Holiday - Yorkshire Day 11

Yorkshire Holiday Day 11

Thursday 16th June

Today is our last day in Yorkshire, we are going home tomorrow morning.  We got up to a dry and bright day.  We had packed our climbing kit last night so we could get going this morning.

We set off and went via Inglesport for a cooked breakfast!  We returned to Twisleton Scar and made straight for the main wall.  We climbed the following...

'Christine' Climb the chimney on the right-hand side of the mushroom and finish up the wall above it - Diff.

'Skeleton Scoop' The wide crack-seamed grove can be accessed from either the left (delicate) or the right (strenuous) - HVD

'Bay Wall' - The central line up the back wall of the recess is hardest at the start - VDiff

'Broken White' The wide broken chimney - VDiff

We then headed back to The Candle Area for a last climb.

'Game Reserve' The cracked wall - VDiff

We had been really lucky with the weather and we had great views.

When we got back to the cottage we sorted out our climbing kit ready to pack in the car tomorrow.  We then got showered and headed out The Plough Pub in Wiggleswick for dinner.  This evening we have also had a bit of a tidy up to make tomorrow's packing easier.  It will be a shame to go home as we have had a lovely holiday.  However it will be nice to see Doughnut Bunny!

Holiday - Yorkshire Day 10

Yorkshire Holiday Day 10

Wednesday 15th June

Today we had decided to go caving.  We double checked the weather forecast and it was looking dry till about 17:00.  

We decided to go to Bull Pot.  We didn't have enough rope with us t go down all the pitches so we had decided to do the first 3 which still required us to take just over 100m of rope on the trip!

We got all our kit ready and set off to Kingsdale.  The first task was to find the entrance!  We know it was on the top of the Kingsdale scars so we had to walk a lot of up!  By reading the caving guides we had we had a rough idea on how to get up there.  We drove up the road and when we thought we were in the right place we parked up.  We got everything we needed out of the car and set off up the hill.  After a considerable amount of up we came to a vague track running across the top of the first scar.  We headed right along it and came to a little stream.  From the description in the book the entrance was near to where a stream sinks.  We both started to have a look around for the entrance - we had seen photos of it so knew we would recognise it when we saw it.  I followed the stream downhill and after a short while I found the cave entrance.  

Tim came and joined me and we started to get our harness and SRT kit on.  Tim began rigging the entrance pitch and once he was down the bottom I set off.

At the bottom of the first pitch we scrambled down the rocks and followed the cave passage round to the top of the second pitch.  We started looking for the bolts to start rigging from.  We couldn't see any at a sensible height, only the ones high up in the ceiling.  We followed them back and found that we needed to climb up one wall a bit further back and start rigging a traverse line high up.  Once over the second pitch we abseiled down and swung over to the ledge.  We had decided to go on down Slot Route as it would be safer than Fossil Route if it rained.  Tim rigged it with a re-belay point just less than half way down and abseiled down.  Once he was down I followed.

The bottom of this pitch was as far as we were going to go.  We followed the stream passage to the top of the fourth pitch and then turned round to head back out to the entrance.

Once I had passed the re-belay point I called to Tim so he could start headding up the lower part of the pitch.

At the top I took a few minutes breather before making a start on the next.  I was a little way up when Tim emerged at the top of the previous pitch.  He un-rigged and packed the rope away while I was ascending.

Once I was at the top he was able to start climbing up.

Back across the traverse un-rigging as we went we were at the bottom of the entrance pitch again.  It is always a nice feeling to be nearly back at the surface!

This time Tim lead the way out and I followed.  We then had the job of the final bit of un-rigging and packing all the rope away and the walk back down the hill.

It was a good trip.

Holiday - Yorkshire Day 9

Yorkshire Holiday Day 9

Tuesday 14th June

Today we had decided to go to Bolton and go on the steam railway.  The weather had been saying it would rain today but this morning it was bright and dry!  We made ourselves a packed lunch and set off to Bolton.  When we arrived at the station the train was already there.  

The train went to Embsay ad came back 20 mins later after the train had changed ends.

From there we drove to Bolton Abbey thinking it would be a nice place to sit and have lunch as it was still dry.  We got there and thought £8 to sit and have lunch was a bit steep so we drove on!

Further down the road we found a picnic spot near the National Park Centre in Grassington.  We found a midge free bench and ate our lunch.  Afterwards we had a walk into the village.  It seemed to be rather posh!  Tim sampled the carrot cake from the bakery.

We next carried on down the road to Stump Cross Caverns,

When we got out the weather was still brightening up so we headed for Gordale Scar to look at the waterfalls.

We parked on the side of the road and set off down the path.  The cliffs very quickly rose up around us.  It wasn't a long walk before we got to the lower waterfall.  There were some climbers making a very difficult climb look graceful and easy!!  We made our way to the foot of the waterfall and found a route to climb up to get to the top of it to get to the upper waterfall.  After taking some photos we carried on up the gorge to get to the stream at the top of the upper waterfall.  When we got back down to the bottom we sat and watched the climbers on another difficult route.  

Back at the car we went a bit further up the road and walked to Janet's Foss, another waterfall in a wooded area.

This evening we had a relaxing evening and tried to decide whether to go caving or climbing tomorrow!!

Holiday - Yorkshire Day 8

Yorkshire Holiday Day 8

Monday 13th June

Once again we started the day be checking the weather forecast!  It looked like we were going to at least have a dry morning and then the rain would come.  We decided to go to Castleburg Crag (we had looked at the climbs there last week so we already had an idea what we wanted to do) and then if it rained we could run away and go indoor climbing at Inglesport.  We packed our bags and set off

We parked up in the 2 hour parking in the square at Settle and walked up the hill.  At the crag we checked the book to make sure we were at the right point and then we kitted up.

We started off with 'Settle Festival' A long pitch taking in the full height of the tallest buttress.  Start on the path and climb up the face to a final awkward move on to a ledge on the right before clipping the lower-off out to the left- 4.  We moved on to '3 Peaks Bunk Room' From the low detached pillar make hard moves over the bulge t a ledge.  Climb the juggy wall to a final short corner - 5.

After we had done these 2 climbs we only had 20 mins left on the car park so there wasn't enough time for another climb.  We packed up and returned to the car, it was nice timing as there were rain clouds moving in!

We made our way to Inglesport to have some lunch and then have a climb on the indoor wall.  

Back at the cottage we made some dinner and had a relaxing evening.  We are hoping to go on the Bolton steam railway tomorrow. 

Holiday - Yorkshire Day 7

Yorkshire Holiday Day 7

Sunday 12th June

This morning we got up bright and early and had a look at the weather as we had decided to walk up Ingleborough.

We made ourselves some lunch and packed our bags and set off to Clapham.  We started walking just after 8:30 and set off up 'Long Lane'.  We carried on through a couple of fields and then met up with the main path up Ingleborough just before Gaping Gill.  We made a little diversion to look at Gaping Gill cave entrance.  It is Brittain's highest unbroken waterfall as the shaft is 100m deep!

After a look at the Gaping Gill we continued up and got on the top of Little Ingleborough.  A little further on we had a stop and took some photos.  This one is looking back at Little Ingleborough.

We carried on up and eventually made it to the top.  We had a walk round the plateau and found a spot to have some lunch!  Even though it was not quite 12:00!  

  

On the way back down we were just about to have a look at a cave entrance we saw on the way up when we saw a caver about to disappear down a hole.  We stopped and chatted about the cave entrances around where we were.  This was the entrance to Bar Pot that inks into the Gaping Gill System.

Further down the hill we took the route through Trow Gill.  An interesting gorge that is bolted for climbing.  All hard routes so not somewhere I will be climbing soon!

Our next stop was at Ingleborough Show Cave.  We gt there just before 14:00, nicely timed for the next tour.  We were the only 2 on it!  The guide was very knowledgeable and after we had informed him we were cavers he said it was much easier to explain things with technical terms!

  

We were lucky with the weather and had a really good day.  Back at the cottage we made ourselves some dinner and had a relaxing evening.