UKC

Crag Lough Restoration (Round 2)

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 The Mole 25 Jul 2013
Following on from last year’s successful mass gardening effort a continuation of the restoration of Crag Lough will take place this year on 7th September.

Spread the word, tell your friends, mention it to folk you meet at the crag!

The National Trust (land owner) are again fully onboard and supportive of this year’s event.
Given the success of last year’s format we plan to follow more or less the same formula of cleaning routes on the Saturday and climbing on the Sunday. There will be a BBQ at Winshields Farm Campsite on the Saturday evening followed by beers in the Twice Brewed Inn. Except that with luck, the weather will be better on the Sunday this time!

A lot of routes were cleaned up last year and as anyone who has been back this summer will know the difference is remarkable. Routes that were previously only of interest to botanists such as Left Organ Pipe (HVS), Why Not (VS) and Jezebel (D) are once again some of the best low to mid grade routes in the County. However some of the vegetation was pretty stubborn and took a lot longer to remove than was anticipated. It was felt by everyone there that there was plenty more that could be done.

The next NE area BMC meeting will be held on Thursday 29 August 2013, starting at 7.30pm, at the Durham Climbing Centre, any final details will be sorted then.

If you are interested in volunteering or have any questions please contact me directly.

Cheers

Mark Anstiss
 martinph78 25 Jul 2013
 JDal 25 Jul 2013
In reply to Martin1978: A wire brush is fine on that dolerite, you'll wear the brush out first.
 martinph78 25 Jul 2013
In reply to JDal: Thanks, will pop one in my bag for next time. Some good routes to be had there for sure.
 Team BMC 12 Aug 2013
See the BMC Local Areas site for more information about the Crag Lough Clean-up Festival:

http://community.thebmc.co.uk/Event.aspx?id=2924
 Rob Dyer, BMC 03 Sep 2013
In reply to The Mole: Just a quick bump to remind everyone that this is happening this weekend. Meeting at 0930 on Saturday at the car park for Crag Lough, we'll be cleaning routes on Sat day, the BMC is laying on a BBQ Sat night and bacon butties Sun morning, and we'll be enjoying the fruits of our labour on Sun by climbing the newly cleaned routes.

Anyone is welcome, but you do need to be able to rig up your own abseil and look after yourself on the crag. If you have any hand tools such as trovels, patio knives, nylon brushes, shovels, bow saws etc, please bring them along too.

See you all there!

Cheers,
Rob Dyer
BMC Access & Conservation Officer (England)
See you there.
OP The Mole 06 Sep 2013
In reply to Rob Dyer, BMC: Afternoon all,

The forecast for tomorrow is for sunny intervals and showers. Not perfect, but perfectly manageable. We will have an event tent at the campsite for Saturday evening so the Barbecue is garanteed to be dry

Thankfully the forecast for Sunday is dry. If we had to pick which way round the weather was, I'd rather have it this way, unlike last year when we got no climbing done on Sunday!

See you tomorrow

Mark
OP The Mole 09 Sep 2013
In reply to all: And everyone who attended. Despite the poor forecast the turnout was really good and amazingly the weather held out with essentially no rain on Saturday! Loads of good work was done and another clutch of routes improved and few more brought back from obscurity. The weather was great on Sunday with loads of routes getting ticked, some for what may be the first time in years.
Particular thanks go to those who helped out with the Barbecue and breakfast, Liam and Rich for helping with some of the preparative work and to Rob and the BMC for supporting the event.

A list of the routes cleaned will be posted in the next few days.

Thanks again

Mark
OP The Mole 09 Sep 2013
To anyone climbing at Crag Lough over the next few weeks please bear in mind that many of the lines that were gardened are dusty and there may be the odd loose stoned lurking. The nature of the ground makes this unavoidable. Over the next few weeks, holds may need brushing. The winter weather will finish the job properly and the restored lines will be at their best next spring

Mark
 martinph78 09 Sep 2013
In reply to The Mole: Awesome job all, I look forward to my next visit up there. Many thanks.
OP The Mole 10 Sep 2013
Summary of routes cleaned on Saturday:

Route 2 (all vegetation removed from Chimney, alternative direct start cleaned out),
Pinnacle Crack,
Hadrian’s East,
Crescent Climb,
Hadrian’s Highway
(almost all vegetation on east side of Hadrian’s Buttress removed)
Cleaned by Graeme Armstrong and Pete Forbes

Evasion groove. Cleaned by John Spencer

Tarzan,
Tarzan’s Mate,
Jane.
Cleaned by Adrian Wilson.

Jezebel,
Hari Kiri.
Cleaned by Bob McAdam, John Wilson and Sarah Hawker. Possibility of harder RH variation to Hari Kiri also cleaned.

Sinister Corner. Cleaned by Mark Anstiss, Dave Chalmers and Pete Forbes.
Two new independent lines either side of Sinister Corner also cleaned and ascended

Dexterity. Cleaned by Chris Down

Deep Gully (A very useful descent, Mod). Dug out by Liam Dervey

Abseil Wall,
Spuggies Gully.
Cleaned by Richard Alderton

Y Climb. Cleaned By John Doughty.
Possible direct start uncovered by John Vaughan

Grad’s Groove. Cleaned by John Vaughan
Neglect. Given a good brushing by John Vaughan

Great Chimney. Cleaned by John Dalrymple

Many Buttresses are now completely clean, with traffic they ought to stay that way, particularly at the western end of the crag
 Simon Caldwell 10 Sep 2013
In reply to The Mole:
> Grad’s Groove. Cleaned by John Vaughan

What happened to the roc's nest?
 JDal 11 Sep 2013
In reply to Toreador:
The jackdaws nest was removed, if a pair return next year they'll just be starting from scratch.
 Simon Caldwell 11 Sep 2013
In reply to JDal:
Good stuff, my partner breezed the hard climbing lower down and came to a standstill getting into the nest! Look forward to our next trip.

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