Present: Dave Bone, Tony Major, Sandy Gregson, Jim Gregson, Lester Payne, Virginia Castick, John Castick, Roger Dyke, Martin Heaton, John Dobson, Joe Flynn and spotted on Dow were Ann Sanderson and Ian Greenaway.

A fantastic weekend to be in the Lakes. It was hot, hot and sunny. A weekend to dream about in the depths of a normal August. It was also very quiet in the Duddon Valley. Perhaps this was because there was a certain team playing in the world cup quarter finals and most of the country stayed home to watch it. There is a rumour that the missing meet leader stayed home to prove that not all Scots were supporting A.O.B.E (any one but England). Those that left the crag early on Saturday in the hope of seeing the game were disappointed as the Newfield Inn, the only pub in the valley, had no TV and they had to sit in the car and listen!

The carefully laid plans to go to Dow on the Saturday while fresh and eager, melted in the morning heat and the far more sensible choice of a ramble over to Wallow barrow Crag was made by all but Dave and Tony who went for the long haul to Dow. (Dave: Tony & I drove up early on Saturday morning and steamed up to the crag for 10am to get started on 'Madam', expecting to see hordes of KMC. No KMC, until Ann & Ian arrived early afternoon, but plenty of others, shame on you, KMC climbers! Conditions were perfect, comfortable at the foot but with enough breeze to warrant a windproof for belaying at the top. A peculiar exodus started in the early afternoon so that by 5pm after Leopard's Crawl & Murray's Direct, we started on an empty Eliminate 'A', never done before because of its normal state of a continuous rope from bottom to top. We then drove round to the Pub via Fish & Chips in Coniston for 10:30 - an oddly low number of KMC found. Regretfully, little was achieved at Little Stand crag on Sunday apart from wilting in the heat).

A variety of tasty starred routes were bagged. 'Thomas' as usual was popular with several KMC members!

Joe, John and Lester explored the east face without a guide and made the acquaintance of pitch one of Nameless, pitch two of Logan Stone, pitch two of Marilyn, pitch 3 of Logan Stone.They had so much fun that they went back on Sunday and did the other pitches on Nameless and Logan Stone.

Roger adds...

Did you retrieve your kit? You must have qualified for Epic of the Weekend!

I wanted to walk over to see how you were doing at about 6, but Martin said "I'm knackered and thirsty, let's go straight down. There are 3 of them, and Joe's in charge, so they must be OK." We couldn't have helped, but we are sorry to have missed the entertainment. In the hope that one of you is writing the Meet Report [I'm sure you'll get a kiss from Sheena for that: a Glasgow kiss if you say anything funny about her absence] I thought I'd let you in on what Martin & I did on Sunday....

We just did one route - Snap - on Seathwaite Buttress. The 1st & 3rd pitches were rubbish, and there were ants everywhere, but the middle 18m pitch was VG. Then we walked up to Seathwaite Tarn for lunch, down for a drink in the pub, then home by 6.30, thru the magnificent thunderstorm (Dave: We watched Scafell manufacture 2 batches of cloud to be dispatched inland). On Saturday we had done Trinity Slabs, Wall & Corner, and Thomas.

The B&B we stayed in, Seathwaite Lodge, was brilliant, and we unreservedly recommend it at £25 pp, pn. 01229 716840.

Meet at Turner Hall Farm Campsite GR234964 (Outdoor Leisure 6) either Friday night or Saturday morning. The campsite is relatively basic; the Newfield Inn is an option for a meal/beer on Saturday evening.

Depending on weather the plan is to climb on Dow on Saturday (walking up from the Duddon via the Walna Scar road since this is meant to be a Duddon meet), and then on Wallowbarrow on Sunday.

What actually happens may vary from the plan, either reversing order of visiting crags, or turning the Dow outing into a walk/mountain bike trip.