Stand in meet leader: Duncan Lee.

Members present: Sabina Cosulich and Duncan Lee.

From the dizzy heights of a possible ten people heading northwards to Stoer the numbers dwindled somewhat on the preceding Thursday evening in the pub. Numerous excuses based around a dodgy weather forecast and the lack of a charismatic meet leader (i.e. Michelle and Mark, the only people with a good reason not to attend) were given. In reality Rob "because I'm worth it" Allen was washing his hair and the rest cited "wanting to do some climbing" and "not sitting in a tent in Scotland in the rain" as the major reason for wimping out! (Ed - at least we climbed the whole BH weekend)

Faced with such an overwhelming wall of enthusiasm Sabina and I abandoned Plan A of a Friday night departure in favour of an early start the following morn in order to avoid the worst of the traffic. This plan worked so well that 1pm saw us stopping for lunch, a sunbathe and a quick two pitch VS classic (King Bee) at Newtonmore before continuing northwards to the nearest campsite to Stoer. A picturesque free beachside site at Clachtoll where a pleasant sea breeze kept the midges at bay. Very civilised!

Early morning rain on the Sunday provided a good excuse for a lie in and then, wonder of wonders, our faith in the weather forecast proved to be well founded for once as the sun came out. Taking this as a good omen we drove up to the light house and strolled along the flower strewn cliff tops to The Old Man, arriving just in time to see another team having an epic on the Tyrolean traverse. Having watched their antics we sent the gear across their rope and both swam! Sabina led this bit and dragged me across as I did my usual controlled drowning doggy paddle flail. A swimming technique that uses a great deal of nervous and physical energy and is highly inefficient.

Having survived the ordeal of water I bared my backside to the assembled tourists laughing on the cliff tops and donned the climbing kit. The first pitch was a veritable slime fest but thankfully things improved with height. The climbing was never too difficult or strenuous but was persistently awkward and extremely exposed with barely adequate protection in the spots where it mattered. A route well deserving of its revised grade of VS 5a! It must have been a real gripper trip for Hard Severe leaders in years gone by. The real gripper trip however comes after the elation of standing on the summit, the abseil descent. A free hanging horror down the middle of the landward face of the stack with the ropes just reaching on the stretch. The one real advantage of this was that you were so far out in space that you were out of range of the projectile fulmar vomit. The return swim was a breeze after the abseil and the midge free evening lazing around drinking wine on the campsite rounded off an excellent little adventure nicely.

Rain on Monday morning saw us decamping to a coffee shop in Ullapool to formulate our next move. After much deliberation we settled on a trip to Torridon and were lucky enough to drive south into clear blue sky and blazing sunshine that resulted in a frenzy of activity at Diabaig where we did three superb routes, Diabaig Pillar (E2 ***), Black Streak (E1***) and Northumberland Wall (E2***) before finally getting back to the car at 10pm. Local knowledge then guided us away from the midge infested hell hole that is the official campsite at Torridon to a gratis vermin free (excluding the author of course) spot on the shores of the loch.

Tuesday's weather was not as kind to us being showery in nature but despite this inconvenience we squeezed in a quick dry ascent of a very pleasant VS (Sword of Gideon) on the excellent sandstone buttresses on the south face of Sgurr A'Chaorachain, getting back to the car just as the heavens opened. We then headed over to Skye to meet up with the team in Glen Brittle, just in time for a heat wave. It's a hard life sometimes!

Thanks to Sabina for turning up to share some fantastic weather in Scotland with me. It is just a shame that no one else did!

LOCATION: Reiff, Sutherland (and Old Man of Stoer) - North West Scotland

LEADER: Michelle Harvie & Duncan Lee

One key target for the weekend is "The Old Man of Stoer", a 60m sea stack, which has 2 classic routes, one a VS and the other an E2. The swim across, and the tyroleans, could also prove to be classics. However, this is the chance of generally sampling the delights of this stunning area, and trying to escape the masses (fat chance!). The campsite is close to Reiff, a sea-cliff area with loads of 10-20m routes of all grades. Other climbing options include Stac Polly, which is also a super short walk - scramble half day out. Sutherland also has numerous other superb walks, such as Suilven, Ben Mor Coigach, Quinag, and Ben More Assynt.

Current plan is to camp at the Brae of Achnahaird campsite (grid ref 016135, OS sheet 15), which is in the middle of nowhere apart from a few miles from Reiff, and right next to the sea. Maybe the latter is just as well, as it only has toilets and cold water wash basins. I'm told showers are available at certain times at Achiltibuie Community Hall, approx 3-4 miles away. Pubs and shops are also that sort of distance away. I would suggest, given where the site is, we plan on Saturday and Sunday night as the "core" meet nights, although making it up there for Friday, and staying longer, is clearly no problem. We would like to let the campsite know rough nos before arriving, so please liaise with Duncan or Mark G (in lieu of Michelle) if you are planning to come. Other reason is the need for flexibility in case of, well, anything.

Cost for camping is £6 per night for car, 2 people, (& 1 tent?), then £1 for each extra person in car. Campsite is head north from Ullapool, taking A835, then turning left onto Achiltibiue road after approx 10 miles. Turn right after (very) approx 15 miles, probably signed Reiff and / or Brae of Achnahaird, and right again after 1 mile. Site is quite a large area, so look hard for others before pitching.