Attendees Dave Dillon, Gareth Williams, Al Metelko. Apologies: Trish Cranston. Missing: Christine Stark.

The forecast for the weekend was not particularly good. Lack of interest from members, and a wrong turn ensured a late start on Saturday around noon. However the afternoon stayed dry with mixture of sun and low level cloud, and occasional spots of rain as showers passed by to the south, and to the north.

Climbed most of the routes on Trevor quarry south face.

Gareth joined us as we finished the second climb, he’d driven all the way from Leeds!

After the seventh climb it looked like the heavens where about to open so it was decided to start the BBQ before it got too wet. We got the camping chairs out, put the BBQ together and set the charcoal on fire which was the cue for the weather to change, that is the clouds disappeared and there was probably a splendid sunset on the other side of the hill.

We brewed up a few times using the same two tea bags (apparently there was a market in the eighteenth century in second hand tea leaves, see: http://www.panix.com/~kendra/tea/tea_to_england.html) and I think Wavey said his record was four or was it five times before the resulting liquid had no colour when adding milk. Also while on the subject it’s best to dry the tea bag before reuse but we didn’t have time for that. That and Trish’s Chocolate Tiffin took the edge off our appetites after a hard afternoon on the rock.

Burgers, sausages and couple of mackerel filets were cooked over the coals, macaroni and steamed vegetables were cooked on Wavey’s stove, Gareth provided mixed salad and Strawberries resulting in enough food to feed twice the number of attendee’s to this meet. We put the world to right well into the night and with a wet start predicted in the morning Gareth decided he would head off home and spend Sunday marking!

With heat and glowing orangeness still in the BBQ (use less charcoal next time) a bottle of red was opened. Three glugs each (1 glug = 1 fluid ounce = 28.4130742 millilitres) went a little too quickly so another round of four glugs each and we were past the half way mark of our 24 hours. Although the moon was extremely bright and a moon dog added to the interest we decided it was time to hit our bivi bags.

A call of nature forced me out of my pit in the middle of the night, the moon and stars where hidden behind what I guessed was a weather front. I was awoken by the pitter-patter of a herd of sheep running along the road. It was getting light when I woke next and a little peep out though a small hole in my bag showed grey and I went back to sleep and waited for the rain. Rustling from Dave’s bag woke me next - I tried to get back to sleep but eventually emerged to see that the sun was well up, the sky blue, the only thing up there were faint high clouds on the horizon.

At breakfast we thought of reusing the teabags but we reckoned the sheep must have gotten to them first so we had to make do with instant coffee instead. After clearing up and dismantling the BBQ it was off to the Quarry to do the last two routes on the south face. Which brought us nicely up to noon on Sunday and the official end of the meet - actually as neither of us had a time piece between us and I suddenly had the urge to check my mobile in case anyone was interested in joining us for the day, by the time I was back from my car, it was 13:26.

We finished the days climbing at the other end of the Trevor area where there are a couple of very scary and very hard VS’s.

Oh! Congratulations Christine, hope you are enjoying motherhood and New Zealand.

• Venue: Trevor Rocks (Clwyd).
• Start Time: 10am.
• Essential Equipment: climbing gear, bivi gear, food and drink, umbrella.
• Aim: to climb as many routes as possible in 24 hours (SAFELY).
• Unessential Equipment: BBQ stuff.
• Contact email: membership@karabiner.org (non members are welcome too).
• I had the idea of '24 hr climbing meet' a while ago - an extension to Al's 10 Gritstone Edges Challenge.

The idea is to try for continuous climbing over a 24 hour period. To keep it safe, fun and not too strenuous, not everybody needs to be climbing all the time - there should be sufficient time for breaks, food and a snooze (hence the bivi bags and the bbqs) as long as somebody is on the rock at any point in time. There might be a bit to do for support people who don't want to climb but are happy to hang out and provide hot drinks and / or food or who entertain themselves otherwise in the area during the day and join the climbers overnight to boost morale.

As an encouragement and to make it (even more) worthwhile for attendees I would like to use this as a fundraising opportunity. After some deliberation, I decided on Claire House Children's Hospice as the charity of choice. See: www.claire-house.org.uk

Claire House looks after children aged 0 - 23 years with life threatening or life limiting conditions and their families from Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales and the Isle of Man. Services include specialist respite care, palliative and terminal care and bereavement and family support for the whole family in a home from home environment where the needs of the children and their families come first.

While I don't have any personal connection to Claire House and its mission is not very climbing / mountaineering related, it is hopefully a cause KMCs as well as the general public can relate to.

I have created an account and website with justgiving to make it easy for everybody to donate and to spread the word amongst colleagues, friends and family.

So, attend the meet, make a donation and tell your mates!