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After the previous week’s failure to achieve a quorum, nine of us turned up at the Cutthroat Bridge layby, in dry if not blue-sky conditions, and (after doing the up-and-down to the bridge itself) set off on the track towards Jarvis Clough. We then followed the (unmarked) track servicing the unusual sunken (but well-maintained) grouse butts towards Stanage End. We kept to a left-hand variant above the butts, which was dryer underfoot than the right-hand one and successfully reached the Edge. It was a little bit early for coffee, and quite breezy, so we agreed to continue down the track to cross the A57 and had our break in the shelter of trees and a wall beside Moscar Lodge (this is a public right of way, though not well signposted from the road). From here we passed the 18th century Moscar Cross, with its contrasting spellings of Bradfield and Sheffeild. Apparently it was once painted white, and features as Whitcross in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre – it is where Jane is dropped by the coach when she runs away from Mr Rochester, and she then walks across the heather-covered moors to Hathersage (called Morton in the book, a name lent by the landlord of the George Hotel when Bronte stayed there).
The descent of Moscar Cross Road was mercifully free of mudness – being part of an unrestricted byway it is popular with four-wheel-drivers who regularly churn it up to the irritation of the local farmer, who frequently needs to restore it – and dropped down through Moscar House Farm before beginning the ascent toward Derwent Edge – an excellent area for bird life.
Time was marching on and there were mutinous mumblings from the back of the party about the late lunch stop, but all agreed that the grouse butt where we joined the path along the top of the Edge provided excellent views of the Derwent valley, and across to Edale, Kinder and Bleaklow. With refilled stomachs we headed south along the Edge, enjoying magnificent views, and dropped down to Whinstone Lee.
Two members decided to take the direct path back to Cutthroat Bridge, while the rest of us continued down the steep descent above Ladybower Reservoir (here churned up by mountain bikers, though there are several variants to the path) and round the back of the Ladybower Inn. Then it was back up through the nature reserve of Ladybower Wood (complete with interpretation signs identifying varieties of tree) and a return to our starting point. 7.9 miles according to Andy. Many thanks to all who came.
JBMight be worth reporting to derbyshire Council (https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/countryside/access/rights-of-way/rights-of-way.aspx). I did so for a path near Dungworth earlier in the summer (on the equivalent Sheffield website) which was too overgrown to be useable, and it did seem to result in some action to clear it.
JBReport:
The number booked went from 12 to 11 to 13, back to 12, and we eventually finished up with 10 members assembled outside my house. We set off in two groups of 5, with Vanda (fully equipped with route instructions) leading the second group which followed behind, but generally stayed within sight. We passed by the local junior school and a fairy garden before heading along the top of Stannington Ruffs, with a few members recollecting their youthful and ill-advised attempts to climb there (see the guidebook for a selection of excellent reasons not to do so). From the old Robin Hood (“of Loxley”) pub (now converted to flats) we headed down through the woods into the Loxley valley with occasional “rugs” of bluebells scattered about. Heading up the valley above Rowell Bridge, in Beacon Wood, the rugs turned more into carpets, though the cold weather has either delayed or diminished them, as they weren’t quite as spectacular as they were at this point last year. We stopped for coffee on a wall between the bluebell carpets, with the two groups maintaining at least a nominal separation.
After that the groups of 5 became a little more flexible, with membership dominated more by walking speed than official allocation. We emerged from the woods below the (still not yet open) Royal Hotel at Dungworth, and then headed up on a path though more open country towards Load Brook. A threatening sky caused us to delay lunch till we got up to Rod Side and, needless to say, just as we sat down on the verges of the tracks (accompanied by a lot of mooing from the adjacent field), the first drops of rain fell. Only one member needed to put her overtrousers on to stop it, and it had cleared up again by the time we continued on our way. John M (taking care of his recovering leg) took the more direct “Twenty Fields” route back to Stannington, while the rest of us headed down Onxley Lane to find a path (unmarked on the map) along the top of Rivelin Edge. This seems to be a climbers’ path for descending from the routes at the far left end of the crag, and is clearly maintained by the removal of obstructing branches. We made a steep and slightly slithery descent to the path below the crag, which we then followed back through the woods (with more occasional bluebell rugs) to join the last bit of the Twenty Fields.
This was the last Thursday walk to be run (at least theoretically) under the “rule of 6”, with advance booking, Covid risk assessments etc, required. The government’s “roadmap” of lockdown relaxations should permit a bit more spontaneity from next week. Many thanks to all who came, and indeed to all leaders, assistant leaders, risk-assessment collators, booking form co-ordinators etc. over the past several months. Let’s hope that the roadmap remains as accurate as all the Thursday walk routeplans, and as free of Indian variants.
JBThere wil be another Eagle Ski Club slide show on Zoom this evening (19 Aug 2020) at 8.0pm. Non-members are welcome to attend.
The President Dave Wynne-Jones will talk about “Accessible Wilderness Skiing in New Zealand”.
Access via https://zoom.us/j/93728107692
JBIs this the statement that was e-mailed to all members on 10th June (which is all I can see in the members’ area), or is there something more recent?
Given the various relaxations in the Government’s restrictions on travel and activities, updates to the BMC’s and Mountaineering Scotland’s guidance, and the apparent demise of the Thursday “virtual clubroom” sessions on Zoom, another update from the club might be appropriate.
JBA recorded version of David Hamilton’s excellent Eagle Ski Club lecture last week about his 37-day, 260km ski traverse of the Karakoram range along the Pakistan-China border in 2004 is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huu54amzdiE – it was a seriously impressive undertaking by a team of six, very well presented with some impressive photographs.
The next Eagle Ski Club lecture will be on Wednesday 19 August 2020 at 8.0pm when Dave Wynne-Jones will talk about accessible wilderness skiing in New Zealand. I will post a Zoom link nearer the time.
Just a reminder that CMC Members are invited to join tonight’s Eagle Ski Club slide show when David Hamilton will talk about a high-altitude ski crossing of the Karakoram Himalaya from Hunza to Baltistan via the peaks and passes of the Pakistan-China frontier.
The show is being run on Zoom at 8.0pm tonight (Wed 15 July) and the Zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/91873571179 (clicking on this should launch Zoom on your device and join you to the meeting). There will be a 45-minute talk followed by Q&A.
JB
A year or so ago I died a bit of Googling to find companies that provided a slide scanning service, though in fact I still haven’t got round to sorting out slides to be scanned, so I can’t comment on quality, and I didn’t note which ones used drum scanners as recommended by Steve. At that time prices seemed to range between 15p and 80p per slide, depending on company and resolution required. Among the companies I looked at were:
pixave.co.uk
slide-scanner.co.uk
Mr Scan
piciscanI’d certainly be interested in any comments or experience with any of these.
JB
I’m doing another Zoom test session tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11.30am. If anyone else would like to join it, please e-mail me at john@johnbarnard.me.uk.
Obviously there were only a few of us involved, but in the Zoom test meeting yesterday, I think the general consensus was that it would spoil the eventual judging if we all saw all the photos in advance, and then got them all again later in the year with Ian’s comments.
As a way of giving some structure to a clubroom “chat” session on Thursday evening, it was suggested that someone could show a few (no more than 20) slides, perhaps to reminisce about a favourite meet of the past. I was asked if I would prepare something for this Thursday, as I seem somehow to have become the club’s Zoom guru (a position I feel rather unqualified for, and which I will be very happy to pass on to someone else). I’ll post separately about that (and further Zoom test meetings, for those who failed to put their clocks forward yesterday and missed it!)
Zoom works fine on the whole, but you can really only have one person talking at a time, and side conversations are pretty well impossible (except using the non-audible “chat” text messaging feature).
JBJB
OK – we had a fairly successful test meeting yesterday evening. Most of the problems seemed to be related to a couple of people’s cameras and microphones (which are normally built in to laptops and tablets, and obviously smartphones).
It is not actually necessary to have a camera available. Rather than seeing a live picture of you, other people see either a photo you have uploaded (if you have registered on Zoom – not necessary to participate in a meeting) or a box with your name in. This is how I am working at present, as I don’t have a camera I can use with my desktop screen, and cheap ones are currently harder to get hold of than toilet rolls.
It’s worth testing your microphone in advance. This can be done by connecting to http://zoom.us/test which allows you to perform a simple test (“Can you hear this sound” Yes/No; “Say something and can you hear it played back to you” Yes/No).
I will run another test meeting at 5.0pm today (Sunday) and have sent invitations to those who have expressed interest. If you haven’t had an invitation and would like to participate, please e-mail me at john@johnbarnard.me.uk.
Cheers
JBI’ve scheduled another test meeting for 5.0pm today (Saturday), and sent invitations by e-mail to those people who have contributed to the discussion here. I’m not going to post the meeting ID on this forum for security reasons, though for future meetings I guess that the WhatsApp groups (nominally for evening climbing, cycling and Sunday walks) might be another way of doing it.
If anyone who hasn’t had an invitation to this afternoon’s test meeting especially wants to participate, then please send me an e-mail to john@johnbarnard.me.uk by about 4.45pm. The purpose is just for people to ensure that they can connect OK, and to give everyone an idea of how it all works. So far I have just had one-to-one meetings with Mary (on Thursday night) and with Chris Lunn (last night), but this should be an opportunity to see what happens when we have more people involved.
Further tests can be scheduled (either by me, or preferably by someone else) over the coming days.