Hotpot & Photographic competition:-

Members Present: A goodly number.

Potential Members: Yes.

A good turnout for the evening, with 30+ members and guests partaking of the Hotpot and Apple Pie or the Globe’s bar menu.

Paul Evans kindly agreed to judge this year’s photo competition. The winners and runners up, which are now on the web, were:

Climbing Action:

1. Sean Kelly
2. Roger Dyke
3. Dave Shotton

Mountain Action:

1. Sean Kelly
2. Michelle Harvie
3. Andy Stratford

Mountain Landscape:

1. Pete Walker
2. Alan L Jones
3. Sean Kelly

Human Interest:

1. Midge Castick
2. Colin Maddison
3. Dave Shotton

See the pictures here.

The Climbing

Ten turned up for the climbing activity at New Mills with two rebels (Colin & Bob) visiting Castle Naze: 'a proper crag'.

Members: Gareth Williams, Lucie Crouch, Jim Symon, Paul Evans, Andy Stratford, Dave Dillon, Mark Ashley, Al Metelko, Roger Dyke.

Guests: Chris.

Decent weather ensured a good turnout despite the shaded location.

The recently bolted bridge Pillars provide good, if a little bizarre, 'dressed gritstone sport climbing'. There is even a topo and route names! Paul led up The Thin End F6b leaving quickdraws in for others and was duly followed by Gareth, Jim, Andy and Dave. The F6a+ route on the other arete, using the same bolts and draws, was ascended by many others. The other end of the bridge pillar got the same treatment with a variety of leads and top-roping from most of the party on F6b+ and F6a climbs. The best named route ''Revenge of the Grit Bolting Antichrist'' F6b didn't see an ascent!!

On the Trad, Andy got stuck into Alcove Crack HVS 5a followed by Jim. Gareth led the hardest route of the day - a clean onsight ascent of Mather Crack E2 5b followed not quite as cleanly by Andy!

King of the Swingers E1 5b provided the best entertainment of the day with a fine lead of the first two sections by Paul, who then escaped leftwards from the super steep and green upper section. Both Jim & Andy, following on Paul’s ropes, made valiant attempts on the upper section but were beaten back.

Mark provided the day’s danger moment when a hold snapped on Deception HVS 5a, showering Dave with sizeable debris. All in all a good day on one of the more esoteric crags of the Peak.

The Walk

Members present: Michelle Harvie, Mark Garrod, Dave Wylie, Dave Shotton, Kate Harvey.

Prospective Member: Simon Robertshaw.

The select team of 6 had a very select walk ahead of the Hotpot. We covered approx. 9 miles of hard terrain over Bleaklow in 5 hours, on a lovely mainly sunny day, with excellent visibility, and saw absolutely no-one all day on the hill – quite amazing!

The ascent of Wildboar Clough onto Bleaklow was entertaining, with sufficient scrambling to keep the interest, along with sunshine, snowflakes in the air, ice on some rocks, and frozen grass in the shadows. Once up the clough, we continued along the rock pavement of the stream bed for a few hundred metres, then struck off-piste SSE heading for Bleaklow Rocks. A late lunch was called for when we had views of almost to the east coast, coupled with a hazy Snowdonia in the west. Our route doubled back from Bleaklow Rocks to Wainstones – dangerously close to the path at times, then cut the corner between the two descent options to Torside Clough, where we finally admitted defeat in our off-track venture to following the Pennine Way back down to Longendale. We just missed Pete and Alan who did half of our walk, and finished 20 minutes ahead of us. Great half-day out, although rather tiring for most of the party (including the leader).

The annual President’s Hotpot is being held at the Globe in Glossop once again. The meal will start prompt at 7pm, and consist of a veggie hotpot plus apple pie and custard, followed by the photo competition. Hopefully we will precede the hotpot with some outdoor action; see the Bleaklow walk below, along with Al’s climbing meet at New Mills Tors, so no excuses.

Bookings for the meal to me, please. We did ask the Globe if they could put on a second meal choice, as we do realise that a veggie Hotpot is not everyone’s choice, but logistically that wasn’t possible. However, they are happy for people who don’t want the Hotpot to order their own choice from the bar meal menu – if you do please make sure you order in plenty of time so as to not miss out on the photo competition.

As ever, the annual photo competition will be run in digital format only for all shots taken over the last year, in the 4 prize categories of:

• climbing action
• mountain action
• mountain landscape
• human interest or the digital fun

Photos in digital format to me (Mark Garrod) please, with details on which category each photo is being entered for, plus ideally a description of where and/or who each photo is of, 1 week ahead of the Hotpot, deadline Monday, April 9th latest.

Hotpot Afternoon Walk on Bleaklow

I am again planning a walk local to Glossop that will start a bit later than normal, at 1pm, and finish in time to allow a quick change of kit in/near the car, before heading of straight to the Hotpot. Make sure you bring a change of clothes, just in case. You can, of course, join the walk even if you can’t make the Hotpot. We will plan for a late lunch / tea stop at some point on the walk (not in a tea-shop).

The walk may be a bit weather dependent, but the start is at the car park to the south of Torside reservoir at 068983, off the B6105. This goes up the opposite side of Bleaklow to the Hotpot walk last year. The good/fair weather plan is to head up Wildboar Clough, with a bit of damp scrambing en route for those who fancy it, then strike off ESE across the bleakness of Bleaklow, aiming for Bleaklow Stones, just to get a feel for the nature of this unique terrain. We may even then resort to the path (shock-horror) back along to Wain Stones, before choosing one of the routes down along Clough edge and back to the cars. Possibly 14-15 km, but some reasonably tough terrain, so should keep us occupied and also earn your hotpot. Please share cars where possible, and let me know if you are definitely coming if possible.

Climbing at New Mills Tors

There are climbs here of all grades including some recently bolted routes. I'll try to be there from 11am onwards. Please check the scribble page should the weather not be good. If you do have a clip stick please bring it along.

(Al Metelko)