Members Present: Sabina Cosulich, Duncan Lee, Dave Whittingham, Fiona Roy, Sheena Hendrie, Dave Lygate

Guests: Graham and Brenda Roy

Passing through and don't get a tick: Al Metelko, Scott Sadler, James Richardson, Anna, Anya

The star of this show was Fiona, who had an eventful weekend...

Duncan and Sabina headed north first to try to get some climbing done on the Friday. I never did quite work out which route they tried on the Buchaille but green slime seemed to feature prominently and they retreated for an early visit to the hut. Something like 6 hours and one fire later the inside of the hut was just beginning to match the external temperature (at 1030 at night). It was nice of them to warm the place up for the rest of us.

Saturday morning was dry but overcast and after much faffing teams headed off in different directions. Those passing through headed for Skye, The Dave's headed for Tower Ridge, Graham and Brenda went walking, and the rest of us went to Etive Slabs.

On arrival at the foot of Spartan Slab, Duncan did his bit for world peace by commenting on the sedentary pace of the team on Pitch 1. I cannot remember the actual words used but they were not quite as polite as that - and the team sitting at the bottom of the route turned out to be friends of the snails. And the snails themselves probably heard as well...

Having eyed up Hammer Fiona and I decided to play safe and wait for the queue on Spartan to diminish. Duncan and Sabina started on The Pause. All went well for a bit. Fiona dropped my sunglasses down the crag but they were old ones, she did the crux quite nicely and then made sure that she was well protected by welding a piece of gear into the crack that proved impossible for anyone to remove. (Top tip: the crux pitch of Spartan now has two pieces of in situ gear. I managed to remove Fiona's attempt to place a third.)

By this time Duncan and Sabina had abbed off The Pause which was running with water and made more friends by queue jumping part way up Spartan Pitch 1 - although to be fair the team leapfrogged were themselves candidates for the Snails of the Year Award. We all ended up Spartan having restored at least a semblance of amicable relations with the team ahead. They had been hoping for a quiet day on the crag but one poor soul ended up on a belay with me, Fiona and Duncan and the decibel level must have broken H&S regs. We then headed back down only to bump into the snails who were about to depart - if looks could have killed Duncan would now be buried under the aptly named Coffinstone.

And there endeth the first day - oh apart from me locking Fiona in the outside loo and she had to phone Graham to come and let her out.

On the Sunday it was deemed that since this was a Glencoe meet, we had to actually set foot in the glen. Dave L went for a walk, Graham and Brenda set their sights on Stob Coire nan Lochan, Dave W rested his blisters, and the rest of us headed for Aonach Dubh East Face at the fastest pace we could manage to get out of earshot of the strangled cats pretending to be pipers at the side of the A82. I led Spider while Duncan led Quietude. He then started on Solitude (E3), and in due course received assistance by me sending down all my microwires to supplement his own - when the guide says it needs two sets, it means it!

Fiona had been eyeing up Quietude and decided to go for it. Briefed by Duncan on the gear required to protect the crux (which is low down and just off a ledge) she set off. Having eyed up the crux (steep and overhanging) she backed off but decided to have another go. Then it went wrong - still with no gear in she could not make upward progress nor reverse the moves she had done. The inevitable then happened and ankles met ledge with the full impact of a Factor 2 fall.

There then followed a process of establishing damage, assessing whether we needed help etc. In the end we went for the sensible course of action and sent Duncan down to call out the MRT. In due course they arrived and were absolutely brilliant - very professional, relaxed and totally non judgemental. Fi was helicoptered off to Fort William and the rest of us made our way there in slower time.

The final event of the day was for Sabina to phone John Evans to report on the accident and state of Fiona's health. Not wanting to worry him, she went for the positive approach, all communicated in a cheery tone "I've got some news, its not exactly good news, in fact its bad news. Fiona had an accident but its only her ankle, well she's actually broken it and needs an op, and the other foot is broken as well, oh and she's hurt her back." The response from John seemed to centre on "what colour was the helicopter".

Top marks to the Glencoe MRT (to whom I'd like the Club to give a donation), the climber from Sheffield who provided a bivvy bag, the police who chauffered Sabina and myself to the Clachaig, and hospital staff in Fort William and Raigmore. Regrettably the same praise does not apply to the Clachaig, who seemed more concerned about us not upsetting their guests than helping Duncan call out the MRT.

And Fiona is on the mend.

This meet has been arranged so that we avoid the Scottish midge, we get the one good weather spell of a Scottish summer, and people can go on to Skye afterwards. I've booked Blackrock Cottage which I am told has "atmosphere" and is certainly in a great location at the head of Glencoe. I've booked the entire hut (10 places) with bed night fees yet to be confirmed.

Options for the weekend are numerous - Munro bagging, climbing on the Buchaille, Etive Slabs, Glencoe, Polldubh etc. Michelle can go swimming and I can go the north face of Nevisport after climbing on the Buchaille. (If anyone wants to lead a walk, please let me know - if its not climbing weather I have my sights set on the Aonach Eagach.) So please support your Scottish mafia and head north. I am taking bookings now on a first come first served basis. People making up their minds at the last minute should be able to camp locally (camp sites at the head of Glen Coe and in Invercoe).