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About the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club (NMC) The NMC is a meeting point for climbers, fell walkers and mountaineers of all abilities. Our activities centre on rock-climbing in the summer and snow and ice climbing in the winter. Meets are held regularly throughout the year. The NMC is not, however a commercial organization and does NOT provide instructional courses.
NMC Meets The NMC Members’ handbook (available to all members) and the NMC website list the dates and locations of all meets. This magazine lists the meets arranged for the next few months. Non-members: Are always welcome to attend meets.
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BMC Public Liability Insurance for climbing incidents. Discounted NMC guide books. Discounted entry at certain indoor climbing walls and shops. Access to the extensive NMC library.
Join the NMC Download a Membership form from: www.thenmc.org.uk Send the signed and completed membership form with a cheque made out to the NMC for the membership fee (see below) to the Membership Secretary at the address shown on the membership form. Membership Fees •Full £25 •Prospective £10.00
Magazine articles This is YOUR magazine so please keep it running by writing about your own climbing experiences. Even beginners have something to write about. Send Contributions to: magazine@thenmc.org.uk
Note: Winter indoor meets require a minimum of prospective membership (see below) due to venue requirements for third party insurance.
Membership Details Members are Prospective until they fulfill the conditions for Full Membership (see membership form.) Full membership is valid for one year from the end of February. Prospective membership expires at the end of March each year. Membership gets you: • Copy of the quarterly magazine. NMC Quarterly Magazine
taken by the author of the article.
Committee 2009/2010 President – John Mountain Vice Pres. – Peter Bennett Secretary – Caroline Judson Treasurer – John Earl Membership – Sam Judson Access – Richard Pow Hut Co-ord. – Neil Cranston Hut Bookings – Derek Cutts Magazine Ed. – Peter Flegg Social Sec – Librarian – Sam Judson General: Adrian Heath, Eva Diran, Malcolm Rowe, John Dalrymple, Piotr Bamberski & Ian Birtwistle.
As an affiliate to the BMC, the NMC endorses the following participation statement: The BMC recognises that climbing, hill walking and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions and involvement.
Black & White Photos? If you received this magazine as a paper copy, then you are missing part of the picture as the download version of the magazine is in colour. To arrange for email notification that the latest issue of the magazine is ready for you to download, contact the membership secretary at: secretary@thenmc.org.uk
Photos
Copyright The contents of this magazine are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the NMC. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the NMC.
Cover Shot Lewis Preston on final pitch of the Steger Route, Torre Vajolet, Dolomites
Unless otherwise stated all photos in this issue were September 2009
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What’s in this issue?
Wednesday evening meets
Weekend and winter meets........................... 3 Wednesday evening meets ........................... 3 Guest speakers & socials .............................. 3 A Flash of Perspiration ................................. 4 Club News .................................................... 6 An Interesting Mountaineering Experience .... 9 The NMC Annual Dinner – 2 perspectives: 11 Zermatt 09 lessons learned ......................... 15 Holiday Reflections Austria 1960/70 & 200918 Descent into Matupi Crater, Mt. Tavurvur . 20
Wednesday evening indoor meets start again from 7 Oct 09, at the excellent wall at Burnside Community College in Wallsend.
Weekend and winter meets The following list shows the weekend and winter climbing meets currently arranged. You MUST contact the meet leader in advance, as any accommodation may be limited or already fully booked. Note: A deposit may be required to reserve your place on a trip. 2-4 Oct 09
North Wales—John Mountain 01670 505 202
17 Oct 09
Slipstones—Chris Davis 07967 638 826
1 Nov 09
MTB meet—Adrian Heath 07903 377 012
19-22 Nov 09
Kendal Mountain Film Festival
13 Dec 09 New date!
President’s walk—John Mountain 01670 505 202
8/9 Jan 10
Kincraig—Tim Hakim 01434 606 825
29/30 Jan 10
Muir of Inveray—Robin Sillem 0191 272 7202
The club has the wall booked exclusively for NMC members and it’s a great venue for us. Bring all your own equipment. Note: For College insurance purposes ALL CLIMBERS at the wall must be either a Full or Prospective NMC member. Members MUST show their NMC membership card at the College reception desk, pay the £4 entrance fee and sign in at the desk. The wall is available from 18.00 to 21.00 after which we adjourn to the Shiremoor House Farm Pub for beer, food and chat.
Guest speakers & socials Rick Barnes has taken on the task of organising our winter social calendar and so far has confirmed dates for 2 impressive guests speakers. The Guest Speaker evenings are held in the upstairs lecture theatre at Burnside College and start at 20.30. 21 Oct 09
Steve Blake - The County, The World & Back Again Refer to page 8 for more details on this event
12/13 Feb 10 Waters Cottage, Kinlochleven—Jeff Breen 01661 834 378
18 Nov 09
13-21 Feb 10
Slovenia Ice Climbing—Kin Choi 07810-833-179
TBA
Katherine Schirrmacher
TBA
Gordon Stainforth
12/13 Mar 10
Black Rock Cottage—Tim Catterall 01207 509 430
TBA
Steve McClure
26/27 Mar 10
Alex MacIntyre Hut—Eva Diran 07824 627 772
TBA Dec 09
Xmas Quiz
TBA Dec 09
Xmas dinner
TBA Feb 10
Ceilidh
NMC Quarterly Magazine
Nick Colton - Alpine Style Refer to page 8 for more details on this event
September 2009
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A Flash of Perspiration Bob Bell
It was the last NMC Newsletter’s cover picture of the trapeze artists at Jack Rock that provoked a memory. Not discovering climbing until in my mid-thirties I was over the hill before I even started. It’s been a steady progression in that direction ever since. After a first year of rock climbing I was beginning to feel comfortable with the vertical—it then seemed logical to have a look at snow and ice. Pretty exciting prospect. As a lad my favourite awakening was not Christmas morning, nor the Birthday— not even Guy Fawkes (second prize). It was that morning when everything outside sounds muffled and strange—an overnight snow dump. Sledge out of the coal shed— several hours of dicing with milk floats, horses and carts etc.—and then back home sooty faced with red raw hands. Don’t forget—in the fifties no long trousers were allowed until you were thirteen and so the knees would be showing that funny orange and blue mottled effect often seen on lady revellers in the Bigg Market. Lacking DVDs in those days and not having discovered much in the way of instruction books, snow and ice technique seemed a little mysterious. I had seen some complicated photos of a French guy doing something called piolet and triolet in what looked to be a sort of snow-based Morris dance. Otherwise tales from W H Murray seemed to make light of it—“Nae finer belay than a standing mon wi’ a broad shoulder” and he did it all in a kilt! Och— it would all become obvious. Apparently axe and crampons were required. A very accomplished grand old man of the mountains generously loaned me a magnificent long hickory-shafted axe and some impressive wrought iron crampons with ten points and a nest of leather straps—perfect. NMC Quarterly Magazine
A Bowderstone February meet was at hand so as a prospective I set off and met up with ‘Steve’ who seemed to know less than me. The scene cuts to us standing below Central Gully on Great End. Roped up, off I go. In no time I find I am on a neovertical snow slope with both feet cramponed in sideways. I am grasping the shaft of the axe which has its pick buried deep in the nevee at chest level. Further progress seemed a challenge. I should point out that one vexed decision had been how to attach the axe to my body. After some consideration I had opted for a waist loop attached with a long line to the axe head. On my hands were a pair of Dachstein (boiled wool) mitts. The next thing happened very quickly. Wet woolly mitts on smooth hickory are not feted for their frictional properties and I was suddenly dangling from the axe head by the line and waist loop. The axe was out of reach way above me—but holding firm. Hmmm. What to do? Steve was impressed but not full of ideas. With a flash of inspiration—I kicked feet in to the slope and set off to swarm up the line hand over hand until I reached the axe. But this time I carried on—mantleshelfed the axe and stood on top of it. Actually this was not a great improvement. What next? At this point a rarely used climber’s organ came into use—the brain. I was able to kick one good foothold into the nevee over to the side of the axe—and then another. Soon I was established on the slope and could semi-crouch to retrieve the axe. Time for a more considered approach. Surely what you did with an axe—was cut? Soon the chippings flew—and it worked! Cut two—step two, cut two step two. Ah! Death where is thy sting? A rope length was achieved with some energetic hewing and up came Steve. Minutes later the whole of Central Gully was at our feet. From there on everything was as glorious as you could hope for on a perfect
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Winter’s day. Across to Scafell Pike, up part of Jacks Rake, across the West Wall traverse, finally popping up out of the vast cathedral-like whiteness of Deep Ghyll on to the top of Scafell for a spectacular sunset. The sky was going a weird orangey blue colour—now where had I seen that before?
We will look at:
Winter Skills Course A Beginners' Winter skills weekend is being held on the 9th/10th January 2010. Location: LSCC Hut, The Milehouse, Kincraig. If you want to try the Scottish Winter Experience for the first time the NMC is running another winter skills training weekend at the start of this winter. Based on the experiences from last year we have changed the format slightly so that it will cover more options and there is subsidy from the BMC. The weekend is split into two parts: Saturday 9th January 2010 - 6 places Basic winter skills day for those who've never been out in winter before. This day isn't about climbing, more the basic movement skills which will cover: - Winter clothing - Ice axe & crampon use for walking - Emergency techniques - Avalanche theory (intro) - Winter navigation (intro)
- Using climbing axes - Climbing in crampons - Stances - Rope management - Gear placement in the winter Requirements for Sunday: Basic winter skills (e.g. attend Saturday's course) + reasonable fitness Instructor: Tim Hakim (MIA, Winter ML, MIC Trainee) Note: Although this is intended as a beginners' meet accommodation will also be available at the hut for other NMC members wishing to attend the meet but not the course. Bookings: Tim Hakim, preferably by email, Beyond.the.horizon@lineone.net Note: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 01434-606-825. Please state in your email whether you want Saturday's course, Sunday's course, both days or accommodation only. Bookings are only confirmed with full payment.
Requirements for Saturday: Reasonable fitness with summer walking experience
Costs: To be fully paid by 15 December 2009
Sunday 10th January 2010 - 6 places Intro to Scottish Winter climbing. A day spent winter climbing which will depend on the wishes of the participants but is aimed at beginner winter climbers.
• Saturday's course + 2 nights' accommodation: £54 • Sunday's course + 2 nights' accommodation: £14 (no charge for instruction) • Saturday and Sunday's courses + 2 nights' accommodation: £54 • 2 nights' accommodation only: £14
NMC Quarterly Magazine
September 2009
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Club News
Bowderstone Hut improvements Dave Hume
On 10/11th August, the old mattresses in the hut and Hermitage were replaced with new ones.
Climbers’ Guide to Photography The female members of the committee have suggested the following guidelines for use of photos in the club magazine: •
If it's a picture of a bloke and they look silly it's probably fine to print.
•
If it's a picture of a woman, and they look absolutely stunning, it's fine to print.
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Three NMC members (John Mountain, Peter Bennett and Dave Hume) removed the old forensic science training specimens and ferried them to the lay-by near the NT car park.
If it's a picture of a woman and they DON'T look absolutely stunning— note this includes just looking ok, good, nice, lovely, etc, then it's best to take a cautionary approach as women are funny creatures, and they have weird insecurities about their big bums and toe nails.
The sleeping platforms then had a good scrub, and the bottom layer was excavated, yielding 45p, two guitar plectrums, 4 rotting socks, a lot of dust and fluff, and a host of unidentified lying objects. The new fire safety-approved mattresses were delivered from Edinburgh in a white van driven by two Australians using a satnav that took them to the café at Watendlath. During the 2.5 hour wait, the following facts were proven by statistical analysis: •
40% of people who pass a large pile of mattresses beside the road will neither
How many mattresses can you get in the back of an estate car? NMC Quarterly Magazine
September 2009
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• • • •
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look nor speak. 40% will look but not speak. 19% will look and make a joke or ask a question. 1% will accuse you of fly-tipping and will be back later to see that they are moved. There are twice as many open-topped Bentleys in Cumbria than unmarked white vans when you are waiting for a van. 0% of boulderers at the Bowderstone think that wall-to-wall fitted mattresses around the base are a good idea.
Change of date - President’s Walk Please note that the date of the President’s Walk has been changed to 13 December 2009. Wildtrak Discount Week Wildtrak are holding their annual special-discount week exclusively for NMC members from Monday to Friday 26 November inclusive. Wildtrak are offering NMC members a discount of 20% off the RRP. Kyloe Out Tree Felling Richard Pow
The scheduled tree felling at Kyloe Out has been completed. The purpose of the work was to remove some of the selfseeded trees growing at the bottom of the crag that were beginning to be troublesome. These included a few very big spruce that were keeping the crag damp and dark in places and beginning to spoil routes in the immediate vicinity. Andy Cowley has done most of the felling. The work was paid for by the BMC and done with the support of Scottish Woodlands, agent for the landowner.
NMC Quarterly Magazine
BMC Clubs Committee John Mountain
In response to some grumblings among constituent Clubs concerning the lack of focus by the BMC on club issues, the BMC has responded by proposing a Clubs Committee. Full details of this initiative can be found on the BMC website. Each BMC Area has been asked to elect a representative to serve on the Clubs Committee. The process is that constituent Clubs can nominate a rep and the local Area Committee will approve (after an election if there is more than one nominee) the person to go forward onto the BMC Clubs Committee. The NMC Committee Meeting of 15th September agreed the desirability of an NMC person being the NE representative and Malcolm Rowe agreed to put himself forward. The BMC has accepted Malcolm's nomination, but Malcolm will need to be formally approved at the next NE Area meeting. If there are further nominations made by Clubs in the NE Area, then there will be an election. It would obviously be desirable for all those NMC members who can attend this meeting, to do so, in order to ensure Malcolm's election. The date of the meeting is not yet fixed, but is likely to be 7th December. As soon as this is confirmed, a posting will be put on the club website. So keep a look-out!
Deadline for the next issue The deadline for contributions to the December issue of the Quarterly Magazine is 7 December 2009.
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Winter Socials Rick Barnes
The winter socials are for the benefit of members and friends, it's part of what you get for your annual subscription. We will try to please all interests and tastes so please support us and make every effort to attend the slide shows and talks that have been arranged. Note: When the dates for the other speakers and social events are confirmed the information will be made available on the club’s website (www.thenmc.org.uk) and where possible directly to you by email.
The following provides some extra details on what to expect at the evenings currently arranged. 21 Oct 09—Steve Blake The County, The World & Back Again A climbing odyssey starting in Northumberland, travelling to some of the worlds best crags such as Yosemite then returning to uncover some little known County gems. 18 Nov 09—Nick Colton Alpine Style
The Guest Speaker evenings are held in the upstairs lecture theatre at Burnside College and start at 20.30.
In the 1980's Nick was among the UK's leading alpine climbers with many of his routes not being repeated until many years later. After a couple of decades away from climbing he has returned to climb again at the highest level.
Bryn Roberts gets ‘tangled up in blue’ tape while belaying on the Dulfer Route on the west face of Cima Grande, Dolomites Lewis Preston
NMC Quarterly Magazine
September 2009
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‘An Interesting Mountaineering Experience’ Graham Williams
It was getting late in the trip. For two weeks we had climbed most days, long routes, short routes, via ferratas and even a few sports routes. One route had been looming out of the guide book. It’s difficult to say why this route had started to exert such a grip on our imagination. The NW Arete of the Torre Firenze is a 12 pitch Grade IV+ route in the Val Gardena. The hard pitches are early on, after which ‘Classic Dolomite Climbs’ made it sound easy. The other inducement was the promise of an easy descent. After a fortnight of exposed down climbing, committing abseils and skittering down steep gullies this seemed especially attractive. So the route became never far from our minds when we were discussing our plans. However, time was running out. The car breaking down had thrown a spanner (or rather a servo link) into the works and the last day approached. After failing to commit to a route on the Sella Towers, because of dodgy weather starting to build to the west, I hunted round Canazei for a promising weather forecast. The one outside Tourist Information didn’t look encouraging so I wandered into the climbing shop and asked there. “It will be sunny tomorrow”, the man behind the counter announced and showed me the meteo on the computer. Buoyed up by the news I went back to the campsite and suggested to Richard (aka Reng) that we give it a go. At 7.15 the next morning we left the campsite to drive over to Val Gardena. It was cloudy, but the forecast had said it would be cloudy early on then clear. We parked at the Col Raiser cable car station and walked up through green and pleasant meadows and woods before striking off through some scrub and onto a scree slope leading to the foot of the route. It looked as if the man in the climbing shop might be NMC Quarterly Magazine
right, the cloud seemed to thin and the day brightened. Reng set about the first pitches, which the topo gave as 80m of II-III. The rope slowly snaked out, not at the rate of movement I had expected from this pitch. Following the pitch I appreciated why, the rock was greasy and cold from yesterday’s rain and the cloud rather than lifting was now swirling around the valley again. I led out another 30m to a ledge. The topo had a ledge marked on it but above where I was there was another ledge and another above that. I belayed anyway and sent Reng upwards to explore the next ledge. He found a bolt, but then double pegs higher still where he belayed. I followed, looking for a long right traverse that should be the key to getting onto the arête proper. The question remained, which ledge, the one now below us or the higher one. I down climbed to the bolt and wandered out rightwards. The presence of a peg seemed to indicate we were on the correct line. An exposed pull round the rib seemed to fit the topo but just as my anxiety was easing I snapped a hold and then found myself on rather featureless broken ground. As I brought Reng up I contemplated the escape options but he seemed happy to continue. The next pitch was shown as going to the right of a rib, the question was which rib on the buttress above did it mean. He looked left, then right and started to climb something that looked much harder than the IV+ given for this, the key pitch. I urged him to step down and look further right again. This time he found a peg and some well used holds and led the crux with some style. The cloud was still around us and I felt a few spots of rain in the air. It was now 13.30, we had spent over three hours on the first few pitches and my anxiety levels had started to rise again. I scrambled quickly up some broken ground to below a chimney, a peg and some tat confirming the correct line. The next couple of easy pitches at least were quickly dispatched and then two pitches of pleasant climbing up an open groove line also went without any further problems.
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At the top of the last groove I found a single bolt to belay to at the start of the upper section of the arête. As Reng started up this it started to rain and it quickly became obvious that this was going to be more than a few spots of rain this time. By the time I seconded the pitch the rock was wet and my water proof was on. Reng was belayed on the arête, the stance looked obvious but there were none of the pegs promised by the topo. I wondered if a terrace just below us might offer an escape but by now it seemed a safer option to finish the route rather than try to find some way of retreating. Once I started climbing I felt better. The rock was quite juggy and had none of the polish of a UK limestone route, so climbing it in the wet was not as desperate as I had feared. I took what seemed like an obvious groove chimney line on the right side of the arête. In retrospect this may have not been quite the right line, but forcing progress to the top by the easiest way now seemed to be the order of the day.
Reng then led up another easier pitch, still on the right side, and found a peg to belay to. Still thinking that we were on the route as given by the topo I headed up another groove/chimney line expecting to belay at the top on the arête, giving Reng a final pitch up the summit slabs. At the point were the chimney narrowed and the climbing got harder I found two pegs ancient and modern. Looking up the pitch I convinced myself that the notch formed by the top of the chimney must be on the arête. The rain had now stopped and the rock was drying remarkably quickly. Reaching the ‘notch’ I looked left and saw the ground levelling off. I realised, with a huge sense of relief, that 1 was at the top having somehow evaded the final pitch in the topo by staying on the right of the arête. Reng arrived and we wandered on the few steps to the summit. Reng signed the route book that was hidden in a metal box in the small cairn on the summit. It was 17.30. After some of the descents earlier in the trip this one was a joy, a grassy walk down to a notch and then a
Reng signing the route book
NMC Quarterly Magazine
September 2009
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short climb up a gully onto the Selvia Plateau. Nearly all of the routes before on the trip had ended in a sterile stone environment, here we ended up on a grassy limestone meadow on which large lopeared sheep were grazing. It was 18.00, we took photographs and sent a text to Bryn and Mike to say that we were safely at the top. Weak rays of sunshine tried to force their way through the clouds and we started to walk down. The walk seemed long but it was easy. With little traffic on the road we managed by 20.30 to get to the restaurant in Canazei where the others had already started their last night of the trip meal. “How was it”, came the question. I said, “It was an interesting mountaineering experience”. They smiled, knowing all that that meant.
The NMC Annual Dinner – Two perspectives: 1) New Members, New President, New Venue Andrew Shanks
This year marked the first NMC dinner under the John Mountain presidency, and the first ever in the Blue Bell. With so much novelty, it seems only fitting that a new member should share his recollections of the event. The day began, as is typical of NMC meets, not at the hotel, but at the crag and in this case Berryhill, where a handful of members had gathered in the hope of avoiding the President’s dribble, sorry I mean the persistent drizzle that covered most of the county. I arrived, as is typical of my style, late, having managed to take a wrong turn navigating a single field, but still had time to join Lofty and his girlfriend Helen for Rob’s lessons on the application of the blindfold crane stance to effective climbing; Elsewhere Bertie senior achieved a quite spectacular series of solos NMC Quarterly Magazine
summarised separately. Eventually the climbers headed off to the campsite and the hotel, wary of missing the pre-dinner drinks and allowing time for the ladies (more about them later) to achieve a level of elegance never before seen on a campsite in Belford. As the party filtered their way into the hotel bar, we were afforded a rare opportunity to observe each other in gear other than our cragging kit, including Bryn’s long-awaited sandstone ensemble, and the ‘lovely ladies’ who earned numerous mentions in the after-dinner speeches and probably the lion’s share of the event photos as well. Even your humble reporter made a valiant effort to comply with the “No Jeans” directive. Only Neil forgot the smart dress code and opted instead to promote his reputation as a hippie, complete with guitar. We arrived in the large hall with the task of deciding where to sit, when it became apparent that a segregation of mature and junior members was appearing. Once people had remembered what they had ordered dinner was eaten with vigour and followed by impromptu photo taking out on the balcony, with special attention to the ‘lovely ladies’. When not on the subject of the ladies, the after dinner speeches drew strong inspiration from the works of Tom Patey, with Jon Trafford recounting Patey’s guide to being an accomplished climber without doing much climbing (something novices such as myself would do well to take to note of), and concluding with the President’s stirring recitation of a poem about a climber’s romantic rivalry and soapy boots. The evening then moved on to musical entertainment, with a memorable rendition of “the Teenage Delinquent’s Song” by John Mountain, followed by the assembly of an impromptu quartet, consisting of Neil on guitar, Eva on harmonica, Rob on Northumbrian pipes, and Helen on the clarinet. Although the crowd was kind the musicians were well aware of the
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Some of those ‘lovely ladies’
haphazard nature of the resulting ‘music’, and decided that next time it might be wise to leave jamming for cracks and have some kind of rehearsal. Slowly, the evening wore to a close and the revellers drifted back to rooms and tents, assisted on their way by discreet nips of whisky. The hardy campers continued the shenanigans fuelled by more of the stuff that you regret having had more of the next morning. The soft pre-dawn light prompted dispersal from Bryn’s party tent to individual canvass abodes while there was still a vague chance of some climbing later that day. On a grey Sunday morning at Bowden, I found myself in the entirely unfamiliar experience of being first on the crag and feeling unexpectedly clear-headed. Eventually, the happy campers began turning up, and once the fresh air and exercise of the warm up routes had taken the edge off everyone's morning after feeling, another successful day's climbing was had, including Helen’s first outdoor NMC Quarterly Magazine
climb on Introductory Staircase. I also managed my second deck-out to date on ‘The Scoop’, thanks to focusing on a tricky early move to the exclusion of such niceties as letting my belayer know I was actually climbing again. On the plus side, I was able to pick up some impressive grit-rash on the way down (chicks dig scars, I’ve been told). Finally, the clouds departed, along with the majority of the climbers, leaving the few stragglers to enjoy basking in brilliant sunshine as we ate our sandwiches at the base of the crag. Many thanks to John for organising such an enjoyable weekend, and the Blue Bell for the quality of their hospitality. 2) An ex-pat’s view Andy Birtwistle
As an ex-pat the only good thing about not living in the North East is the chance to get back up there from time to time. The Coonty is a place where the terms
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‘through rosy coloured spectacles’ and ‘never go back’ certainly don’t apply and I have to be honest when I say I miss the place. Living in south Derbyshire, as I do these days, has some advantages one of which ISNT the weather! It never stops bloody raining down here. So when El Gobbo our revered President, arranged the Annual Dinner at the Blue Bell in Belford instead of the Lakes I jumped at the chance to get back on home territory and sample the delights of warm dry sandstone and catch up with a few old friends. Mid-June at Bowden sounded perfect. Late evening sun casting its warm glow over the rock, the stunning views as the sun sets over the Cheviots, just perfect. The 26th was my birthday as well so I could have a double celebration and try to get as many routes in as possible. Sorted. The first warning sign was, I suppose, to be expected. A confusion of emails between myself and said President led to him phoning me on my mobile a few days before the event. “Hello Bertie, were you under the impression that I’d booked you and Sue in at the Blue Bell Saturday night cos I haven’t?” At the time of the call I was driving through thick cloud up to the Roaches after a day (week) of driving rain and wasn’t in the best frame of mind. Bugger! Anyway true to style he sorted it out, booked us in and we were back on track. So we set off North from Ashbourne on Friday afternoon in blazing sunshine (the first for weeks) expectant of a top weekend. Driving up the A1M the clouds gathered and by the time we got to Durham it was like the top of the Ben on a very bad day. We arrived at John and Kath’s in Morpeth in drizzle, fog and dark at around 6pm. This I need to remind you is MIDSUMMER! The forecast was much the same for the whole weekend. Bugger! Saturday dawned (just about) much the same and plans scrapped for outdoor climbing I prepared to go to the bouldering wall before heading off to NMC Quarterly Magazine
Belford. That was knocked on the head with a late start and as The President and first Lady were leading a walk I decided to make the best of it and trog along with them. So much for my original plans to solo a few routes on pristine sandstone in the mellow summer sun. However as we headed north it got a teeny bit better, that is the rain stopped and it was just foggy, and on arrival at the Blue Bell I thought sod it I’ll go have a look at Bowden. It was dry! Well the end shot is that I had a splendid few hours soloing dozens of routes, (including up and down) just like the old days and although the tops were a bit scary, altogether I had an unexpected top time. Trouble is I never know when to give up and I’m not a youth any more and it was fortunate that Graham turned up to distract me as my arms were failing. 58 at 58 was out of the question but I managed a reputable 36. So back to the pub and get ready for the big event. The actual do turned out to be an excellent affair. The venue was good, the food was good and speeches by the President and ex President and elder club statesman Dave Roberts livened up the proceedings. Live music was also provided by club members to entertain the throng. Altogether a cracking evening. As the night wore on the elder (that’s me) members retired to the lounge to sup and chat eventually being thrown out by the lone barman who was well past his bedtime. Thanks to John for organizing it and I look forward to the same again next year, well not exactly the same; a bit of decent weather would go down well! PS—Sunday was much the same damp and misty UNTIL we got back to Newcastle when the clouds parted and glorious sunshine was cracking the flags. C’est la vie.
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Sarah Follmann relaxing in style (or attracting attention?) in Spain
NMC Quarterly Magazine
September 2009
Eva Diran
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Zermatt 09 lessons learned Robin Sillem
In the last two weeks of July this year Nick and I visited the Swiss Alps, around Zermatt, where we were joined for a week by Adrian, Piotr and Chris. We had a great time and (eventually) got a number of routes done: • Stockhorn, 3532m, N Ridge, PD • Wellenkuppe, 3902m, normal route, PD • Zinal Rothorn, 4221m, SE Ridge, AD (see picture below)
And importantly there were no major near-death experiences or epics! As this was Nick’s and my first time proper climbing in the high Alps (4000m+) we came away with quite a lot of errorbased experience and lessons for next time. Those of you who have been there and done that will probably get a laugh out of this, but perhaps the notes below will help anyone contemplating a first trip in the future. Physical fitness and acclimatization
This one is my personal experience— I’m well on the way to being an old git, and the other guys may have a different perspective:
• Alphubel, 4206m, SE Ridge, PD And a few half done: • Rimpfischhorn, 4199m, WSW ridge, PD, turned back due to tiredness and apparently deteriorating weather • Trifthorn, 3728m, S Ridge, AD, turned back 2/3 of the way up as we had already well exceeded the guidebook time and it seemed to be getting steeper. • Allalinhorn, 4027m, PD, we felt like an easy day and just went as far as the Feechopf, 3900m
I thought I was reasonably fit before we went—I’d built up to regular 10 mile runs and increased my bleep test score from ‘poor’ to ‘good’, and had a few big days out in the UK, but it still wasn’t enough. Given that a typical day (on the hill or a hut walk) involves 1000-1500m of ascent and descent, sometimes much more, this meant that during the first week or so: a. I was slow going uphill on easy ground, much slower than the guidebook time.
SE Ridge of the Zinal Rothorn, 4221m NMC Quarterly Magazine
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This could have exposed us to all the usual issues of stonefall and soft snow. b. I was soaked with sweat, so needed to carry more spare dry clothes (or would have been cold if we had had to sit around for long). c. I could manage two to three days in a row, but really slowed after that and needed a recovery day. This wasted some of the limited time we had. The moral of this is to make every effort to get as fit as you possibly can— maybe running uphill would have helped, and trying to improve recovery time. The recovery time is the main thing, I think, being able to go just as well the next day as the day before, but this is probably not a very achievable aim. As far as acclimatization is concerned, I now believe the books that say you need three to four days to acclimatize for 4000m peaks. I was struggling at 3600m on the second day, but was fine at 4200m after a week. Skills
Broadly speaking, we were reasonably well equipped with the necessary skills, with one important exception. We had a wide margin of technical ability on snow and rock, relative to the demand of the routes, had practiced crevasse rescue techniques, never needed any complex navigation (map and compass), and managed our route finding on steep ground mostly OK, with only a few occasions of going onto unnecessarily difficult ground. The thing that probably let us down most skills-wise was not climbing fast enough, or to be more exact, using inappropriately slow movement techniques. We tended to start pitched climbing much sooner than other climbers on the routes (if they did it at all), rather than moving together, and when we did move together we had too much rope out. This is partly because we don’t do much short-rope moving together in the UK, and partly because we were overawed by it all (see Mental Toughness below). NMC Quarterly Magazine
Our individual climbing speed on rock and steep choss (the picture below shows some fairly typical terrain on the Trifthorn) was fine, it was the movement as a team that was the problem. Before we go again, I’d do quite a bit of practicing short-rope technique on easy climbs and scrambles in the UK, putting in runners and quick belays where necessary but moving together as much as possible, and building up our judgement of when and where each style of movement is most appropriate. Mental Toughness
In each case where we turned back a big part (or all) of it was psychological – we were never stopped by technical difficulties or specific objective dangers. On the Rimpfischhorn we had what looked like bad weather coming in (it cleared away in half an hour) but we were tired (me most of all), not well acclimatized and way behind guidebook time, so the weather was a handy excuse in some ways. It’s very easy in the Alps to feel that things are not 100% in control and going according to plan. The rock may be shockingly loose (our rope got chopped on one occasion), bad weather may suddenly turn out to be very bad (particularly electrical storms), and the locations seem very remote and far from help. You need to move very fast, to sneak up on the mountain in the dark before it knows you are there, and run away before it can retaliate. So we tended to get spooked and retreat very easily, when in retrospect we could have continued without incident. On the other hand we avoided epics and do now have a retro to spect upon. And I was particularly anxious not to get Nick killed, or there goes the family tree. I guess this is not unusual for a first trip. It takes a while to get your head around it all, and I expect that next time we will have a more measured view of the dangers. Interestingly, we weren’t at all fazed by glacier travel and crevasse dangers, as we’d encountered plenty of these in
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Gear and equipment
Austria last year. Maybe a load more winter mixed climbing in Scotland would help, but perhaps not, as the overall ambience is rather different. Planning
My initial sports plan was laughably over-ambitious and got binned in the first few days. We were going to do some 4000m peak by an AD route just about every day, with an option on the Schaligrat on the Weisshorn (D, with a descent of the E ridge, AD) if we were ‘going well’ by the end. Ha ha. At least we didn’t put the Matterhorn on the list – I kind of knew we wouldn’t move at the speed necessary for that (which begs the question of why the Weisshorn, which is supposed to be harder, got on the list). By the way, the view of the Matterhorn from Zermatt is jawdroppingly awesome (you seem to see the whole thing, unlike the other mountains in the area), but it gets a bit more ordinary the higher up you go. Maybe much of this would have been feasible (fitness and acclimatization aside) if we had hired a guide. With someone to take care of the leading, route finding, weather assessment and general head games I think we would both have managed all the technical difficulties (up to a maximum of Severe in boots, 50 degree snow/ice) quite happily, but this wasn’t the way we wanted to do it – I did offer to pay for a guide for Nick once when I was desperate for a rest day, but he didn’t take me up on it. We had planned to do a few longer climbs with a stay in high bivouac huts, taking dried food sufficient for a supper and a breakfast (blankets and gas are provided at some of these), but in the nature of things these routes were more major undertakings and we never quite felt ready for it (see Mental Toughness above.) In the event, we probably did about half as much as our initial plan suggested, and about a grade easier. We still had a bloody good time, though, so the moral is not to get too hung up on your armchair plan. NMC Quarterly Magazine
On the whole we had this about right. Given the routes we actually did, we had a slight over supply of rock gear (4 cams, 10 wires, 5 quick draws and a load of slings and abseil tat, plus a crevasse rescue kit including ice screws, prussiks and pulleys), though we might have wanted it all if we had done what we originally planned. One 50m (46m after the stonefall incident) 11mm rope was plenty, and using two ropes for abseils turned out more trouble than it was worth (on the Zinal Rothorn we joined up with another climber who was on his own) with multiple rope jamming problems – it was quicker to use them separately, with the first one down carrying the second rope and setting up the next abseil. A single axe each was quite sufficient, and we placed one ice screw, slightly unnecessarily, on a short section of 40 degree ice. We carried a bit of spare clothing (gloves, fleece) and a bivouac shelter which we didn’t use, but really wouldn’t have wanted to do without, and a few odds and sods (a bottle of suncream each?) which we could have happily chucked. Cost
Switzerland is eye-wateringly expensive. We stayed in huts the whole time, which didn’t help as it was 60-70 SF per night, half board, with a reciprocal rights card, at least 50% more than Austrian huts. But with a short holiday you want to stay high as much as possible, as you’re probably not fit enough to do routes straight from the valley. You could save money by camping high up (in some places, out of sight of the huts) or by taking your own food and a stove rather than the hut meals (so long as the weather stays fine enough to cook outside). The Hotel Bahnhof in Zermatt is highly recommended as a valley base if you’re not camping, Gatwick airport sucks.
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Holiday Reflections Austria 1960/70 & 2009 Clive Goodwin
Following the post second world war ‘whitewash’ of Austria’s part in it, we were happy to head off to Austria in the sixties by coach, car and train for hotel holidays, walking holidays and snow and ice climbing. Despite its present popularity Vienna was then a pretty bleak place as shown by the Harry Lime character in the film ‘The Third Man’ with its haunting zither music by Anton Karas. In the parks one could feel the cold wind coming in from Hungary and easily imagine the real Iron Curtain a few miles away. However when the Austrian Schilling was only worth three old pence we were given a great welcome in the Tyrol with ‘Zimmer Frei’ signs everywhere plus folk evenings and wiener schnitzel to eat at the local Post Haus Hotel. Above all they had chains of accessible mountain huts and relatively easy membership of the British section of the Austrian Alpine Club. The tour firm, Inghams, offered membership with its organised mountain holidays as it diversified from just doing skiing. The big advantage of OeAV huts over the Swiss and French ones was that they did meals so there was less to carry and you didn’t need to get up at 2am to start your climb. Many NMC members returned each summer to tackle glaciers and bergschrund, avoiding crevasses and climbing snow slopes and rock alpine style using long thin red rope, long handled ice axes and me with my ex-WD crampons with no front prongs which were strapped on like old fashioned roller skates! Once up at a hut we ‘ticked off’ nearby peaks or continued down the other side to the next hut for the night. Reaching those huge crosses on summits like the Wildspitz you could imagine those earlier guides saying their morning prayers from the Bible kept near the cross bases. Jumping the years we now have shrinking glaciers and receding snow lines NMC Quarterly Magazine
which have left many OeAV. huts isolated on dirty rock piles, supplied by cable lifts instead of donkeys and one, I am told, has bubble cars to get the tourists there! This summer Joan and I made a nostalgic car journey to stay with some Austrian friends, who were once great skiers, and who live in their family’s converted farmhouse near Feldkirch in Vorarlberg, the province next to the Tirol. After leaving Alsace we approached along Lake Constance, past Lindau in Germany and Bregenz in Austria. The latter features in the James Bond film ‘Quantum of Solace’. On our first day we drove through the ski resort of Brand and took a short cable car up to Lünersee. We have walked around this beautiful artificial lake, surrounded by peaks, several times over the years but we promised ourselves to get up to the nearest hut this time, one stunden away. It was a hot day and I used walking poles but having boasted that in earlier days five stunden could be reduced to three, it took us one and a half hours to reach the Totalphütte at ca. 2500m and at times we wondered if we could make it! (The replacement knee did very well.) This OeAV hut of the Vorarlberg section had welcoming flags, tables, meals and for us two wonderful beers. Later on when approaching Calais we both confessed that on the ascent we had realised that our Saga holiday insurance would not have classed this as ‘walking’ if anything had gone wrong. The rescue helicopter above us near the hut had me wondering how many thousands of euros they charged nowadays for a rescue! To finish the week there we travelled by train from Feldkirch to Innsbruck, the capital of Tirol, passing through the mainly single track Arlberg tunnel and through stations like St. Anton and Imst-Pitztal. The latter had often been an NMC base for reaching Mittleberg by post bus or car and the Őtztaler Alpen and also we went there via Solden, Zwieselstein and Vent by post bus, minibus or car. Over 4 seasons
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slightly different groups, usually including Jack Donaldson, our snow and ice stalwart, stayed in accommodation such as Traschack Haus, Brandenberger Haus, Vernagt and Breslauer Hütten, HochjochHospiz and Martin Busch Haus. A lot of work was done crossing glaciers and the parties climbed the Hochvernagt Spitz, Fluchtkogel, Kesselwand Spitz, Fineil Spitz, Langtauferer Spitz, Weiskugel, Őtztaler Urkund, Wildspitz and Similaun and a few more over the years. We even ended up there when bad August weather in Switzerland forced us into abandoning our first attempt on the Eiger. Seeing so many tourists watching two Japanese climbers who had fallen on the North Face (way beyond our skills) hastened our departure to the Őtztal and a return to our favourite hut, the Hochjoch-Hospiz. The Hofburg Palace in Innsbruck this year features a Mountain paintings exhibition eg there were pre-war oils by Compton with high tech screens adjacent to each showing moving photographs of the mountains as they are now. This was all very hands-on and an inspiring exhibition called ‘Mountains, a mysterious passion’, organised by the Austrian Alpine Club Museum in the Palace. What fun to also see there ‘my’ aluminium water bottle, snow goggles and rock climbing helmet, all behind a glass case and ‘my’ wood-handled ice axe, the last of three in a wall display. Mind, their ever changing film of what appeared to be fatal mountain accidents and historical to modern stretcher rescue techniques for the lucky ones appeared to be a bit tasteless. However my German is almost nonexistent and didn’t help us to understand the commentary. Joan and I just had time then to seek out the Hotel-Restaurant Altpradl, the scene of several post climbing holiday meals and later a family holiday before returning to Vorarlberg by train. I do hope that the Zermatt trip to climb the Matterhorn, organised by Kin Choi, did go ahead and was successful. Two copies in oil of Edward Whypmer’s accident on NMC Quarterly Magazine
descending the Matterhorn were in that exhibition, but that happened long ago. We were lucky indeed to be around in the 1960s when Lakeland gullies with snow and ice pitches and Cairngorm corries provided excellent training grounds for our summer holidays in Austria where snow came up to the hut door and the glaciers were long and formidable barriers to the surrounding peaks. Happy memories for many of our older members. Note: My apologies for saying in my previous article (in the March 09 issue) that the club were once barred for club dinners from the Borrowdale Hotel when it should have been the Scafell Hotel! Full marks to Douglas Blackett for spotting this!
Yoga for climbers NMC member Carolyn Horrocks is running a Yoga course specially suited to climbers. Location: Newcastle Climbing Centre (the one in the church.) Dates: 10 sessions on Monday evening between 18.30-20.00, beginning 5 Oct 09. Cost: £60 for the 10 sessions Bookings: Reserve your place directly with the climbing centre (0191 265 6060) The course is limited to 10 people to begin with so call now. Pass the info on to anyone you think might be interested - beginners welcome You'll be all warmed up for climbing afterwards! Caroline Horrocks (Tel. 266 0183)
September 2009
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Descent into Matupi Crater, Mt. Tavurvur Lewis Preston
Papua New Guinea (PNG), the second largest island in the world, has recently been the subject of the BBC series 'Land of the Lost Volcano'. I was lucky enough to live and work in this amazing country from 1990 to 1996. The town of Rabaul, on the PNG island of East New Britain, is located in one of the most seismic-energised areas of the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'. The harbour here was used by the Japanese in WW2, is the graveyard for 56 of their battleships, and is surrounded by six volcanoes. After my on-site project duties in Rabaul were completed I was determined to explore and climb into one of the six open calderas…
denser growth trying to keep to a path almost over-grown (perhaps it was sometime since anyone had been here). Nearing the rim of the Mt. Tavurvur (Matupi) crater the growth was only shoulder height and I was exposed to the overhead sun in full force. Then suddenly I stopped climbing as immediately below was the crater, I was stood on the rim of a ‘dormant’ volcano. About 100m below was a flat floor with a crater lake under a vertical wall of crumbling rock and bright yellow sulphur crystal formations. Further round the crater rim it was possible to climb down into the volcano. A fixed hemp rope was in place: as reported it was firmly anchored with an iron stake, but in several places rotted or half burnt through to a string-thick strand. I scrambled down the gully in which the rope lay. Rocks broke loose and thundered down into the crater—it was as well to be alone. All around sulphur gases and steam hissed out of crevasses in the side of the mountain. The rock was extremely hot to touch, but that was probably more to do with the scorching sun than latent volcano.
January 1991. I walked out of Rabaul town and hitched a lift to the aerodrome. I then stopped a Public Motor Vehicle and joined about 15 others in a sprung-down pick-up, on their way down to their village settlement near Escape Bay on the Crater peninsula. They showed me where to enter the forest to climb the volcano. It was quite cool in the shade of the jungle along a good track past Sulphur Point and round to a little bay in Matupit Harbour. I had read you hire/borrow a canoe to approach from Matupit but there was no one canoeing from the island across from my redMt. Tavurvur is situated SE of Rabaul sanded beach. I crashed into NMC Quarterly Magazine
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Matupi had last errupted in 1941, although threatened again throughout 1983-84, causing residents to discuss having to relocate the whole town of Rabaul. I eased across the crater floor as one steps onto thin ice covering a frozen tarn. Once inside the caldera with the surrounding walls towering above, I might have been on the moon, were it not for a few trees visible around the rim. I explored three separate craters with dividing ridges between them within the main caldera. One contained a giant crumbling tooth rising out of a small lake. The sulphur smell became too strong and I scrambled back up to the rim with sweat and dirt oozing from every pore of my skin. I then traversed the rising rim gaining spectacular views over Simpson Harbour to the ‘Beehives’ (the sinking plug of the sea-filled crater of Rabaul’s ring of six volcanoes), with a good view of Vulcan Crater (which rose from below sea level to an elevation of 200m in six weeks in 1937, beaching an unfortunate ship up the side of the new mountain). In the other direction over to Duke of York island group and beyond with the tops in the clouds, stretched the mountain chain of New Ireland. Immediately below was the steaming prison I had escaped. Descending the opposite side of the mountain I got into real difficulty in thick jungle. I was half-strangled by creepers and vines and often suspended in the air when the false-floor of undergrowth collapsed beneath me. It took more than an hour to cover just a few hundred metres. From the rim above I had noticed a clearing before the track I was making for, but once enveloped in a vegetation that blocks the sky above, disorientation was inevitable. I was lucky to stumble out into a clearing where four islanders were harvesting the forest. They gave me water and a mango: I was bleeding, parched and exhausted. Two men then offered to lead me through the jungle to the track, from where I continued down to the sea. I took off my wrecked and filthy clothes and waded out into the refreshing waves. NMC Quarterly Magazine
Postscript
On 19 September 1994, Mt. Tavurvur erupted in cataclysmic fashion, sending up an 18km high ash plume and burying the entire town and harbour under several metres of debris. I never returned to Rabaul but often remember those idylic days I experienced that fell between the Japanese occupation and the destruction of the 'most naturally beautiful' (but danerous) place in the Pacific.
Mingulay 2010—The Plan Tim Catterall
The date for the 2010 Mingulay trip is determined by the local half-term holidays (now that I’ve become a teacher!) We will take the ferry from Oban to Barra on Saturday 29 May. If I book the fishing boat soon for the transfer to the island of Mingulay from Barra we should probably arrive on the island that same evening at about 10.30pm and so gain an extra half day on the island. There will still be plenty of daylight then at that time of year. For the return the fishing boat will pick us up from Mingulay on Saturday evening 5 June or very early on the morning of Sunday 6 June getting us to Barra in time to catch the 9.30am ferry back to Oban on the mainland. Please get in touch with me ASAP if you are interested in joining this trip. I have been there several time before and can provide you with lots of details on what to expect on this adventure trip. Tim 07704-614-814
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NMC Guidebooks
Indoor climbing: £1 off the standard entry price at: • Sunderland Wall. • Durham Wall. • Climb Newcastle (Wed. nites only). • Newcastle Climbing Centre (Byker)
NMC Website The NMC has a very informative website
www.thenmc.org.uk The website includes various discussion forums, a photoarchive for members’ climbing photos, online guides for most Northumberland crags and you can also buy from a large range of climbing books available.
NMC members pay a discounted price for any guidebook published by the NMC.
• No Nobler County A history of the NMC and climbing in Northumberland. Now ONLY £2.00 Hurry while stocks Last!!!
Currently available are the following guides:
Contact Martin Cooper on 0191 252 5707
• Northumberland Climbing Guide Definitive Guide to climbing in Northumberland. £12.50 to members (RRP £18.95)
• Climbing In North East England A guide to the best climbing in South Tyneside, County Durham, East Pennines and North York Moors £17.95 (incl. P&P)
• Northumberland Bouldering Guide The new guide, £12.50 to members (RRP £19.95) For the above 2 guides add £2 P&P if required. Contact John Earl on 0191 236 5922
Skiddaw from Adam, Shepherds Crag, NMC Quarterly Magazine
September 2009
Contact Steve Crowe on 0191 584 3361
T-shirts and Fleeces Various styles of T-shirt with printed NMC designs and fleece tops with embroidered logo are available. Order direct on the website (www.thenmc.org.uk) or contact Ian Birtwistle 07828 123 143.
by Lewis Preston page 22 of 22