Hon. Sec: A.R. Thomas. Allens House, Townsend, Priddy,
Wells,
Hon. Editor: – S.J. Collins, Lavender Cottage, Bishop Sutton,
Contents
Editorial
Belated Greetings
and a Happy New Remainder of 1971 to one and all. The postal strike you know about of course,
and we will not bore you with all the other reasons why the publication of the
B.B. has reached such a low ebb. As you
will notice, in order to catch up, this number is dated January and February
and we have to go back to 1959 to find the last occasion in which only eleven
B.B.s appeared in a year. In fact, we
have to go to all the way back to 1951 to find a gap in the publication of the
B.B. as large in time as this one. A
solution to the snags of organisation must, and will be found by the Committee,
but in discussion all the factors that have led to this gap in publication,
other matters are almost bound to be discussed which will affect members as a
whole particularly those who can visit Mendip only occasionally. The most important of these factors as
discussed in this Editorial in the section following.
End of the Monthly Journal?
For many years, the B.B. has proudly borne the subtitle
Monthly Journal of the Bristol Exploration Club. Its monthly publication has in times past
enabled news to be sent to members who are away from Mendip while it is still
news, and its frequent appearance compared to many other caving journals has
often been spoken of appreciatively. There are, however, several factors which point towards a possible
change in the future. The more important
ones are as follows: –
1. Next year sees the 25th anniversary of the
B.B. It would be nice to be able to sort
out the future pattern of the B.B. this year, so that it can enter its next
quarter century on a stable basis.
2. After the end of the postal strike, postal rates
are almost bound to rise, and an increasing amount of members subscriptions will
have to be spent in sending out a monthly B.B.
3. Its becoming increasingly difficult to finds
members with enough spare time to collate, staple, fold and address the B.B.
every month.
4. The need for a better form of print may mean the
abandonment of our duplicating in the B.B. In this case, a longer time scale may be needed between issues.
Obviously we have got to steer some sensible path between
producing a B.B. which is worth having without it either costing too much per
issue or getting behind, as it has done recently OR cutting down the number of
issues per year without making members who come to Mendip only now and again
feel that they are no longer in touch with what is going on.
As many of you probably know, I have always said that caving
magazines should not try to copy each other because if the B.B. for example
becomes exactly the same as, say, the Wessex Journal, then there would be
little point in both continuing to exists. Bearing this in mind, I am beginning to come round to the idea of a
fat B.B. once a quarter properly printed and having something like 40 to 48
pages of caving, climbing, travel, club news, what is going on, on Mendip, book
reviews, humour, and the like. To keep
some form of the old monthly going, I suggest that some of the regular features
would still be written on a monthly basis thus, readers would be getting
three separate accounts of what went on during the time since the last B.B.
This all wants a lot of thought and the Committee will no
doubt be doing just this over the next few months. However, if any new scheme is to have a
decent chance of success in 1972 plans must be laid BEFORE the next annual
general meeting.
Alfie
A Good Welsh Weekend
by Steve Grime
Some climbing seems to be much
more in the news than it was at one time, here is a typical climbing account to
start this years B.B
.
Dawn broke quietly and greyly as we walked round the shores
of Llyn Idwal. We had flown up to
Llanbedwr from Boscombe Down on the previous day, and then scrounged M.O.A.
transport to Ty Newyddion in the Nant Francon Pass.
On reaching the base of Idwal Slabs, it was still to dark
for us to be able to see the climb, so we struck off up the path to Twll
Odu. Imagine our surprise as we passed through
the cloud on our way to the top of Glyder Fawr. When we arrived at the summit we were able to appreciate the view even
more. In the still, cold morning light,
the
inaccessible than it really is. As we
sat there, the sun slowly rose above the clouds and bathed them in a multitude
of colours, this effect being enhanced by the constant change of form of the
cloud top.
Reluctantly, we arose from our grandstand seats and applied
ourselves to the task of descending into
easily. The die was cast for the day,
and we ground uphill again this time for the summit of Crib Goch. Breaking through the cloud again, we found
that it had risen considerably and now only three hundred feet from the
summit. Again, we stopped to drink in
this fantastic sight, so rarely seen in
directions as far as the eye could see. Our ridge ran away before us, and we fairly cracked along it, the
exhilaration of our position lending wings to our feet. Yards, furlongs, miles, pinnacles and
whalebacks flew behind us and suddenly we were gasping; sweating and
clag-bound on the summit of
and Tim said later that I had been going as if the devil himself was after me.
As there was nothing to be seen here but swirling mists, we
soon quit Snowdon and moved at a more regular pace down the track, from there
breaking left for the col between Llewydd and Yr Wyddfa. The Llewydd ridge passed in a grey succession
of ups and downs. We were tiring, and
the odd stumble brought forth a curse. It was somewhere around this point that I realised that we hadnt seem a
single soul so far all day a rare occurrence in the area excerpt for midweek
in winter.
As we descended to the Llyn Llidaw reservoir the first spots
of rain hit us, and we arrived at Pen-y-pas more than a little damp. Our day, however, was not yet over. After mugs of tea and scones, we left
Pen-y-pass and set off up the grass bound slopes of Glyder Fawr a very
different mountain from the one we had gambolled over just seven hours
previously. The uneven tussocks of grass
broke our pace and the water clinging to them soaked us through. At the summit, I thought of giving up, but I
had promised Tim that I would show him
so the next phase of our walk just had to be completed. We strolled over the boulder field to Glyder
Fach and there banged and scraped our way along Bristly Ridge and so to the top
of Tryfan.
Sheltered in the lee of the summit rocks, I let my mind
wander back fifteen months when I had crawled, dragged and heaved myself up one
of the gullies to the east side of Tryfan in the most horrible and unsafe snow
conditions I had ever coming across. It
was only sheer luck that got me to the top. I had fallen off three times while climbing jammed boulders and, as I
was on my own with only an ice axe, it was pretty desperate. I had reached the summit in a state of physical
and mental collapse. How long I had
huddled in the shelter of the same rocks which surrounded me now I couldnt
guess, but I know that it took me some time on that earlier occasion to pull
myself together and get off the thing.
We rested on the summit for half an hour or so, eating
Kendal Mint Cake and smoking, then we turned downhill on the last leg of our
journey. We jolted and jarred our way
down the ridge to Llyn Ogwen. On
reaching the road, we turned off west and hitched a lift to Tyn-y-Maes and so a
last mile or so to the cottage.
Data: Distance 17½
miles
Height gain 9,030
feet
Time taken 11
hours
That night we supped well in
equally well.
The next morning saw us thumping back up the road
again. The rain of the previous day had
given way to an extremely damping fine drizzle. Our objective for the day was the summit of Glyder Fawr. Not much one might say, but fair as it was
1,400 feet of fine rock climbing ahead.
We uncoiled the rope at the base of Tennis Shoe on the slabs
and, after trying on, I lead off up the route. The not difficult but delightful nature of the climb took our minds off
the weather and we bumbled gently upwards. On reaching the top of Tennis Shoe, we shambled up to the foot of Holy
Tree Wall, where I made a wonderful mess of the initial moves and fell of
twice. At last, I had to resort to
skulduggery and, as those were the days when a nut was a nut was a nut; a
beautiful bath type brass nut jammed in that cursed groove quite nicely. With a quick heave on the attached sling, I
was up on that bare little slab and cruising up the groove beyond.
By the time the route had been completed, I wasnt quite the
cool calm determined mountaineer that I had posed six hundred feet below. Continuation Wall led to an even more
desperate struggle, so we decided that instead of doing Central Gully on Glyder
Fawr, we would take an easier looking corner to the left of it.
This route started at the foot of an overhanging ten foot
wall and then eased off for another three hundred feet, where it curved out of
sight. After another spectacular peel
of course of which we saw me being smashed between the eyes by a large D
stubai screw gate followed at once by a belt on the back by the head of the
aforementioned bath nut I eventually started the route.
I had to traverse left to avoid a bulging wall covered in
green and black slime and found myself precariously balanced on a wall the colour
of which was a nice reddy pink, the sort one sees some shales turn to after
firing. It was quite lovely. The only thing wrong with it was the fact
that it had cleaved into little bricks about four inches long, an inch wide and
half an inch deep and they were all quite loose. I was quite, quite frightened. Somehow I managed to get upon the thing and,
in doing so, traverse back into that nice comforting groove. By this time I had run out my full length of
rope. Fortunately there was a fair sized
step in the right wall of the groove so, with one foot braced in this, I had to
bring Tim up that nasty black bulge. How
he did it I will never know. He plopped
twice and still managed to regain and continue. He was very gripped.
Eventually, we arrived at the summit and took off our packs,
vowing never to climb laden ever again. After a brief rest, we hopped down to the Pen-y-Gwrd and then hitched
back to Llanbedwr, bivvying out at the
for the night and then flying back to Boscombe on the Monday.
Data: Distance About
1,100 feet of climbing and thrutching
Height gain Too
long.
Grades Hardest,
severe but seemed more than that in big boots, in rain, with packs.
*****************************************
.having been climbing with Steve, we now go caving with
Colin Priddle
.
Yorkshire
by Colin Priddle
Friday, the 8th of January saw eleven bods rushing up the M6
motorway to go down
Craig phoned the met office and reported back to us. Heavier rain later in the day was
forecast. Most people, remembering
Pen-y-Ghent, decided against the cave under these likely conditions, and so we
went down Ireby Fell Cavern.
In all, thirteen people descended the hole and the Ding;
Dong;
Pussy; Well and Rope pitches. None of
these pitches were over forty feet and after the first four, there was a long
passage which we estimated to be half a mile long which sloped slightly
downwards and was just about a bodys breadth wide. It was perfect for high speed caving except
that S bends were sometimes a little sharp. After this passage the gradient steepened until the master cave was
reached. This terminated in a sump.
A few photographs were taken of the masses of people in the
master cave. On the way out, three of
the party visited the newly discovered
club. The three who visited this series
thought it very beautiful and well worth a photographic trip. The party eventually came out in three
separate groups it was not organised but just happened that way. Everybody enjoyed the trip, being not too
strenuous but pleasant with its moderately wet pitches. One of the groups into which the party had
split, took a look down Marble Steps afterwards and went as far as the top of
the first pitch.
The whole party consisted of Alan Butcher, Bob Mehew, Martin
Mills, Brian and Janet Woodward and Bob Craig (all S.M.C.C.) plus Martin
Webster, Martin Huaun, Colin Priddle and Dave Yeandle (all B.E.C.) plus Pete
Rose and two others.
Later, in the Crown Inn at Horton during the evenings
socialising, Martin Webster was caught flicking beer at the Boy the penalty
was his being chucked out by the landlord.
Sunday was a lovely day. Messrs Woodward, Priddle, Yeandle, Rose and one other joined forces with
Fred Davies and Ian Jepson (W.C.C. and N.H.A.S.A.) and did Swinsto coming out
into the valley via the
Master
by abseiling using two travelling ropes. Seven people are too many for a trip like that, and this party split
into two. The first party out did it in
two hours, but this time could have been shortened considerably with better
organisation. The abseiling technique is
a very pleasant way of getting down to the valley floor. On the wet pitches you can get to the bottom
incredibly quickly.
Meanwhile the others went walking and, after the usual
lunchtime refreshments, we walked to Ingleton via Beezleys Falls in pleasant
sunshine. Then we headed for home.
Cuthberts
by Tim Large
A rescue practice was held in St. Cuthberts on the 5th of
December last. The carry was started
from the bottom of Stal Pitch. The first
party carried from there to the downstream side of the Choke. The second party then took over, and carried
from Traverse Chamber to the top of Pulpit, where both teams combined for the
final haul. The time taken was about
three and a half hours.
On the whole, the practice went very well, giving everyone
experience in every aspect of rescue technique. It was disappointing to see only a few people turn up for this rescue
practice, and I am sure that not everybody who caves in Cuthberts knows what to
do in such circumstances.
During the rescue practice, the Choke was finally broken
through in the hope that it could be used, but this route was found to be
impracticable at the moment. It does,
however, give a new direct route down the streamway instead of having to go
round by-pass Passage. At the moment,
the new passage is a flat out crawl in the streambed, which consists of mud and
gravel. We hope that this fill will be
gradually washed out, now that a through passage exists.
At the Cuthberts Leaders meeting held on the 22nd of
November certain items of fixed tackle were recommended to be brought out of
the cave. These were as follows: –
1. The chain on the Great Gour.
2. The chain in the Rabbit Warren Extension.
3. The chain on the Water Chute.
4. The top chain on the Wire Rift.
5. The four rung ladder into Pillar Chamber.
The recommendations were turned down by the Committee as
they felt that they might not representative of the Cuthberts Leaders as a
whole, since only ten out of the twenty five leaders were present at the
Cuthberts Leaders Meeting. The
question of the fixed tackle will be again debated at the next Cuthberts
Leaders Meeting, when it is hoped that a decision will be reached with the
Committee can have more confidence in.
Another decision taken at the Leaders meeting was that of
opening the Maypole Series again. This
series was closed to enable scientific work to be carried out, but there has
been almost no work has been done for a long time, and in view of this, it was
not felt to be fair to penalise the ordinary cave by keeping the series
closed. It is thus open again.
*****************************************
Cave Paining of Le Portel
It seem appropriate to follow
some caving and climbing with a little archaeology, and it is pleasant to
welcome back to the pages of the B.B. one of our older members, Johnny Ifold
(of Ifolds Series in Eastwater, Ifolds Horror in Stoke Lane, etc.)
This cave is situated not far from the railway station of
Varilhes. The paintings were discovered
in 1908 by Dr. Jeannal. The cave is
entered by going through a low narrow corridor which descends sharply. At the bottom of this corridor, an iron gate
gives access to the painted galleries.
The first painting which I saw rather a surprise, for,
instead of it showing one of the animals which one associates with the art of
prehistoric man, it represents a little owl which has kept watch over Le Portel
for at least twenty thousand years.
The principal chamber is about a hundred and eighty feet
long, from which several galleries branch off. There are some fine horses painted in a soft brown colour their
archaic style recalls the dappled horses of Peche-Merle. The largest painting is of a horse over four
feet long and this painting is also distinguished by its being the only
complete polychrome picture in the cave.
One of the galleries is full of paintings of horses drawn in
black outline. The eye is immediately
fixed on one little horse stamping his left foreleg. This simple movement gives him a tremendous
amount of life and interest. One would
like to know why the artist drew him this way.
The most famous panel in Le Portal is that showing three
black Magdalenian bison. Two of the
bison with heads lowered face each other. To the left of this a pair is the third and most splendid of the bison. Thus, the two great art cycles are clearly
represented in this cave: relatively early Aurignacian-Perigordian and early
Magdalenian.
*****************************************
An EVENT is being organised at the BELFRY on Saturday, MARCH
27TH!!!! And will consist of
Old Fashioned Mendip Singsong
BEER AVAILABLE! ALL WELCOME! YOU DONT OFTEN
GET THE CHANCE!
In the Cuillins
by Bob Cross
Skye is the largest island in the
and its about sixty miles across country form north to south and uneasily and
fairly cheaply breached from the mainland.
Whichever road you take to Skye, the scenery is magnificent,
and you may become so overawed at what you see that you may never get to Skye
at all.
The
centre of the island, on its west coast. They are dissected by glens and lochs where camp sites are
plentiful. The mountains are black and
foreboding. Consider yourself lucky if
you see much of them, for most of the time they are clothed in cloud. The massif is basically a long ridge, running
north to south, and is flanked by spurs with steep points lopped off by the
glaciers. Vegetation on the upper slopes
is very sparse indeed. Owing to a near
complete absence of soil, the slopes are broken by crags of steep slabs,
affording varying rock climbs. The scope
for rock climbing here is overwhelming but fell walking is limited though by
the good fortune it is possible to ascend Sgurr Alasdair at about 3,200 ft.
the highest mountain on Skye without the aid of a rope given fair weather.
I had the great pleasure to ascend the peak around midsummer
during a brief stay on Skye. Four of us
set out one morning from the Youth Hostel at Glenbrittle. The weather was settled and a warm breeze
wafted through our hair. The first leg
of our route lay down the track from Glenbrittle House, a small farmstead form
whence we followed a track up through the heather passing a waterfall called
Eas
boulders and small rocky outcrops and soon reached a lochan called Loch-an-Fhir-Bhallaich. We halted beside its limpid waters and had a
bite to eat. From here, our eyes were
drawn down along the length of Loch Brittle, banked by steep cliffs and narrow
pebbly beaches, and on out to sea where the wind whipped up white horses. On our left loomed the hills of the Isle of
Rhum and between them and us could be seen the uninhabited Isle of Soay. Off the northern coast of
lay Canna, and far out to sea was the south end of South Uist and the isles of
Barra and Eriksay. The sea was a deep
blue and made an indescribably beautiful contrast with the island scenery. Scanning the view with my field glasses I
glimpsed a solitary fishing boat bobbing up and down on the waves. After a few minutes here we set off up,
spurred on by the expectation of even better views.
Gradually the character of the hillside changed. Grass and heather gave way to scree and
boulders and our path dropped gently into the Coire Lagan. Below us the waters of the Allte Coire Lagan
ran on their way to the sea. We followed
the banks of this stream up until the waters spilled over a great chute of
smooth glaciated rock of the tarn above. Our route lay up the sides of this chute and on to the level ground
surrounding the tarn. The going proved
easy, my vibrams gripping perfectly on the sometimes wet rock. The seaward side of the tarn was rimmed with
smooth rock through which ran veins of white marble like calcite which
contrasted strongly with the reddish brown of the rock. We were in a vast amphitheatre. On our left rose a great ridge Sgurr Dearg
while in front of us soared a tremendous stone chute of incredible proportions,
the like of which I have never seen before or since. For what must have been six hundred feet or
more, the scree rose then vanished between the sheer black walls of a
gully. Above this and to our right
loomed the towering summit of Sgurr Alasdair, disappearing for moments under
blankets of cloud. At our feet lay a
chaos of boulders and scree thrown down form the chute. There were two fellows on the scree. We waited for them to gain the summit ridge,
as they were dislodging stones and welters of debris would frequently thunder
down, echoing from the surrounding ramparts. After what seemed like hours, the continuing crashing sound died away,
and we thought it safe to carry on. Having studied the other teams progress, I decided it would be better
to keep to the slabs at the side of the scree, rather than do battle with the
scree itself. This proved a much faster
ascent than we had witnessed, and we gained height rapidly. Soon we were in the gully and solid slabs
gave way to a jumble of boulders from wall to wall. This section of about four hundred feet was
very steep and many stones were dislodged. One caught me on the kneecap, and the culprit was bitterly cursed. The top was getting near signalled by a fresh
breeze whistling down the gully. At last
we were on the ridge, and what a fantastic view! A quick scramble up a bristly arête and we
were on the summit. It fell sharply away
on three sides into the depths of the valley below and we could just make out
the figures of the two rock climbers coming up from Sgurr Scumain to the south
west. The view was glorious, as by now
the sun had begun to set over the
fading fast and the temperature dropping. We descended to the valley in silence and utter contentment at what we
had done. These feelings are for me the
sum of the spirit of mountaineering.
Editors Note: Do
climbers make better writers than cavers? Are they more literate? Do they
have better brains? It would seem so,
judging by the lack of writing about CAVING a sport which used to be
practised to quite an extent in the B.E.C. The climbers show that you dont have to discover a new mountain or
even a new route to be able to write interestingly about a trip. Why cant we have some of the same sort of
treatment done for CAVING trips? What
about it, you young, keen, active cavers?
*****************************************
HAVE YOU PAID YOUR SUB YET?
Subs are DUE on the 31st January. Full members £1.25 (25/-) married couples
£1.75 (35/-) and junior members under 18 years of age £).75 (15/-)
Cheques, cash, etc. to R.J. BAGSHAW,
Why not do it now? Article 20 of the constitution says
..membership mat be deemed by the
Committee to have ceased if a members annual subscription, being due on the
31st January and being requested at the members last known address before
March 31st following, shall not have been received by April 30th of that year.
Hence, the well know jungle
Annual subs must all be in
Ere the month of May begin
Any bloke who fails to pay
May not get B.B. for May!
DOITNOW+SENDIT TO BOB+ DOITNOW+SENDIT TO BOB+ DOITNOW+SENDIT
TO BOB+ DOIT
Monthly Crossword Number 8.
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Across:
2. Describes a long way. (3)
5. Form a plan with survey included. (3)
7. Eyes open south east and east. (3)
8. O, my leap! (of this?). (7)
11. Water for mixed teams. (4)
12. Not for NiFes. (4)
14. Singe it and sets off bang. (7)
16. Top value in some kinds of game. (3)
17. Rats to in Cuthberts. (3)
Down:
1. Insane backwards device in
Cuthberts? (3)
3. Useful in perpendicular opening. (5)
4. Home of this in Lamb Leer and Cuthberts. (3)
6. Apes Sag along cave route. (7)
7.
Mendip
9. Softly two directions for Mendip hill
10. Typically about nothing. (3)
13. 3 down forms this. (4)
14. Cold notice not absent. (3)
15. Drink
Solution To Last Months Crossword
Stencils completed 11.3.71