UKC

Hi All

I'm looking to find out a little bit about the history of the York University Mountaineering Club and was hoping to find a few alumni members on here who might have some stories or know how old the club is (or even how old some of our gear is!). Due to poor record keeping by both the club and our student union we've got very little information on the history of the club, I've manage to dig up some photos from as early as 2001 but that's all we have so far.

Excited to hear some tales!

Ollie

In reply to olliemartin:

I don't think that York University Mountaineering Club existed when I was at York (1989-1996). There was a Climbing Club and a mountaineering club called Lairig something or other (which I joined, but didn't actually go to any events as they seemed very cliquey)

"...as early as 2001..." makes me feel very old!!

OM

In reply to olliemartin:
Ben Lairig was that club, at least it was in 84. There was also a University of York Outdoor Society. A white rose of Yorkshire with some boots used to be the logo of the latter. The former served the more mountaineering trips and the latter was focused around hill walking. I don't remember a mountaineering club in the years 84-87 but doesn't mean there wasn't one alongside the above clubs.

In reply to olliemartin:

I was a hanger on for a few years and have a few fond memories, like the initiation drink "Prilk" made from a cocktail of crushed pringles, Bacardi and milk. It didn't taste too bad, but the texture was such that you gagged almost instantly!

Or how about the President, who managed to organise club trips to Froggatt/Curbar/Baslow for weeks on end until he'd top-roped End of the Affair into submission and gone for the big lead?

In reply to olliemartin:

yes it did, its was the 'climbing club' i was chair for a year sometime around 89 ish -
cant remember now. It's certainly been going for quite some time.

YUMC have started a number of websites over the years in fits of short
lived enthusiasm, which doesnt help.

there are a few of us around on UKC - eg Readza was there '90ish and Rob Ward Exile was there many years ago - may have older info

In reply to olliemartin:

I thought I was a member from 74 to 77 (and a bit beyond) but maybe I was wrong!

There's a few lurkers here I know for a fact, I'm not the only one. What you have to remember back then is that the secretary of the Athletics Union was married to a middle aged bloke called Jack R, who needed an alternative hobby to rugby, so took up climbing; as result we were pretty much the best funded club in the university, hiring luxury cars to go climbing every weekend. A future Professor of Archaeology tried to get him ejected from the club on the basis that he was nothing to do with the university; some of us thought that that was a good criterion for membership. We still have a meet in Jack's honour every year.

Sadly, we were at university at the same time as Phil Thornhill. This did not mean we felt touched by greatness; it mean that on a winters evening we had to spend hours in the cold waiting for Phil to complete a route at Brimham, showing his talent for remaining clamped and unmoving despite the cold and misery. Talents that held him later in good stead when he frightened Mick Fowler on a number of occasions. Phil was sleeping below the Gorge one evening, and woke up to a find a tramp had crawled him beside him and then died. Phil rolled over and went back to sleep.

You might be surprised how many who were climbing in York in the 70s still are. Some are still cranking it out on E5s and silly French numbers. Not me, I hasten to add.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:


Now there's a man who brought a little something to the party!



Not many have that accolade...


Seem to remember meeting some York Uni MC bods in the early 70s - at Brimham?? All a bit of a blur now, unfortunately. They seemed good guys.

Mick

In reply to Ally Smith:

Sounds delicious... we may have to bring that tradition back for this years freshers!

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Awesome stories! Do you have any pictures from your days in the club?

In reply to olliemartin:

I was a member of YUMC from 99-03 ish and I think I was president in 01, the mountain walking group Ben Larig (sp?) was separate at the time though I didn't see them on this year's list of societies so perhaps they merged at some point? We renewed the kit totally in that period, it was mostly DMM stuff from the days before colour coded nuts plus a pile of plain black and plain blue half ropes. There may also be a Friend 5 and 6 bought for a 2001 Yosemite trip though they've probably long since been lost. No doubt all the kit we bought has since been responsibly destroyed. Quite a few of us from that time are still in touch and meet up occasionally though few actually climb much any more.

I haven't got many vintage pictures of us actually climbing I'm afraid. There was a log book kept in that period, it went out on trips and weekends away, not sure where it ended up. Mostly it was full of chaotic drink fueled drawings rather than serious trip reports or amusing stories.
jk

In reply to olliemartin:


I know what this is without reading back up thread <shudder> PRILK: pringles emulsified in milk and curdled with spirit, you use the tube as a coctail shaker.
jk

In reply to jkarran:

Finally the mystery of the size 6 friend has been solved, we've often wondered why that had been bought. Most of that hardware you guys bought is still in use, fortunately we've got different ropes now! We've still got the log book and 500+ pictures so some must be you guys. You old YUMC members will have to come join us on a pub crawl some time and show us exactly how to make Prilk...

In reply to olliemartin:
That sounds like fun and I could even be tempted to climb first, I'm still in the city.

We had some unspent budget for gear back in 01 and with a trip to the states coming a special offer cropped up on huge cams. There's a friend 5 rolling around the back seat of my car at the moment from the same shopping trip!

Are the photos all hard copy or online anywhere? I could probably help with some names.
jk

In reply to olliemartin:

There was a Mountaineering Club when I arrived at York in 1982, but it was very much geared to climbing so I didn't join (I didn't take up climbing for another 10 years or so). This was the reason that Ben Lairig was set up (by a good friend of mine) in about 1983 or 4 - to provide something designed for walkers. Since then I think Ben lairig has morphed into pretty much the same sort of organisation that it was designed as an antidote to, such is the way of student clubs!

In reply to olliemartin:
Most of the gear in the cupboard got retired by a chap with little sense of humor who was employed by the Students Union in (i think) 2002/3. I think the SU was going through a phase where they weren't amused with us* but the flipside was that we then got a massive new gear budget the year after, some of it is still serving me well... The guy condemned stuff like all-metal ice axes that clearly don't really have much of a lifetime, sadly we didn't know he was coming so we didn't have chance to hide much of the gear and what is left of any vintage is what we manage to hide.

If the 500 photos came out of the locker then they pre-date 2001 when we had a look at them, we always wanted to find out who they were but we weren't well enough organised to do some sort of reunion event.

Is the logbook the one that was 2 notebooks taped together with a Sam Smiths beer mat on the front?

Final question - does YUMC still follow the cult of Bork the goose? The references are in the book....

* I think prevalence of a string of incidents like this where people complained to the SU tried their patience http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=208285

In reply to jkarran:

As yes, the Sea Horse sessions!

In reply to jkarran and petellis:

It's about time we had a meet up, maybe even drag the Brewer away from the new arrival for an evening?

In reply to jkarran:

The photos are hard copies, planning on having a bit of a scanning session of the best ones when term starts in September

In reply to Ally Smith:

We should. Incidentally I was boozing with Dr Brewer just last night so it is possible to book his time still.

In reply to petellis:

I think the Sam Smiths note pad was in there somewhere, I'll have a dig around next time I'm in the locker. I'm not aware of Bork the Goose but we've currently got a vacancy for official club cult so we'd love to learn more...

In reply to Ally Smith:

Count me in for climbing/pub, I'm sure we could invent some stories if we can't remember any.

(member for 2003-2007)

In reply to olliemartin:
I was a relatively active member from 1978 to 1981. I can remember Jack in those years - he had a fast car that was much the preferred method of transport instead of the SU minibus.
Phil Thornhill was still climbing with the club in those days - I remember doing a massive roof aid climb with him in the North York Moors in the pouring rain.....he was training for the Bonatti Pillar which I think he subsequently soloed. I remember one Sunday seeing Phil climbing at Peak Scar. We left for a few beers at lunch time and when we got back he had not moved in inch - he was very good at hanging on small holds but not so quick at moving!
I did most of my climbing with Ray Ellis who subsequently sadly died in Scotland while walking alone in the winter.
Anyone else in the club in those years on this forum?

In reply to olliemartin:


You really need to climb the initation routes:
Bork Power Goose (E2 5b) for starters, and then there's 'Bork Goes Bonkers With a Bolt Gun' on Llanberis slate, but it was unfortunately chipped, retrobolted and re-named during the 'renaissance' a few years ago.

I think I've got a fair few photos kicking around somewhere I might be able to dig up. A lot of my gallery is from YUMC trips.

In reply to olliemartin:

Another York tale from the early 70s. We drove to Glencoe one winter in a Morris Minor that didn't have working windscreen wipers, so we had a piece of string that we pulled from side to side to wipe the screen. Once we arrived we set off up a winter climb - to this day I have no idea what - at mid day, and reached the top as just as the storm broke, the light failed, and our head torches ran out of power. We (probably) didn't have a map or compass, because in those days we weren't very good at that sort of thing. Ivor (who later sadly died on High Tor in a bizarre accident) led a magnificent retreat until he abbed over a cliff edge, and hand over handed back up the abseil rope to tell us we were above a massive cliff, way bigger than our doubled rope would reach. So we bivvied for the night in our Karrimor plastic bags that filled up with snow, lashed to nubbins of rock above the void. After an angst ridden discussion we mutually agreed to call the rescue... Hah! You try blowing a whistle in a Glencoe blizzard, and see how far it carries. About 2 feet, is the answer. So we just toughed it out, thinking we would probably die of exposure before we could get it together to escape the massive cliffs below us.

When daylight came, we discovered we had in fact got to the bottom of the mountain after all, and we were lashed to boulders in the middle of gentle hillside, surrounded by sheep.

In reply to Ally Smith:

Planning an 'alumni' YUMC pub crawl some time in October/November, will keep you all posted

In reply to Aly:


Is that the one in the flooded quarry full of dead fridges?
jk

In reply to jkarran:

Yes, that's the one. The route next to it is 'Prilk Water Solo' *shudders*

In reply to lithos:

I was indeed: 1988 to 1991, and a couple of trips after graduation.

Matt Gallagher (~1985-1988/1990-91) is on here too as gallam1, though he hasn't posted for a while.

Would a reunion day climbing meet not be more amenable to most? I would last about two pubs on a pub crawl! And then there's the impracticality of staying over... a day meet might get more oldies out.

In reply to Jon Read:

Not an alumnus but I used to live on the other side of Walmgate Stray and spent a lot of time in the 80s on the "climbing wall" at one end of the sports hall; bits of slate cemented into the bricks. I got quite fit on there.
Remember Jack's dictum at Brimham or Caley etc, "It's that time... " meaning he'd had enough and it was time to go to the pub. There was no gainsaying him...

In reply to Pete Pozman:
Yes, I remember the Uni wall quite fondly. I certainly did its job; Pete Brown -- he of Almscliffe fame -- used to train there after all. In fact, there's a funny story relating to the time him and Matt G went to Almscliffe... I'll get him to relate it.

Edited for typos/terrible grammar as usual.

In reply to olliemartin:

The mountaineering club goes back a long way, to the birth of the uni I would suspect. My Dad has mentioned its existence while he was there in the early 70s. Outdoor Soc is the other society with a long history - I believe at first they were effectively the bog-walking society doing very grim long walks across very grim bogs.

I was a member of YUMC in 2007/2008 but I spent most of my time at York with Ben Lairig, who were the backpacking/hill walking/scrambling/winter stuff club. While I was there the mountaineering club was solely a cragging and bouldering club, and even walk-ins to places like Raven Crag were met with disgust (okay, it is steep). At this time Outdoor Soc was largely the uni's day trip society for foreign students. Ben Lairig and Outdoorsoc actually merged following some exceptionally bad decision making by the YUSU exec a couple of years ago but I believe Ben Lairig has since been officially ratified.

The best things YUMC and Ben Lairig did together was pub orienteering. Do you still do that? If not, you're probably wise. You get a map with 15 pubs on in the city centre, and in 90 minutes pairs of drinkers/runners have to get round as many as they can. You got points for getting to the pub - picture evidence required - and more points for drinking in the pub (more picture evidence). The number of points for each drink varied according to strength, you got bonuses for downing stuff, and I think you got bonuses for photos of novelties like a Ghost Walk, Whip-ma-Whop-ma- Gate, that sort of thing. When me and a mate won by visiting every pub and drinking in most of them the way to try and curb ridiculous drinking was to increase the number of pubs to 20. That way people would surely spend more time running around and less time drinking, right? No. Next time we did it we visited all 20 pubs and between us did 36 shots of whiskey in the 90 minutes. The weirdest thing is that when you finished you are still sober. Ten minutes later, less so.

In reply to Jon Read:

I believe you are referring to the Dogman Edwards Memorial wall, to give it its full official title.

Have to say Mr Edwards is still cranking it out awesomely, so obviously his creation didn't damage him as much as it should have done.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Is that at the NPC hut in Clapham?

In reply to olliemartin:

Some university libraries keep student mountaineering club meets books from the distant past (when they were polite and legible!) - have you tried there? Also, isn't there a facebook ex-YUMC group with some photos (my account seized up long ago)?

I believe I witnessed the invention of the bacardi/pringles/milk emulsion, around 2001, in a strange parallel universe that looked a lot like the Bromsgrove-Redditch hut at Tremadog.

Thomas.

In reply to tev:

Tom of the old blue Seat (?) with flooded footwells and sponges to drain them? There are some photos of that trip knocking about somewhere though I'm damned if I can remember who has them.

James

In reply to jkarran:

I remember comming back from caley in the knackered blue Seat. Iron Moore was in the back and Tom asked him to see what the noise comming from the boot was, there was a long nervous pause before the reply came back: "I think it's one of those things held together with duct tape... that's the rear suspension of the car isn't it?"

You probably won't remember me though, I'd only just joined.

In reply to jkarran:

Chill out James, I don't think we can be considered vintage quite yet...