York Alpine Club Blog

Off to the Macclesfield Forest for the last in the series of three 3-hour score events that make up the RAB Mini Mountain Marathon league. It was supposed to be in January, and then it was supposed to be in February, but each time it was cancelled at the last minute due to snow blocking the approach roads. And it very nearly didn't happen for us again, as Carmen is […]

I wouldnt normally blog a wall visit, but thought folk might be interested in a report on the new harrogate Wall.
Me, dave shield, Sweary Ian and Andy T went to the new Harrogate Wall on thursday to check it out. If you are on the north west side of york its much quicker than leeds - about 25 minutes. If you are on the south east, like me, its […]

This year's new year trip was to the Alex Macintyre Hut, near Glencoe. A dozen of us made the journey north, and for once the snow didn't all melt the day before we arrived. Carmen and I drove up on Boxing Day, everyone else turned up a day or two later.

December 27. Sron na Lairig, grade II. Supposed to be an easy warm up day, but the deep snow put paid to that! [...]

Another pre-dawn start - but this time it wasn't for winter climbing, but for the final leg of the RAB Mini mountain marathon series in the Peak District. Or so we thought. It was snowing hard as we drove down the M1, and the message arrived - the event was cancelled as the approach roads were impassable. Luckily, we had the climbing kit in the car (just in case there [...]

Our February meet in Scotland has traditionally been immediately preceded by a massive thaw. Not so this year, as the cold weather continued.
We were staying at the Ochils MC hut in Crianlarich - an old favourite, especially now the mice have gone! The good conditions meant a big turn out for all three nights of the extended weekend.
Nigel and Clare set off from York well before the crack […]

This month's 'Sunday activity' was a walk in Wharfedale, taking in Buckden Pike and Great Whernside. The forecast was a bit iffy, but 7 hardy souls made their way to Kettlewell for a 9.30 start.
Nigel and Alan had brought ice axes, how bizarre we all thought, you don't need axes in the Dales.
The cloud was low, as were the temperatures, with the ground frozen hard. We walked along […]

... and then we were 8 brave souls heading for a hut with no leccy, no gas, potentially no water, a 10 min walk in uphill and temperatures predicted to be minus a few overnight! After some frantic lift sorting we met up in Betws pub (after a burger stop at the OK diner) just in time to meet Simon and Carmen returning from the hut (oops). The Wessex Club's […]

A week after the thaw and all the low level ice has gone. But it's been mainly cold up high, and there have been some reports of good conditions in the usual places (Great End, Helvellyn, etc), so we thought we'd go for a look. We didn't fancy the stupidly early start that would be needed for a day trip to those crags (which we'd guessed, perhaps wrongly, would be […]

With a thaw threatened for the weekend, we had one last chance to take advantage of the superb early winter conditions, so Carmen and I took Thursday off and headed for the Lake District after work on Wednesday. The A66 was shut (and had been since Saturday) so we took the long way round to Borrowdale, over 4 hours, via A59, A65, and M6, with a short detour to Penrith […]

After umming and ahhing for many hours about whether to drive the long way round to the lakes (A66 shut), me and Rob eventually decided to take the safe option and head for Kinder Downfall on Wednesday, just before the big thaw set in. Because of road closures in the peak, we had to take the M60/M62 option which was in itself a rather long drive. After a minor detour […]