Duddondale Meet

A good turn out was promised for this meet despite the appalling weather forecast. Most of the promised attendees made it apart from Christine and Nick who had trouble with their campervan.
The meet was based at Turner Hall farm campsite which was a pleasant basic site in beautiful surroundings. Duddondale in its lower reaches is pleasantly pastoral and with natural woodlands by the campite. There are a number of climbing crags in the valley but heavy rain on Friday night and grey clouds on Saturday morning set our thoughts to walking.
Me, Jago, Colin and Bev decided on a walk up Harter Fell while Dave and Steven set out up the Walna Scar road to Dow Crag.
We approached Harter Fell by the path under Wallowbarrow Crag then on towards Grassguards. Above Grassguards the path is rough and boggy and is not very pleasant to walk until it breaks out of the woods on the flanks of the fell.

The boggy track above Grassguards

A stiff pull up the hillside leads to the summit which can be reached by a nice little slab climb or via a gully round the back. 

Approaching Harter Fell summit

We continued over the summit then dropped down to the valley via forestry tracks and back to the campsite.
Meanwhile Dave and Steven reached Dow Crag summit where they parted company; Dave returning by the approach path while Steven continued to the summit of Coniston Old Man. 
On Sunday rain and grey clouds send everyone scuttling home.

Barnsley Boundary - Finished at Last

The last two legs of the walk were completed a few days apart, the seventh leg from Langsett to Winscar was only 5.7 miles but covered some rough ground. From Langsett we followed the path alongside the reservoir then green lanes through the woods and pennine meadows round to the Dog and Partridge on the A628.

Approaching Dog and Partridge

From there we took a moorland path parallel with the road to the highest point of the entire walk then struck across the moors to Windleden Reservoirs accompanied by the 'crrrrl' sound of curlews. A short walk down the road took us to the finish at Winscar Reservoir.
A few days later we began the final stage from here first up to the bleak environs of Harden then via pleasant lanes and pennine meadows down to Hepworth village.

Approaching Hepworth

A lane took us round the outskirts of the village then deposited us right in the centre. We followed the route  down through fields to a small wooded valley with a stream then up steeply to Low Common. The route then incorporates some road work along drystone walled lanes past Broadstones Reservoir and Ingbirchworth Reservoir before taking to fields to approach Ingbirchworth village and the finish some six months after starting.

Looking back from Low Common

Nearly finished!

Froggat Evening Meet

Paul and me turned up for this meet on a very pleasant evening with good climbing conditions. 

We began on Trapeze Direct (VS 5a) which gave one difficult but well protected move then Paul led Diamond Crack (HS 4b). This gave good steep climbing on good hand jams albeit on well polished rock. 

Paul on Diamond Crack

    My turn to lead again so I went for Sickle Buttress Direct (VS 4c). a well protected start on good holds led to a very good steep finish on small finger holds above a no.1 rock.

High stepping on Sickle Buttress Direct.

We had started late so we decided to call it a day after this route. 

NZ sailing trip

The following report was received from Rob hill in New Zealand.

In April, Rob and Jan headed off for a sailing trip in Pelorus Sound, one of the Marlborough Sounds of NZ's South Island. We had explored a different area of Pelorus the previous year, but it is a vast area of relatively sheltered sea inlets, and needed another trip.
We launched our 6m. yacht at Havelock, and followed the channel markers out until we were in the Sound proper. Then followed eight days of exploring bays and bush, mostly in relatively fine weather. The last two days, however, required some fairly serious festering in heavy rain, after which a forecast of a 45-knot Southerly made the decision for us that it was time to head out.

St-Omer Bay

A surfeit of adrenalin was never a problem on this trip, as compared to some other sailing trips, as sheltered anchorages were never far away, but pottering round new stretches of water and bays is always a very pleasant way to spend time.

Meanwhile, back in christchurch, this week saw two more large aftershocks, magnitude 5.5 and 6.3, an hour and twenty minutes apart. This fortunately resulted in no serious injories, but more building damage (including one of the remaining walls of the cathedral falling down), more loss of water, sewage and electricity services, and more liquefaction- i.e. sewage-contaminated water and silt rising up from cracks in the ground and flooding homes. These quakes affected principally the same areas as the major quakes of September and
February. One can only imagine residents' state of mind now. Aftershocks of varying magnitudes have been a daily occurrence since September. It is certain that some areas of the city will have to be abandoned, due to
damage such as the level of the land having been lowered, and so making flood risk too great, and possibly some hill suburbs, due to instability.

Alaska

The following post was submitted by Jago.

During May Andy Saxby and myself returned to Alaska. After the now familiar flight to Anchorage, followed by half a day buying our food supplies in REI and Carrs supermarket, flew into the Central Range using Talkeetna Air Taxis (TAT).
Our arrival at Denali base camp (DBC) on the Kahiltna glacier coincided with a high pressure system being in place. So we spent a day ensuring our base camp tent would be well protected in our absence and then prepared ourselves for another attempt on Mt Hunter’s west ridge (Alaska grade IV, 8000ft of ascent and 5 miles long).

Denali Base Camp

Setting out for Mount Hunter

During the first night we skied to the route and climbed up through the initial icefall before eventually pitching our bivi tent just below the rock feature know as the Cats Ears. We’d achieved in one night a journey that had taken us two on our first attempt. However the snow and ice conditions had been horrendously unconsolidated throughout. The next evening we set out once again, but Andy upset to discover that he felt a bit freaked by the route. The problem seemed to be due to a combination of recalling the challenging storm descent we’d experienced during our first attempt , jet lag, and the fact that we’d chosen not to do any warm up climbs because of the good weather that greeted our arrival to the area. We decided to let the icefall consolidate for another 24hrs and then retreated in good order to DBC.
At one point during the cloudless night of our retreat I was seated in the snow belaying Andy down and particularly unstable area of crevasses when I observed a red flare rise up from the direction of the Infinite Spur on Mt. Foraker. Unfortunately we were now on the wrong side of Hunter for radio reception, but once off the mountain we skied straight back to DBC and reported my sighting.
Although we were briefly deflated by our failure on Hunter it was an easy decision to begin the series of warm up climbs we’d neglected to do originally. We therefore enjoyed ascents of the ‘Radio Tower’ and Mt Francis’s East Ridge from DBC.

Andy Saxby high on Mount Francis

We then used TAT again to transfer us into the Ruth Gorge, where we set up another base camp near the Mountain House. Here we experienced a period of heavy snowfall until we were blessed with another high pressure system. As a result we were able to ski down the Ruth and then climb up to the col on the 747 Pass (because you could fly a Jumbo through it) to bivi. The next day we enjoyed a wonderful day climbing Mt. Dickie(Alaskan grade II), and then the following day we made our way back to our Mountain House camp and caught a flight back to Talkeetna.

Bivi on the 747 pass.



Andy on the summit of Mount Dickie.

 Jago

Stanage End

Due to a chest infection I attended this meet on a social basis only and met Jago at Moscar for the walk in. This section of the crag was quite busy with several parties established on routes by the time we arrived. Jago was just back from Alaska (more of which later hopefully) and hadn't got his gritstone leading head on so against my better judgement I coughed my way up Crab Crawl (S) using Jago's gear. 

Crab Crawl

   By this time Christine had arrived so she and Jago followed. I then led the Tempest (VS 5a) which had some thin moves low down but eased after that.

Above the difficulties on The Tempest.

Jago and Christine followed again before we decided to call it a day.

Barnsley Boundary 6

This stage of the boundary walk was a relatively short stretch from Wortley to Langsett. Colin, Bev, Christine and me set out crossing the River Don into pleasant woodland. We took the path up through the woods and out onto the rough pastures of Hunshelf Bank passing several farms via old trackways and paths.

Looking back along Hunshelf Bank

Looking towards Underbank Reservoir

The path then drops to Underbank and we had to take to the main road until an old railway running parallel to the road can be accessed. We then followed the railway to Langsett and then through fields to the car park.

Approaching Langsett on the old railway

This stretch of the walk was in the main quite pleasant apart from the section along the main road and took in some semi-moorland countryside. However the views over the urban sprawl of Stocksbridge were an almost constant reminder of the town's proximity.