Well, now the evenings are getting shorter and the kids have gone back to school the weather has decided to pick up, so folks have been managing to get out.

The final scheduled evening meet at Head End on Thursday 10th came off, with four or five of the usual suspects making it for what turned out to be a very pleasant evening, with great views across the windfarms...Oh! Sorry...Solway, to Scotland.

Every subsequent Tuesday and Thursday evening has found folks at Penrith wall, Greigy in particular seems to be set on eliminating all the footholds and we are expecting a demonstration of "tantric" climbing by the end of the winter. The good weather has continued so folks have also been getting out for short outdoor sessions at Castle Rock and Snailshell Crag as well as for evening walks.

At the last minute the final place at Lagangarbh was taken up by Dave Ferguson who joined John Holden, Tony Morley, Steve McDonnell, Jackie Jackson, Sue and Dave Greenwood, Phil Wilkinson, Dan Bulman, Pete Sowerby, Josef Frank and Dawn Jardine at the hut for the weekend of 11th to 13th September. Martin and Harmony Smith had to drop out at the last minute, but my spies tell me that they appeared, decending from The Buchaille, on Sunday afternoon?

Unlike previous years the weather was superb. Pete and Dan started the weekend early by heading up on Friday and snatching "Curved Ridge" before the crowds. Their weekend continued with a fine ascent of "Tower Ridge" on the Saturday, the prospect of which had kept Dan awake on Friday night. Adding to the excitement of The Ridge they were blown away by the superb temperature inversion, which left them (and everyone else) climbing under blue skies above a layer of cloud, which blanketed the Great Glen for most of the day.

Sue and Phil headed off early down into Glen Etive, bound for The Slabs. They had a little difficulty, missing the boggy path to the crag in the dense mist. They eventually found their mark and enjoyed an excellent day out on "Spartan Slab", returning magically before dark.

Up at the top of the glen Tony and Dave had a busy day on the Buchaille starting with "North Face Route" and "Hiccup", before moving over to the East face of North Buttress and ticking off the trinity of "Brevity", "Crows Nest" and "Mainbrace" Cracks, a ten star day...on a ten star day!

Further down Glencoe, John and Josef had a good day out on Aonach Dubh enjoying the run out climbing on the classic severes "The Long Crack" and "Weeping Wall Route", after a false start to the day when John had a senior moment, swearing that they were on the wrong path....( well it was misty and there was no snow to head for!)

Last but by no means least Jackie joined Steve and Dawn for a bit of a day out on The Ben. They only managed two routes!...."Tower Ridge", 600 metres and "North East Buttress", 500 metres. So with over a kilometre of climbing, up to V Diff standard, with three on the rope it's not surprising that they were the last back at Lagangarbh, after midnight and over 16 hours after they left in the morning! WOW! what a day out that was....and the next morning Dawn had to head off home just after 7 to cook for a family "do", what a girl.

Thanks to Dave Greenwood for preparing such a good meal for us all, soup followed by Chilli Con Carne or Veggie Lasagna and to Jackie for her renowned Sticky toffee pudding, sadly, with Jackie still out on The Ben, we didn't find the "sticky toffee" and pecan nuts, but it was still delicious.

Sunday dawned a little cooler than the previous day, but still dry so parties reformed and headed off for mainly slightly easier days.

Dan and Peter, replete after two big days out followed Dawn off and back down to Carlisle.

Phil and Sue headed up to The Buchaille and did "North Face Route", followed by John and Josef who took the easy option of "Curved Ridge", followed, we believe, by Martin and Harmony, hot from a B&B?

Steve Tony and Dave headed down to Aonach Dubh, repeated John and Josef's routes, then topped out on the excellent Archer Ridge on the upper tier. And finally, Jackie, who was stopping on at the Macintyre Hut had a busy day cleaning the hut on her arrival.

Sunday 27th Dow Crag, Ray had checked the weather forecast and predicted low cloud, high winds and rain later in the morning, but, seeing decent weather in the morning, we chose to ignore his advice...to experience low cloud, high winds and rain later in the morning....will we never learn?

The Johns, Holden and Watson started but backed off Murrays Route, Phil, Dorine and Josef headed up one of the gullies, planning to bash over to The Old Man, before retiring to The Sun Inn and Ray took his kids exploring the boulder field for bivi caves and for a walk around Goats Tarn. Liz accompanied the two Johns to the tarn, then carried on up to the col and then onto The Old Man, heading back down to the car rather than her original plan of taking in the Weatherlam round.

If we had taken Ray's advice we could have had a good, dry day in Langdale...sorry Ray.