JoeBrown when he fell on it, and it'll hold you'. Haroldwas airily dismissive, and so it proved. The ropewas not tested, and at the end of the day we hadcollected our two routes, Rubicon Groove, andSiamese Chimney.

It was the last time I roped up with Harold,although we corresponded with one another,chiefly when he wanted one of his routeschecked out. Harold went down to work at WhiteHall near Buxton, and I stayed in |Thornton. Ioften thought of him, particularly when I wasintroducing that innocent-looking problem of hisin White Ghyll: Rope Not.

I shall miss him, just knowing he is no longerthere.

Allan Austin

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that great gash on the western flank of TheCheviot which harboured several great moun-taineering lines. With transport lacking, weekendtrips would be made by getting the bus to Wooleron Friday evening, hiking across the moors bytorchlight and bivouacking in a barn in theCollege Valley. All the classic lines such as CannonHole Direct date from this period and wereclimbed in the style of the time, on sight and withlittle or no protection. In 1956 he was electedPresident of the NMC and throughout this periodhe contributed extensively to the production ofthe County's climbing guides.

In the post war years Basil travelled andclimbed in the Alps, Tatras, Dolomites and Julian

Alps. He also climbed in the Lakes extensivelyduring the golden period of the 1950s and 1960swhen 'if you approached Gimmer and someonewas on it then you were bound to know who itwas …'.

Basil joined FRCC in 1956 and soon provedhimself to be an active and involved member. Hebecame warden of Beetham Cottage in 1975, apost he held successfully for 10 years and he waselected as Vice-President in 1985. In recent yearshis health deteriorated although he kept in touchwith Club affairs and he did manage to attend theClub AGM and Dinner in 2014. He was delightedto receive an invitation to the Beetham 50thanniversary celebrations but unfortunately poorhealth prevented him from attending.

In the mid-80s he developed an interest inarchaeology, became a member of the Northum-berland Archaeology Group, conducted muchsurvey work for Newcastle University, and was aregular contributor to the documentation ofNorthumberland's pre-history.

Basil had a lifelong interest in cars and liked todrive quite fast. It has been observed that Basilwas 'probably quite unique in having owned anAston Martin, a Daimler and several mobilityscooters which were occasionally flipped….'

Basil was a proud grandfather of six includingone current FRCC member.

Steve Blake

Reproduced by kind permission of NorthumbrianMountaineering Club, for which it was produced, witha small addition relating to FRCC by Maureen Linton.

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Basil Butcher - Simonside 1960

Eric died in December 2013 and he is missedgreatly by all his family. He instilled in us all a reallove of the fells, and we are fortunate to have somany very happy memories of our family holi-days in the Fell and Rock’s cottages and huts.

Sara Hunton with thanks also to AudreyChesover

Eric Furness(1913 – 2015)

Eric died aged 102 at his home in Kingussie inOctober 2015. Eric became an enthusiastic

rock-climber before the war, climbing often withLyna Pickering (nee Kellett, (FRCC Secretary 1948-58, Vice President 1959-61). Through Lyna he hada day out with H M Kelly. Eric was astonished tofind himself leading Moss Ghyll Grooves and, 2weeks later, proposed for FRCC membership.

This achievement came from an unlikely back-ground: a London childhood and working sixdays a week as a bank clerk. He found outdoor lifeand skills through Scouts, stamina throughcycling, the hills on CHA holidays and rock climb-ing at Harrisons Rocks.

On the day war was declared he enjoyed theGirdle Traverse on Sron na Ciche with TomStephenson (of Pennine Way fame).. During Armytraining he made a first ascent of Steric Slab onCadair Idris. He spent two years as Adjutant forthe 1st Battalion the Nigerian regiment, fightingin Burma. His navigation skills were invaluable incoordinating air drop supplies.

Postwar life meant marriage, completing twoyears of an Economics degree at LSE in four and ahalf months and a new career teaching at Glas-gow College of Commerce. In time the college

became Strathclyde University and he becameprofessor, and head of the Economics Depart-ment. The university released him to work inEthiopia (more climbing and mistakenly campingon a hippopotamus trail), and, later, in Botswanaand Jordan, advising on government finance. Irecall idling with him above Loch Ericht and hesaid, “Economics is not lots of mathematicalformulae, it’s really about how people behave”.

The Scottish highlands was now his outdoorsbase, JMCS member, founder and driver for thecollege mountaineering club. He was an earlyself-taught Cairngorm skier - camp at LochMorlich, walk up to Coire Cas, walk up, ski down,again, and again and return to Glasgow. He‘compleated’ the Munros in 1983 (Munroist 340),many climbed many times, enjoyed the CuillinRidge and its namesake in Rum, had met Rev. A. E.Robertson, the first Munroist, on the benchoutside the Kinlochewe Inn.

Retiring to Kingussie led to another outdoorsstage. Winter was mainly skiing, he gave up aged90 . Summer was walking with the StrathspeyMountain Club, their first honorary member. Withtheir support he commemorated his 80th birth-day by climbing eight munros in one day.

Eric and Enid’s Kingussie home was a centre fortheir family and friends, and friendship was a vitalpart of Eric’s life. Samuel Johnson, after his Scot-tish trek, wrote, 'The highest throne of humanfelicity is a tavern chair, his greatest delight thekeeping and laughter of friends, his other art thatof forming and nurturing friendships'. Eric was afirst class disciple.

Such a long and active life provided the basefor recollections: tents and bothies across theHighlands, nights in Tyndrum station, mountainrescues before helicopters, the safe descent at

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Eric Finch(1932-2016)

My Father, Eric Finch, was born in Ulverston in1932. After attending Ulverston Grammar

School, he joined the FRCC in 1954, whilst he wasworking as an engineer / draughtsman at VickersArmstrong. He climbed regularly with a group offriends known collectively and affectionately as‘The Barrow Boys’. They would load up theirmotor bikes, vans and cars after work on a Fridayand drive up to one of the Fell and Rock’s huts forthe week-end. They also travelled to Scotland inthe winter with tents and equipment for skiingweek-ends. Eric and his friends were eventuallyseparated by the requirement for national service,and Eric joined the merchant navy for three years,sailing to the Far East and North America.

Eric first met my mother, Barbara, on Bergenrailway station in 1956. They had each travelled toNorway with their respective friends for a skiingholiday. After the holiday, they returned homeand were married in 1957. My mother was amember of the Carlisle Climbing Club and theyboth shared a love of the fells.

My father acted as Assistant Warden at theSalving House from 1959 to 1961. In that finalyear I was born, followed a couple of years laterby my sister Tessa and then my brother Giles. Myfather’s work as an engineer and company direc-tor took the family to Scotland, Surrey,Oxfordshire, Lancashire, Cambridgeshire andRutland. However, as soon as we children couldwalk, we all spent regular, very happy holidaysstaying in the cottages at Birkness and Langdale,and walked and climbed all the surroundingpeaks many times. Many years later, my parentsintroduced their grandchildren, Sam and Amelie,

to the Bunk House at Birkness, and the joys ofButtermere.

During one of these holidays, we met RuthGelber and Herby Sixsmith (both FRCC memberswho visited the Lakes frequently); they becamevery dear family friends. When my father wasworking in London, he and I would often go tothe Fell and Rock London Section lectures held atEaton Square. He and my mother were regularattendees at the Club’s Annual General Meetingsat Shap Wells.

In 2010, after Eric’s retirement, he and Barbaramoved back to the Lakes to live just a fewminutes’ walk from their son Giles’ home in Shap.Eric had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Diseasewhen he was 60, and by this time he wasextremely frail and struggled to walk anydistance. Nevertheless, he enjoyed a short familyholiday in Borrowdale in 2012, and took greatdelight in being able to see the beautiful views ofthe fells regularly again.

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One of the pleasures of visiting Tony during hislong illness was leafing through his meticulouslykept diaries and unearthing long forgotten climb-ing events recorded in detail.

Dave Roberts

Gillian M Laud, nee Hall(1957-2015)

Like many FRCC members Gill’s introduction tothe Lake District and to the club began at a

very early age, 3 years old in her case with a stayat Birkness cottage in 1960. The hidden valley ofButtermere, the lake and surrounding fellsbecoming a home away from home and a placeof happy memories and comfort over the years.With parents Andrew and Dorothy and brotherTrevor, visits to the other Club cottages and huts,Gill’s experience of mountaineering grew as didher enjoyment and participation at meets in allthe many and varied conditions that the LakeDistrict has to offer. Gill was particularly proud ofthe Birkness windows that she specialised incleaning regularly at maintenance meets. Gillbecame an associate member in 1976 and in spiteof being more of a walker than a rock climberincluded an ascent of Pillar Rock in her list of topsascended for her membership application.

Gill went to Manchester University and gradu-ated in Pharmacology and Physiology, going onto receive her Masters in Physiology includingworking with the RAF to carry out research intopilot exhaustion. Following University Gill foundher job taking her around England from Cheshireto Hampshire and even a spell in Philadelphia,USA. Her career was mainly in the pharmaceuti-cal industry but she also worked for many yearswith the Human Tissue Authority and the CareQuality Commission.

The mountains always played a part in her lifebe it an ice/snow ascent of Scafell via Lords Rake

at an Easter meet from Brackenclose, the PinnacleRidge route on Sgurr nan Gillean and always awalk around Buttermere. While Mountain walk-ing was always looked forward to, cattle gridswere to be avoided if at all possible and as forrickety old suspension bridges, wading would bea preferred alternative.

In more recent years she committed herconsiderable skills and dedication to helping herlate husband through his battle with cancer,bringing him to the Lakes for a last walk up herfavourite fell – Catbells, in 2013. She also visitedButtermere in 2015 for what turned out to be herfinal visit before unexpectedly and suddenlypassing away in June 2015.

Trevor Hall

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night into Glencoe from the Aonach Eagach withfrightened Indian undergraduates and a dog.

As a schoolboy I started climbing with Eric in1947 from Bowderdale Farm under Yewbarrow.Many memories of hill and dale, crag and cornice,manilla to nylon rope, great improvements to skibindings and crampons, gym shoes to Goretex,and safer climbing and a life-long friendship. Asfar as I was concerned his greatest feat was get-ting us down safely from Beinn Dearg near Ul-lapool in deep snow and whiteout conditions; I’vebeen there in good weather and been dazzled byEric’s navigational skills; a great all round moun-taineer.

Lyn Wilson

Tony Griffiths

Tony was one of a contingent of teachers at theRoyal Grammar School in Newcastle who

joined the FRCC in the mid seventies. Whileinitially members of the locally based Northum-brian Mountaineering Club they graduatednaturally into participating in the Lakes. As suchthe club has benefited from their membershipover a considerable number of years.

It was not long before he attained the ability toclimb at VS grade, progressing beyond that even-tually. Winter climbing ranks as possibly his highpoint of achievement, with climbs on Nevis,(Point Five) and Lochnagar (Eagle Ridge) detailedin his copious diaries.

In the Alps Tony spent several seasons in theDauphine when the trend was to look for betterweather for a short Alpine season. He climbedroutes such as Pic N.de Cavales in one season andthe following year the S. Face on the Aiguille deMidi by the fissure Madier.

I enjoyed many memorable days in the moun-tains with Tony, singling out a cloudless daysoloing the Snowden Horseshoe under snow andice. The following day Tony was gratified when Ifell off an icefall on Clogyn y Grochan. He neverallowed emotion to enter into days out on thehills but in later years an insight to his privatediaries revealed the pleasure and satisfaction hegot from climbing.

Always competitive, when the weather put astop to climbing, he would enjoy a game of chessin the tent. These were accompanied by a bottleof his idiosyncratic tipple, Teachers, where on oneinfamous occasion we both simultaneouslybecame aware that I had been in check for thelast few moves!

Tony served for a number of years as Northum-brian Mountaineering Club President for whichthe club owes him a debt of gratitude. His stew-ardship during this time contributed to therobustness which the club enjoys currently. Tonywas always an establishment person, reflected inhis membership of climbing clubs. Beside hismembership of the NMC, and FRCC he waspersuaded by the late Derek Walker to join theCC. He served as a FRCC committee member andassisted the team who wrote the FRCC EasternCrags guide. Many considered that he did all thehard work in checking the easier sections whilethe glory went to others.

On probably his most auspicious occasion Tonywas in conversation with the Queen at Bucking-ham Palace during investiture with the M.B.E.H.M. remarked on his single handed salvation ofthe Royal Grammar School Combined CadetForce from the axe of the establishment. Tony wasOfficer Commanding with the rank of LieutenantColonel. He never pulled rank on us other ranks.

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Craig would have approved. Craig had a life welllived and well loved. But it was over too soon; hehadn’t finished yet and we had such plans and somany things still to do.

He was a good man and all those who knew orhad met him will remember him with a smile.

Janet Hatton

(Prepared for the Climber’s Club Journal and used withpermission of the author and the CC, with first para-graph by Mark Hartell)

Ken Heaton(1926-2014)

Ken died on June 17th.2014, aged eighty eight.I first met Ken at Widdop Rocks in 1943. He

showed great promise as a rock climber leading,without runners, the first ascent of OverhangingCrack on Hawkstones above Todmorden. Laterwhen Alan Austin climbed it he considered Ken’sfirst ascent was probably the hardest route ongritstone. Jim Birkett remarked when Kenembarked on Gimmer Crack “he was built forcracks”

Ken and I climbed together in the Lakes, Skyeand the Alps. Ken joined the Fell and Rock in1947. In the late 1940’s Ken climbed with ArthurDolphin checking routes for the 1950 LangdaleGuide. It was this period which fired Ken’s interestin the Neckband Crack which had not been devel-oped since the first ascent of the Neckband, V.D.in 1924. In 1949 Ken led three new routes, theGizzard,V.S., Nectar, M.V.S. and Route One V.S.,paving the way for hard routes climbed later.That year he did the first ascent of Original Startto Do Not in White Ghyll, the first 5b pitchclimbed in the Lakes since Linnell’s 1932 ascent

of Bayonet Shaped Crack on Central ButtressScafell.

After marrying Molly in the 1950’s, Ken gaveup rock climbing, favouring fell running at whichhe excelled .On June24th 1961, Ken completedthe record ascent of 51 Lakeland tops, eighty twomiles and ascending thirty one thousand feet intwenty two and a half hours. Later with brotherAlan he was trying to improve this when stoppingfor a drink his glasses were trodden on. Beingshort sighted Ken was unable to continue. Kenwas a keen competitor at Ben Nevis, one yearwinning the veterans title, another being amember of the winning Clayton-le-Moors Harri-ers team. He organized the annual Thievely Pikerace.

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Craig Harwood (1961-2014)

On September 4th 2014 we lost an accom-plished runner, climber and adventurer.

Someone who had nurtured and inspired manyand who was a classic example of giving back tothe sports you love. Whilst climbing a route calledCaravanserai at Compass Point in North Devon,Craig Harwood suffered a fatal leader fall. He was53.

Where to begin to recall the life of a man whodid so much with and for so many people? Craigloved the fells, crags and mountains with apassion that never wavered. He was a talentedclimber, mountaineer and fell runner and

achieved great things in all these pursuits. He hadsuch enthusiasm and liked nothing better than achallenge – especially if it involved maps, routeplanning, kit and schedules, which it invariablydid.

One of his greatest attributes was that he tookas much joy, if not more, from helping othersachieve their goals than in achieving his own. Iwas often the recipient of his encouragement and

support – he was my biggest fan. Following myrunning-ending injury Craig threw himself intoour newly discovered cycling exploits. For us todo something together was so important to him.We were well matched except, as he oftenpointed out, his gravity (weight) assisted advan-tage going downhill!

There are numerous others in the climbing andrunning world who have been the recipient ofCraig’s wisdom, advice and persuasion and havebeen part of many adventures with him. I havebeen honoured to have shared these memorieswith some of his friends.... of routes taken andcrags climbed both in the UK and abroad. Craigneeded his regular fix of ‘outside’, feeling stronglyabout his work: life balance. He would say he was‘going out to play’ and return some time laterwith his customary big grin to contemplate hisnext adventure. He became a family man whenwe got together and he embraced this with hiscustomary enthusiasm. He introduced me and mygirls to the ‘climbing life’ and we spent somebeautifully eclectic times on the CC Family Meetdown at the Count House in Cornwall.

Craig also gave back to the sports he loved. Hewas involved with both climbing and runningclubs in various official capacities. He felt it washis duty to do his share to promote these organi-sations and improve facilities for their members.

In June 2015 a group of Craig’s friends helpedhim to posthumously complete the Paddy Buck-ley Round in Snowdonia. He had completed theBob Graham and Ramsay Rounds but the PB hadeluded him. It was a fitting and moving way tocelebrate his life – it definitely involved maps,route planning, kit and schedules. His ashes werecarried in a relay, in some typical biblical welshweather, with one of his friends, Tom Brunt,completing the whole round within 24 hours.

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how to hurl a javelin. But his main love was themountains and he used to drive off to NorthWales on Friday night on his Vincent motor bike,returning early on Monday morning in time forwork.

He was a competent and very safe climber andbecame a Mountaineering Instructor for theMountaineering Association, the forerunner ofthe BMC. He was chosen to join an expedition tothe Himalayas but was not allowed the time offwork and was told to choose between being abanker or a mountaineer, a response whichrankled with him for many years.

He loved to tinker with his beloved Vincent andlater his cars and his meticulous practical skillsrevealed themselves when he converted two tinyterraced houses at Tintwistle, near Glossop, into alovely country cottage.

We met on Boxing Day 1966 at the ODG whereI was introduced to Don and his red Triumph Spit-fire sports car. We made no arrangements tokeep in touch but a few weeks later he contactedme by writing to my Education Offices with aforwarding letter in which he invited me to go toSkye at Easter. The lure of both the Cuillins andthe Triumph Spitfire was too good to miss and Iaccepted. So began fifty years of friendship,companionship and support, leading to our even-tual marriage.

Don was a kind, quiet, modest person whokept much to himself. He loved music and was acompetent pianist, although he seldom playedand he loved our many visits to Vienna where heenjoyed the culture and the peace of our friend’shome in the Vienna Woods.

But his great love was for the outdoors, forwarm sunshine, for the mountains and particu-larly for Corsica. His happiest memories were offollowing the GR20 before there was a series of

huts or any provision points en route, just carry-ing a small tent and frugal food for the whole trip.We both lost much weight. Later with a motorhome he loved driving to the sunshine of south-ern France or the Pyrenees or across to Chamonixor Zermatt, taking it up some hair-raising roads.

Throughout his membership he devotedhimself fully to the Club. He never sought thelimelight but his quiet strength, support andloyalty were invaluable. On maintenance meetshe would take a long time on a given job but thefinal result was always impeccable and he wasalways ready to give a friendly welcome to newmembers. In recent years he certainly sloweddown and his ability to fall asleep at any momentwas memorable. But he always maintained thathe was only resting his eyes and could prove thisby commenting on the conversations beingcarried on around him.

He was a man of integrity, kindness and highprinciples and, as many members have written, atrue gentleman. The many messages of condo-lence and the splendid attendance at his funeralproved that he was held in high regard and hewill be sadly missed.

Maureen Linton-Lee

Jim Loxham

Recollections of early climbing days with Jim Lox-ham

Jim Loxham didn’t suffer fools, being one gradebehind him, I frequently received his wisdom

and advice, demonstrated when climbing Side-walk, Dow Crag. Jim was becoming tetchy as Imade my umpteenth attempt at the crux – a

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Ken led a charmed life, having more closeencounters with lethal situations than anyoneelse I know. The first was in 1947 during his onlyclimbing holiday in the Alps. After an epic on theWest Ridge on the Dent Blanche, involving abivouac, Ken, Harry Ironfield and I embarked onthe traverse of Monte Rosa, to the Breithorn .After a night at the Caban Regina Margherita onthe Signalkuppe , we were traversing theLyskamm. On the descent to the Felikjoch toavoid a steep ice slope we took an easy rock ridgeon the left overlooking the Aosta valley, movingtogether. Luckily Harry and I were on a ledgewhen Ken coming down last came away with alarge piece of rock falling into Italy. Neither Harrynor I were belayed and we were lucky to holdKen. I tied off the ropes and descended to Kenwho had fallen seventy feet, hanging uncon-scious upside down swinging in space below anoverhang. His rucksack, ice axe and spectaclescontinued into Italy. We got Ken back onto theridge bruised and shaken with a rope burn on hisneck. The traverse was abandoned and we got offthe mountain as quickly as possible, cutting stepsdown the ice slope to the Felikjoch, then downthe Zwillingsgletscher, eventually to the BetempsHut. The following day we descended to Zermatt,the end of Ken’s holiday as he had lost his climb-ing gear, spectacles and money.

Other narrow escapes occurred throughout hislife. Foraging for fire wood near his home he wastrapped by a rolling log to be extricated by thefire brigade. Crossing the road in Burnley, he washit by a car, and went over its roof landing on hisfeet unhurt. As an engineer at Lucas Aerospacehe went to Copenhagen, where a plane fired upits engines blowing in the windows of the depar-ture lounge, carrying Ken the length of thelounge. He was unhurt. Later in life on his scooter,

stopped at a traffic light, a car ran into him frombehind, writing off his scooter and putting Ken inhospital with a broken leg. Ken had an eventful life, a remarkable climber, fellrunner and father of two lovely daughters, Janeand Diane to whom we send our condolences.

John Wilkinson.Donald Lee(1933-2014)

Don joined the club in 1968 and was an active,participating member until his final illness.

Born in Manchester, he grew up in Wallaseywhere he attended Wallasey Grammar School and

subsequently became a bank employee where heworked in branches in the Liverpool area, inCumbria and eventually in the Manchester areauntil his retirement.

But he was happiest when involved in some-thing active or practical. He played rugby forNew Brighton, was a very strong swimmer andduring his national service in Germany learned

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OK. This theory worked for him failing for me. Iwas lifted by a huge wave, soaked from chestdownwards but managed to reach the path. Isaid ‘at least I have some dry gear in the car’.

This was the wrong comment his responsebeing, ‘Back to the car? There’s time for anotherroute’. So we did Times Square, much harder withwater squelching out of my EBs.

By the seventies Jim was fell running, and onone visit to Esk Buttress, with Roy Morris, Jimannounced he was going to run over the Crinklesback to the Old DG. Jim had bought a pair of(ladies) hockey boots hoping the tread wouldprovide good traction. We carried Jim’s climbinggear, to Cockley Beck, then drove to Langdale.Waiting, we saw him hobbling up the road, hisfeet a mass of blisters learning that hockey bootsweren’t for the fells. The parentage of thedesigner of said boots was in doubt as we drovehome.

The theme of rescuing days from total failurewas often repeated, usually turning into an epicday. Usually we climbed on a Sunday, so Mondaymornings at work weren’t very productive. Then,as long as you made an appearance inability tofunction seemed to go unnoticed. One winter’sday we set off from Glenridding for a snow andice route. Bright and sunny, by Ruthwaite Covethere was no frost with snow like porridge. Plan Binvolved driving to Grasmere swapping winter kitfor rock gear and walked to Deer Bield climbingDunmail Cracks. One wet day in Coniston, Jimintent on doing a route suggested IntermediateGully on Dow Crag. I had no idea of its reputationand suspect that Jim didn’t either, but I wentalong. Jim was in his element thrutching up theslime ridden route, but for me it was one of themost physically exacting and precarious days ofmy life!

No day in the hills with Jim was ordinary, andthere are more tales I could recount. Jim was acolourful character who impacted on many lives,not least mine. He pushed me into doing thingswhich I thought I was incapable of and set me upfor years of enjoyment and success in the moun-tains. Many enrich the world during their lifetime;this is certainly true of Jim. He will be sorelymissed.

Tony Peacock

'Jim was the Guidebook writer for Gable and Pillar,1991 and Eskdale and Duddon 2015.  He died while hewas completing a day of photography for this 2015Guidebook', 

Alan Maskery(1932-2014)

Alan lived his life without compromise. He wasa very hard man in every aspect of his life,

both in work and in play, tolerated by morepeople than understood him. The ones that didunderstand him, knowing that in truth hisoutward appearance did not engender affection,gained much by association. He and I climbedtogether from about 15 years old through all thegreat years, in Britain and the Alps.

To illustrate how good he was, Don Whillansasked him to do some climbing with him, afterwatching him do the left and right ‘Unconquer-able’ on Stanage, consecutively. In those daysthese routes were of a very high standard. Hewinter climbed extensively in Scotland, rockclimbed all over the country, especially in NorthWales and on limestone and gritstone inDerbyshire. In 1960 he did early ascents of theNorth face of the Piz Badile and the North face of

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stepping right onto a miniscule foothold then aprecarious pull up to the stance. The cold and

frustration got to him and he gave the followingencouragement- ‘Just f****** stan’ up on it.

But it was never a problem and somethingmust have worked, as we climbed together forfive years. I found a way of coping with Jim’sunswerving self-belief, by vowing to myself that Iwould always follow him up any route. He wasonly stuck for words when I managed to lead ahard pitch, or once when I beat him in a fell race.He never forgave me for advising purchase of aMorris Marina Van – the worst vehicle ever saidJim. Working for British Leyland, it was my fault!Jim was never backward in giving praise. Onceclimbing a steep Derbyshire limestone route, he

commented I must be ‘b***** strong, havinghung on for so long trying to make a move.

I cannot remember the circumstances of team-ing up together; it was probably 1968, connectedwith South Ribble Mountain Rescue Team. Welived in Leyland and I joined to meet outdoortypes. The Team was viewed with scorn nothaving any mountains for rescues, but it was thespawning ground for climbing, caving, fellrunning and orienteering careers.

Jim liked to explore new areas. He wouldresearch routes in detail, but not accommodation.In Cheddar Gorge, failing to find a campsite, wecamped in desperation half way up the gorge. Noone bothered us and the following day we did a400ft VS. We met some local climbers using a hutin Priddy where Jim persuaded them to allow usto stay.

We mainly climbed in the Lakes and Dales,winter in Anglesey. We always camped on the clifftops at South Stack and on one trip, as I put upthe tent, I heard an outburst of invective fromnearby, with Jim hurling stones at a cat devouringthe mince for our curry. Fortunately there wasenough left.

One issue on Anglesey was that was it was ‘dry’on Sunday. Once we infiltrated as residents atTrearddur Bay Hotel, but were asked to leave –neither looking nor smelling like residents. Thesolution was to drive to Betws y Coed, a long way,worth it at the time.

Our first outing at Gogarth was a memorablefailure. We traversed the bottom of the cliff withthe tide out, looking for the start of Pentathol.After a number of upward forays Jim declared theguide book was wrong and we should retreat.Unfortunately, the tide had turned with sea at thehigh water mark. Jim noted every sixth wave wasa big one, setting off after such a wave would be

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how her teaching had shaped him, setting him onthe right path with her patience and kindness.Surely a teacher could ask for no greater an acco-lade.

Peggy enjoyed time in the Hebrides, on oneoccasion travelling to Canna, she found a dogwaiting to be picked up from the mainland, butno one had arrived. Taking a shine to this dog,the breeder agreed that she could take her home,naming her ‘Canna’. Thus began her love for ‘aman’s best friend’. After Canna there was Suzieand border terrier, Dizzy, now being looked afterby June, enjoying a different life with her ‘gang’ ofbig dogs. Peggy enjoyed visiting St Kilda, travel-ing there by helicopter and as well as learningabout the earlier inhabitants, spent time puttingpuffins back into the sea, climbing treacherousrocks to do so. She also had a trip to Reykjavik.

Peggy was very talented at making beautifulcontemporary jewellery, which led to her friend-ship with another Margaret and her husbandJames. The pair went on to attend HollingsCollege of Food and Fashion and went all overManchester before taking their City and Guildsqualifications.

She was a member of the FRCC, RSPB, RoyalNorthern College of Music and contributedgenerously to the Dogs Trust and the CinnamonTrust (The National Charity for the elderly, theterminally ill and their pets)

She felt very strongly about a number of issuesand was actively involved with the Kinder MassTrespass and supported the cause of GreenhamCommon. Preservation of the environment wasvery important to her. One of the issues aboutwhich she felt most strongly was cruelty to circusanimals, attending a protest rally and writing toher local MP.

Peggy was vegetarian, but liked the best ofeverything, including fine whisky. As a lady ofmany talents she made her own wine, bread andwas a skilled gardener.

Her flat was full of antiques, being an avidcollector of almost anything. She made her ownclothes, wearing a lot of tweed, buying thepatterns from Fair Isle. Her stunning ground floorflat had a beautiful garden, which in recent yearshad been tended by Brian who also did odd jobsfor her. James and Margaret did her shoppingand visited her in hospital as did other friendsand neighbours. She will be missed for her intelli-gence and phenomenal general knowledge, fromopera to Greek mythology, always able to helpcomplete crosswords. Very well read, Kipling andShakespeare were among her favourites.

Margaret described Peggy as being a wonder-ful friend, excellent listener, always ready toengage in friendly debates about anything, espe-cially books

She packed into her long life, enough tooccupy three people.She will be deeply missed,fondly remembered and never forgotten

James Connolly

Paul Roberts(1923-2014)

Paul Roberts, died in May 2014. A Yorkshire-man, he was born in Leeds in 1923, attended

primary school in Headingley then Leeds Gram-mar School. Wartime evacuation disrupted hissecondary education. After three institutions, hewent to Leeds University Medical School. Hejoined the University mountaineering club andwas rock climbing, locally and in the Lake District

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the Kingspitze in the Alps, the latter with PatFearnehough, also a Fell and Rock member.

A couple of anecdotal tales will suffice to illus-trate his character. In my self-employed buildingperiods, between jobs, Alan, who had his ownbuilding company, decided he would be my clerkof works. He appeared on site almost every day,to check me out.

I was building a brick garage at the time andAlan knew that I had completed the concrete wallfootings the previous day. On arrival he wentstraight to the trench, unzipped and urinatedonto the concrete. He declared that the footingswere not level, indisputably so, for the noxiousfluid was slowly heading towards the green-house. The second story relates to when he and Iwere to meet in Val Veney in Italy to climb onMont Blanc. We had an arrangement of usingpost restante communications. A week later, noAlan, no letter, I moved on. He had thought thatthe good weather in Cornwall could not bemissed and holidayed there. He was an enigmaof epic proportions and took some understand-ing. I for one am glad that I did for I gained much.

In the early days he single handed built a minimarket during the winter, complete with a flatabove for his mother in law, with his then wifeFreda, carrying bricks up onto the scaffolding,while he pursued daytime work. He was a drivenand strong man.

Sometime after he and Freda divorced, he rangme and said that he had found the love of his life,Martha! She remained with him to the end.

He died aged 82 in St Luke’s Hospice on the28th of November 2014. He had survived a tornaorta and a serious infection, but succumbed towidespread cancer straight afterwards.

He leaves his partner Martha and his previouswife Freda, with whom he had a son and daugh-ter, Kevin and Leah and his sisters and brothers.

This is the way I saw Alan.

Ted Howard, a friend

Margaret Emilie (Peggy) Mitchell (nee Fogg)

Peggy was born in Southport on 23/3/1915celebrating her 100th birthday during her

final year, dying on 16th May 2015She was close to her mother and her father,

who had been a merchant selling cloth, and has acommemorative plaque at the Royal Exchange inManchester

Her grandfather was a famous conductor andarranger in a brass band winning a rose bowl forconducting and arranging music at Bellevue. Hecomposed some of the music for ‘All CreaturesGreat and Small’ and ‘Brassed Off’. Once Peggyhad a menu that the King had written on, statingwhat he would like to be played after dinner-music that her grandfather had arranged.

Peggy married as a young woman, later under-taking office work in Stockport, living in theDidsbury area and was an ambulance driverduring World War 2.

Peggy was a free spirit who liked to do her ownthing, climbing and skiing when this was rare.

She separated from her husband and attendedDidsbury Teacher Training College, becominghead of the Art department, then deputy head ina school for pupils with special needs. Years laterPeggy was approached by a man who it turnedout was one of her former pupils. He praised herfor the impact that she had had on his life and

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I wish to thank Margaret Roberts, Paul’s sister, andAnne Hartley of the London Section for their help withthis obituary.

Alan Moffitt Scott(1931-2016)

Born in 1931 the son of a farmer/butcher fromHigh Bow Farm near Carlisle, Alan trained as a

dentist in Newcastle. He did his National Serviceand after initial training was deployed to Egyptand the Sudan becoming Captain Scott, theneventually to Cyprus. Upon return he startedworking for the County NHS dental service inWorkington and later in Penrith, which initiallyenabled him to walk and climb in the Lakesduring the school holidays, though this privilegeeventually came to an end for the dental staff. Thegreat outdoors were always a passion.

In 1956 he met Jean whilst working in thesame Health Department building in Carlisle,marrying at the end of 1957. Daughter Wendyarrived in 1959, to be followed by Sue in 1961.

Turning his attention to the Scottish Mountainshe succeeded in scaling all of the Munros and all

but five a second time around, most done duringthe winter as the garden took priority in thesummer.

Family holidays were often in the dormobile,from Scotland to Cornwall. The delights offoreign holidays on a budget, France, Germany,Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Monacoto name a few, either in the dormobile or camp-ing, with the tent already up on-site. He alsomanaged trips abroad with friends and son-in-law Andy to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco andcanoeing down part of the Colorado River in theGrand Canyon with his brother-in-law and walk-ing solo through the Sierra Nevada.

I first met Alan in 1959 as a 14 year old attend-ing my first Carlisle Mountaineering Club meet inLangdale, needing adult supervision for my firstreal day in the hills. A breath-taking hotsummer’s day involving Great Gully on Pavey Ark,the Pikes and a climb on Middlefell Buttressensued. My dual interest of cycle racing thenintervened, but we met again in 1974 (in his localpub), after which I embarked with him on theMunros, which he had already half completed.Naturally, this meant that my first few were the inthe more remote areas, which resulted in mybecoming completely hooked. We had manyepics over the next 10 years, but in difficult condi-tions Alan was as solid as a rock, with an innercalm that I’ve never seen before or since.

As he got older he enjoyed walking holidays inEurope with Jean in places like Spain, France, Italyand Madeira and then took to cycling. On oneoccasion after cycling to Stranraer he foundhimself cold and wet, the ferry looked warm andinviting so he hopped on, phoning Wendy later tosay he was now in Belfast.

When he couldn’t manage the tops any longerhe took great delight in hearing about the

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with Arthur Dolphin, amongst others, althoughhis FRCC application mentioned only ‘V.Diff’.

National service followed in the navy at Devon-port, which he enjoyed, taking up small boatsailing in the absence of local mountains. Thiswas his pipe-smoking period!

Eager to expand his mountaineering expertisehe attended a climbing school in the Dauphine,there meeting Phyllida Thornton. It was, in hisown expression a ‘coup de feu’. They married in1952 and managed to combine adventurousmountaineering and skiing holidays, and medicalcareers, with three children.

Both Paul and Phyllida became consultanthaematologists, in London hospitals. Paul at theWest Middlesex, a fascinating institution forhaematology as the high immigrant populationround Heathrow introduced several novelhaemoglobin mutations that drew Paul intoscientific research collaborations.

During his busy medical years, Paul and Phyll-ida went to the Alps most summers, and skied inthe spring and winter. A honeymoon highlightwas a traverse of the Zinal Rothorn. The Valaiswas a favourite area for the couple, with ascentsof the Weisshorn, Mount Blanc, the Matterhorn,Monte Rosa and others. In the Dolomites, theywould take a ‘family rope’ with the three childrenalong the via ferrata. Paul’s greatest strength wasski-mountaineering, with ascents of Swiss4,000m peaks (the Alphubel, Allalinhorn, Brei-thorn and others) and touring. In the 1970s and1980s the Roberts moved further afield, trekkingin Nepal, the Andes, Kilimanjaro and the Lenanapeak of Mt. Kenya. Following tips from MargaretDarvall’s Pinnacle Club expeditions they exploredlesser-known areas of the Kulu and Lahoul, takingin minor summits.

Paul was a joiner of clubs. He was never veryactive in the Yorkshire Ramblers’ or Climbers’Clubs, but participated in the London activities ofthe Alpine Club. The Eagle Ski Club comple-mented his main interest and he served asPresident. When I met him around 1981, he andPhyllida were active Friends of the FRCC LondonSection, leading Chilterns walks and attendingevening lectures. In 1986, when Paul had retiredand sought to renew his acquaintance with theLake District, it seemed natural for him to join theFell and Rock main club, his sister Margaret,already a member. He actively participated in theScottish Hotel and Coniston meets being a regu-lar at the Dinner weekend. His greatestcontributions to Club life were his organization oftrekking expeditions , with ascents of Mera Peak,Stok Kangri and an exciting trip to Bhutan. Theseintroduced the superb services of Motup andYangdu of Rimo Expeditions to the Club. Paulcontinued his association with the LondonSection and served a stint as chairman from 2000,with a reputation for ‘pithy speeches at shortnotice’.

Paul’s interests were not all mountaineering.He was a great lover of music, appreciated artexhibitions and joined a book group in retire-ment. He and Phyllida moved out of London toBuckinghamshire, finally settling in Jordansvillage. They were by then members of the Soci-ety of Friends and prominent in the Quakercommunity of Jordans. In his later years manyFRCC friends strayed south to sample his gener-ous hospitality, note the fussiness about thequality of the coffee, admire the paintingscomplementing his mountaineering interests andsavour the humorous wide ranging conversa-tions. It was good to know him.

Hatty Harris

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and although he did not complete, he did morethan 200 despite two replacement hips. Heaccompanied John and John's wife Kate on theirrespective last Munro trips bringing him muchsatisfaction having been the instigator for John.

He joined the Fell and Rock Climbing Club in1992 and enjoyed meeting a new group of like-minded individuals. This coincided with the club’sacquisition of Waters Cottage, which soonbecame a regular weekend destination.

After retiring he discovered new and rediscov-ered old interests, enjoying family responsibilitiesof walking John’s dog and helping Zena to lookafter their grandsons, Oliver and Tom. His love ofplaying the trombone was rekindled, joiningWhitehaven Brass Band and later Cleator MoorBrass with guest appearances with other WestCumbrian bands.

He took an allotment with sister, Doreen, andson-in-law, James, continuing a family tradition ofgrowing their own fruit and veg. He joined White-haven Probus. He trained and qualified as aNational Park Voluntary Warden enjoying workingparties in all weathers, conserving walls and foot-paths for fellow outdoor enthusiasts. He was partof the Osprey Project taking long shifts protect-ing nesting sites, proudly following theyoungster’s progress.

When daughter Simone moved abroad hestarted travelling further afield. Alan and Zenahad many wonderful holidays together visitingSimone in different locations including frequentvisits to Australia and all over the world on land,sea and air including America, China and NewZealand. They cycled the C2C and throughout theWestern Isles; they cruised the Med, the Baltic andacross the Arctic Circle. The natural wonders werealways Alan’s favourites, in particular the Grand

Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and Aitutaki in theCook Islands.

Alan died in West Cumberland Hospital in May2015 after a four month battle with stomachcancer, maintaining his sense of humour to theend. The family spent many evenings duringthose four months remembering days in the hillsand holidays together. He is sadly missed by allwho knew and loved him.

Simone Slater, Natalie Burns and John Slater

Professor John Shepherdson(1926-2015)

John Shep, as I knew him, was responsible forintroducing me to the FRCC, but by that time

he was retired and I knew little about his profes-sional career, other than he had been Professor ofMathematics at Bristol. It was only at his memo-rial gathering that I learnt from his colleaguesthat this modest, unassuming, man had been aleading light in 20th century mathematical logicin the UK.

Graduating from Cambridge at 20, he narrowlylost out on a Fellowship at Trinity College, soinstead became an Assistant Lecturer at Bristol in1946. He stayed there until he retired in 1991,thus becoming the longest-ever serving memberof the University’s academic community and hisservice to the University was great.

He was much travelled as an academic andbuilt up many contacts abroad. It is through hisefforts that Bristol became an early centre formathematical logic. His first work was in settheory and the results of Kurt Goedel, thecentury’s pre-eminent logician in this field.Having explicated Goedel’s methods in a series of

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exploits of son-in-law Andy and later grandsonJamie. He also gave Jamie his one-man-tent andwatched him struggle to put it up telling him toalways RTBI. Jamie only discovered later thatmeant 'Read the Bloody Instructions'. Alan’sgranddaughter Rachel says he taught her totravel without reservation, stop for the views andenjoy the nature around you, act like you knowwhat you are doing, live a life worth living andyou can never go wrong with a hat for the occa-sion.

Alan died on 18th March 2015, aged 83 after ashort illness.

Mike Westmorland

Alan James Slater(1939-2015)

Alan was born in Oldham, moving to White-haven in the 1930s with his parents and sister

Doreen. The family loved going into the country-side, walking the lanes, picking the berries in thehedgerows and bleaberries on the fell side. Alanand Doreen looked up and decided that theywanted to get up onto the mountain tops.

Alan was educated at Whitehaven GrammarSchool leaving school to pursue a career in Indus-trial Chemistry with the Atomic Energy Authorityat Windscale, where he met his future wife Zena,marrying in 1960. Later he worked at Albrightand Wilson's Marchon Plant in Whitehaven, stay-ing 35 years until retirement.

Initially Wainwrights were the target along withclimbing some classic routes and camping withfriends, Cinderdale Common a regular favourite.He later climbed in the Alps, having a narrowescape in a crevasse after travelling there in anAustin A35 with three friends.

He played the trombone in a jazz band calledThe Gloryland Jazz Band, making an appearanceon local TV’s 'Beat in the Borders'.

Family soon appeared with Simone, Natalieand John remembering a busy childhood withcamping holidays, watching Whitehaven RugbyLeague, fell-walking and orienteering.

As family responsibilities relaxed he challengedhimself to complete all the Wainwrights in a year,1984, successfully finishing on a snowy StoneArthur with a bottle of champagne, where thesliding downhill wasn't just down to the condi-tions underfoot!

He twice completed the Ramblers Association‘Four Three Thousanders’ of Skiddaw, Scafell,Scafell Pike and Helvellyn, somewhat slower thanBilly Bland!

For many years he and colleagues would aimfor an early finish every Tuesday heading for thefells with the aim of maximising daylight with awalk and a pint. It was surprising what could befitted in, the Fairfield Horseshoe about as far asyou could drive from Whitehaven and finishbefore last orders.

He moved on to climb the Munro’s, complain-ing that the Lakes had become too busy. Hestarted with Ben Nevis on a family holiday in 1981

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moved to Peterborough, Les startingwork in a chemical laboratory study-ing part-time at technical college,graduating in 1963 with an externaldegree from London University.

He played football and cricket andtook an avid interest in jazz and folkmusic. Sport remained important toLes although after he discoveredmountaineering, around1963, hebecame mainly a spectator. In 1966after studying for a PGCE in technicaleducation, he became a chemistrylecturer at Gloucester TechnicalCollege for 30 years until retirement.

We met during his first year there,separately joining GloucestershireMountaineering Club within amonth of each other. Our friendship and love ofthe mountains led us to marry in 1969 and overthe next three decades we mountain climbedtogether most weekends and most of our holi-days. Les had an athletic physique, ideal for fastwalking and fell-running. In his 40s, he took uporienteering, winning national championships.With mountaineering friends he ran in many fellraces and mountain marathons, the Lowe AlpineMountain Marathon being his favourite. At 60 Lescompleted the Joss Naylor Challenge in 14 hours30 minutes.

Les was introduced to climbing on the Isle ofSkye in 1963, repeatedly returning there, travers-ing the Cuillin Ridge several times, including theGreater Traverse and the ‘Greater Greater Traverse’,encompassing Clach Glas, Blaven and the DubhsRidge returning to Glen Brittle in one continuousouting. Les climbed all the Munros, saving the lastfew to do with me in 2000, thus ensuring that we‘compleated’ together. Despite him being able to

walk twice as fast as me, he patiently waited sothat I could be with him on the summits.

Les was a traditionalist rock climber, enjoyingmountain crags, especially in Snowdonia and theLake District. It was always satisfying to climbwith Les, as he instinctively climbed swiftly andcompetently up the routes he chose. We neverqueued and I rarely spent long at a belay point.He encouraged me (and others) to climb up to(though within) our limits, he himself climbingmore serious and more technical routes withother friends of similar ability to his own. Thesocial life of the mountaineering world was a joyto Les; he had a good sense of humour. He lovedto talk of climbing, share his knowledge andencourage others.

His first Alpine climbing was at Zermatt in1965. As a complete novice, he climbed theRimpfischhorn, Zinalrothorn and Matterhorn. In1970, he introduced me to the Alps, climbingtogether in France, Italy and Switzerland for 25years until I stopped because of ill health. Climb-

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papers, he moved into another area of Goedel’sfame, the incompleteness phenomena. Duringthis study, he invented an alternative conceptionto Alan Turing’s machine, now called the Shep-herdson-Stugis Register machine, which wassimpler to reason and to program. In general, hisresearch was marked by deep thought overlengthy periods of time and writing papers thatwere later to be standard references. He wouldthen move on to pastures new. He proposed andbecame a co-founder of the British Logic Collo-quium and was also recognised for his workthrough a Fellowship of the British Academy.

John was a man of great kindness andmodesty, the last person to push his opinions inseminars. His attitude was the opposite ofdogmatic but his conversation was bright andentertaining, with a still-waters-running-deepreservoir of dry wit, which was of great amuse-ment when it bubbled up.

His interests in life were his family, mathemat-ics and outdoor pursuits. His family said he would

rather spend money on skiing than replacing athreadbare carpet!

He was a keen and competent mountaineerand was a member of Cambridge UniversityMountaineering Club. He went to the Alps withthem, including a trip to Arolla, where his ascentsincluded Petit Dent de Veisivi. He joined FRCC in1946 but, because of his modesty, did not talkabout his exploits. When he married Margaret(who pre-deceased him by 5 months), she hadher arm in plaster as a result of a climbing mishapin Cheddar Gorge. Although he had been pres-ent when it happened, he claimed he was notresponsible!

He was a member of our Bristol-based informalband which we call the “Moss Ghyll Society”,whose members have all been initiated by climb-ing the said route. With them, he partook inexpeditions to various parts of the British Islesand climbed in the Avon Gorge. However, moun-taineering was not his only outdoor activity andhe also enjoyed sailing, snorkelling, and skiing. Infact, he was still skiing well into his 80’s.

He was very good at putting himself out to dothings for other people and it is typical of himthat he left his body for medical research. As hesaid, he did not like to waste anything!

Richard Ivens

Les Swindin(1938 - 2015)

Les Swindin was born in the London area,moving to West Yorkshire at the outbreak of

the Second World War. His formative years wereinfluenced by his father, a professional goal-keeper for Arsenal in the 1930s, continuing afterthe war years in the Army. Around 1954 the family

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Barbara, Les and Pete on summit of Monte Viso 1994

obvious was that he was a brilliant naturalclimber. A club meet at the Roaches saw Ron floatup unprotected routes while we struggledbehind him. He would have been about fifty thenand the senior person in the club but he waspatient, encouraging and we thoroughly enjoyedhis company.

Ron was great at encouraging people to climb.The list of Peak members and former memberswho Ron ‘got started’ is too long to list here butthey all know who they are and will be for evergrateful for it. One of the great things about Ronwas that he was always more interested in whatyou had been doing rather than what he hadbeen doing, even though he would have been upto all sorts.

He was a botanist of immense knowledge. Heknew the flowers of Derbyshire and the Alps likefew others, a keen amateur geologist, a skilledphotographer, an expert wood carver, the listseems to go on and on. But his skills and knowl-edge were not something to keep to himself.They were for sharing and any walk or climb withhim would be punctuated by his observations;pointing out the delights of the world which therest of us somehow walk and climb past.

Ron was a friend to many people because heloved people. He was never afraid of a physicalapproach, a hug, an arm round a shoulder werenatural to him. He was a master at the lost climb-ing art of heckling. Being slow or trying to putrunners in when there weren’t any would alwaysbring forth a ‘witty’ comment but delivered with agreat sense of fun.

So we will miss him; not only the Peak but theFell and Rock and all those who knew him, but wewill not forget him. When we walk down Ravens-dale or do Via Media or climb on Gable or sit in

Langdale he will be in our thoughts and there willbe smiles on our faces.

John Skelton, May 2015

Roy Townsend

Ifirst met Roy in 1968 when he was camping andclimbing in Langdale, Freddie was also there

playing the banjo. At that time my base was inthe Salutation in Ambleside. A couple of weekslater Roy arrived in the ‘Sally’ where he becamepart of the team.

In 1969 he went to Chamonix, following hislove of the mountains, and completed the NorthFace of the Dru. In the 70s we started to climbtogether regularly in the Lakes and Wales. Thisincluded our attempt at Gormenghast, where Ifell 40 feet from the second pitch; Roy held my fall

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ing all the 4000m peaks was one achievement,but he rarely climbed to a summit to tick a list. Hechose routes for their merits, sometimes climbinga peak by two or more different ridges or faces.He was a natural leader, always climbing guide-less. From 1980 he and I teamed up frequentlywith the late Pete Fleming. Pete and Les climbedthe Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey when, despite asunny forecast, their outing turned into a three-day epic with 15cm of snowfall and prolongedthunder and lightning as they sat in an emer-gency bivouac on the south-east summit. It istestament to their skills that they escapedunharmed.

The number of Alpine routes that Les enjoyedis too large to count, but they feature in theAlpine Club guidebooks that he edited. Duringhis later visits to the Alps, active climbing wasgradually replaced by long walks and scramblestaking photographs to illustrate these guides. Leswas determined to give other alpinists the bestchance of finding the routes described.

Les also led approximately 20 ski tours in theAlps and I accompanied him on half of these. Allbenefitted from his understanding of snow condi-tions and ability to find a safe way throughcomplicated terrain, whatever the weather. Prob-ably the greatest ski tour for us was our 1981traverse through the Bernese Oberland from theGrimsel Pass to Stechelberg near Lauterbrunnen,with 3 friends, in perfect weather, staying high for10 days.

Sadly, Les’s last decade was marred by Parkin-son’s disease; his activities prematurely curtaileddespite his efforts to keep as fit as possible. Evenat the end he could still walk faster than me,albeit only for a short distance. Les will be greatlymissed by all his many friends, and especially byme. He was my loyal and loving husband as well

as my climbing partner and ‘unofficial mountainguide’.

Barbara Swindin

Ron Townsend

The man behind the routes

Ron Townsend, founder member of the PeakClimbing Club and one of the foremost grit-

stone climbers in the post war era, has died. Wethought he would live for ever, a view probablyshared by Ron! He was a man full of joy and fullof life.

When we look back at life we can only do sofrom our own view point and experience and Imake no excuses for that. Others will have theirown memories but they will no doubt be varia-tions on a theme. I first met and climbed withRon when Margaret and I were raw teenagemembers of the Peak. The first thing that was

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and suffered severe burns to his hands but savedmy life. Our subsequent climbing trip to theCalanques two weeks later was inevitably limited.

We also tried the route The Niche but unfortu-nately Roy fell before the first protection, hit theground and was rescued to Keswick Hospital, andthen transferred to Carlisle for his back injury.

Keen on rugby, Roy played rugby league everywinter in Wakefield until moving to Blackburn,where he changed to rugby union, becomingclub captain.

In 1977 we spent two weeks in Scotland with a‘Hard Rock’ tick list. Luckily we also had twoweeks of sun. We also climbed lots of routes inthe Lake District before becoming members ofFRCC in 1978. That same year a large team of uswent to the Verdon Gorge. On their first day Royand Bobby attacked ‘La Demande’ and finishedtheir epic ascent to be greeted by friends withwater and illuminated by glow-worms in thegathering gloom.

In 1980 Roy had his first trip to the USA climb-ing in Yosemite. Later he spent many holidays inColorado with his friend Freddie Snalam, rock andice climbing.

A holiday sailing in Greece in 1986 was to be anew chapter in his life and he achieved a Yacht-master Offshore Certificate of Competence in1992 and amongst his numerous trips he sailedacross the Atlantic.

After he stopped playing rugby he spent moretime in the Lakes, snow and ice climbing andstarted skiing. In summer he continued playingcricket and became an accomplished mountainbiker and keen cyclist.

Following his early retirement he began spend-ing the winter months on the Costa Blanca,ideally suited for road biking.

In March 2002 a life changing event occurred.Whilst ice climbing at La Grave with his friendFreddie, they were swept away by an avalanche,the rope was severed and Freddie was killed. Roysurvived but was rescued by helicopter and takento Grenoble Hospital with chest and facialinjuries. He didn’t climb again. Playing less cricket,he took on the job of groundsman for the cluband could give a very interesting talk on the ‘Lifeof Moles’!

Roy was a perfectionist and wanted to doeverything to the best of his ability.

In 2009 he was diagnosed with inoperableprostate cancer and was given 18 months – helived for 6 years, continuing cycling and walking.In the Hospice, I said ‘I’ll see you on Tuesday’.His reply was ‘I don’t think you will, Mate’.We shook hands. He was right as always. Roy diedMarch 3rd 2015.

Ian Dobson & Marje Smith

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Meets List 2015

Date Meet Location Meet Co-ordinator

E 30/31 Dec New Year’s Eve - Rawhead Brenda Fullard16/17 Jan Waters Chris Ottley

E 22/23 Jan Joint FRCC/YMC Burns Night - Rawhead Martin Tetley30/31 Jan Beetham Jim Gregson

CM 06/07 Feb Committee meeting - Raw Head Nick Millward12/13 Feb Karn House Eva Diran

W 15/19 Feb Ben Nevis - CIC John France20/22 Feb Brackenclose Stuart Thompson

T 27/28 Feb Navigation Meet - Rawhead Chris VernonW 28 Feb/3 Mar Ben Nevis - CIC: 8 places Jeff Breen

06/07 Mar Birkness David WilkinsonE 20/21 Mar Music Meet - Rawhead Ron & Ruth Chambers

27/28 Mar Salving House Chris & Sue WalesBH 03/05 April Easter Meet - Brackenclose Les MeerW 04/18 April French Easter Meet - Le Bregoux, Aubignan

David Miller W 12/16 April High Moss, Duddon - 20 places Jane WainwrightMM 17/18 April Maintenance Meet - Beetham Barbara Duxbury

24/25 April Young Persons’/ Members meetSalving House Dave Evans/ James Hoyle

FM 01/03 May Family Meet- Rawhead Gary HillT 01/02 May Lake District 3000ft Tops - Salving House Phil ElliotCM 06/07 May Committee meeting - Birkness John PulfordMM 15/16 May Maintenance Meet - Birkness Peter HaighT 15/16 May Duddon and Eskdale guidebook meet

Brackenclose John HoldenW 14/21May Scottish Hotel Meet - Highland Hotel

Strathpeffer Hatty Harris & Fiona De Courcy

FM 22/24 May Family Meet - Birkness Caroline Hill29/30 May MAM hut - Glan Dena (Snowdonia) Andy Stratford

T 05/06 June Borrowdale Guidebook MeetingSalving House Trevor Langhorne

W 06/12 June Skye - Glen Brittle Hut Phil Elliot12/13 June Joint Pinnacle Club/ FRCC - Birkness Trevor Langhorne

Officers of the Club 2015

President Ron KenyonVice-Presidents Paul Exley, Hatty Harris, Norman HaightonSecretary Martyn CarrTreasurer Bernie BradburyMembership Secretary Peter SimcockJoint Journal Editors Martin Cooper and Andrew PaulChronicler Helen ElliotGuide Books Secretary Richard TolleyGuide Books Editor* Steve ScottLibrarian Peter LucasArchivists Ellie Dale-Sherwin and Chris SherwinOral Archivist* Mark ScottDinner Secretary Margaret SkeltonMeets Secretary Brenda FullardWebsite Editor Philip PowellCompliance Officer Graham GillHuts Secretary Keith WrightHut Wardens:Beetham Cottage Barbara DuxburyBirkness Peter HaighBrackenclose Mike CarterKarn House Graeme RalphRaw Head Alan StrachanSalving House Phil ElliotWaters Cottage Mark Gear

Elective Members of Committee:Dale Bloomer Sue Preston-Jones Bill Hargreaves Gail CravenJoyce Evans Humphrey Johnson Nick Millward Steve LuntJames Hoyle Chris Vernon Jane Wainwright John Pulford

*Not a member of the main committee.

Advisory Trustees John Barrett, David Miller and Stephen Porteus

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Date Meet Location Meet Co-ordinator

M 12/13 June Maintenance Meet - Karn House Graeme RalphW 14/18 June Glan Dena Norman Clacher

19/20 June Introductory Meet - Rawhead Peter SimcockT 19/20 June Gelogy Meet - Brackenclose John Moore

26/27 June Coniston Meet and Dinner The VPs03/04 July Beetham David Dixon03/11 July BMC Youth Meet - Rawhead James McHaffie/Ron Kenyon03/04 July Joint FRCC/ KMC Meet - Birkness Andy Stratford

MM 10/11 July Maintenance Meet - Salving House Phil Elliot18 July/8 Aug Alpine Meet: Argentiere -Joint FRCC,

Alpine Club, ABMSAC, CC,SMC, LSCC, Wayfarers & Yeovil MC Keith Lambley

FM 31July/06 Aug Family Meet - Brackenclose Janet Ashworth01/08 Aug Lundy Steve Lunt14/15 Aug Salving House Peter McNulty28/29 August Beetham Cottage 50th Anniversary Barbara Duxbury

CM 04/05 Sept Committee meeting - Birkness Humphrey JohnsonMM 02/03 Sept Maintenance Meet - Waters Mark GearMM 09/10 Sept Maintenance Meet - Rawhead Alan StrachanMM 23/24 Sept Maintenance Meet - Brackenclose Mike CarterW 04-09 Oct Joint FRCC/ YMC Coppermines Hut

Coniston Jenny & Neville Hawkin09/10 Oct Salving House Mark Baron

M 16/17 Oct Family Meet - Birkness Gary Hill16/17 Oct Rawhead David Wilkinson

D 30/31 Oct AGM, Shap Wells Hotel The President11/12 Nov Bonfire Meet - Brackenclose Mark Scott

T 8 Nov Remembrance Ceremony - Great Gable summitThe President

13/14 Nov Salving House Deirdre CollierCM 25/26 Nov Committee meeting - Raw Head Dale Bloomer

04/05 Dec Temperance Meet - Birkness Mark Wilkinson11/12 Dec Beetham John Oaks

E 30/31 Dec New Year’s Eve - Rawhead Christina Paul

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Above: The President and Guests, Club Dinner 2015.

Right: The Walker family and Ben Hogan on Napes Needle, Brackenclose Family Meet, July/August 2015.

Photo - Janet Ashworth (Hogan)

Below: Steve Lunt climbing a snow gully on Crinkle Cragsat the Committee Weekend, February 2015.

Officers of the Club 2016

President Ron KenyonVice-Presidents Dale Bloomer, Norman Haighton , Richard TolleySecretary Martyn CarrTreasurer John PulfordMembership Secretary Peter SimcockJoint Journal Editors Martin Cooper and Andrew PaulChronicler Helen ElliotGuide Books Secretary Richard TolleyGuide Books Editor* Steve ScottLibrarian Peter LucasArchivists Ellie Dale-Sherwin and Chris SherwinOral Archivist* Mark ScottDinner Secretary Margaret SkeltonMeets Secretary Brenda FullardWebsite Editor Philip PowellCompliance Officer Graham GillHuts Secretary Keith WrightHut Wardens:Beetham Cottage Humphrey JohnsonBirkness Peter HaighBrackenclose Mike CarterKarn House Graeme RalphRaw Head Alan StrachanSalving House Phil ElliotWaters Cottage Mark Gear

Elective Members of Committee:Joyce Evans Ian Grace Bill Hargreaves James HoyleSteve Lunt Angela Mellor Sue Preston-Jones Wendy StirrupStuart Thompson Chris Vernon Jane Wainwright Dave Wright

*Not a member of the main committee.

Advisory Trustees John Barrett, David Miller and Stephen Porteus

211210

Left: A happy band of Fell&Rockers enjoying Lakeland weather.

Photo - John Holden

Below Left: Gary Milner climbing Silver Lining HVS (5a) on Dihedral Slabs, Lundy,

May 2015. Photo - John Spencer

Below: Tim Pollard on pitch 3 of TheCurtain, CIC Meet, February 2015.

Photo - John France

Date Meet Location Meet Co-ordinator

MM 01/02 July Maintenance Meet - Salving House Phil Elliot08/09 July Joint FRCC/KMC Welsh 3's 2 day circuit - Glan Dena (MAM) hut

Andy StratfordT 08/09 July Geology Meet: Langdon Beck, Teesdale -

John Moore/Dale Bloomer15/16 July Young Person/Young Members Meet -

Salving House Dave Evans & James Hoyle16 July/6 Aug Alpine Meet: Camping d’Ailfroide, Ecrin, France

Joint FRCC, Alpine Club, ABMSAC, Climbers’ Club,SMC, LSCC, Wayfarers & Yeovil MC Keith Lambley

22/23 July Brackenclose Cath SandersFM 29 July/04 Aug Family Meet - Brackenclose Gary Hill

12/13 Aug Salving House Peter McNulty19/20 Aug Joint FRCC/Pinnacle Club Meet - Rawhead Hazel Jones

CM 02/03 Sept Committee meeting - Birkness John PulfordMM 02/03 Sept Maintenance Meet - Waters Mark GearT 03/11 Sept Via Ferrata Meet - Cortina d’Ampezzo, Dolomites

Ed LukeMM 09/10 Sept Maintenance Meet - Rawhead Alan Strachan

16/17 Sept Introductory Meet - Rawhead Peter SimcockW 19/25 Sept Joint FRCC/CC - May Cottage, Bosherton, Pembrokeshire

Ron KenyonMM 23/24 Sept Maintenance Meet - Brackenclose Mike Carter

30 Sept/01 Oct Salving House Jo Campbell07/08 Oct Brackenclose Jenny Hawkin

FM 14/15 Oct Family Meet - Birkness Gary Hill21/22 Oct Waters Mark Baron21/22 Oct Rawhead Allison Read

D 04/05 Nov AGM, Shap Wells hotel The President11/12 Nov Bonfire Meet - Brackenclose Iain Whitmey

T 13 Nov Remembrance Ceremony - Great Gable summitThe President

CM 25/26 Nov Committee meeting - Raw Head Joyce Evans02/03 Dec Temperance Meet - Birkness Charles Skeavington09/10 Dec Beetham Andrew & Barbara Duxbury

E 30/31 Dec New Year’s Eve - Rawhead Christina Paul

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Meets List 2016

Date Meet Location Meet Co-ordinator

15/16 Jan Waters Chris OttleyE 22/23 Jan Joint FRCC/YMC Burns Night - Rawhead Martin Tetley

29/30 Jan Beetham Nick Harris05/06 Feb Joint FRCC/ KMC - Waters Andy Stratford

CM 05/06 Feb Committee meeting - Raw Head Sue Preston-Jones12/13 Feb Beetham Simon Jefferies19/20 Feb Brackenclose James Hoyle

T 26/27 Feb Navigation Meet - Rawhead Chris VernonW 28 Feb/3 Mar Ben Nevis - CIC Jeff Breen

02/19 Mar Morocco - Kasbah Tizourgane, Anti-Atlas Mark Gear04/05 Mar Karn House Jim Lothian

E 11/12 Mar Music Meet - Rawhead Ron & Ruth Chambers18/19 Mar Birkness Sue Fox & Trevor Brewster25/27 Mar Easter meet - Brackenclose Les Meer

W 2/16 April French Easter Meet - Camping Gervanne at Mirabel-et-Blacons, DromeRob & Christine Smitton

W 10/14 April High Moss, Duddon Jane WainwrightMM 15/16 April Maintenance Meet - Beetham Humphrey Johnson

22/23 April Salving House Sue & Chris WalesFM 29/30 April Family Meet- Rawhead Denise AndrewsT 29/30 April Old County Tops - Salving House Ian ChartersCM 06/07 May Committee meeting - Birkness Brenda FullardMM 13/14 May Maintenance Meet - Birkness Peter HaighW 14/21May Scottish Hotel Meet - Kinloch Hotel,

Blackwater Foot, Arran Andrew Hall & Anne Hartley W 14/20 May Skye - Glen Brittle Hut Phil Elliot W 21/28 May Mingulay Ron KenyonFM 27/30 May Family Meet - Birkness Carrie HillMM 10/11 June Maintenance Meet - Karn House Graeme RalphT 10/11 June Joint FRCC/Climbers’ Club - Rawhead Alan Strachan W 13/16 June Glan Dena (MAM) hut Norman Clacher

17/18 June Introductory Meet - Rawhead Peter SimcockD 24/25 June Coniston Meet and Dinner The VPsT 01/02 July BMC Youth Meet - Rawhead Ron Kenyon

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214 215

From top left, clockwise:

Birkness Maintenance Meet, May 2016.

Phil Elliot and Julian Sorrel, Sty Head, OldCounty Tops Meet, April 2016.

Photo - Ian Charters

Al Davis on Karaoke Crack, Guiram Walls,Mingulay, May 2016. Photo - Ron Kenyon

The Anti-Atlas in Morocco, Anne-MarieHenderson on Noah’s Ark (HS), Ksar Rock,

March 2016Photo - Ron Kenyon

Chris Smitton, 6a, Ombleze main cliff,French Easter Meet, 2016.

Photo - Rob Smitton