Tremadog Meet - BRMC Hut
BRMC Hut Tremadog 2-3-4 June 2017
Members: Dave Wylie, Dave Shotton, Robert Clark, Stuart Hurworth, Ben Slater, James Hall, Clay Conlon, James Meakin, Roger Dyke.
Guests: Jack Buczko, Dave Dixon.
We hit sunny weather this year! Sunscreen both days. We arrived with plenty of logs for the wood-burner, but in the event only used it Friday evening – on Saturday evening the kitchen table, the Golden Fleece and the Union Inn were more popular than the lounge.
And this year everything in the hut worked - except the vacuum cleaner: we'll come back to that....
It was a weekend of comings and goings, with only a committed core of us there for two nights and two days. Hats off to those who drove out early morning, climbed for the day, and drove back in the evening – just like Keith Bolton, (the late) Dave Booth, & I used to do in the 70’s.
On Saturday….
Robert and Jack knocked off the classics Creagh Dhu Wall HS 4b 4b and Poor Man’s Peuterey S in short order.
Not to be outdone, Dave Wylie, Ben and Stuart tackled – guess what? - Poor Man’s Peuterey and Creagh Dhu Wall. With equal success, but on a longer timescale. They did get back before dark. Just.
Dave Shotton and Roger went for a quick fix on Oberon – used to be VD, now S. Why has it been upgraded? They soon found out. The crux, the unprotectable first 8m of the slab, is polished to b…..y thanks to popularity with instructors. But Dave made a bold masterly ascent, and they finished the route off in time to have leisurely coffee at Eric’s before butties in the Hut.
Then they headed for one of Roger’s favourite routes, Poor Man’s Peuterey. Here, on the 1st and 3rd pitches, Dave had the full benefit of Roger’s encyclopedic knowledge of the route “Move out right onto the rib now” and “There should be a steel pin, about 60mm x 8mm bar, just above you now: put a really long sling from that. No, a longer one or you’ll get impossible drag”. A great guy tho Dave – he led steadily on despite the continual flow of beta. Then got his own back by belaying very firmly below the 4th pitch, described in one guide as “the awkward sandy overhanging crack”, and handing over the gear…..
James Hall and Clay did the serious stuff of the day, with Merlin Direct HVS 5a 5a 4a then Grim Wall Direct E1 5b 5b, before James had to scarper back to Manchester. Good going guys – those are ace routes!
Sunday morning dawned with 100% overcast and a wet road.
Breakfast was leisurely.
The road started to dry, but it was windy.
There were even spots of rain – at least 100 to the square metre.
Much indecision, only enlivened by the arrival of James Meakin and his friend the 3rd Dave.
Eventually it fell to your aged Meet Leader and his trusty climbing leader to set an example of British Grit by gearing up and heading 200m up the road… to climb dry rock – the fun slab of BooBoo - and at the top wish they had been more generous with the sun lotion.
This inspired the rest of the team. Dave Wylie, Stu and Jack headed up Hail Bebe, while Clay and Dave Dixon hit Creagh Dhu Wall.
After lunch, Stuart and Dave Dixon ran up BooBoo, while Dave Wylie tackled the Upper Dorm (which he reckons should be graded HS as the vacuum cleaner had little vacuum and wasn’t doing much cleaning) before making an early start back to Littleborough.
Dave Shotton and Roger had a lazy coffee at Eric’s with James Meakin, then James headed off to check out Beddgelert and Dave & Roger headed for Hail Bebe. This is a route Roger had only done once before, so beta was scarce – much to Dave’s relief. Back at base, Roger was nonplussed to be told that the hand-traverse at the top that he had led with great trepidation was more easily walked across….
All in all a grand day’s climbing despite the slow start.
Then the necessary clean-up of the Hut.
This is where notional stars are awarded – and secret notes made.
If for whatever reason you weren’t able to do your share of the cleaning, you’d better make up for it on the next away-meet.
The competition for the Gold Star this time was between Dave Wylie and Stuart. Despite Dave’s handicap of the “cleaner”, first place has to go to Stuart for dealing with the whole of the Hut’s loos, showers and washrooms after being asked to do just half of them. Good man! You should be exempt from all clean-up duties on the next away-meet.
I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend as much as I did!
Roger Dyke
