Sunday dawned a most beautiful winters day, cold, sunny and incredibly clear. Colin and Sue headed up Creag Pitridh accompanied to the bealach by Katy and Iain who went up Beinn a Chlachair. A lovely start but by lunchtime the wind had strengthened and it clouded over a bit and became very cold however stayed dry. Everyone else headed to the Iron age fort atLaggan Dun Da Lamh although whether they found it or not I don’t know! All in all a really good weekend.

The second team of John & Catriona then set off and were delighted to find incredible grippy wrinkled slabs above, which was just as well as the opportunities for protecting the lead climber were somewhat sparse. The slabs continued for 4 delightful pitches with Doug stretching his 50m rope to reach the belays and John and Catriona thankful for bringing a 60m rope. Katie was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat by the time she reached the top and needed to be restrained from heading off up the steep unclimbed rock above.

Back at the bunkhouse tales of the days adventures were recounted. Some of the tales were stranger than others with Sandra revealing she had kissed a toad! Later in the evening a strange warty lump appeared on Neil’s shoulder. Katie’s medical skills were called upon and the said lump was diagnosed as being mad toad disease which Neil had caught from Sandra.

Over a later breakfast the following day the climbing party had much deliberation over where to go. In the end Doug, Katie, John & Catriona set off up to Garbh Choire. On reaching the corrie due to time constraints and the hint of rain in the air we opted for a scramble up the ‘easy’ pinnacle ridge. On reaching the base of the ridge the first pinnacle appeared disconcertingly steep. However, unfazed by this Katie shot off upwards followed somewhat nervously by the remaining three. After some exposed moves all four of us landed on the crest of the ridge in a stiff breeze. The ridge was followed over more pinnacles and some spectacular narrow sections and eventually what looked like easier ground was obtained. However, on closer inspection a large landslip prevented further progress and we had to resort to climbing up some wet greasy rocks and finally made the summit ridge of Garbh Bheinn.

On the descent we bumped into Sandra, Neil, Alan and Jim who had had an extended breakfast and climbed up the long south east ridge of Garbh Bheinn. After some hill banter we went our separate ways, with Sandra, Alan & Jim heading up to the summit and Neil hopping crawling along behind. After a long descent we eventually made it back to the cars and the end of a great weekend safe in the knowledge that we had infected someone else with the dreaded climbing bug. (John)

Saturday started with the promised low cloud, but this lifted late morning to give a good day. First out of the hut were Alan and Jim who were joined by Stuart and guests Sarah & Sean heading for Beinn a Bhuird and Ben Avon. A long day which saw Alan use his much maligned mountain bike for the track up Glen Quoich. Brian & Davie headed for the fantastically named Brown Cow Hill while Phil did an epic 40 mile bike route with a bit of a hill walk thrown in. Morven & Pam went down Glen Ey to do Carn Bhac assisted by some detailed navigational pre-planning done by Morven on the Friday night. Innes, Sue & Colin headed further down Glen Ey with the intention of doing An Sochach, but as the tops cleared changed plans en route to go up Beinn Iuthan Mhor and return by the high ground via Carn Bhac (no evidence of any sort of pre-planning in this group, I’m afraid!) Iain & Louise who were on holiday in Braemar dropped into the hut on Saturday night with four children in tow (was sure they only had two….). The swing outside the hut proved very popular with the visitors – we must have one of those for the new hut. Tony & Moira arrived later on to join a very sociable Saturday evening.

Sunday was a good, bright day so any thoughts of a lazy option were put aside. Tony & Moira headed for Carn Bhac while Brian & Davie went off to Morven (the hill). Morven (the person!), Pam & Phil stopped at Glenshee to go up Carn a Claise and Carn an Tuirc. Sue & Colin started from the ski centre to go up Carn Asoda, Carn a Ghoide and Cainwell and would have been pleased with covering the three hills in four hours had it not been for the glenshee9 hill race where the super fit were running over nine munros in little over 3 hours. An excellent weekend. (Colin)

The going was easy on the way up with lots of banter & frequent stops for second breakfast in the heat. We soon hit the first of the “interesting bits” of the ridge. We kept to the main ridge line and all enjoyed some fantastic scrambling and amazing situations. On the last top we had a nice surprise meeting up with Tony, Moira & Jess who had come up from Dundonnell. Excellent views over to the Summer Isles & Suilven. We finished the day with drinks in the beer garden at the Dundonnell hotel.

Back at the hut, we met up with the others. Phil & Grant went to bag a couple of the Fannichs (Sgurr Breac & A’Chailleach). Alan & Jim made an unusually early return from a big day doing the Beinn Dearg 4. We were also joined by Neil & his son Gavin who had a great day going up a Corbett, Beinn Airigh Charr from Poolewe. More good banter in the hut in the evening interspersed with people disappearing into the midgy sauna, or kitchen as it is otherwise known.

On Sunday most folks split off to do their own thing. John, Catriona & Paul opted for a spot of cllimbing at a crag at Gruinard Bay. Some nice Vdiff routes & excellent views. Phil & Grant went off to do a spot of mountain biking. Excellent Weekend! (Paul)

The Saturday ferry brought Kenny & Donna, JoJo and his friend Mike but the Friday arrivals were raring to go and set off without waiting for them. Davie, Alan and Trish (the oldies) decided to take the day at a leisurely pace while Jim, Neil and Sandy (the youngies) sped off at a faster pace in order to do “the circuit” of Hallival, Askival and Trallval, meeting up with Kenny and Donna doing the same and returning via the Coire Dubh track to Kinloch which they did AND had time to sunbathe on the tops . Brian climbed Ainshval from the Dibidil path. Richard went off to climb Orval to test his new bypass and resurfaced hip and both passed with flying colours. JoJo and Mike went to Barkeval while Colin enjoyed his mini cruise round Eigg, Muck and Canna leaving Mallaig at 2.30 and arriving at Rum at 7.30pm. A fabulous day was had by all.

On Sunday Kenny did a solo ascent of Fionchra on the south side of Glen Shellesder, meeting on the top Alan, Jim, Dave, Brian and Donna, all who were en route to Guirdil bothy. Leaving them on the top he traversed southwards to Orval, then westwards to Sron an t-Saighdeir before descending the long southeast ridge to Harris and the Bullough mausoleum. He took the easy way back to Kinloch having been offered a lift! Some of the others went to Kilmory, some did the circuit and some went for cycle rides around and about. Much of the road had been upgraded/regraded making it much more user friendly. Another wonderful sunny day with more great views – 2 golden eagles 1 sea eagle, geese, wild goats, ponies green butterflies and of course deer. And no midges.

On Monday, all except Donna embarked on the ferry to take the cruise to Canna and Eigg before returning to Rum. Donna shot down to Harris to see Monica’s tomb and made it back to the jetty with time to spare, these posties can certainly move. Jojo and Mike stayed on Rum before heading to Skye the next day. We had sleet showers on the boat on the way home – our timing was perfect. (Trish, Jim, Kenny)

Here’s some pictures courtesy of Jim http://www.flickr.com/photos/22776031@N05/sets/72157623920333597/

The committee appreciate that having to venture out on a dark winter’s
night in February for an AGM may not be particularly appealing! However,
your attendance would be much appreciated and will help to ensure that we
have sufficient numbers in order to conduct proceedings.

Link to map below:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&source=hp&ie=UTF8&q=albert+halls+stirling&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=albert+halls&hnear=stirling&view=map&cid=16457741183752365591&ved=0CB0QpQY&ei=4rZcS7vRGIe6jAep5aGhCQ&z=15&iwloc=A