METHS

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North Yorkshire, England. 4-7 June 2003

At breakfast on Thursday the day of the main walk it was raining and the cloud was down to 1,500ft. However, it was decided to go for it as the forecast for Friday was for more of the same. So it seemed an act of sheer daring to leave the pub at all, but as we approached the start at Aisgill, the rain stopped and the cloud began to lift.

So we set off and the weather became better and better.

Mallerstang Edge was tackled in fine style with superb views over the Edge and across the upper Eden Valley and down into Swaledale. We found our way off the Edge between High Seat (2,328ft) and High Pike (2,107ft) as planned via an old quarryman's track that led us safely across and down a very precipitous part of the Edge. The descent threw away 1,600ft of height gained.

We ate lunch in the ruins of Pendragon Castle, one of the alleged birthplaces of King Arthur.

Thus fortified the party set to do the second half of the walk, the ridge on the western side of the Eden Valley taking in Wild Boar Fell (2,324ft). By now the day was superb and the views fantastic: Lakeland hills, a hint of the Scottish hills, the northern Pennines, the mid Pennines including the Three Peaks as far south as Pendle Hill, and Morecambe Bay to the west.

Afternoon tea was partaken at the tumuli on Wild Boar Fell. Harrison was upset at the absence of liquid peat, especially so as he had taken Axeman's advice to fill the bath with liquid peat to train in and in so doing had ruined his bath and its attendant plumbing.

All the remained was to knock off Swarth Fell (2,235ft), which was done in fine style, and then descend via the county boundary back to Aisgill. Midnight Jack congratulated Axeman on his navigation saying we had never once been lost which is the norm on METHS meets.

Back at the pub the President asked the participants to tender their ages. A sweepstake took place, won by George "Munro" Wallace which enabled him to buy the next round painlessly. The average worked out at 64 years. Thus the participants could be proud of their efforts. The walk worked out at 14 miles with 3,000ft of ascent.

On Friday Sadie joined the walkers bringing them up to nine and we set off to tackle Addlebrough (1,564ft) near Bainbridge. It is an isolated flat-topped hill with commanding views of the dale and resembles Mt Kinabalu in Borneo. The National Trust now own a strip of land from near Cubeck to the summit and it is now possible to climb the hill legally via two permissive paths. These formed the day's route.

George waxed lyrical about the number of golden plovers seen on route. Steve found a mole trap and entertained us at lunch demonstrating how to use it. The weather behaved itself and we just got back to the cars before it came on to rain. The walk came to six miles with a modest 700ft of ascent.

The METHS crowd are an irreverent bunch. One was heard to say the President had gone well but would have done better if he had not been carrying half the brewery around in front of him. Another remarked that METHS had survived a Petzold-free meet.

All in all it was a superb meet. Ian "Axeman" Mason

Participants: Ian and Sadie Mason, Brian and Jane Sayers, Dave and Judy Harrison, Steve and Pauline Ward, George and Val Wallace, and Jack Bannister.

National Park Website: www.yorkshiredales.org.uk

Click here for an account of last year's meet.