Tryfan Traverse via the North Ridge

After a good breakfast at the Pinnacle Cafe in Capel Curig, we drove along the A5 to the Ogwen Valley and parked in the layby opposite the Milestone Buttress.
The weather was almost perfect with lots of sun but cool but it was a bit windy.
We set off up the steep path with large stone steps passing the side of Milestone Buttress then up to the shoulder of the North Ridge overlooking Little Tryfan and the nearby camp site of Gwern Gof Uchaf. There were quite a few others who set off too fast and had to keep stopping for rests while we continued with a reasonable pace and traversed below a large school party as they followed another route above. There are quite a few different “paths” leading through this steep, rocky ground.
Soon we began the first section of easy and pleasant scrambling pausing at the Cannon for photos and then more scrambling sections. Unfortunately I did something to my left knee at some point and it was becoming painful so although we initially intended to traverse Tryfan and then continue up Bristly Ridge onto Glyder Fach, we decided to drop down the path from Bwlch Tryfan down past Llyn Bochlwyd.
We sat on the summit busy with walkers including the inevitable small group taking it in turns to clamber up on one of the pair of large up-ended stones on the summit known as Adam and Eve (but no one knows which is which!).
We had lunch and then clambered down the south side to reach the col or bwlch (in Welsh) between Tryfan and Glyder Fach, pausing to look longingly at Bristly Ridge continuing invitingly ahead, before dropping down the path leading past Llyn Bochlwyd and then below Bochlwyd Buttress with five pairs of climbers climbing various routes on the sunny side.
We soon were back at the layby despite having to walk fairly slowly due to my painful knee and I was surprised to see a note under one of the windscreen wipers.
I took the note and read it: it was from fellow Orpheus Caving Club member Mick Hogg who was accompanying his son Liam who was fishing in the Llyn Ogwen next to the layby.
We changed out of our walking boots and found Mick laying in the sun as Liam fished and after a quick chat, we headed for Capel Curig for a meal at the tent of tinned beans and sausages for me and Super Noodles for Karen.

Tryfan from the West. The North Ridge runs from right to left with the large stone blocks of Adam and Eve just visible on the summit

A Milestone on the A5 below Milestone Buttress

The Cannon

Karen scrambling on the North Ridge

Higher up the North Ridge with Llyn Ogwen below

The main summit

Adam and Eve with a passing walker

Bristly Ridge leading up Glyder Fach

Rock climbing on Bochlwyd Buttress

Snowdonia

Having decided to spend the Extra Bank Holiday for Royal Wedding weekend in North Wales, Karen and I left home after breakfast and stopped off at Betws-y-Coed for a while so I could buy a Tilley hat at Cotswold Outdoors before driving onwards to Dolgam camp site at Capel Curig.
We pitched the tent, paid the farmer £30 (£5 each for three nights) in advance and in the evening went for a walk up the road to have a pizza at the Bryn-Glo café – just a well as all they had were pizzas, but made in a stone oven outside and very nice, too.
We spent the rest of the evening in or by the tent reading.

Gordale Scar and Malham Cove

We left Alston in the morning after breakfast to stop off again in the Yorkshire Dales, this time at Malham.
It was approaching lunchtime when we arrived to find quite a lot of visitors already there, not surprising for Easter Monday, and a local farmer offering a parking space on a large field in the village centre. The charge was very reasonable so we had no qualms about paying to park there. One family had just parked their car and immediately pulled a set of folding chairs out of the rear of the car and set them up just by the back of the car – obviously they weren't planning on walking very far from their vehicle!
We set off to follow a wide track signposted for Janet's Foss, which is a small waterfall in Gordale Beck with a small rock shelter nearby supposedly once inhabited by the Queen of the Fairies, Janet.
We paused after the kilometre and a half or so when we reached the Foss (a Norse-derived word for waterfall, like Force) to look at the waterfall before continuing on our way.
After a continuing section of track we reached a minor road and then after a few hundred metres, the small camp site at the opening to the large and impressive limestone gorge of Gordale Scar,
A path leads thorough the camp site and soon reached the foot of the waterfall blocking the rest of the gorge but it is easily passed by a short and easy scramble on the adjoining rock.
Beyond the waterfall we continued on a narrow path rising on one side of the gorge to reach a small and flat grassy area where we paused for a short break to eat sandwiches as we watched some jackdaws flying opposite carrying nesting material in their beaks.
The path continued on rocky steps to reach the large flat grassy area on one side of Gordale Beck where we saw groups of Mountain Pansies as we walked along the limestone scenery on a wide strip of short grass with hazy views to Pendle Hill in the distance.
Reaching another minor road heading North, we turned off this road onto another which headed West near Malham Tarn before following another path heading South across grassland before reaching a shallow, rocky valley and then through drystone-walled fields from where we could see the top of the large limestone cliff of Malham Cove.
We crossed over to reach the large section of limestone pavement on the top of the Cove and crossed to the opposite side where a stepped path leads down to the bottom of the 80 metre high cliff.
Here we found more people who had walked from nearby Malham Village on a broad path with impressive views of the large limestone amphitheatre formed by the Cove.
We followed this broad path to reach another minor road which led after a short distance back to the village.
After an ice cream bought in a small shop in the village, we headed for home.

Walking towards Janet's Foss

Janet's Foss

The waterfall in Gordale Scar

Just above the waterfalll

The path leading up Gordale Scar

Limestone Pavement on the top of Malham Cove

The huge amphitheatre of Malham Cove

Cross Fell

After leaving the Alston Training and Outdoor Adventure Centre after breakfast, Karen and I drove to the hamlet of Kirkland and left the car on a grass verge near Glebe Farm.
We followed a rough vehicle track running due North above Cocklock Scar with views of Cross Fell above and the Lakeland Fells in the opposite direction in the West looking very hazy despite the mainly clear and sunny but breezy weather.
The track steepened and started wending its way gradually upwards passing some disused workings on the way to Skirwith Fell where a large cairn marked the junction of paths with our route joining a bend in the Pennine Way.
Ahead the Pennine Way made its way past Gregs Hut towards Garrigill. To the right, it continued up sloping ground towards the summit of Cross Fell passing a few hundred yard away from a large snow patch remaining from the winter.
Reaching the summit plateau, we passed another large cairn and made our way towards yet another before veering off to the nearby drystone shelter near the trig point at 893 metres above sea level.
We found a sheltered spot in a small patch of sun in one of the quadrants of the summit shelter and had a rest and some snacks.
The views were excellent for 360 degrees around us but hazy in the distance as we set off towards a large cairn to the South-East marking the continuing Pennine Way leading downwards towards Crowdundle Head where a bridleway crossed the Pennine Way. This junction was not obvious and was not in the valley further down as we expected but was marked by an engraved slab of rock showing the Pennine Way and the bridleway marked as “PW” and two horseshoes respectively.
The bridleway was very indistinct as it gradually dropped towards the South-East but its route was marked by the odd small cairn now and then until we arrived at the top of steeper ground at the top of Wildboar Scar, where the path led down at an angle so that it wasn't too steep.
The path led down Littledale above Littledale Beck below the interestingly-named Grumply Hill. Soon we left the open ground and entered through a gate into a walled enclosure full of flowering gorse bushes before passing through a gate to cross in front of a house at Wythwaite to join the start of a farm track which led us the final kilometre back to where we had started at Kirkland.

Walking on the track towards Cross Fell

The trig point on the summit with the radar station on Great Dun Fell  in the background

The stone with the crossing of our path and the Pennine Way marked

Smallcleugh Mine

Boyd joined myself and Karen on a trip in Smallcleugh Mine at Nenthead.
We followed the route from the mine entrance going straight ahead at the first junction until we reached a three-way junction further in.
We chose the route to the left and followed this, passing sections of impressive drystone arching on one side and over the ceiling for which the old lead mines in this area of the North Pennines are renowned for.
Reaching a section which was partially blocked, Karen and Boyd crawled through and after looking at the “sump” (an internal descending shaft in the mine sense as opposed to the flooded passage in a cave also known as a “sump”) further on which connects the the nearby Rampgill mine.
Retracing our route to the three-way junction, we continued straight-ahead (which was to the right on the way in, with the third passage being only very short before becoming a dead-end). After passing various features we headed towards and area known as the “Ballroom Flats”, We met a couple of other groups on the way, the second including some young kids. One of the adults with group of kids apologised saying they had been cooking in the Ballroom Flats. As we neared the Flats we could smell the bacon which they had been cooking for sandwiches – this made us feel very hungry but I had to do with just a Mars Bar!
After a short rest in the Ballroom Flats, we continued on our way soon reaching a section of passage with several sections requiring crawling through low arched sections as the results of local collapses.
After this we passed a junction with a passage on the right past a hole in the floor and then shuffled on two old rails over a hole about 4 metres deep supported by two lengths of timber covered with growths of fungus.
The rest of the route was straight-forward walking with sections of shallow water and a series of “sumps” on the right-hand side including one called “Prouds Sump” with a log across the top and a number of bolts above to allow an abseil into lower sections of the mine.
Very quickly I spotted daylight ahead as we arrived back at the entrance.
Afterwards we had a quick trip to the café in the visitors centre to have some chocolate muffins and tea where we were joined by “Mole” (John Hine) and Steve who had been on a trip underground in another nearby mine.

Ingleborough

After driving up in the morning we stopped of at Greenclose to pick up my Scurion charger which I had left behind last a fortnight before and John Cordingley had left in a jiffy bag for me to collect.
We left the car near the CRO Depot in Clapham and headed up towards the church and then passed through the short tunnels leading to the rough track called “Long Lane”.
“Long Lane” passes along a drystone wall above the path from Clapham to Ingleborough show cave, the entrance of which could be seen below.
Where the lane ended at a gate leading to open pastureland, we followed a curving route which brought us to the stile near Bar Pot on the usual route to Gaping Gill. As it was quite windy although bright and sunny, we headed for Gaping Gill and made use of whatever shelter we could find in the large shakehole to have lunch.
Afterwards we continued on the well-worn path leading up towards the summit of Ingleborough. At one point we had to dive onto Karen's newish Tilley hat as it was about to be blown away!
We had a short break making use of the limited shelter offered by a low cairn at the top of Little Ingleborough still a kilometre or so from the main summit. Because we had only stopped off in the Dales on our way to Alston in the North Pennines, we decided to forgo the extra two kilometres to the main summit and back and dropped down a feint path leading from near the top of Little Ingleborough via Newby Moss to the village of Newby and just before entering the village itself, we followed a surprisingly narrow bridleway marked as “Laithbutts Lane” on the map.
Soon we reached the minor road connecting Clapham with Ingleton and walked the remaining few hundreds of metres back to where we had started.
After a short visit to Ingleton for a meal in Bernies, we set off for the Alston Outdoor Centre at Alston to join others for a few days of visiting the mines of Nenthead and surrounding area together with some walking.

Masson Mine

Boyd had asked Karen, in particular, if she could come along on a beginners caving trip as two ladies, Christine and Sheila, had been in contact with him to go on a caving trip. Someone called Alex had also planned to come on Sunday to also go on a caving trip but he hadn't been ab;e to make it in the end.
Keith, who had stayed overnight with us, Karen and myself were up at 18:30 for a quick bowl of cereal then we went to Monyash for breakfast in the café before moving on to the Orpheus CC cottage for the Orpheus CC AGM. The second AGM of the weekend!
The AGM started at 10:30ish and was completed by 12:30ish. Sheila and Christine arrived before 13:00 and after a cup of tea, we left Keith cutting up the 200m of rope we had bought some time ago to replace old rope in the tackle store.
We were also joined by Elaine Hillyard and her other half Mike.
We drove to Salters Lane near Jughole Wood and after changing into caving gear, the six of us, Karen, myself, Boyd, Elaine, Christine and Sheila headed along the rough track leading towards Masson Quarry while Mike went for a short walk.
At Masson Quarry we found a couple of tents pitch and then the owners of the tents, who were climbers, top-roping some of the bolted routes in the quarry.
We set off into the mine using a handline on the two sort drops at the entrance and had a good wander around including seeing a guided trip of tourist being shown through the show mine section beyond the gate.
After an interesting and enjoyable trip, except for having to pick up rubbish in one chamber with old mine-working remnants, left behind by some dirty b*stards, we returned to the surface to the warm sunshine.

DCRO Induction Day at White Hall

I spent the day at White Hall outside Buxton running the Stretcher sessions on the DCRO Induction Day. In addition, like other years, there were sessions on Rigging, Communications and Medical. There about 20 cavers in attendance so we had three sessions being run concurrently with seven or so cavers in each session with one session having a rest period.
During the first Medical session, which I attended as the Stretchers session was on a free period, on of the attendees, felt faint and lay on the floor. Luckily Dr. Jules was running the session and was able to render medical aid. Eventually he hadn't recovered very well so an ambulance was called but as it arrived it received a more urgent call and left immediately!
Soon afterwards a second ambulance arrived and took him to hospital.
Afterwards at 17:00 the DCRO AGM was held with Karen arriving a little while before. The AGM was over by 18:15 which left us a little time at home before moving onwards to the Miners Standard in Winster for the annual Photo Competition.

Ireby Fell Cavern, Yorkshire Dales

After breakfast, Boyd Potts, Jo White and Pete Wagstaff headed for a return to Easegill while myself, Karen Slatcher, Keith Slatcher, Simon Wynne and Phil Wall had a trip in Ireby Fell Cavern.
Luckily, unlike yesterday, we had the cave to ourselves as we made our way in the concrete pipe at the entrance. Nowadays getting back out of the pipe is much easier as there is a short iron ladder inside.
There was much evidence of stabilisation work on the rocky slope leading down to the head of the first pitch where Keith set off rigging the pitch. This pitch has the name “Ding” and is followed immediately by two more pitches: “Dong” and “Bell”. Finally the short pitch called “Pussy” drops down to a section of cave with quite a bit of “pretties” if you take your time and have a look around as you make your way along the cave.
Soon we arrived at the next pitch, called “Well”, in keeping with the nursery rhyme theme. Finally, the last remaining pitch, which is quite short, has the rather unimaginative name of “Rope”.
Steady progress along winding passage passing the odd junction brought a change in the floor with the stream having disappeared and the floor now made of dry sand mud which announced the proximity of the large phreatic passage known as “Duke Street”.
We made our way along this large and wide passage with occasional lower sections until we arrived at the sump, which was quite low, but still remained as a sump.
After a quick Mars Bar break while sitting on a mud bank, we returned the same way back to reach the surface again just after 14:00 having entered the cave at 11:30.
So, we had a very enjoyable three and a half hour trip in a very pleasant cave.
All that remained was to return to Bernies for a snack!

Bull Pot, Kingsdale, Yorkshire Dales

Karen and I drove up to the Dales last night and found we had Greenclose, the Northern Pennine Club's hostel, to ourselves. Phil Wall arrived later after we had gone to bed.
In the morning, we met Keith Slatcher, Boyd Potts, Pete Wagstaff, Jo White and Simon Wynne at Bernies while we were having breakfast.
The two of us had planned a trip into Bull Pot in Kingsdale and we headed that way after breakfast. The rest were planning a trip in the Easegill system after going in via Top Sink. In the end they did this and exited via Wretched Rabbit.
After parking in a layby and getting changed, we walked in the warm spring sunshine up to the entrance of Bull Pot. As I was about to descend the entrance pitch a second group of four cavers arrived and asked if it was OK if they followed us down, rigging their gear beneath ours. We offered to let them go in first so we could take our time but they insisted we continue saying that they would be slow. After chatting, they realised we were from OCC and told us that they had taken Waggy and others into Upper Flood in Mendip recently. It turned out that they were from Mendip Caving Group.
Anyway, we reached the bottom of the third pitch by following the Slot alternative and I had started rigging the traverse to the head of the fourth pitch and could hear the other lot approaching. I didn't fancy having them breathing down my neck and as we only planned to descend the fourth pitch and just look at the fifth – we hadn't even brought a rope for it as I knew it was quite a thrutch from previous experience – I suggested that the other lot rig the fourth pitch first to avoid having two ropes getting tangled on the traverse. Then Karen and I could drop down the fourth pitch as planned using their rope and we could re-ascend while they dropped down the fifth pitch. They were happy with this.
We discovered as we were waiting on the traverse that they hadn't a rope long enough for the fifth pitch after all, so they also would only go as far as the top of the fifth pitch as well!
We decided therefore to just head out instead of joining a queue at the bottom of the fourth pitch (one of their party was on his second SRT trip and had looked at the traverse and decided to stay at the bottom of the third pitch and wait for them).
So, we headed back to the surface de-rigging as we went. As Karen reached the top of the second pitch I heard another voice belonging to yet another party on their way down. The cave was getting busy!
When I reached the top of the second pitch, I heard a voice I recognised belonging to the third party on the way in. It was Simon Brooks! He was with a group from Grampian Speleological Group making their way down the cave.
We reached the surface at just after 14:00 after being underground two and a half hours to find the sun still out on a glorious day in the Yorkshire Dales.
We returned to Bernies for tea and a snack while Karen picked up her Meander Criou suit which she had ordered and paid for by phone on Friday as Meander were having problems with supplies of the PVC material the suits are made from and the supplies of the oversuits were running out. I had bought the last remaining one from Hitch 'n' Hike last week.
Then we returned to Greenclose for a while before heading for the New Inn in Clapham for a meal just as Keith arrived back from his caving trip. The others arrived also not long afterwards.