Meet Report

1st to 3rd December 2002 - Raeburn's Hut

There was a full contingent for the last hut meet of the year with an overspill at the nearby Pottery bunkhouse. In theory we had 12 spaces in Raeburn's hut with 4 reserved for Scottish Mountaineering club members. However the number of places and bed spaces appeared to be based on people of midget like proportions or a need for some rather intimate contact. Anyway we spread out to the two bedrooms and hoped the SMC would not arrive.

Gillian was most distraught to discover on Friday evening that the planned double Corbett trip would only be a singleton following a demotion. This prompted a rapid change of route plan to ensure that the "real" Corbett was done first.

Saturday morning was particularly dark even for December and the kitchen resembled a war time bunker - that was until we realised that the shutters were still on the windows.

It was one of those days when there were about 100 different shades of grey around. West was definitely best with the main group's circular walk being right on the cusp of the east/west divide. Cloudy on Beinn a Chaorainn and sunshine on Beinn Teallach. Martin and Alan did two Corbetts and then came back over an unconnected Munro and top on the basis that it was easier to do this than come back along the track. I wasn't convinced myself. David and Fiona left at the crack of dawn and continued their early season blitz of routes in the Northern corries, the technical term for the conditions being "stonking". Lesley and Owen enjoyed an extended breakfast before tackling their Graham and expressed concern about the arrangements for the key. The rest of us were not too bothered, knowing that they would be back first anyway, even after the obligatory tea room stop [and yes they did get back first].

There was a tense moment on Saturday evening when headlights shone and 4 people strode purposely up to the hut. Fortunately it was only the Pottery overspill bearing gifts of mince pies and left-over wine. Most of the conversation that evening cannot be repeated for fear of self-incrimination. The cultural section of the club panned art flick Morvern Callar which had not had a bad review until then. It is not clear whether Anne's view could be taken into account though since she walked out of the film after half an hour.

Sunday seemed to be more of the same, but a bit colder and clearer. Good bleak winter walking. Apparently lots of Corbetts and Grahams were done by more or less the same groups as the day before.