After a series of poorly attended camping trips over the summer, we were back to full strength with the return of the hut meets, a sell-out at the YMC hut at Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales.
Saturday was grey and cloudy, with occasional drizzle, but everyone got out anyway. Carmen, Debra and I made for Ash Tree Crag, a nice little unpolished outcrop about 45 minute walk from the hut. Debra managed a few VDiffs before heading for the pub to meet Simon, who'd just run the 3 Peaks (time to beat = 6.5 hours), Carmen and I stayed until just before nightfall and managed to complete all 9 starred routes at VS and below. Pick of the crop for me was Christmas Cracker (VS 5a **).
Meanwhile Donal and Annie went mountain biking, and everyone else went for a walk around, over, and/or up Ingleborough.
That even Donal pulled out all the stops and served up a gourmet meal that made the whole weekend worthwhile by itself. Chicken, roasted vegetables, and cous-cous was followed by peaches/mincemeat courtesy of Annie, and cheese & biscuits provided by Paula and Steve.
Sunday in pleasant contrast to the day before was clear and very sunny. Donal, Peter, and Dave headed for Penygent where they climbed Red Pencil and Damocles Groove ('much more solid than expected'). Simon & Debra went to Chapel-le-Dale, a recently developed outcrop near Twistleton which promised oodles of starred low grade routes. In the event, most of them proved disappointing and/or hard-to-find.
Carmen and I went to Twistleton where we climbed 10 starred routes, all completely unpolished. It seems that everyone heads for the Main Wall area to add to its deep gloss, we saw no-one all day until we neared that area, where a dozen people or more were lined up queueing.
Best routes:
High Noon (VS 4c **), a tricky wall, delicate traverse, and strenuous chimney
Mozambique (VS 4c **), a steep crack topped by an overhang, looks unlikely for the grade but is actually quite easy
Juggernaut (S 4b **), steep and, er, juggy.
I think most of the others went for a walk up Penygent.
A few more photos here.