Some of you may have noticed that during the past year a number of the trees at the bottom of Peak Scar had been felled. On Saturday afternoon, Simon C, Carmen, Gordon T and Peter E joined up with the Cleveland Mountaineering Club to move some of the resulting logs away from the crag and down to a forest track where they could be collected by the Hawnby Estate.
One enterprising member of CMC had brought a sling with him and he was able to take his log(s) for a walk but mostly it was done by carrying the heavy logs one at a time along the slippery path at the foot of the crag to the western end, from where they could be pushed and allowed to roll down the slope, through the trees. If you were lucky your logs would make their way down the slope without colliding with other logs or ricocheting off trees. Generally the larger the diameter and the shorter the length the further the log went, but after a while there was a logjam (ha ha – ed) and the logs had to be carried the last few metres to the track.
After a couple of hours doing this we were all exhausted and retired to the top of the crag where we were treated to tea, coffee and biscuits kindly provided by a CMC member from the back of her camper van. After a short rest we returned to work and by the end of the afternoon we had shifted the majority of the logs away from the crag.
Although it is autumn so the leaves are off the trees, the crag appears a lot clearer. This in turn makes the crag look even more precarious than before! Sometimes it's best not to look to closely…
We did not carry out any gardening of the crag, although someone did attack some of the trees sprouting from the crag with a chainsaw. Removal of nettles and the like is probably a spring time activity.
Does anyone have any ideas how we might improve the top outs at the far western end of the crag, where after the rock there is often a steep wall of vegetation?
We will try to give more notice next time the club goes 10 pin bowling. The work which has been done has made a big difference to the vista at the crag.
Peter E
More photos can be found here