Socially Isolated Camping Meet – May 2020 – Janet Briggs. Well there were two unusual things about this meet:  Possibly there is something else unusual going on at the moment but that did not stop the Oread from having a well attended and successful meet. As meet leader I’m afraid I have been remiss in […]

40 E points!!!  – SEPTEMBER 2009 – ROGER GIBBS. Climbers always want the details. Whether it’s the exact order of the random selection of routes one has picked to try to complete in a day or the intricacies of the crux pitch of some alpine horror show. “I’m thinking of trying to tick forty E […]

Reflections of Kalymnos – December 2010 – Richard Hopkinson. Its late November it’s 4 in the afternoon, its dark the curtains are drawn, its cold it’s wet, it’s depressing! My mind drifts back to early October, it seems light years away. Kalymnos – sun kissed rock, climbing in shorts and T shirts, meals outside in […]

Wednesday Walk  Millers Dale – 12 May 2021 – Stuart Firth When I was a lad my ambition in life was to become a bread-butterer in a Subway sandwich shop. Imagine therefore how appropriate it was that I became what was known as a thick sandwich apprentice at Rolls-Royce and Associates, the design authority for HM […]

Northumberland Meet 19 – 21 May 2012 – Dave Helliwell This meet was held at the same venue as in 2010 –  the Demesne Farm Bunkhouse in Bellingham – and delightful it was. In this poor summer the forecast was changeable and this may have kept numbers down a bit. However eight Oreads and a Local […]

Snakes and Ladders – Spenser Gray and Chris Hartshorne The March meet to Tan yr Wyddfa has not been blessed with the good weather Snod claimed he had ordered, looking out of the window I huddle down further into the chair, the rain feebly beating against the window. “We could go to the Beacon and […]

Climbing the Needle – Gordon Gadsby.   March 2011 It was a warm sun dappled day in the mountains of central Lakeland with great fleecy white clouds drifting slowly above the towering rock spires of Great Gable. With Colin Hobday and George Reynolds I was climbing Napes Needle, the most famous rock pinnacle in England. Although less […]

Holiday on Ice? – Tony Howard. March 2008 ‘Good lead Youth.’ ‘What?’ ‘Good lead Youth’ came the words from below.  I thought I’d check that I’d heard correctly.  I don’t hear that much nowadays.  It was the penultimate pitch of the last route of our holiday, and the best pitch of the week ……. so far!  Simon joined me […]

2012 – My Climbing Year Simon Pape. March 2013          All the books suggest that setting objectives is a good thing to do to guide one’s climbing (or any other) activity. I’d done it once or twice before, and it does seem to help. It’s also recommended that if you tell others about your objectives you […]

Moonlight Symphony – An Ascent of Centre Post Direct, Steve Christian.  Feb 2011 So there we were Phil, Stu and I, three and half pitches off the summit of Creag Meagaidh, 300 metres up Centre Post Direct, at 4pm on the 6th of January. Darkness is falling as I set off on a grade V icefall, […]