Ty Powdwr Working Meet

Members: Lucie Crouch, Kate Harvey, Colin Maddison, Dave Shotton, Gareth Williams, Dave Wylie

 

This proved to be a successful and productive working meet despite a slightly low turnout. A number of regulars weren’t able to make it for various reasons this time round so the party consisted of a grand total of six members, led for the first time by Dave Shotton. We were blessed with fine weather on both the Saturday and Sunday, which proved to be ideal for outdoor jobs as well as Gareth’s hard slate lead!

 

Saturday’s jobs list

1. The roof ties were fitted to secure the new rafters to the internal walls of Ty Fuse (following its complete re-roofing at the Extraordinary Working Meet of 20-21 April). This was carried out single-handedly (apart from some help removing and later replacing the contents of Ty Fuse) by Dave Wylie and best described in his own words:
   
   “I spent all of Saturday in Ty Fuse fitting the roof ties. It was really great to find that the correct number of exactly the right items to do the job were waiting in the store room. Please pass on additional thanks to the “A-Team” [Mark Furniss and Jo Sayers] who bought all the supplies to do the re-roofing job.
   
   To fix the 10 ties to the walls with three screws each (all four inches long) meant boring through a total of ten feet of slate with my hammer drill. My hands have not yet recovered from the bad vibes... I also removed the temporary wedges between the purlin and the rafters and fitted permanent blocks of the proper thickness.
   
   If the roof ever does blow off Ty Fuse, then the top half of the walls will go with it!
   
   I also cleared out all of the remaining residue that had fallen from the old roof (torching plaster, bits of slate, etc.) and removed a small proportion of all the junk that was stored in there. Ty Fuse is in better condition that I have even known it to be!”
    
2. Three recently-delivered tonne bags of gravel were spread in the car park by Colin with help from Kate, continuing work carried out at the working meet in March. A lot of effort went into this! Three bags remain for a later date.
    
3. The bargeboards at the lounge end of TP were sanded, treated as necessary, and painted with base layers and top coat by Dave S with help from Colin, completing initial work on this at the March WM. A second top coat might however be advisable, as well as completing the job of sealing the gap between the roof slates and the wooden boards.
    
4. Areas of kitchen and dorm-end porch external windows previously stripped, treated, primed and undercoated (during a recent hut stay by Duncan Lee) were given a gloss top coat by Colin. Flaking areas (mainly sills) of front lounge and Members’ Dorm external window frames were stripped, primed and undercoated by Kate and Colin – top coat required at a later date.
    
5. All pillows and pillow cases were checked by Lucie. All fine apart from one pillow case discarded due to staining!
    
6. Kitchen and washroom cleaning carried out by Lucie and Gareth. Large colony of small spiders removed from front lounge window by Lucie, who also did some weeding outside the hut.
    
7. The clearance over various bumps on the access track was checked by a fully-laden climbing party (Dave W, Colin, Lucie and Gareth) leaving in Dave W’s car on the Sunday, due to concerns over the height of some of these.

 

 

Iain McCallum was unfortunately not on hand to prepare lunch on this occasion; he was very much missed but Gareth stepped in to prepare the usual lunch, tea and snacks – always an essential part of a working meet!

The meet also followed on quite soon after re-lining/’tanking’ work on the septic tank carried out by specialist contractors around 21-22 May. The tank was subjected to normal water usage during the meet, and the filter tank tippler was noted to be in operation for the first time in ages!

Given the relatively small size of the working party, a few jobs were postponed until a later date. These included the clearing of weeds and brambles from the filter tank, and the investigation of intermittent leaks in the top-right dorm; however a very musty smell was noted in this dorm so action is certainly advisable before the winter.  Dave W aired the dorms – and indeed the entire hut – by opening windows and skylights during the meet, and noted humidity readings in the Members’ Dorm.  Always plenty to do next time!

 

Saturday evening climbing

Work stopped by around 6pm on Saturday as Gareth headed for the slate quarries to lead a hard slate route he had been ‘working on’ recently.  This was “The Rainbow of Recalcitrance” (E6 6b, ***) on Rainbow Slab directly overlooking the pumped-storage power station. Gareth was accompanied by a support team composed of Colin (non-following belayer), Dave W (backup safety-rope handler at the top of the route – moral support and photography only, as intervention from above not actually required!), and Lucie and Dave S as photographic crew on the ground.

Gareth executed a very impressive clean lead of the route greatly appreciated by the ground crew.  This involved a long and intimidating run-out on the rising traverse along the ‘rainbow’ between the last piece of natural gear (wire in a crack) and the first bolt in pitch 1; also a refreshment stop at the first stance, together with the pulling-through of ropes so that Colin could belay pitch 2 from the ground!  There are some excellent photos on the website.  (And an article by Gareth – Ed.)

 

Sunday

We all did our own thing on the usual free Sunday of the working meet. Gareth, Lucie, Colin and Dave W headed up the Llanberis Pass for Dinas Cromlech, as related by Dave W:

“On Sunday, Gareth pushed his grade even further by heading up to the Cromlech and climbing “Flying Buttress” with Lucie - at V-Diff!!

Colin and I did “Dives/Better Things” (HS 4b) - one pitch each - and I led “Parchment Passage” (V-Diff). Both of these seemed “Good Value” for their respective grades.

Gareth then treated the team to tea and cakes in Llanberis as thanks for supporting him doing his route.”

Kate headed to Chester for a day’s volunteering activities. Meanwhile Dave S drove to Anglesey to meet up with Roger and Sally Dyke, enjoying a very pleasant walk along some of the Anglesey coastal path near Rhoscolyn with Roger in the afternoon before heading back to the mainland and further south to the Harlech area for a couple of days.

 

Dave Shotton