UKC

Central Gully on the Black Ladders is not a place the average climber is likely to be on a sunny May day.In winter this is one of the Welsh winter classics but yesterday I was using it as an approach....and a horrible approach at that...to an obscure mountaineering route I was checking out for a guidebook..'Hoylands Climb'.
Just beneath the crux chimney,embedded in the saturated floor of the gully was a rucksac ?
Imagining it chock full of winter climbing gear it quickly became apparent that this was a walkers' sac.
As the walkers path passes just above the top of CG I can imagine the sheer constenation as a sac containing neat new digi palmcorder...now rusty and swimming with water...wallet,car keys,togs,foodbox,flask...both shattered and mangled....disappeared into the 800' void of CG.

It must have fallen a hell of a way to embed itself and destroy the contents.
As we were loaded up with heavy sacs ourselves complete with ropes and ironmongery,we couldn't take a sodden sac with us of course,so it's still there in CG.
I have got the guy's wallet and compass and I've tracked him down to Newcastle under Lyme thanks to his unusual name and BT directory enquiries.
As yet I haven't been able to reach him.

It's quite eerie finding someone's sac in such a unremittingly gloomy place as the Black Ladders.

In reply to Jonno:

"Here Don... I've found a boot!"
"Have a look and see if there's a foot still in it."

In reply to Jonno:

All kidding aside, did you contact the local Police?

I was involved in a search for quite some time for a missing walker. 6 months later, two climbers found his rucksack embedded in an obscure Ice climb, miles from the general area the guy was thought to be!!

We recovered his body that day as a direct result.

Just a thought

In reply to Jonno:
It may well have been 'embedded' as it has been washed down from higher up and part covered with debris, rather that fallen from a great height?

Chris

In reply to Jonno: Apparently, there was a massive rockfall at Wintours Leap a year or so ago. A mate of my friend was climbing near the area and saw it happen. When he got down, he discovered that the massive block which had fallen had landed on top of his rucksack. It is still there to this day and contains car keys etc!!

In reply to Jon Dittman:

I was climbing a sport route in Parrock Quarry, Hadge Close (Master Blaster I think)and there seemed to be a bigger gap than normal between two of the clips. As i approached where I would have expected to find the missing clip (convenient crack so placing a wire) I noticed the clip was actually several inches inside the crack, the whole slab had slid down a few feet! The most worrying thing was the extender still clipped into the now impossible to reach clip!

Needless to say the rest of the route was climbed quickly.

In reply to Jon Dittman:

Hmmm...has he still got the same car?...
Once found a burnt out car in the Cow and Calf Quarry - does that count?