East​

Last week upon turning up to Navigation Quarry it began to rain, and members retreated, some heading to the Summit Centre. We’ll mainly be at Boulders if the weather is as predicted from around 5:30pm onwards. We will probably stop for refreshments in the café at some point.

​Many thanks to Julie for organising another excellent trip to the Isle of Skye last week, where 11 members, despite the weather being unpredictable as usual on the Cullin, had an enjoyable time. The cottage that Julie booked was far more pleasant than expected and proved to be an excellent base for the week. On the first full day on Skye we headed up a relatively easy mountain by Skye standards; Sgurr na Banachdich whilst others scrambled up Am Basteir, in order to re-familiarise with the art of Mountaineering! Monday resulted in a fair but of rain, and mostly a relaxing day around Portree, although some did find a gap in the weather and paid a visit to the Old Man of Storr. The weather forecast for Tuesday was better at low altitude and in the west, and we went to Neist Point for some sea cliff climbing. Curon and Julie spent a shocking 3 hours on a 20m route here, where half ropes were definitely required, as the belay consumed at least 50m of rope. There was no protection for a considerable distance back from the top of the crag, which had to be rearranged in order to abseil down to retrieve gear, as Julie escaped into a gully and discovered a large loose boulder above here knee… It is probably best not to mention what happened on Wednesday, which resulted in an easier day for all on Thursday. On the last day, Gary took his Land Rover Discovery “off road” for the first time since he owned it, he was most pleased!

Upcoming Meets
The following meets are currently planned in the next month, details are on the Bulletin Board, along with a summary on the website.

If you have any info, stories, trip reports or photos to include in the weekly newsletter then send them directly to [email protected], preferably no later than 5pm on Monday.