YORKSHIRE RAMBLER THE YORKSHIRE RAMBLERS CLUB YRC BULLETIN Issue 23 Summer 2005 Articles Sanity.......................................................5 Roy Denney Yesterdays Men.....................7 David Laughton Turkey- 40 Years On..........8 George Spenceley Straddlebugs...........................10 David Smith A Long Road............................11 Roy Denney Yosemite........................................15 Alan Linford Orienteering...............................16 Roy Denney Sudetenland.............................18 Mike Smith Chile- Paine Circuit........21 Stuart Dix China update...........................25 Ged Campion North York Moors.............26 The Good Old Days.......35 Derek Smithson A Rhum Tale ..............................37 Albert Chapman Nidderdale...................................39 Jeffrey Hooper THE MATTERHORN - F David Smith The Yorkshire Ramblers Club Established 1892 A mountaineering and caving club Club Member of The British Mountaineering Council Secretary - Gordon Humphreys, Mountbegon, Hornby, Lancashire LA2 8JZ Editor - Roy Denney, 33 Clovelly Road, Glenfield, Leicestershire LE3 8AE The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the YRC or its Officers. ‘The Rambler’ is both a journal of the activities BULLETIN 23 - SUMMER 2005 and proceedings of the club and a source of articles on a range of subjects provided largely by the membership. It also acts as a newsletter. CONTENTS We welcome articles on climbs, caving exploits, skiing, sailing, expeditions; natural history, folklore, archaeology and other similar subjects. Material is also welcome on informal meets, Page private trips and any similar pursuits, ranging from full blown articles to small items to go in a 4 ‘Editorial’ section of chippings. We welcome poems and 5 Sanity Roy Denney photographs or drawings which need not 7 Yesterdays Men - necessarily be accompanied by any article. Tempest Anderson David Laughton However articles are always of more interest if 8 Turkey George Spenceley accompanied by photographs and maps or 10 Straddlebugs David Smith drawings showing locations. 11 Long Road Roy Denney 15 Yosemite Alan Linford Roy J Denney, Editor 16 Orienteering Roy Denney 18 Sudetenland Mike Smith MOUNTAIN QUEST 21 Don’t Worry Gov David Smith 21 Paine Circuit, Chile Stuart Dix The following is the grid from the last journal 25 Expedition Update Ged Campion and unused letters have been removed. 26 North York Moors 21 names hidden in the block are given below. 35 The Good Old days Derek Smithson 37 A Rhum Tale Albert Chapman SLIASKCALB 38 Trafalgar SIVENNEBI AONS 39 Nidderdale Jeffery Hooper NEPODNAWLA 40 Words of Whymper HA E RDF IFE 41 Bob Graham Round Roy Denney U CL KR E L YK 42 Natural History Corner DMOL OALRD RI 52 Book Reviews NOGAWYLLODP TP 54 Obituaries RRBT L O I K 55 Meets Report OVIA IWADDIKS 70 Chippings CEREKIPDLOC E NCSWIRLHOW SAIL, BLACKSAILS, ESK PIKE, TRYFAN, SKIDDAW, SWIRL HOW,RED PIKE, PILLAR, CORN DU,CRIB GOCH, BOW FELL, DODD, DOLLYWAGON, SEATALLAN, CALF, KINDER, WANDOPE, BEN NEVIS, MORVEN, YOKE, COLD PIKE. YRC Bulletin Page 3 EDITORIAL It is not proposed to confine it entirely to members of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club, and the The Editor makes no effort to define the limits of Editor is sanguine enough to believe its readers the matter which will be found between the will also not be limited to that body. If it helps to covers of this Journal. It will attempt to be an bring together Yorkshiremen and dwellers in accessible and permanent record of the Club's our Northern Counties of kindred tastes to work. Articles descriptive of rambles on the strengthen our organisation it will have attained highways and in the byways of travel; accounts of another of its objects. mountaineering expeditions; records of climbs or cave-work; and reviews of books or notices of The Journal being now an accomplished fact, the current literature bearing upon the Club's Editor hopes the members of the Club will not fail interests, will appear in its pages. to supply him with interesting matter with which to fill its pages. Its continuity is perhaps most Yorkshire will, without doubt, receive a seriously threatened by the disinclination of the considerable share of attention. Its dales still average member to put pen to paper. He is cherish many old-world manners and customs, and therefore especially anxious to disabuse much that is quaint in habit and speech. They members' minds of any preconceived notions of contain some of the most picturesque English his editorial severity. Keenly conscious of his own scenery, with the added charms of their past and shortcomings, he knows it is easier to criticise the present human occupancy; history, tale, and work of others than to do it himself. His anxiety legend fill them with moving interest. Its caves to make the journal fulfil their wishes must plead and pot-holes are only just beginning to yield their his excuse. He asks them to bear with his failings, secrets to the adventurous explorer. Its fells, and credit him at least with a single-hearted perhaps, do not suggest serious mountaineering, desire to do his duty.” but climbers can find on them interesting short scrambles which afford excellent practice for more arduous work. I could not put it better; this was the introduction by Thomas Gray to our first journal in July 1899. Easily accessible, the mountains of the Lake District and North Wales have claimed a large portion of our members' holidays. Norway with its great possibilities of fresh mountaineering work has attracted us. Switzerland has filled many of the Club's evenings in past years with increasing interest, and the fascinations of her Alps and valleys, peaks and glaciers have never waned. Perhaps we are a little too late to achieve much that is new, but we are not too late to enjoy the old, and if other men still continue to make new ascents or to find new ways up mountains the Yorkshire Ramblers hope to do likewise, and to record their adventures in these pages. From stranger, wilder lands we may have tales of PICTURE PROVIDED BY MIKE SMITH stirring incident, but it is none of the Editor's business to prophesy, and he has said perhaps sufficient to indicate what the journal will attempt. YRC Bulletin Page 4 THE EARLY ONSET OF SANITY We were even daft enough to tackle becking with snow on the higher hills and I have pictures of an Where have all the nutters gone? When I first epic climb of Scafell by Piers Gill. joined the club there was a fairly sizeable group of comparatively young members, oft referred On another occasion I recall a less intentional to as the hooligan element. Quite obviously age madness when several of us climbed the face of lends a different perspective and it may just be Scafell in deteriorating weather conditions to that our latest crop of less elderly members are unrope at the top not long before dark. Despite not only busy doing great things but may also having left a vehicle at the head of Wrynose we indulge, unbeknownst to me, in the same sorts of felt we had better take a direct bearing to dafter pastime that we used to get involved in. Eskdale to get off as it was about as dark a night as I have ever seen with constant drizzle and we I hear no tales of boulder trundling, tobogganing were carrying tackle. on fertiliser bags or indeed, becking. Sad to relate Tim Teasdale vanished up to his I have recollections of fighting our way up Hell waist when he broke through an overgrown tarn Gill where by sitting in the top of the gully you which we had mistaken for a bit of unusually flat could be shot out at a great rate of knots to drop terrain. The smell which came up took some into a deep pool. Tilberthwaite offered some believing. Tim left the club not long afterwards serious challenges but great fun along the way for reasons we can only guess at. and Howsteen Gorge helped get a good clean up after crawling around in Goyden Pot. Other recollections of stupidity include a Christmas meet after weeks of miserably wet weather when we waded across a quarter of a mile of Derwentwater just to get a drink before closing time. The reactions of various landlords and their more sane customers when we appeared on the scene after such epics would fill a book all by themselves. I recall leaving the Kirkstone Inn an hour before dusk to cross over to Kentmere and missing the soup course in the process. A near white out on High Street had delayed our arrival at Kirkstone but more sane members of the party had abandoned the effort to get there and turned back. I also recall less commendable activities such as balancing a bowl of water over a part open door I have memories of members trying to hold their to bless elderly members going out for a nature breath, submerged in deep pools, long enough for call in the middle of the night. I trust the colleagues to stand on their heads and try and younger members do not take up this habit as I climb out of waterfalls. I recall skinny dipping in might now be the recipient. I will not embarrass the Alport after a particularly dusty crossing of the actual culprit by naming him but he does now Bleaklow. owe me a pint for keeping his secret. YRC Bulletin Page 5 I remember members of Art Bart and Fargo time and carry their packs in over Red Pike in the joined by a few more of us, providing musical dark. entertainment to the customers of the Station at Ribblehead whether they wanted it or not; I We were a bit annoyed about 2.00 am when these recall a hirsute member stashing bottles of two finally made it and woke us up to assist them home brew in crevices to be retrieved in future erecting their tents.