Mid-Summer BBQ Meet – Wye Valley, June 2018

By Paul Seabrook

A strong cast of GMC actors signed-up for this years “MidSummers Nights Barbecue”, with a good selection of ‘old hands’ to mix it with some of the fresher faces in the club.

Basing ourselves at the excellent Beeches Farm Campsite, the meet assembled during the latter part of Friday evening, camping together around the fire-pit and making use of the clubs new Event Shelter as the temperature started to drop under the clear summer skies.

Saturday dawned bright and early, and soon, over breakfast, we were discussing the plans for the day. Several options were considered, but, finally the idea of just walking down to Shorn Cliff – less than one KM from the site, seemed the obvious choice. Using all our team navigational skills we managed to exit the campsite at the second attempt and found our way down to the base of this secluded crag, set amongst lovely beech woodland and mossy covered limestone boulders.

Teams enjoyed a variety of excellent routes including; Acoustic, Gargoyle, The Bone, Tigers Don’t Cry, and others. I left early to sort out prep for the evening BBQ and everyone returned to the campsite for what my student daughter calls “Prees” (pre-drink drinks it seems) before settling down to the main event of the evening i.e. watching me sweat over a BBQ that was raging hot at one end and stone cold at the other.

Thanks to helpful interventions from…. well everybody really, the BBQ food and salads were soon ready and we all enjoyed a great evening eating slightly singed food and chatting about the day, discussing summer plans, and thinking about what to do on the Sunday.

Sunday dawned as “Another perfect day in Paradise!” With Ben and Lou and Harry the hound heading off to variously ride, walk, canoe etc. the rest of us breakfasted under the shelter looking out at the rolling countryside. The day was set to be another scorcher, so obviously, the best thing to do was to head to a multi-pitch west facing white limestone crag that ensures maximum dazzle and sunburn potential, and Wintour’s Leap certainly fits that bill. Parking at the Ban-y-gor spot in Lancaut Lane gives one the opportunity to approach the crag along the river, which affords a great view of the whole cliff and highlights just how extensive a crag this is.

Different parties targeted various sections of the crag – being lazy, I decided to head to North Wall (first sector reached on this approach) with Amanda, and together we climbed The Angels Eye and Nibelheim, both good value routes for their respective grades. I believe Paul D opted to go to the Central Bay and climbed Corner Buttress Route 2 with John , whilst Tara and Paul N tackled Cement Groove, with a little assistance from their friends………sounds like a few beers were earned!  Further on still, Dave and KJ went to Fly Wall to climb Butterfly and Freedom.

Separately, Curley Rich was meeting up with Matt J and having a return match with the hard classic Kaiser Wall which I hear was a more successful venture this time than last!

All in All a great GMC weekend!

Attendees:

Amanda R + Pascal (from SAKMC), Ben & Louise W with Harry the hound, Dave B, Paul D, John AA, Paul N, Tara E, Paul S, Rich S + Gus (from Reading Wall), KJ, unfortunately Francois + Friend and Liz D had to bail due to various real life pressures.