York Alpine Club Blog

After arriving at the campsite late, and finally getting to the pub via a random walk in the dark, the weekend begins…

The YAC June meet to the Wye valley was based around the Beeches farm campsite, 1 mile drive down a footpath and sited  pretty much on top of Shorncliff. A basic campsite with nice views across the valley – one of those sites that you hope doesn't become more popular than it currently is.

After a night of heavy rain as the BBC had predicted, I woke to the usual campsite sounds of people preparing breakfast.  The sound of a stove being put together but this time accompanied by sounds of puzzlement, the occasions "hmm?", and  "erm?", a large amount of hissing and eventually a large 'wooff' followed by all manner of expletives as Peri tried to  remove her eyebrows. As this sounded quite close and not fully in control, I thought I'd better get up… quickly.

Once the fireball was put out, and I got dressed properly, it was pottering around as normal for a few hours as people  waited for the weather to settle. The bikers eventually headed off in the right direction. Simon & Carmen, shortly followed  by Dave & Peri, headed for Shorncliff, and Rob and I had another brew. Rob then realises all his kit is locked in Dave's  car, so we head off to the crag to get the keys. Following our nose, we get there to find the others mid-routes, get the  keys and head back. 2 brews, 2 pies and a few (rain) showers later, and we're off the crag for the 2nd time.

As a re-introduction to trad climbing after a long break, I headed up a nice severe, Gargoyle, to start the day off. It was  slightly off-putting having local scrotes hurling rocks down the crag just along from us, but luckily nothing came down the  route. Ab down and onto the next one – Rob's lead on the Wye valley classic (apparently), Tiger's Don't Cry, retrieving left gear and crag swag in the process. I follow on making a dogs dinner of the last move to top-out. By this time Rob's warmed up, and I'm tired out, but it's my lead. A V Diff, Acoustic, does the trick.

A quick wander along the crag to find other routes reveals the source of the nasty wif we'd been getting all day – a dead  deer just below the footpath. The decision is made to head back to the same sector for Rob to bag some E1's. The first, The  Bone, is a really nice route (from a second's perspective),the second, Pooh Sticks, is ok (once again I cocked up the top  moves on the latter).

Throughout the day we'd been catching site of the others and by the sound of it, a good day was had be all. Dave and Peri  alternating leads on Acoustic, Inconclusive Victory (HS), Gargoyle and finishing off on Wolf Whistle (HS). There was talk  of finishing off Dirty Harry, but I guess that was already taken. Simon and Carmen had a good days bagging stared HVS &  VS's, finishing off by hoovering up a few routes in our sector and a swing on the rope we'd left on The Bone. A late finish  to head back and fry up all the food we had, followed by a quick jog downhill to the pub to meet the others.

Note to self – get some non-grey clothes so I don't blend into the rock.

More Pictures ….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Climbing, Crags, Weekend Meets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.