Pre-Christmas Meet

Saturday 15th to Sunday 16th of December, 2018.

Part 1 The Perth Climbing Wall on Saturday 15th About a dozen of us gathered at the Wall in the UHI Dept of Sport and Wellbeing in Perth. The Wall has proved to be very popular with PMC members and other climbers. The staff are very friendly and the route setting has become very good, providing interesting and varied climbs which are changed regularly. It was nice to see some of the members that can’t always make our regular Wednesday night sessions as well as many of the usual suspects. Routes of all grades from 4 to 6c were climbed, some top roped and some led. After a busy couple of hours a coffee break was enjoyed in the Students Union Cafeteria. Those in attendance were – Wendy, Tina, Dennis, John, Jeff and Julia, Hannah (with Angus and Callum), Alison, Paul G, Scott (with Freya), Kenny (without Catherine) and me. Sorry if I’ve missed anyone.
Part 2 Walking and biking at Glen Tarken, St Fillans on Sunday 16th Well that was the plan! But like many mountaineering plans the weather interfered. I’d been out driving back from the Dylan Project gig at Kinross on Sat night when the snow changed to rain, giving me the impression that road conditions wouldn’t be too bad on Sunday morning. After picking up Wendy, Karin and Wolfgang at Broxden we were driving towards Crieff when it became apparent that more snow had fallen west of Perth than I’d assumed. Messages from Dennis, Neil and the Botts informed us that the proposed rendezvous layby outside St Fillans was blocked by snow and so we met up in the snowy car park at Comrie. After a brief discussion we elected to just do a walk from Comrie up Glen Lednock past the Deil’s Cauldron and up to Lord Melville’s monument. It was very pretty and scenic though quite hard work in a couple of inches of soggy snow. We were surprised to meet five hardy young mountain bikers coming down the steep and gnarly path from the monument. Displaying skills well beyond our biking ability they put us to shame for deciding to leave bikes at home because of the snow.
The views from alongside the monument were dramatically lit by occasional sunbeams piercing the low cloud. Wendy reverted to teacher mode and built an excellent cat in the snow.
The Botts provided excellent hospitality on our way home, of particular note were the scrumptious freshly baked scones!
Those attending were – Wendy, Karin, Wolfgang, me, Neil, Betty and Richard. Dennis was foiled by unploughed roads on his way and I must apologise to Jim for not keeping him informed of the change of plans at short notice.