Wednesday 14th August - Tintwistle Knarr(ly) - Fiona Roy
By Fiona Roy
Members: Dave Wylie, Dave Dillon, Dan Braber
It was all going well until the meet leader got half the party lost the instant they started up the track from the car. Led up folly paths, up streams and through hedges backwards before finding the correct path and also Mr Dillon. Who was trying to make his getaway, saying its 'miles back up to the crag'. It was at this point we remembered that the organiser who decided on the venue, Tintwistle Knar, had also made plans to be at least 600 miles away!
Routes done: After the meet leader failed to reach the first hold on a Severe, there was a mass accent of another route. As the guidebook was old and vague we meandered up a wall which promised a variety of 'Severes'. Our interpretation produced an amusing - verging on the absurd - route. Multi-pitch (on grit!) with 40% of the climbing and the crux on extreme grass and heather. After sending the lightest person up to test each tuft of grass, Mr Wylie concerned himself with calculating the structural integrity of the root systems, after 3 people had weighted them?.At least the rock was excellent!
Mr Dillon demonstrated the lost art of hand jamming in extremely muddy cracks, delving below the thick layer of jungle to cover his hands in black mud. Mr Wylie assembled a complex system of knotwork, which wouldn't have looked out of place on the Mary Rose and we had a pleasant 'ledge party' enjoying splendid views and balmy summer weather, although slightly perturbed by the apparently temporary state of the ledge. (see above: structural integrity of root systems)
Mr Metelko would've approved of the style of decent, covering knarly ground by the light of headtorches.
