All posts in Meet Reports

What a great meet! There was good weather, convivial company, an upgraded Trevaylor campsite at Botallack with new owners [hot showers now free] a friendly pub close by with delicious food, and the three extensive climbing areas of Bosigran, Sennen and Chair Ladder within easy reach by car. Although a regular club venue in earlier years, Paul and I hadn’t climbed here since 2016, so we started at Bosigran with its friendly non-tidal approach, and then the following day went to Sennen where we were joined by Gordon and Julian [who were offered the use of an abseil rope which we’d missed, allowing them to avoid the long scramble round as the tide was coming in, and doing more climbing than we managed to do]. Then drinks outside in the sunshine looking at the Sennen lifeboat station having its roof repaired after Storm Eunice had ripped it off in February. Hugh and Leon arrived that evening to join us for a group get-together in the nearby Botallack pub, together with Nathan and Sarah who were visiting local tourist sites.
On Saturday, six of us decided that Bosigran was the place to go to, and Paul and I drove there before breakfast to secure a parking place for our motorhome in the convenient layby. Then various routes were successfully climbed, and gear was retrieved by a friendly stranger on the one that proved too hard. I joined up with Hugh and Leon to do a 4 pitch V Diff, but due to slight confusion with the route description, Leon wandered off-route thinking the ‘top end of grade’ chimney was definitely more challenging than expected, to be told that he was now on a VS. Time was passing, and I was beginning to wonder whether a benightment was on the cards, and started looking for possible abseil points/escape routes. But the Dowling brothers showed their true grit, got us back on route, eventually hoiking me up the correct chimney, and after the ‘delightfully exposed’ [ie scary] trough we arrived safely at the top. After retrieving rucksacks and some accidently dropped gear we walked back to the vehicles at 7pm – a proper ‘right full mountain day’. That evening we had ‘open house’ in the motorhome, with much reminiscing about previous Castle adventures and members.
On Sunday Paul and I drove back to Sheffield, ostensibly to avoid bank holiday traffic [but really also because we were completely knackered] leaving Leon and Hugh heading for Sennen, and Gordon and Julian setting their sites on Commando Ridge, hoping that the thick sea fret would keep others away [I learnt later that they had only one couple ahead of them, and ended up successfully completing this 660 foot climb in warm sunshine].
So thank you Gordon, Julian, Hugh, Leon, Nathan and Sarah for making this such an enjoyable and wonderful meet.
Vanda [and Paul]
Paul’s pictures:

An excellent turnout today, with 15 members and 3 guests enjoying some early season climbing at Harborough Rocks, which were bathed in sunshine warming the initially rather cold limestone. Many routes of varying grades were successfully completed; for some it was the first climbing excursion outside this year. And very good to see some members we haven’t seen for a while.
Hopefully the start of a great climbing year.
Vanda Boyd

5 of us set out from Crowden heading for Oaken Brook. Pretty green but a good ascent and then headed over to the Chew reservoir where we descended Chew Brook – well led by Kial, to the bottom of Wilderness Gully West. A very pleasant scramble took us to the top and then a lovely walk back to Crowden with lots of sun. Good day out and thanks to the 4 for their excellent company.
Mary

An enthusiastic group of 12 club members and a couple of spectators met at Lawrencefield yesterday for the abseiling session, The aim was to practice abseiling skills in a controlled situation which could then be transferred to situations encountered in the mountains or at sea cliffs. After an initial practice session using trees at the base of the quarry we then did lots of abseiling down Red Wall – which luckily proved unattractive to climbers wanting to do the excellent routes there.
We set up two ropes. Rope 1 was fairly steady whilst Rope 2, set up by Hugh, was a more adventurous affair. In fact it was the abseiling equivalent of “Oblivion” and made the other rope seem like the “Tea Cup Ride”! By the end of the day we were all abseiling like Clint Eastwood’s stunt double in Where Eagles Dare.
An enjoyable day which allowed less experienced members to learn about basic safe practice and veterans to experiment with different methods of backing up their abseils. Hopefully these skills sharing sessions will continue to be a part of club activity. Paul Embley

10 of us and 2 dogs congregated on Sir William Hill Road in sunshine but with a chill wind. We followed footpaths up to the trig, along the ridge and down to Gotherage plantation. Here we took an early coffee stop to allow 1 additional walker to catch up, bravely cutting down open moorland at speed.
We wended our way down through Bretton Clough, then up again to Abney and on to Offerton Moor, where we found another sunny but windy spot for lunch.
Carrying on to the top of the moor we had fabulous views of the Hope Valley , Ladybower reservoir, Bamford, Stanage and Millstone.
Another descent took us down through Callow wood to Mount Pleasant Farm then Highlow Brook.
The only way was up after this, passing Hog Hall to join a path taking us back up the eastern end of Eyam moor to the start.
Thank you all for a very enjoyable and sociable outing. Kathy

On Sir William Hill; photo by Steve Warwick

Crossing Offerton Moor; photo by Steve Warwick

In Callow Wood; photo by Steve Warwick

Hazelford Hall; photo by Steve Warwick

Start: 09.30 Rails Road
Distance: 16k/10miles
Time : 4 hours 10 mins
Weather :dry
Company: 7 wonderful collaborative and chatty members. This really was a combined effort!
We walked along to the Head Stone, squeezing out of the cave above Wyming Brook (new to me) and eventually a quick scamper up the Head Stone for those inclined. Return was via Rivelin Rocks and mud. Finally a dip in Rivelin Plunge Pool.
Thank you all.  Helen

Photo: Dave Crowther

Photo: Dave Crowther

A small select group, all 2 of us enjoyed a brilliant day over Torside and onto bleaklow. We took in 3 crash sites as planned. A really good day.
Gordon

Just as I was thinking that it was safe to abandon this walk and go home away from the gales and rain, one hardy soul appeared, keen to keep a promise to join in this meet. As the road to our start point was already flooded and likely to get worse, we agreed to retreat to lower Bradfield and had a pleasant soggy quite sheltered walk admiring the foaming streams and impressive overflow from Agden reservoir. Lots of ponds on the road home too. In retrospect I should probably have cancelled the walk in advance, but in any case it is now saved to enjoy another time. Thanks Chris K for your company.
Marian

Well the weather said it all really.
4 brave souls and soggy scottie dog headed from the shelter of Blacka Moor woods into the headwinds across Houndkirk Moor towards Burbage Edge. And it wasn’t just rain, there were hail showers beating in our faces too. We continued on, splodging through boggy ground. Before long the meet leader took pity on the drenched folk and cut a few corners off the orginal route. This was fortunate and we were blessed with a beautiful double rainbow near Higger Tor. We turned southwards and got slight relief from the weather. The meet leader then decided to make another short cut and the mention of a hot drink at Longshaw cafe was sound to people’s hears. When we arrived at the visitors’ centre we were disgraced to hear that dogs weren’t allowed in the newly renovated cafe. So to not risk people getting cold, we decided to drive on and up over Totley Moor where we saw a herd of red deer. On the descent back to the car, there was a spell of blue skies and it felt almost pleasant.
~9 miles in total. Thank you to Hugh and Alison and Archie for bravely turning up. I hope you’ve dried out!
Photos on facebook.
Gemma

The start of the headwind

Double rainbow over Higgar Tor

Sun shining (briefly) at Longshaw

Eight humans and two dogs took advantage of the weather window between Storms Malik and Corrie to make an enjoyable ascent of Black Hill from Crowden. We were joined by Alison who has moved to Stocksbridge from South Wales and was out with the club for the first time.
The first section of the walk, along Crowden Great Brook, involved a lot more boulder hopping and crossings of the brook than some of the participants had anticipated. But as usually happens karma intervened and the only person to fall in was the meet leader. We then crossed open moorland to the summit of Black Hill, stopping to investigate the remains of the two Meteor jets which crashed on Siddens Moss in 1951.
We descended via the long ridge over Tooleyshaw Moor enjoying extensive views. On Hey Edge we attempted to set a record for the most number of people to attach themselves to a trig point – a fairly hazardous exercise as the trig point was surrounded by a deep moat! The walk ended with an exploration of Great Crowden Quarry. Geoff assured us that he had climbed there in the past but judging by the massive chunks of rock which looked like they had recently come away from the main face we suspected that his routes now lie in pieces at the base of the quarry. Our safe return to the carpark was celebrated with slices of chocolate swiss roll generously provided by Geoff. Paul.