South Wales Mountaineering Club

Clwb Dringo De Cymru

www.southwalesmountaineering.org.uk

Newsletter, June 2003

Notes from the Editor

Apparently April was the sunniest and warmest we've had for many years, so I expect you've all been enjoying days out on the unseasonably warm rock of South Wales. Unfortunately, I was out of the country in April and came back to a very wet May.

I mustn't grumble since I was in the Himalaya (the Garhwal of Northern India to be precise) on a ski mountaineering trip. We had our share of sunshine during the month but also our share of storms. The key thing is that on summit day the weather was fine and 8 out of 9 of us got to the top of Kalanag (6,387m). Anyone who's interested in knowing more can check out the expedition website www.btinternet.com/~johnnycool/india2003/ . I am not, however, the "johnnycool" of the web address, far too cool for that.

Anyway, it's certainly not cool at the moment. The sun has come out again, the rock is warm and dry and I look forward to seeing you all out on a crag somewhere, maybe on one of the Club meets (details below). Whatever your plans are, I hope the sun shines for you!

John Goodwin

Reports from the committee

The committee met in Swansea on 25th of March. A proposal to establish a contact list for club members was discussed. There are various difficulties with this, both legal and practical, and it was felt that if people want to contact other climbers with a view to arranging days and weekends of climbing, they are best advised to come on the evening meets. Consequently, the front page of the club's website was redesigned to highlight the Wednesday evening meets and to extend a particular welcome to novice climbers on the first Wednesday of each month.

Readers of "High Mountain Sports" magazine may have read Neil Foster's "Rock Notes" in the May edition in which he wrote about hard to obtain guide books, and one in particular. "One area which is served by a competent current guide, though one which I would dearly love to see updated as it is woefully out of date, is "Gower and South East Wales."

I have good news for Neil. The committee was told, at the meeting on 20th of May that the authors (Goi Ashmore and Roy Thomas) expect to have the proofs with the printers in the not too distant future. The new guide will have an A5 format and will cover all the developments in the area since the last edition was published in 1991.

Improvements at the Club's hut in Deiniolen continue apace. The latest focus for Kim's attention is seeking a replacement for the gas fire. There are various possibilities, see the "Letter from the Barn Warden" below for details and let Kim know if you have any particular views. It's your hut remember!

Work on the septic tank has been completed by members of Lincoln MC (who are our neighbours in Deiniolen and seem to be very good at this sort of thing). Most of the work was done by Spike the builder but, unfortunately, he never finished it off. The tank has now been capped using old railway sleepers courtesy of Lincoln MC.

Those of you who attended the last AGM will know that, due to a certain discontinuity of Treasurers, the accounts had got into a state of some disarray. Our new Treasurer Gareth is working on putting the accounts in order in time for the next AGM, but reports that the Club finances are healthy, a balance of £34K in the Treasurer's account and £3.3K in the current account.

John Goodwin

Letter from the Barn Warden

It's been relatively quiet at the barn until recently. That is until we had a mad weekend during which it would appear the electricity meter was broken into and other damage done by a visiting group. It's brought home the fact that the barn is primarily a facility for members and although the income generated by outside use is welcome, there is a flip side. I would welcome views on this, if you have any.

We are looking at replacing the gas fire in the living room. Although a number of people would like to see a wood-burning stove installed, this does beg the question of where we obtain the wood. Most likely we will get a 'look-alike' gas version. We are also looking at finishing off the kitchen improvements.

If anybody has any decent books, cassettes or board games they are prepared to pass on, please let me know.

Kim Collis

Hut keys are available from Kim or, for members living at the Cardiff end, from John Goodwin, Nigel Lewis or Pete Bennett (contact details below).

Club Meets List 2003

If you are interested in knowing further details of any of these events, contact the meet co-ordinator.

If you have any ideas for a day, weekend, week or longer climbing, at home or abroad and you'd like to open it up to other Club members, just let me know!

John Goodwin (jngoodwin@ntlworld.com/ 029 2030 9056)

You can find an up to date version of the Meets List on the Club's website (including links to photos of previous Club trips to the Ecrins) at:

http://www.southwalesmountaineering.org.uk

BMC Dates and Information

Recent Area Committee meetings have dealt with various access issues (Tremadog, Dinas Rock, Craig y Forwen etc.), insurance and risk assessment on climbing walls, youth events, expedition grants and many other things. Area Committee meetings are open to all, go along and have your say! The next meeting dates are:

Check the BMC website for details of the venues of meetings, minutes of recent meetings, how to contact the committee etc.

www.thebmc.co.uk/thebmc/areacom/area_res.asp?area_drop=7

CRoW Access Maps

You have been and will continue to be "consulted" (though you may not have realised it) on the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000 (CRoW Act) access maps. This process will eventually designate large areas of "mountain, moor, heath and downland" as open access country. During the consultation phase anyone can comment on the proposals.

The draft and provisional maps for Wales can be viewed on the Countryside Council for Wales site at www.ccw.gov.uk/mapping/(for England see www.ca-mapping.co.uk). They're well worth looking at. Large areas of the South Wales uplands look like being declared open countryside. For example, anyone like me, who has been annoyed by the stingy "permissive path" access granted to Fan Gyhirych, will be delighted to see that this looks as if it will soon be a thing of the past.

The consultation phase has already finished on Swansea, the South Wales Valleys, the West Brecon Beacons National Park and large areas of North and West Wales. Provisional maps (this means that they are still subject to appeals) have been issued for Berwyn, Llantysilio and Ruabon Mountains, Pembrokeshire and the East Brecon Beacons National Park. Consultation on other areas begins in October. We're still some way off from the publication of the definitive maps and the "right to roam" will not exist for about two years but when it comes, the change looks like being considerable.

Classic Rocking

Gwyn Evans

What can you do with a pound of Tesco's "Seriously Strong" cheddar, a tin of baked beans, two packs of cup a soup and six tea bags? This was the rations which Graham had packed for our venture to bag a couple of Scotland's Classic Rock ticks.

Like most ventures it started with an innocuous conversation, albeit over a bottle of Merlot in Meribel. Guy happened to say he had cycled into the Garbh Coire and done Squareface before bivvying and then doing The Mitre Ridge of Beinn a Bhuird the next day. What more could an avowed non-walker ask for? The plot was hatched, even the guidebook confirmed that riding-in was accepted practice.

The journey to Scotland is long and so why should we ignore Guy's invite to spend the night in the Lakes. At 11pm we arrived outside the Crown in High Newton at the same time as the phone rang with Guy enquiring how long we would be as he was keeping the bar open for us. A couple of pints later it was time for a dram of whisky and discussion of our plans. Rude awakening, I'd still have to walk for about two hours to the bivvy site!

A leisurely start saw us in Tomintoul for about 3. The bikes were loaded and we were on our way about 30 minutes later. The ride was on surfaced roads and good tracks but the weight of gear didn't make the hills any easier and the down hills couldn't be taken at a rush either. Eventually we arrived at the pony men's hut, had a brew, divvied up the gear and ropes and set off. The first point of interest was the suspension bridge designed by the same guy as London's Millennium Bridge, not a good idea having two people on it at the same time!! Thereafter things could only get better. The obvious route was to keep the river to our left. This resulted in nearly three hours of flogging over heather and a huge boulder field to the corrie floor directly below the Mitre Ridge. It was far too late to grab a route so we laid out our bivvy bags and feasted our eyes, if not our bellies.

During the night it rained and we pulled our heads inside our bags like little turtles. 6 a.m. and all was well with the world except Graham was awake and wanted to get moving. After the tin of beans, a cup a soup and a mug of tea we set off for the Mitre Ridge. We had a sack for our boots and cags which we were going to carry with us but the weight and the first pitch's hideous chimney/jammed block decided it was better left at the bottom. The chimney succumbed to arm and knee bars, a greasy jam and a friend which somehow stayed in. During the next pitch everything got a little fraught as cold wind and a rain shower froze our fingers. At the stance there was a short discussion about the cold and leaving the route but that meant leaving gear so we pressed on. The final vertical pitch, a crack in a fine position above the void, made all the better for finding a sling and screw gate, led to the traverse from the pinnacle to the plateau. Not quite knife edge but we didn't feel we could saunter across it whistling with our hands in our pockets. That's one down, one to go.

We walked across the plateau to Squareface and I suggested leaving our boots at the top so we wouldn't have to carry them on the route. Once we had looked at the descent gully we decided it wasn't PA country and kept them on. Sitting at the foot of the route deciding which crack was the way the sky darkened and my helmet started pinging. A short sharp hail shower would soon go away and so could we. Ten minutes later all the features of the crag were standing out in white-etched relief and the hail was still falling. Going back up the gully it was definitely not PA country and the plateau was being painted white by snow. Fortunately there was no wind and we could see the route back past the top of the Mitre and round to the snowfields above the corrie. Half way down we remembered the rucksack, fortunately it was traversable, and so while Graham went to put on a brew I collected the gear.

What, no brew! The matches are wet, but they can't be! We obviously hadn't cut the weight right down because we had two lots of matches, one in a now-wet box and the dry ones in a film case. Another tea bag shared with some cheese ("slow burn, good for conditions like these" G Royle, 2003). The hail and snow had stopped but the world still looked black and another night out would see all our tea bags used up and nothing for the trip back. We packed up and out, but this time we had the benefit of a bird's eye view of the route, stay to the right of the river. After a brew with the last tea bag at the pony men's shelter in sunshine, we had the ride out. It was essentially downhill but someone had been and turned some of the contours around since we'd ridden in because we still had to walk up hills to get back to the car!

A couple of pints of 80/- and a feast of haddock and chips in Tomintoul set us up for long hot baths and a rest day.

Coming Soon

The next newsletter will be published in June 2003. Please submit news items, letters, articles or pictures by 1^st June. See above for my contact details.

All submissions will be considered for publication and almost definitely printed.

Remember, the submission date means the date for inclusion in the next newsletter. An item can be sent to me at any time for future publication. Send your contributions to:

jngoodwin@ntlworld.com