Club Meets

1959/60 Fourteen official Club Meets were held during the year; the average attendance, not including the After-Dinner Meet, was 21. At Whitsuntide there were two unofficial, as well as two official Meets.

The 46th Annual Dinner was held at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, and for the first time since the war the Club reverted to wearing dinner jackets for this event. Next morning some 85 Members and Guests invaded Ramsgill, some to walk on the fells, others to watch birds on the reservoir, whilst a dozen went down Mungo Gill Hole, a pot opened up with much toil by the Craven Pothole Club and containing some of the finest formations in the country. After tea at the Yorke Arms, Alf Gregory, the Principal Guest, projected a colour film of his latest expedition to the region of Everest and followed it with a charming one of Sherpa life.

The December Meet, again at the White Lion Hotel, Cray, was spent by the President), 26 Members and 2 Guests, mainly in working up an appetite for, and subsequently consuming, Christmas fare so proverbially Pickwickian in splendour that a group sleeping at a nearby farmhouse comfortably settled down and were about to go to sleep around 1 a.m. in what they then realised was the wrong farmhouse.

A sudden violent change in the weather restricted the numbers at the Hill Inn Meet to 45, and ‘flu prevented the President from attending. A heavy snowfall on Friday night did not deter one party from Lowstern and another from the Hill Inn from setting off at an early hour for the Three Peaks; the first party, having reached the summit cairn of Ingleborough, beat a hasty retreat to the comforts of the Hill, while the second, after ploughing up the steep slope of Whernside before breakfast up to their knees in snow, worked off surplus energy chopping firewood for Mr. Kilburn.

Only one Landrover penetrated the snowbound Tilberthwaite tracks to reach L.H.G. for the February Meet. During Friday night and Saturday eighteen Members and Guests battled through, leaving the lanes of Little Langdale filled with abandoned cars, only to find a threat of imminent starvation at L.H.G. Saturday was spent foraging but, with a bright, clear and alpine Sunday, walking the snow-blown cols of Wetherlam constituted a major expedition. The President and 24 Members attended the March Meet at Low Row in Swaledale and after wandering about in peat hags in thick mist and snow flurries claimed to have found the summit of Rogan’s Seat. On Sunday plans were made at the Tan Hill Inn for a 3 a.m. breakfast to be eaten by the Long Walkers in July.

By the courtesy of the Scottish Mountaineering Club the Easter Meet was held at their Lagangarbh Hut at the foot of Buchaille Etive Mor. The President and thirteen Members attended, and the pouring rain and overflowing lochs which greeted them on the approach to Glencoe boded ill for the weekend, which in fact turned out to be one of the finest meets for many years. On Good Friday two parties traversed Aonach Eagach, one from either end, exchanging car keys midway. Bidean nam Bian on Saturday provided exhilarating step-cutting and views of Rhum, Cuillin and Ben Nevis to the parties who traversed it, again from either end. Another party climbed in perfect summer conditions on the Buchaille. A fine Sunday saw more climbing on the Buchaille and on Stob Coire nam Beith; the President’s party traversed Beinn a’ Bheithir prior to wining and dining at Clachaig.

The May Meet was a joint event with the Fell and Rock Climbing Club, the first time for many years that the two Clubs have got together. Forty-three sat down to dinner on the Saturday at the New Inn, Clapham, and shorty but happy speeches were made by the two Presidents, John Godley for the Y.R.C. and the Club’s old friend, Harry Spilsbury, for the Fell and Rock. It was noticeable with what undisguised glee certain members of the Y.R.C. luridly described to their climbing friends the delights of the Canal in Gingling Hole, but this was fully matched by the enthusiasm with which the Fell and Rock, nothing daunted, followed them down next day. Alum Pot was laddered in lovely weather on the Sunday and fifteen men went down.

Although only two official Whitsuntide Meets were on the programme, Loch Duich and Florencecourt, there was also a climbing parry at L.H.G. and four Members in Skye at a Meet organised for a party of Soviet climbers jointly with the S.M.C. and the Climbers’ Club. The Loch Duich party camped by the river at the foot of Glen Licht and until the Wednesday enjoyed what seems to have become traditionally fine weather for the Scottish Meet. Sixteen Members and Guests between them traversed the Five Sisters of Kintail, walked on Ben Attow, visited Glenelg and Armisdale and, as a reward for a soaking on the moors, saw the Falls of Glomach in full spate. They also entertained four of the Russian climbers from Skye to dinner at Kintail Lodge, a Y.R.C. badge being exchanged for that of Mountaineer (First Class) of the U.S.S.R. Only seven men and a Landrover went to Ireland; they carried out a thorough and fruitful search of the Reyfad area and again explored Marble Arch and Pollnagollum, where exposure suits were necessary owing to the depth of water. The four men who joined the Skye Meet indulged in various activities with the Russians, including the traverse of the Dubhs, Sgurr nan Eag, the ascent of the Chasm and of the Bhasteir Tooth, fishing, walking and several social functions, all of which proved that both active co-operation and peaceful co-existence could be successfully combined.

Twenty-one men attempted the Long Walk from Tan Hill to Clapham at the beginning of July, six others acting as support parties. Some enthusiasts scorned the pre-arranged 3.30 a.m. breakfast and set off at midnight, but the main party started out at 4 a.m. Some used the road where convenient, others the rougher route by East Sterndale and Kisdon but all reported at the two scheduled feeding points, Hardraw and Old Ings, and all but two completed the route, taking Simon Fell and Ingleborough Summit in their stride. Eight Members arrived at widely differing times for the August Bank Holiday week end at Low Hall Garth. On Saturday two of them climbed Russet Groove, Heather Groove and White Gill Chimney; another saw the superb colouring of evening sunlight from the top of Wetherlam. On Sunday five climbed on Dow Crags and two walked over Stony Cove Pike and III Bell. On Monday a party of four traversed the Pikes; it was noted with interest that there were only two parties climbing on White Gill on an August Bank Holiday Monday.

At the end of August the President and twenty Members assembled at Helyg; they were somewhat embarrassed to find the hut festooned with a froth of female garments. A mixed camping party had taken refuge from a downpour in order to dry their clothes: they were courteously but firmly escorted elsewhither and the, Meet settled down to serious climbing. One large party, led by the President, explored the ridge south of Nantlle, including Myndd Drws-y-Coed, Trum-y-Ddysgl and Tal-y-Mignedd. Eighteen Members took part in the annual Joint Meet at the Robertson Lamb Hut with the Rucksack and Wayfarers’ Clubs. Once again serious overcrowding necessitated an overflow to L.H.G and provoked the suggestion that in future years the Club’s field telephone, which does yeoman service at Gaping Gill and in Ireland, should be installed between the two huts. There was climbing on Dow Crags, Gimmer, Gable, various activities in Coombe Gill and on Wetherlam and Harry Spilsbury’s communal catering was famed throughout the Langdales.

A pot-holing Meet in October was based on Lowstern, it included the President and eighteen men. An attempt was made to link up Bar Pot and Disappointment Pot by putting a party down each one. One member bottomed Disappointment Pot, but a formidable two hours’ crawl from the junction with Hensler’s Passage did not turn out to be the link with Bar Pot; it was, however, felt that the through route would be achieved in the very near future.

1960/61. Sixteen Club Meets were held and average attendance was 22, not including the After-Dinner Meet.

The 47th Annual Dinner was again at the Hotel Majestic at Harrogate and on the following day a representative number of Members and Guests went to Malham, most of them doing the round of Cove, Tarn and Goredale in thick mist. The first Meet of the Club year was at Lowstern in December, jointly with the Rucksack Club. Torrential rain limited numbers to 9 Y.R.C. and 3 Rucksack, but five men braved the wet and went down Bar Pot to admire, from the floor of the Main Chamber, the fantastically impressive waterfall down Gaping Gill and to explore the new connection between Mud Hall and Hensler’s Passage. The following week 22 Members assembled at the Black Bull in Sedbergh for walking in the Howgills. Views were marred by frequent snow showers, but the Meet was a great success, with good walking, good company and good food (in a ‘rather posh’ hotel amid evening dress and party frocks). Only 7 Members met at Lowstern in January; high winds, mist, snow, rain—the lot; but Pen-y-Ghent and Ingleborough were climbed and golf was played with ice-axes and lumps of ice.

At the Hill Inn Meet at the end of January the Kilburn tradition of hospitality to the Y.R.C. was carried on by John Kilburn’s son, Tom, who had just taken over the responsibilities of mine host. Although the weather was not conducive to outdoor activities, fifty-five members assembled for dinner on the Saturday night. Four enthusiasts made an igloo on the summit of Whernside, of such sound construction that the possibility of spending a night in it was considered. After the dinner and at the end of an evening spent doing those things which are usually done on such an occasion, the President firmly led this quartet from the bar to the door, pointed in the direction of Whernside, bade them goodnight and wished them luck. They disappeared into a dark, starless night singing “Yorkshire” and, more by good fortune than by faultless navigation, found their igloo and next day reported a comfortable night.

Very remarkably, nothing unusual happened at the February Meet at Low Hall Garth, 14 Members and a Guest experienced no flood, no snow, no freeze-up, and had a superabundance of food. There was climbing on Dow Crag and Raven Crag and walking on the Band, round the Three Tarns, over Bow Fell, round the head of Langdale to the Pikes and finally a pause at the Old Dungeon Gill ‘to pick up the cars’. At Easter the President and eight Members went to Arran, some camped in Glen Sannox, others stayed at the Corrie Hotel. Easter Sunday was a day of blue skies, snow-sprinkled tops and views of the Hebrides and Ireland. One party explored the Beinn Bharrain group, another climbed North Goat Fell and traversed Cir Mhor, A’Chir, Beinn Tarsuinn and Beinn Nuis. A very successful Meet took place at the end of April at Lowstern, attended by the President and 28 men. Bad weather during the previous fortnight forbade the planned descent of Juniper Gulf, but on Saturday the two shafts of the Pillar Pots were laddered and the whole party of 9 reached the bottom. The ladders were then used to rig the 320 ft. pitch of Long Kin West and four men got all the way down. On Sunday a party of 9 went into Marble Steps and 7 reached the bottom of the 90 ft. shaft. Two men completed the Three Peaks in 11 hours and the rest rambled.

Not a moment was wasted at the Whitsun Meet in Skye, where the Ridge was thrice assaulted by parties drawn from the President, 17 Members and 5 Guests. It became difficult to know exactly what was going on because one party seemed always to be slinking into its sleeping bags just as another party was hopefully starting out. Party No. 1 on Whit Monday left early but only reached the President’s food dump on Banachdich Bealach at noon; to avoid being benighted they had to turn home with only Sgurr a’Bhasteir and Sgurr nan Gillean still to go. Party No. 2 started six strong before Party No. 1 got home, shed three of its members in rain at midday and completed the ridge in 181 hours. They even trotted over Glac Glas and Blaven next day. This fired Party No. 1 to make another attempt, they spent Wednesday placing food dumps, spent the night on Ghars Beinn and finished the Ridge on Thursday in rather slow time due to over-eating, the result of miscalculating the food dumps. There was also climbing and walking on Drum nan Rham, Mhic Coinnich, Mhadaidh, Bidein and Bhasteir Tooth, and some fun in the sea.

The Long Walk took place in the Lake District, the President and 28 Members enjoying the comfort of the Fell and Rock hut at Brackenclose. The route, starting and finishing at the hut, included Scafell, Great End, The Gables, Pillar, Steeple, Seatallan and lllgill Head. The start was at 5.30 a.m. and dinner was served soon after the finish at 9 p.m. A damp but enjoyable Meet in mid-July at Lowstern was attended by 12 men. Nick Pot was out of the question after heavy rain but a party of 7 spent 1\ hours down Easegill, visiting Spout Hall, Poetic Justice, Stop Pot, Thackways Passage and finishing with the impressive and beautiful Easter Grotto. The August Meet was at the Rucksack Club hut at Bewdy Mawr and was attended by 10 Y.R.C. and 2 Rucksack. The Parson’s Nose and the Gambit were climbed on Saturday, on Sunday there was walking on the Glyden and elsewhere and some climbing by various routes on the Thret Cliffs. The Annual Joint Meet with the Wayfarers and Rucksack Club; took place as usual at the Robertson Lamb Hut in Great Langdale, with an overflow at Low Hall Garth, 21 Y.R.C. Members were present. The fabulous hospitality provided by Harry Spilsbury included not only first class cuisine, running hot and cold water, a south aspect and perfect weather but even suitable opportunities for occupational therapy. Gimmer, Bow Fell and Harrison Stickle were among the crags festooned with R.L.H. ropes, while the L.H.G. overflow performed some amazing antics on Gimmer, searched for gabbro on Carrock Fell, climbed on Pavey Ark and pulled 3 cars out of the ford.

The last Meet of the Club year was at the Hark to Bounty Inn at Slaidburn in the Trough of Bowland. Twenty-two men attended, the weather was mild and sunny and the country unknown to most Members, some of whom had difficulty in map reading so made for the nearest hill, then for a gritstone outcrop on the horizon and so home across the moors.