Borrowdale Meet -12/11/11

Friday night Clive, Jago, Chris and Nick arrived at the CC hut at Grange in Borrowdale. We were the sole occupants. Paul arrived Saturday morning.
For the quartet it was to be mountain biking, and for Paul a short walk as he is restricted with his hip and can only manage a 5 hour walk these days!
Clive had suggested a ride in Whinlatter Forest but this would mean ferrying the bikes around to the pass. I tabled riding from the hut on the classic Borrowdale round Derwent, Keswick, Watendlath, Honister Pass and back past Castle Crag.

Everything started well after a short maintenance session and much vigorous tyre pumping session by Clive!

We headed North passed Derwent Lake until we could take the bridleway below Catbells Ridge which after a short climb gave a great descent back down to the minor road,

After passing through Keswick and now heading South we turned to climb up towards Ashness Bridge and Watendlath. Clive decided to meet us in Seatoller.
The road climb to Watendlath was slow but steady once the initial steep bits were over.

The cafe at Watendlath was dismissed as Clive would be waiting. We pressed on up the bouldery bridleway until it was possible to ride the descent! or not; or at least not all the way. Great nontheless.

A bit of Dabbing!

A lot of Dabbing!!

No Dabbing.....Just a great place to be.

Once at the bottom we met Clive and Paul who was on his 'ramble' up the route we had descended.

It was now time for a breather so we headed for the Tearoom and what a fine tearoom the 'Flock-in',

with a fine selection of buns and cakes along with pint pots of tea!

Tearoom with our descent route in the background above Christines head in the distance.

It was now time to warm the legs once more, this time on Honister Pass, what joy.

The initial steep section over, it was time to tackle the steeper section or at least until lungs and legs gave way and it was a final bikepush which gave no relief at all.

Once we had our lungs back it was time to head for home down the bridlway which contours round the fell to a col between High Doat and Dale Head. Unfortunately we got too carried away enjoying the fast descent and missed our turn off - an easy mistake to make we learned later.

After much map checking and fell climbing we assended, contoured, dropped down again we were gratefully back on track. Thankfully we could manage steady riding on a smooth track, Oh unless you are Clive looking to make an entry in the peel of the year or should I say face plant!

A lovely cut above the eye and a nice 4 inch gash on his shin to prove it. This would result in another hospital tick to the quaintly names 'Keswick Cottage Hospital' They have a minor injuries unit but dont expect to get any stitches they don't do those!

                                             Great Haemapod ...............shame about the legs!!

Just a side note, Clive was ably patched up by Dr Trasler and his amazing first aid kit which once again needs restocking after a trip out with Clive!

We finally made it down passed the rocky section beside Castle Crag with caution now taking presidence to avoid further mishaps, Oh..........unfortunately Clive had an attack of cramp,.......'Ouch'

The final ride into Grange passed without mishap.
A Good ride with plenty of incident ..Cracking!!

Paul accomplished his round without too much trouble, expecting to see us lounging in the hut but arriving back well before us.

Peak Orienteering and Biking 6/11/11

Sunday morning Chris and Nick had a trip into the peak, Chris was to enter an orienteering event at Ramsley Moor near Baslow and I was to bike within easy dropping off from Owler Bar roundabout.
The weather was fine and sunny, Chris dropped me off as scheduled and I set off in the direction of Fox House.
Steady roadwork to warm the legs through arriving at Fox House 30mins later from there I headed towards a bridleway which leads pleasantly over Totley Moor until a track is taken to drop down into the muddy valley bottom then a slow climb back up to the main Sheffield Rd.
Then the tough descent down the Blacka Moor bridleway with large boulders, steep and narrow until the fast singletrack through the woods leads to Shorts Lane and more road climbing for1.5km again to the Sheffield Rd.



After following Sheephill Road I took a rough Byway and climbed up onto Houndkirk Moor.

Heading along the main Byway towards Ringinglow Rd, up the road and back across Houndkirk Moor giving fantastic views across to Kinder in the distance, heading back towards Fox House with a final sprint along the gravel track and hopefully where my lift home was waiting

Chris was indeed waiting in the car park having just arrived not so fresh from her run across, around, down, up and around Ramsley Moor! I get the impression that controls aren't where they should be according to the map!! But Chris enjoyed her run out all the same.

Another Fine day

Pendle Hill

The Forest of Bowland area around Clitheroe is not much visited by the club so we that is Clive, Colin, Bev and Paul  decided to climb Pendle Hill.
We began our walk from the village of Barley, the hill presents a whaleback shape from here with a long broad ridge sloping northwards to the summit.


Looking back towards Barley.

 Our planned route was to take a path by the two Ogden reservoirs and climb the clough to the western edge of the summit plateau then round to the summit.

Ogden Reservoirs

An navigational error at the start took onto a parallel path to the one intended and the mutinous crew refused to divert to the original plan and took the direct route up the eastern edge to the summit. This gave a steady plod up a fairly gentle slope to the summit.
By now the hill was very busy and we joined the crowds on the summit to enjoy widespread views from Blackpool Tower over the Yorkshire Dales to the Lake District.

Distant Lake District Hills from the Summit.

The Summit Cairn

 We descended the steep eastern flank of the hill then took footpaths through small fields and a riverside path back to Barley.

Ski-touring in Franz Josef, October 2011

The following blog is from Rob Hill in New Zealand.

After much study of weather-maps and tea-leaves, four people from Geraldine and one person from Timaru eventually set out, after a couple of postponements, for a ski-touring trip on the Franz Josef glacier, on the West coast of the South Island of NZ.
The lower part of the glacier is an ice-fall which comes down almost to the coast, and is much visited by tourists; the upper part is a huge area of interconnected glaciers and nevee. The distance from Geraldine to
Franz Josef is probably about 80km as the crow flies, but 500km by road, via Arthur's Pass.

The tea-leaves told lies, and we had to spend a day exploring the beach at Okarito, disturbing the seals as they basked. The sky was clear and blue, but apparently there were strong easterlies up in the mountains, preventing flying in. We choppered in early next morning to the Almer hut, which sits on rocks above the icefall at around 1700m.

The Almer Hut.

A quick sort-out, and we cramponed off along the side of the glacier, donning skis once above the last of the major icefalls. The gradient then was very gentle, and we were able to cover a lot of ground, exploring the various arms. The run back at the end of the day was a little sticky.

Longdrop and the Franz Glacier

The easterlies which had kept us in the valley the day before had forced snow up between the roofing iron and the ceiling of the hut. When we returned, the majority of the area of the ceiling was steadily dripping water so I had the novel experience of having to use my bivvy bag inside a hut.
It blew mightily during the night, and the next day was raining and claggy. Some of us emerged at about 3pm, this time finding a way up the middle of the glacier. The run back was much better than the day before.

Our last day produced the weather the tea-leaves had promised- blue and still. We traversed round on crampons to the Salisbury glacier and skinned up to the saddle with the Franz Josef.

Salisbury-Franz Col

View down the Salisbury Glacier

Then followed a delightful run back down, on perfect snow in the upper part, still a little hard in the lower. We traversed back round to the hut on very sloppy snow, to meet the helicopter at around 1.30.
It's a huge area to explore, as is the neighbouring Fox glacier. Much of the snow gradient is gentle, yet even some peaks of the main divide are accessible when conditions allow.

Peak Biking -31st Oct 2011

Monday was a day off work so we decided to load the bikes on the car and head to the Peak.

We parked along the Road to Fairholmes and headed up the sharp climb passed Crook Hill farm which soon warmed the legs! Continue to climb up through the pastures with fine views over to Derwent edge (where we would be ascending later).

A great ride along sandy tracks and then through the trees with a cautious decent onto the reservoir road.



Having followed the road around the reservoir past Fairholmes it was the tough climb up to Derwent edge.Well worth the effort eventually giving the fantastic decent down towards Cutthroat Bridge.

The final section led us along the bridleway passsed the rear of Ladybower Inn with a final rocky section waiting to catch us out.

Another smashing day out completed with egg and chips in Hathersage!