Helvellyn a Mountain for All Seasons

Helvellyn - Jay's walk from Wythburn. Fifteen members arrived at the car park by the church overlooking Thirlmere. A very steep two hour ascent up Whelp side to Nethermost cove. On the summit the biting wind was quite strong, even so we made it to Lower Man, and then the summit shelter for lunch which was surprisingly out of the wind. A short ascent to Nethermost Pike and onwards to Dollywagon Pike, a dsecent to Grisedale Hause, and a swift climb to Seat Sandal, we followed the waterfalls and retraced our steps to Wythburn. Some members had made the summit previously, but for others Helvellyn was a new and rewarding experience, the views of Striding edge was amazing. Out thanks to Jay who undertook the reccie, for a memorable day in the high mountains. I have added 35 pictures to the photo gallery, hope they capture the mood.

Climb every Mountain- Yr Aran & Yr Wyddfa ( Snowdon)

The waters of Llyn Cwellyn rose through the early moring mist on route to Rhyd Du. Nineteen members made the journey, a brisk start and a steady climb to the coll of Bwlch cwm Llan, on to Y Geuallt and the summit of Yr Aran at 747m, where visability was quite good. Returning to the coll and climbing steadily to Allt Maenderyn at 704m, and the arete of Bwlch Main and to the summit of Yr Wyddfa ( Snowdon ) at 1085m. Not the usual crowds as the train was not yet running, clear to Y Lliwedd - but Crib Goch not visible. The temperature on teh summit was really mild with no wind. Our descent followed Bwlch Main to join the Rhyd Du path to our start point, 9.6miles and 7 hours walking. A thank you to Nigel for taking us up Yr Aran , one of the quiet Snowdonia summits, and to Snowdon itself on a warm spring like day.

The Gritstone Trail

A huge thank you to Tracy for amazing homework !!! and reccie........ We started the walk in fine drizzle, and after an hour breakfast was served in the Ryles Arms !!! super food, how we managed to walk up to Sutton Common and the BT tower I will never comprehend but we did.The views would have been great but the low lying mist and rain prevented us from seeing the distant hills of Wales and beyond.

Even so 20 of us made the walk, a huge thank you....... please could we repeat it and with the breakfast on a clear day... a most enjoyable walk.

Alfred.

Ambleside Weekend

Saturday dawned crisp and clear, and remained so for the day. The ascent to Fairfiled was from Rydal, a steep climb with commanding views of the Lakeland Fells.  Just patches of snow on the Northern face although Helvellyn had still quite covering from our summit viewpoint.

Sunday a shorter walk around Troutbeck and Wansfell although the weather remained cloudy and rather cold.

Our thanks to David for arranging the accommodation and the walks, and Nigel for leading the longer Fairfield traverse.

Alfred.

Government Threat to National Forests and Open Spaces

It wasn't that long ago that I commented on how the younger generation of the Ramblers are quite laissez-faire when it comes to issues of access and land ownership. I predicted there may come a time when our right to access green areas and open spaces will come under threat and that hopefully at that time the younger generations would heed the call and become more politically active in the Ramblers, as former members of the Ramblers did in order to win us those freedoms. Without the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in 1932 and the subsequent rights of way movement, which came out of that period, we would not have national parks, open access and long distance paths such as the Pennine Way, all of which are an essential part of our national heritage and what it means to be British.

The government has recently announced its plans to sell off all of the Forestry Commission land in the UK. Although the government has given assurances that rights of way and access to this land will not be affected, once these areas of land are under private ownership, what control will there be over usage? Remember this is the same government that promised not to increase tuition fees for students! This video article from the BBC provides more information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12298513

On a similar note our own Ramblers Association is greatly concerned about the cuts in funding to local authorities, which will undoubtedly have a detrimental affect on the ability of local authorities to maintain rights of way. Already many councils have announced they are to dramatically cut funding to rights of way budgets. Because of the concern over the threat to our right to access, the Ramblers have launched the ‘Dead End?’ campaign, which is designed to highlight to local authorities the importance of rights of way to the people of the UK. You can help out by completing a post card giving details of a walk you have enjoyed recently with the club. We will then send these cards to the Ramblers HQ, who will then forward to the local authority concerned. I will be passing around post cards on walks over the next few weeks. Please do take the opportunity to complete at least one, so that we can fight to preserve our open spaces and rights of access for ourselves and generations to come.

Many Thanks

Andrew

Pendle, Pendle, Pendle

Pendle is most famous for Pendle Hill, and the Pendle witches but there is much more.  Last Sunday 22 of us left the Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford and followed the Pendle way alongside Pendle Water.  The Pendle way is either 43 or 45 miles long depending on which website you read and takes in Earby and Wycoller as well as Pendle Hill.  However we only followed it for a couple of miles before heading up and north.

From the top of the moors, the hill doesn't have a name on the map, there were great views across the Ribble valley of the Forest of Bowland and the Yorkshire Dales including Ingleborough and Pen-y-Ghent.  We were also by this time in the shadow of Pendle Hill itself.

Crossing the moors we reached Lower Black Moss reservoir and then the Pendle honeypot of Barley, where most routes up Pendle Hill start.  In Barley we once again met up with Pendle Water and the Pendle Way, firstly rising above the river before reaching the slightly disappointing stepping stones (too close together and concrete!) that crossed the river.  Being one of my walks there was one more climb, and the wettest field of the walk to negotiate before the walk in the park in Barrowford.

We ended, obviously, where we began, at the Pendle Heritage Centre that as well as a good teashop also has a museum, art gallery, walled garden and an interesting bookshop full of books on all things Pendle!

Not quite Masterminds, but close...

Well, we had a certain amount of success in the pub quiz at the London Bridge pub in Stockton Heath tonight, coming 2nd (with a score of 48/55, the winners got 51/55) and winning the grand sum of £13. We did particularly well in the general knowledge bit (only getting 2 wrong), but there was one heart-stopping moment: we were rattling off the answers to
- Who played Stan Butler in On the Buses?
- How many goals did Gary Linekar score in the 1986 World Cup?
- What star sign would you be if you were born on St David's day?
without even pausing for breath, but then we got
- In which county would you find Cressbrook Crags?
And we were stumped - the only time a 12-strong team of walkers do a quiz, get a question on walking, and not immediately know the answer!!! The shame of it! Anyway, with a bit of elimination and logical guesswork, we went for Derbyshire - which (thankfully) was correct, and so embarrassment was spared. Thanks Jay for organising it!

In Memoriam: Voices from the past on Saddleworth

The edges of Saddleworth Moor climbing above Dovestone Reservoir could never be described as a wilderness. The proximity to the industrial behemoths of Salford, Manchester and Oldham, have ensured that almost every square metre of this landscape has been marked by human existence in some way. Yet it is this fact, which makes this northwest corner of the Peak District so fascinating. The landscape breathes a history of agricultural and industrial change, the memoirs of the local people, and the shadows of the renaissance of recreational climbing in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is here that Don Whillans and Joe Brown, later Jim Perrin and other “Greenfield Lads” would come, on the Corporation bus from Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester to Greenfield, from there walking to Chew Piece Plantation, to camp, have larks, and climb on Wimberry Rocks.

Beginning the walk at Dovestone, the first two kilometres read like an historic essay in water management features. Many of these channels and sluices date from the 1880’s when the first reservoir, Yeoman Heys was built to quench the growing thirst of industrial growth in the Tame Valley below. Greenfield reservoir was added in 1902, followed in 1914 by Chew Reservoir, at 474m, still the highest reservoir in England. As progress is made along Greenfield Brook, one reaches what appears to be a railway tunnel in size, but is in fact the gaping entrance to the aqueduct, which feeds water from Birchen and Holme Cloughs, through the hillside to Ashway Gap and into Dovestone Reservoir, added in 1967.

Scrambling up Birchen Clough is exceptional fun, first on the right, then fording the stream to tackle a small rock step on the left bank, where a faint path leads above the largest cascade of water. Carefully fording the stream over slippery rocks to the far bank, one can ascend the steep side along the line of a faint stone gully to reach the main edge path which leads northwest to Ravenstones and the famous Trinacle.

Numerous little tracks bear off from the Ravenstones, mostly contouring around Ashway Moss, past Ashway Cross, memorial to James Platt, Member of Parliament, killed in 1857 by the accidental discharge of a gun, to reach the clough which divides this section of the edge. An alternative approach is to take a bearing of approximately 240 degrees for 150m to locate Major’s Cairn, ostensibly built in remembrance of a once loved dog of the same name, but perhaps too large for one bereaved individual to build, the mound beneath it bearing rather the appearance of a Bronze age burial site.

From here the walk continues to take on a ghostly air. On Fox Stone above Great Dovestone Rocks there stands another memorial, in memory of Brian Toase and Tom Morton, two climbers killed in the Italian Dolomites in 1972. With a pause at Bramley’s Cot for refreshment, one soon reaches Chew Reservoir and beyond the clough, Wilderness Rocks, where early in 1963, Graham West and Spike Roberts, members of the Manchester Gritstone Club, were killed in what is thought to have been the biggest avalanche recorded in England. Above the gully, yet another memorial, not in memory of West and Roberts, but rather Walter Brookfield, a Rambler and campaigner for rights-of-way. How pleased he would be that since open access, the remainder of this ridge is now accessible.

Continuing above Wimberry Rocks to the cairn and trig point at Alphin Pike, one can find no clear descent route and in order to avoid retracing ones steps it is advisable to hacked down the heather covered slope on a bearing of 25 degrees, along a partially collapsed wall to eventually meet the Oldham Way, which can be followed back underneath the ridge to Chew Piece Plantation.

Sitting in contemplation by the large boulders, enjoying a well-earned drink of tea, ones eyes are drawn to the outcrop of Indian’s Head on Wimberry Rocks above. One can almost hear the voices of the Greenfield Lad’s amongst the leafless oak trees, still awaiting the first new shoots of spring. Little wonder that the Municipal District Council have designated three areas of ground along the shore of Dovestone Reservoir for the “Life for a life” campaign, whereby people can plant a tree, and place memorials, in remembrance of their departed loved ones.

Formby to Crosby

Well 23 of us made it out for the first walk this year.
We had a choice of good cakes and a slice of xmas cake. We set off in
the direction of Formby National Trust property but couldn't access it
due to fallen and dangerous trees (due presumably to the heavy
snowfall they had) and skirted around the woodland and on to the dunes
for coffee.

We headed down the coast and weaved in and out of woodland till lunch
time at the coast with views of snowy Snowdonia and the North Wales
coast. From there we followed the coast to Crosby and the Gormley
statues where we dressed one up in rucksack, hat and walking stick to
take a picture of. Then we walked to the station and caught a train
back to Formby for a coffee at costa.

Thanks to Alfred for cakes and leading big group of walkers and
finding ways around blocked paths.