UKC

Dovestones Main Quarry Clean Up (posted on behalf of Chris Tan)

Rendevous: Meet up at The Crag Station, Kinders Lane, Greenfield ( http://www.thecragstation.co.uk/where/ ) on Saturday, October 19th at 1000. Cakes, pies and other refreshments are available at the bakery nearby or the cafe, The Country Kitchen, across the road. Or at the crag, OS ref. SE 0245 0384.

Tools: The usual crag cleaning stuff; work gloves, spades, trowels, secatuers, brushes, etc. If you plan to work at height, then a small rack and slings for setting up an abseil point will be useful as will a helmet.

Objectives: 1. Over the Moors, page 420. The heather left of line 1 has taken over. If we could remove all of it, it will make that area more pleasant to climb on.

2. Route cleaning - In August, I cleaned Mottled Groove on the second. It still needs a bit of work. Also the three routes left of Titan's Groove ( Moorland Gritstone - Chew Valley, page 216); Unicorn Direct, Little Unicorn and Tower of Babel, are among the best the Main Quarry has to offer. I think we should give them a very good clean, and announce this fact online, then monitor log books to see if there is any increase in traffic.

If we do this now, the winter weather will wash away most of the debris, then in the spring next year, a quick brush of the holds will make these routes ready for the 2104 season.

3. General litter pick and rhodedendren removal - For those who are not familiar with roped access work, then a general wander round the area, removing litter and rhodedendren saplings would be a big help. The rodedendren are starting to spread and we need to keep them in check.

Debriefing - The Wellington serves a lovely selection of beers and good food.

Note: Event updates will be posted on the The Chew Valley Cragsmen Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/120969574613193/

In reply to Offwidth: Last Sunday, at the request of the RSPB who do the land management for the Dove Stone area, Oldham Mountain Rescue Team cleared the large Rhododendrons from the routes in the area between Brass Monkey and Mike's Meander. There is still one Rhododendron on Left-hand Variant which we didn't get to. The RSPB are doing a general removal of Rhododendron from the valley since they are an invasive, non-native species and provide no support for wildlife, so feel free to remove any you see (preferably pulling the roots out as well). We did a sweep along the steep ground between Lower Left Quarry and Ashway Gap below Dovestones Edge and Dean Rocks. The steep area above Lower Left Quarry still has plenty to remove though.

Good luck with the work on the 19th - hope you get decent weather.
Denzil OMRT

In reply to Offwidth: Good to hear, will there be an honorary appearance by Tony Howard

In reply to Al Evans:

I hope so! Not that he's not been doing anything since the last postings on this subject...quite a few routes cleaned by the sound of it. Its useful if people do as much as they can outwith the event so I'm chuffed to hear about OMRT efforts.

In reply to Offwidth:

I'll be there, I've got ascenders and a 60 m caving rope so can go for a dangle and clean some routes. Sounds like it will be a good laugh. Going to spend a couple of evening making rope protectors.

In reply to Offwidth:

I'll pencil this date in-I haven't done any clean up work for a couple of years so need to do my bit. I could pick Chris up en route if he hasn't got a lift sorted.

In reply to Offwidth:

We pulled out quite a lot of rhododendrons at Dovestones Quarry last weekend on the Chew Valley Challenge, think we should have got a few extra points for that!

In reply to Ropeboy:

Karma points due for sure.

In reply to Offwidth: (bump)

I'll sadly probably not be there (committments elsewhere) which is a shame because I really want to play a part in restoring some glory to Britain's tallest gritstone cliff. Hope the weather's good for you.

I'll just try and climb there with whoever I can convince, when I can, cleaning what we can...

In reply to Offwidth:

Will Hitler be there?

In reply to Just Another Dave:

Always thought that was Hoghton. Is Dovestones taller then?

In reply to Lusk: Hitler is busy annexing Uppermill this weekend.

youtube.com/watch?v=amsm61u_P7M&

In reply to robin mueller:

~50m vertical height for parts of Dovestones Main. Up routes over 60m.

Can I re-emphasise I posted the original on behalf of Chris Tan. It would be good if someone could keep an eye on the link in the original post and update UKC with any changes close to the event as I will not be here this weekend (sadly I have a prior appointment and I have to travel there on Friday)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/120969574613193/

In reply to robin mueller:

Dovestones Main is considerably taller than Houghton, though I like them both