Page 9 - 20145 AMA Spring

Lake District Meet
15-17 August 2014
I’d been thinking of planning an AMA weekend meet for a while. I had been putting it off; assuming it would be overly complicated, long-winded and would take up a disproportionate amount of
my working day. Therefore the ease and speed it took to set it up surprised me; I was also able to choose the time and the venue it would take place and make it exactly what I wanted it to be.
I did also think that planning a meet in the middle of August would guarantee excellent weather with dry rock, clear skies and fantastic views allowing everyone to get a lot done. What we did get, however, was torrential downpours, howling winds and very low cloud! Our weekend climbing in Langdale quick became a weekend walking.
Friday proved to be the best day and an afternoon excursion to White Ghyll Crags did yield a route. Being the first to arrive on a overcast, but dry, afternoon WO2 Dave Allan and I made our way up the classic multi pitch route of ‘Slip Not’ VS 4b. The route takes a clean and obvious line up to an overhanging roof before a ‘thought provoking’ move around a corner leads to easier ground. While at the belay a short rain shower stopped play and we abseiled back down and made our way to the pub.
Over the late afternoon and evening the rest of the group trickled in and convened in the National Trust Stickle Tarn Pub next door to the New Dungeon Ghyll. Surprisingly the AMA funded free weekend only had 10 takers and the bunkhouse was quite spacious. The venue was perfect with the enormous Pavey Arc crag being a short walk away and the steep and rocky Crinkle Crags and Bowfell providing the outdoor playground.
Maj Tarquin Shipley and an intrepid group decided to tick off a few low grade classics on Pavey Arc on Saturday with the weather being quite dramatic. A short walk to the base of the rock was swiftly followed by an ascent of ‘Cresent Slabs’ (Mod) and after crossing the ‘must do’ scramble of Jakes Rake ascended ‘Gwynne Chimney’ (Diff). Describing the routes as a slime-fest probably best describes their day! It was a quality mountain day though and after an early(ish) start they stumbled into the bar at 1930hrs with tired but smiling faces.
The rest of us made short work of walking up Crinkle Crags and Bowfell. Capt Claire Leggett and Maj John Hoban were busy preparing for their future Summer Mountain Leader assessments
and expertly navigated the group to the summits. Lt.Col Liz Dallyn gave a number of coaching points to make their performance even slicker.
Thunder storms on Sunday sealed the groups fate with half going to the newly refurbished Kendal Indoor Climbing Wall, Dave and Ruth Allan going in search of a lost belay plate and the remaining daring few venturing out onto the fells to stretch their legs. The climbing group covered the basics and gave a base of climbing knowledge or a refresher to those less regular climbers.
I would recommend organising a weekend away to any member. A motivated group of people in a mountain location is such a pleasant way to gain your log book days or have some refresher training by better qualified members (they need log book days teaching too). It’s very easy and the support from the AMA staff (with paperwork and funding) was second to none. I am that much of a convert, by the time this goes out to print, I hope to have another one organised for the New Year. The DMM voucher incentive is also the perfect thank you from the committee...
climbing meets