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.

8 of us met at Torside reservoir carpark to find the parking God firmly on our side – the ticket machine being out of order meant free parking all round 😊
We set-off at a leisurely pace along the Trans Pennine Trail before heading off into woodland to join the bottom of Wildboar Clough. With very little water flowing we found ourselves deep in the middle of the riverbed hoping across moss covered rocks. We soon arrived at the first major obstacle with each of us finding a different route up the waterfall, Bill taking the direct line and straight up the flowing water!
Several waterfalls later and only the odd damp foot we made it to the top of the clough and headed across moorland to pick up the Pennie Way.
We followed this for a couple of miles before heading West towards the B29 crash site (the whole of Sheffield seemed to have had the same idea, all blindly following there mobile phones) and then to the trig point at Higher Shelf Stones. From here we followed the path West before cutting across moorland, heading North towards Yellowslacks Brook which provided a welcome lunch stop.
We followed this to Wain Stones and then on a compass bearing headed across moorland to pick up the Pennine Way at the top of Torside Clough.
We split up at this point with 3 members opting for the quick way back down the Pennine Way while the rest of us did more rock hoping, stream crossing and scrambling down Torside Clough. We then picked up the Pennine Way and followed this back down to the Trans Pennine Trail and the flat walk back to the carpark.
11.5 miles covered in a thoroughly enjoyable day, thanks to everyone that turned up.
Kial
P.S photos on facebook via this link
https://www.facebook.com/groups/365080970512881/permalink/1573575146330118/