Mercian Mountaineering Club

Chilled weekend in the Peak District, with a great day climbing at Stanage on Sunday

Bank holiday meet in Langdale. Glorious spot as always but the weather was a bit of a mixed bag. Still, hiking swimming and birthday celebrations were achieved!

Last weekend a group of Mercians took on the Hathersage Hurtle - a 20 mile run up and down hills in the peak district. It was a beautiful day for beasting yourself running around places we often climb at! Some Mercians were less keen on the hurtling and decided to high tail it to Anglesey for some dramatic sea cliffs climbing

Slightly belated post - the final ever copy of the faff is available for download on the website - along with 10 years of the back issues!

Thanks so much for documenting our adventures for the past decade Stew. This is a triumphant end of a wonderful era.

Camping season has begun! After a slightly soggy arrival at one of our favorite campsites, the weather soon cleared up to a rather glorious weekend. Hiking the Nantlle ridge, climbing on little Tryfan and a visit to marvelous Dorothea quarry. Plus bonus campsite ice creams and toasting marshmallows.

Glowing weather in the fantastically located Heathy Lea hut. We climbed, we cycled, we ate delicious food together. Except the egg sandwich - cookie fusion

The great golden ball in the sky made an appearance for the Easter meet in Glen Clova, as did the Easter Bunny (who was most prolific). Finding eggs in your pocket while out on the hill brings great joy! The hiking was snowy and the biking was hard! A bit to cold for climbing this time around. A lovely hut, and lovely friends. Happy Easter!

It was another fantastic meet in Wales last weekend. As has become normal, the weather wasn't perfect, but that did not stop the running and scrambling and even a cheeky climb!

Bon voyage Connor and Charlie! Has been wonderful getting to know you and sharing lots of adventures! Enjoy your next big adventure in Canada.

A couple of snaps from last night's social - bouldering beers and fat naans!

Yes it rained again. And yes we all got very soggy. But there was a pub with a heated floor and effective drying room and a hut with a slap up meal and a rather less effective drying room

A group from the club were out in Kalymnos last week. There were goats, cats, swimming, pirate action, Greek cuisine, scooting, mythos, glorious sunshine....and perhaps a little climbing too.

The Summer has been full of amazing adventures for various Mercians - here is the Summer summit summary:

Lucy and Karl are out in California - seen here enjoying the super classic route "Bear's reach" at Lovers leap. The route was made famous by some impressive (under 5mins) speed climbing first by Dan Osman and then by Alex Honnold (the videos are out there). For us mortals, makes a solid half day outing - Karl reckons a good going VS.

Hut season is upon us! Not sure how that happened so fast, but appears to be in time for some slightly marginal weather. The weather was good enough for a bit of climbing and hiking followed by a delicious chickpea curry prepared by Ben.

Fantastic bank holiday weekend on the sea cliffs at Swanage. Britain's hilliest park run, lovely country walking, biking and pubbing and of course some sea cliff climbing (including a rather thrilling jaunt up and through a blow hole)

The Yorkshire meet welcomed a new mercian (of the hedgehog variety).
The bracken was high and the rock was of the best kind.

Christmas Curry, and the return of Jenga

Ho ho ho - Christmas arrived this weekend in Ogwen.

Snow on the ground (even at hut level) caused much excitement. Hiking the Heather Terrace, Y Garn and the Devil's Kitchen (no - the Devil's Appendix was not quite in yet).
Then there was a rather epic winter climb (?or swim in the entirely unconsolidated super sketchy deep snow) up Bristly ridge (II). Topped out just after sunset and hiked back down in the dark. Quite special actually, to be out in the snow in the mountains at night! Welcomed back to the hut by a massive dinner of sausages and mash with fabulous Christmas tunes!

The sun came out on Sunday and a couple of the lads tackled the Daear Ddu ridge up Moel Siabod, and most of us ended up at the cafe of the same name!

The annual dinner meet also saw some walking about in the lake district dodging the showers, occasionally successfully, as well as one rather muddy park run and fell run.

It was the Annual Dinner this weekend and my, do we scrub up well - proper drinks and proper grub. Our Chairman made a speech and then we played Jenga.

A few of us spent a day last weekend honing our Nav skills, followed by some night Nav in Kinver to put them to the test! Hope everyone enjoyed, we couldnt have been luckier with the weather. The next one is being planned already!

The event of the year (mercian fireworks night) went off with a massive bang! Thank to Huw and his merry helpers (Matt and Zoe) for a spectacular evening (which we know took a lot of work) and also to Vicky for the yummy vat of chilli.

Wind and rain dominated the meet in Llanberis, but we found some wonderful adventures. Saturday, a group of us went to have a look at the famous Cloggy, home to a climb called Indian face (E9 6c) - a climb include in the rockfax guide not because they think you should actually climb it, but just to show you where it goes. Needless to say, we thought we would leave it for another day. Dan and Helen were also out running on Snowdon and made swift work of passing us on the way up.
Sunday saw a mass Mercian ascent of the infamous Lockwood's chimney (it is esentially inside the cliff, so best done in the wet in a big group). Cue much squirming and grunting. What a brilliantly absurd adventure. We all made it to the top eventually!

The photo-comp this year just proved what a jolly good year of adventures we have all had! Many of the lovely shots will be coming to a calendar near you very soon (sign up on the forum!)

Here are the winners and runners up:

What a holiday!
Climbing, mythos, pirates, goats, boats, cats, swimming, scootering and one free hanging 80m abseil. Same time next year then everybody?

Exciting times - the date is set for the 2022 photo comp:

Karl and Lucy, currently at large/swanning about the Dolomites and the Aosta Valley - lucky them!

Woohoo! Hut meets are back. Weekend fun in Deiniolen and a lovely cosy hut to come back to.