Members present: John Evans, David K. Lygate, Colin Maddison, Craig Marsden, James Richardson & Dave Whittingham

Guests present: Richard Turner (John's Friend From London)

As Andy couldn't attend his meet, DKL stepped in as replacement meet leader for the weekend & John Evans took over for the mid week meet.

James & Dave W. decided to maximise their weekend, arriving on the Thursday night, they slept in the North face car park to get an early start on the Ben. Unfortunately, on reaching the CIC, the bad weather conditions, forced them to decide that there was nothing worth climbing & the best option was to retreat to Fort William. On Friday night, Craig, Colin & DKL arrived at the hut to find that the hotel next door had closed for the season & scuppered plans for last orders. However, we were not down hearted for long, as Colin came to the rescue with an emergency supply of beers. Once the car was emptied, we sat in the living room, chatting about the merits & history of the architecture we had seen from the M8, when Dave W. & James came in from the pub. They looked tired, so after some quick hellos & questioning on the state of the climbing conditions, they went to bed.

Craig, Colin & DKL got up at 6am after an almost sleepless night. The volume of the snoring had been deafening, however, we couldn't be angry. Especially since Dave W. had woken himself up with an especially loud snore & exclaimed "Oh, bloody hell, what was that?"

Despite Dave W's warnings of the previous evening, we decided to keep to our original plan & go to the Ben. When leaving the car park conditions looked pretty hopeful, however by the time we had passed the tree line, the high winds & driving rain had arrived. On reaching the CIC, it was obvious that climbing was out of the question, the gully's were full of wet heavy snow & you could imagine, high above the clag there were huge cornices just itching to drop. Additionally, the ridges weren't any more inviting due to the force of wind we were experiencing. Turning back was being contemplated when Craig stepped up to save the day, he let it slip that he'd never been to the summit of Ben Nevis. Suddenly, we had a task & instead of climbing & decided to go straight to the summit. The chosen route was via the Carn Mor Dearg arête going directly onto the ridge from the shelter above the CIC. Once on the ridge we quickly found out the true strength of the wind, being halted in our tracks by some of the stronger gusts. At the summit it was quite a relief to get out of the weather & in to the safety of the emergency shelter for a spot of lunch. A couple of drams later & the consumption of the bulk of our food, we couldn't put off leaving the shelter any longer. The conditions had to braved again, so we descended as quickly as possible via the red burn. On the way back to Onich, we stopped off at Nevisport, Craig wanted to buy some gaiters. Colin & DKL sat watching in total bemusement, as it took Craig over an hour of intense gaiter shopping before he could leave empty handed. Personally, I am planning to do a lot more shopping with Craig, as I haven't laughed as much in ages.

Returning to the Alex Mac we found out that Dave W. & James had gone home that morning. They didn't want to risk a second disappointing day & had felt the lure of the Peak district rock. We also finally caught up with John & Richard who had spent the day in Fort William, they had arrived at the hut at 7am that morning. On the Friday night, Richard's train had been late from London & John couldn't get away from work, so getting away early was impossible. On the journey north, passing Glasgow, John being the only driver, got so tired that they had to stop & sleep in the car. Sleep was found in the picturesque setting of a residential street in the shadow of Ibrox Stadium. Luckily they were both up for the week, so could afford to lose a day. That Saturday night, John was a star & cooked an incredible vegetable curry (thanks John), then after diner & a couple of glasses of wine, we all tottered off to the pub.

Sunday saw Colin, Craig & DKL on Stob Coire nan Lochan & another early start. After much deliberation, dorsal arête was chosen as the most appealing route. This route has a lowish grade since the fin itself can be avoided, however that would be missing out on all the fun, as it forms part of the best pitch. You climb out over a small gap in the fin on to an exposed ledge & following the ledge to it's conclusion takes you to a slightly overhanging corner, which is then dry tooled by torquing your axes to an exhilarated finish. Colin then convinced DKL to lead the last & far easier pitch, then we could all claim to have led that day. At the top of the route we noticed that the day had opened up & start to offer us some fantastic views. So it was up & onto the summit before bum sliding all the way down into the lost Valley. Here we had lunch, admired the views & swapped lost valley stories of previous trips (since it was another first for Craig), before heading for home with big smiles on our faces.

According to the warden, John & Richard decided on sleeping late, they apparently didn't get up before a well deserved 11am. Despite the late start, they still managed to complete the Ballachulish Horseshoe & enjoyed the good dry weather, bright sunny intervals & fantastic views as we had experienced.

David K. Lygate by default.

Scottish weekend / midweek meet

For this years week long meet in Scotland we have secured the Alex Macintyre Memorial Hut North Ballacullish Glencoe NN044612.

The meet will be taking place from Friday night 7th Feb 2003 until the following Friday 14th Feb 2003

Places are limited so book early.

The hut, as everybody knows, is well situated just off the main road into Fort William giving easy access to Ben Nevis Glencoe and the Mamores, lots of choice for winter climbers walkers and mountaineers.

The hut is also next door to the local hotel so not far to walk to the bar in the evenings.

I will be there for the whole week and looking forward to getting out on the hills for several Munros trips and a few people have already shown an interest in staying up for the week to try and get some good winter climbing conditions. Anybody interested in attending should contact me as soon as possible with their money to guarantee a place. £3.50 per night and I think we have about 12 places booked for the weekend and 6 for the week. (if enough interest it might be possible to get more places for the mid week bookings)

Email me, 'phone me or see me at the pub any Thursday night.