QUEEN VIC’S PILLAR RESURRECTED (WBMC 13) Traditional Geocache
QUEEN VIC’S PILLAR RESURRECTED (WBMC 13)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A true 5:5 cache on top of a 20 ft tower. It needs some climbing ability to reach it.
IT IS NOW A CONTAINER WITHIN A CONTAINER WHICH ALSO HOLDS 2 LUMPS OF ROCK.
****PLEASE LEAVE THE ROCKS IN THE CONTAINER OTHERWISE IT WILL PROBABLY GET BLOWN AWAY****
WARNING & DISCLAIMER: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEEK THIS SMALL CACHE! THERE IS A MUCH EASIER ONE, POSSIBLY WITH ‘GOODIES’ IN IT, NEARBY. IF YOU DO SEEK THE ONE ON THE TOP OF THE PILLAR, WHETHER OR NOT YOU FIND IT, YOU AGREE TO DO SO ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.
This is one of a series of caches which I have placed on summits or interesting places in the mountains of England, Wales or Scotland during the regular visits that I and other members of West Bromwich Mountaineering Club make to the hills.
Queen Vic’s Pillar is a tall square stone tower, between 15 and 20 ft high, at the summit of Mynydd Tal-y-mignedd (The Mountain at the End of the Bog). The cache is at the very top of the tower, which was built by quarry workers to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
To get to the cache requires a near vertical climb. The rocks of the pillar are very solid and provide very good hand and footholds but, BE WARNED, some of the ones on the top are loose! Do not trust these and certainly do not remove or dislodge them. Although the climb is short and has lots of “jug” holds, it is still a climb, possibly moderate or difficult grade. Only attempt it if you have a good head for heights, confidence in your climbing skills and good weather. I would not recommend it if you are alone on the summit. Children should be top-roped unless they are precocious ‘crag rats’.
The SW side (the one seen in the listing photograph) is almost certainly the easiest but is usually the side most exposed to the weather. If you stick your head over the top from that direction you should see the white cap of the cache sticking up from a hole between the rocks. (NB the rocks on the more sheltered NE side are covered in algae which are slippy and gelatinous when damp.)
Remember, getting to the top is only half the task. Signing the paper log leaning on your elbows will be tricky and down-climbing can be harder than going up. If you are not confident in your ability to down-climb safely, please be content with the Mynydd Tal-y-mignedd (WBMC 1) normal cache which is only 200 metres away.
The cache is a black-taped drinks powder container, containing the small pot which has the log sheet and small pencil in it
PLEASE TAKE CARE AND TRY NOT TO LOSE THE CAP OR THE STONES WHICH IT CONTAINS TO WEIGH IT DOWN!! Also please screw it on firmly to keep out water and replace the cache as found, sticking up in the hole near the centre of the Pillar. I had a cache in this position in my early geocaching days so check out GC11DZJ if you want to see some more pictures.
West Brom Mountaineering Club is a friendly group with members (aged 6 months to 85 years) mainly drawn from a 25 mile radius of West Bromwich, although there are also members in Yorkshire, Canada & Australia! It runs monthly coach trips to the hills ( most often to the Lake District or Snowdonia) and also holds hostel & bothy weekends, European trips in summer and a winter week in Scotland which attracts almost a fifth of the 250 membership!! The club has it’s own hut with all mod cons in Nantgwynant and organises navigation skills and family weekends there several times each year.
It meets every Thursday at “The Horse & Jockey” in Stoney Lane, West Bromwich (B71 4EZ) from 9pm (-ish) onwards. See www.wbmc.org for details of meets / events / contacts or it's entry in Wikipedia under WBMC or its Facebook page.
A huge THANK YOU to Spunky Spider, Offbeam & Dylan Burgess for putting a new cache in place in October 2016 when the old one seems to have been taken (or blown away!) so enabling Citrus Lizard complete a milestone. And what a milestone! 100 5/5 caches is a tremendous achievement 
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
“Gur zbhagnvaf jvyy nyjnlf or gurer, gur gevpx vf gb fgnl nyvir fb lbh pna rawbl gurz.”