Words by Pete , Photos by Dr S and Lee
Crew : Pete, TJ, Lee, Butty, El Pres, Dr S, 3sheds
Route : Bottom of the Zag – Charity & Ext – Tea Rooms – Semi Danebower – diverse descents – Cumberland Clough – Standing Stone – LHS descent – Sutton Hall
Conditions: Excellent , a bit cool by the time we reached the Cat & Fiddle
Notes :
A simple forest circuit was anticipated – but when we stopped at the top of charity ….Lee said “shall we do The Cat & Cumberland”- no one argued .
I must say I was initially not too keen on that tarmac drag up to the tea rooms , but it wasn’t too bad tonight .
Anyway ….. despite the good weather chazza was wet for the first time in ages …mud on my legs …what a novel concept !
The extension (proper name Oven Lane) was gnarly as hell …I have to confess a tactical “controlled off “ part way down.
The wind was light and a couple of paragliders were making the most of it up near the Tea Rooms and Shining Tor .
Extra layers were donned at the Cat but we pushed onwards . I am not sure who decided on “the full monty” descent of Chumby (definition : taking the footpath route to the waterfall in CC , avoiding the A54 stretch ) but it leads to a choice point .
Chris and I bailed left , the rest followed 3sheds on the “straight down” route .
At Standing stone we decided to go down the left hand side, and the crew got a bit split up . TJ and I ended up bumping into Ricky , his lady Sue and a couple of his mates.
On arrival at Sutton Hall we had menus pushed under our noses, and choices had to be made quickly .
Solar Flare tasted good and punched above its weight . 4.7% I think. Quite a few were ordered . Three left for the AOE with the dram which has the whiff of TCP (or Izal medicated)