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November 2003 Meet Reports
18th / 21st April Ty-Powder (Easter) - Christine Beeston
Members present: Rob Allen, Margaret Baldock, Christine Beeston,
Sabina Cosulich, Robert Clark, Andrew Croughton, Dave Dillon, Alan
(L) Jones, Duncan Lee, Colin Maddison, Mark Ashley.
Guests: Kate Sparks, Roisin Maddison.
It was well worth turning up early for this meet, as Friday-Sunday
weather was excellent, and Monday a washout. Snowdon and the railway
were heaving with walkers and tourists, and so were avoided. The
walkers had three excellent walks with great views in Welsh sunshine
- Moel Siabod, Cnicht, and a two-teashop trundle around the Crafnant
valley. All three were new to me so maybe the crowds around Snowdon
were a blessing in disguise! Lots of climbing (and fewer teashop
visits) took place at Castell Cidwm, Cwm Silyn, the Moelwyns and even
the slate quarries. Dave Dillon became addicted to drystone walling.
An Easter egg hunt took place, thanks to the clue-setters. After
three days of good weather, Monday was wet, so the fun more or less
stopped. Thanks to my meet secretary (Roisin), for helping me
remember what happened!
24th / 26th May Ty-Powder Curry, Cloggy, Climbing - John Evans / Duncan Lee
Members present: John Evans, Dave Garland, Sabina Cosulich, Sheena
Hendrie, Joe Flynn, James Richardson, Scott Sadler, Ian Crook, Lester
Payne, Colin Maddison, Craig Marsden, Dave Dillon, Dave Wylie,
Margaret Baldock, Al Metelko, Kevin Anderson, Fiona Roy, Mark Ashley,
Joanne Castick and Duncan Lee.
Guests: Tony Mays, Jon Cowley, Simon Banks, Mark Haslop, Jenny Varley
and Nantida.
Uninvited guest: Steve Bowker,
Friday night saw the first sparks flying as Ian and James launched
off on Cloggy buggy mark I's maiden voyage. A short but eventful
test run saw the buggy reduced to a twisted mess to match the twisted
minds of its creators. Thus Saturday's squally weather saw the
intrepid team heading to B and Q in Bangor to buy replacement parts
for buggy number two. Craig was not that lucky. Colin dragged him off
for a traditional character building day on Tryfan starting with a
route on Milestone Buttress and concluding with the classic Grooved
arête in the wet. Rumour has it that numerous 'technical climbing
terms' may have been used by Craig on a particularly slimy section.
Tut tut!
Saturday nights curry courtesy of Messrs Evans, Garland and
Richardson was a superb meal in which lentils featured heavily. There
were at least five different curries on offer, all of which were
excellent and plentiful. Good effort lads.
Sunday saw teams heading to Gogarth, Tremadog, Carreg Hyll-drem and
the slate guarries, amongst other places in an endeavour to dodge the
showers. El presidente was seen tied into the middle of a rope of
five at one point in the day on the Hyll-drem girdle and a team who
will remain nameless were totally outfoxed by the whereabouts of
'Yogi' and 'Boo Boo'; smarter than the average KMC member. Other
routes that were accosted by various KMCers include Mensor, Tantalus,
Poor Man's Peuterey and Mr. Evan's superb hung-over lead of The Fang.
Sunday evening also saw the first ride of the rebuilt buggy. The only
casualties of this launch were the backside of James trousers and all
his keys which went missing in action.
Monday saw a lot of folk heading to the coast at Rhoscolyn and a few
heading into the hills, but no one was daft enough to go to Cloggy
which would have been awash. 'Tomorrow has been cancelled due to lack
of interest' proved to be particularly popular with the seasiders
whilst a slime fest on Lot's Wife provided a good battle for those in
search of solitude in the near deserted hills. James and Scott
ventured over to Carnedd Y Filiast where they did the classic Left
Edge on Atlantic Slab.
Cheers to everyone who turned up and especially to the chefs.
Apologies to anyone whose names may have been omitted from the list
of those present, being my usual organized self I lost the list I had
made. Everyone named however definitely stayed at the hut. Thanks
Margaret!
Sun 29th June - Birchens Edge - Susan Brooke
Able bodied
Members: Rob Allen, Mark Ashley, Christine Beeston, Susan Brooke,
Joanne Castick, Sabina Cosulich, Trish Cranston, Ian Crook, John
Dobson, Roger Dyke, John Evans, Joe Flynn, Dave Garland, Kathy
Gordon, Martin Heaton, Alan (Liverpool) Jones, Duncan Lee, Roger and
Bridget Mapleson, Al Metelko, Dan O'Brien, Lester Payne, Dave
Summerfield, Zoey Talks, Jenny Varley, Pete Walker, Dave Wylie
Guests: Mark Binham, Steve Bowker, John Cox, Alex Dobson, Michael
Dorrington, Helen Dowd, Carl Dwyer, Emma Gledhill, Alex Heaton, Anna
Jerolami, Andy Lidstone, Carys and Owen Mapleson, Dave Moon, Theresa
Parolis, Kate Sparks
Walking wounded
Members: Ken Beetham, Fiona Roy
The brilliant weather and convivial atmosphere attracted the usual
all star cast with one or two very welcome surprise guests, one of
whom, modelling the latest in bondage gear (which put the Ann Summers
collection to shame), attracted an awful lot of attention. Duncan
being his usual self spent much of the day trying to shorten Fi's
crutches, without being caught, to see if she would go round in
circles, but fortunately wasn't successful. Seriously it was really
good to see Fiona venturing out and also to see Ken looking fit and
well. I'm sure the National Health Service will send Fiona a bill for
the wear and tear on her crutches later!
Once again the day was as much about socialising as climbing and
whilst a lot of good routes were climbed I can safely say that none
of these were by the meet leader!
19th / 20th July Ty-Powder Family Meet - Sue Marsden
Members: Martin Heaton, Zoë Talks, Sue Marsden, Craig Marsden, Dan
Creber, Al Metelko, Jenny Varley.
Guests: Thomas Marsden, Phoebe Marsden, Richard Hormbrey, Alex Heaton
To be honest the family meet seems so long ago and my memory is a
little hazy but here goes. Al & Jenny went climbing near Betws-y Coed
dodging the showers, Dan turned up at the hut on Saturday after
driving over and spending the day bouldering. Martin, Zoë, Alex,
Craig, Thomas, Phoebe, Richard and I walked around Llyn Gwynant area
on the Saturday - we had a real adventure & needed all of Craig &
Martins navigation skills to get us out of the Rhododendron forests
(why were we in the forest I ask myself?) ~ we got spiked, wet,
muddy, bruised, lost in Grass taller than Phoebe but had a fabulous
day out, ending with a paddle & some dam building.
Beacon on Sunday -weather not the best
30th / 31st August - Galloway Climbing - Dave Bone
Ludicrously small number present: Dave Bone, Al Metelko and Ian Crook.
After much adjustment of gear all 3 members, 2 mountain bikes &
luggage were packed into one vehicle for the M6. A tour of the
outskirts of Carlisle (next time come in from the North), a shopping
trip and a healthy visit to McDonalds for 2, ensured a later than
anticipated arrival at the end of the dead end road off
Clatteringshaws Loch in Galloway at 10:30pm. Strangely there was
another car sitting there but it left shortly after. Well the idea
had been to walk (meet leader) and cycle 4 miles or so to the Bothy
for the night but 2 weren't so keen by that stage, so it was bivvy
bags out on the roadside. A clear starlit night, with some dampness
lying around.
Ian was told an 8am start, but we didn't tell him the time at 6am.
Still clear, but oh my, 4ºC in August! This ensured breakfast was
quick and a quick pack made. The meet leader trudged up the forest
track, fully expecting to be overtaken in a mile, but was
surprisingly only half a mile short of the bothy before being fully
overtaken, with Al darkly muttering of a sore posterior. The bothy
now had an eclectic collection of transport outside, tow mountain
bikes, two trail bikes, a quad-bike and a Horse and buggy. Apparently
the Horse does 40 miles a day on one bale of hay?
It was not yet 9am and most of the inhabitants weren't up so gear was
dumped and the team for the crag, Cooran Buttress, Dungeon of Buchan
through various breaks in the forest and grass to waist height. The
Silver Flowe bog was dry and barely merited the description of bog!
Weather was perfect, light winds, unbroken sunshine (but a little
cloud later) and perfect temperature. The team tackled the 3 pitch
routes (conveniently one pitch per person) 'The Colonel's Corner'
[HVS] and 'Heir Apparent' [E1], closely observed and criticised by
the herd of very large feral goats. Very good routes and more crack
lines to go at on the upper crag and with excellent views over the
Galloway hills. No midges either, until the sun dipped behind the
hill late in the afternoon so a retreat was beaten to the now
deserted bothy.
Day 2 saw an early morning exodus down the track to the car (Al
spotted pushing the bike at one point) and a drive to Craigdews - a
crag in the wild goat park. Plenty of goats but they ignored us when
they saw we wouldn't feed them. A few routes were described in the
new routes section of the SMC journal and 10mins from the car park. A
3 pitch HVS was selected for starters. This proved very exciting,
poor gear (on the first 2 pitches) and delicate climbing gave a
reappraisal of a good E1. Nice to second. However, no more routes
were done here as the others were put off by the meet leader beating
off swarms of ticks doing their own climbing up my legs. I had the
advantage of wearing light coloured trousers so could see them coming
- the others had dark clothing and couldn't, but could imagine them!
As was not lost as we stopped off in Warton Quarry on the way back so
Al could climb his E1 and never have to visit it again. As usual with
Al present, we finished with just enough light to descend without
falling into the quarry. A fine weekend, and where were the rest of
you wimps?
20th / 21st September - Ty-Powder Completion party - KMC
Members: Andy Croughton, Al Metelko, Sabina Cosulich, Duncan Lee,
Kevin Anderson, Alan Barber, Bob Haynes, Sheena Hendrie, John
Castick, Virginia Castick, Lester Payne, Colin Maddison, Frank
Williams, Margaret Williams, Dave Dillon, Peter Schofield, Peter
Walker, Roger Dyke, Scott Sadler, Jenny Varley, Peter Johnson, Joe
Flynn, Jim Gregson, Sandy Gregson, Alan Wylie, Bob Anderson, Dave
Wylie, Steve Taylor, Alan (L) Jones.
Guests: Roisin Maddison, Judy Flynn, Mrs Taylor plus 2 children,
Julie O'Regan, Graham, 4 Cezchs.
The committee, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it was time for
yet another party; so the idea that all the main conversion work on
the hut had been completed seemed a good excuse.
No-one on the committee was prepared to cook hence the biggest
take-away ever from Petes Eats was organised. Past Hut Wardens and
other notables were sent personal invitations and everyone else was
welcome. The weather wasn't inspiring but several parties set off
over Yr Aran on Saturday and some continued over Snowdon. Pete
Johnson found the going much tougher than his local (southern) hills,
but made it round eventually.
After our feast on Saturday night some members saw slides of the
early work on the hut. It was amazing to see just how much our
members had achieved and how fashions had changed. Working flares and
big hairdos were IN.
A separate team of enthusiasts set off from the hut for secret trials
of their Cloggy Buggies. Undercover of darkness several test runs
were accomplished and further modifications planned. The evening
ended with a traditional Wavey Disco in the lounge.
On Sunday a large group set off for a walk from Capel Curig into the
forests and over to the Mynedd hut and back. The drizzle petered out
to leave a reasonable day.
Virginia Castick
4th / 5th October - Ty-Powder Working Party - Virginia Castick
Present: Virginia Castick, John Castick, Roger Dyke, Iain McCallum,
Pam McCallum, Jim Gregson, Sandy Gregson.
A select group of top workers looked at Chris Thickett's list of jobs
and set about their own pet projects. John disappeared up the track
and spent all weekend shovelling endless barrowloads of gravel about
in order to improve the surface and get rid of potholes. Roger went
up ladders and checked all the guttering. Midge and Sandy cleaned
the lounge floor, fridges, cooker and anything else that looked
grubby. Ian and Pam cleared out the storeroom and re-loaded it. Jim
built a natty rack in the dormitory porch for brushes and shovels in
order to remove the junk from the drying room.
On Sunday work continued, Jim built two cork shower mats so his
sensitive little tootsies wont get cold after a shower. Iain and
Midge started the removal of the fencing around the plantation now
the trees are sturdy enough to look after themselves.
Thanks to our willing volunteers and their good company
Virginia Castick, stand-in meet leader
November Newsletter Index.
Copyright © 2003 Karabiner Mountaineering Club
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