The New Year meet venue was the fantastically-located Lagangarbh hut at the base of Buchaille Etive Mor. With such a magnificent location people were licking their lips at the prospects of stumbling out onto the Buchaille to climb and walk with no tortuous approaches.

With the usual dismal weather forecast for a Scottish New year meet everyone was keen to make the most of the first day, which was predicted to be less dismal than the rest of the meet. There was a level of activity early on xxx morning the likes of which may not be seen at a hut meet for along time to come.

Team Testosterone (Mark W, Tony and Simon) set off just before dawn to execute their full-on mountaineering day up Beinn Fhada and along the Bidean nam Bian Ridge then down one of the easy gullies on Stob Coire nan Lochan. This was also a reconnaissance to see if any of the winter climbs were in condition in the Lochan ("nothing worth doing" was the general consensus). The weather looked gloomy and foggy when they left the hut but their endeavours were rewarded as they went up emerging above the fog into brilliant sunshine for most of the route. A collective total of 12 Munroes were clocked up for a very satisfying day out.

Meanwhile Team Oestrogen (Lucy, Sarah G, Wendy and Niki) went in search of a hill to ascend. The planning phase in the hut had been a success. A circular route had been identified, taking in some actual hills including Buchaille Etive Beag. Prolonged gossiping, buttie-making and matching outdoor gear locating delayed the crucial first step of leaving the hut. Team O then proceeded to have a nice chat, engage in occasional ineffectual glances at the map, and take the even more occasional steps forward. A mysterious "I can't be arsed to finish this walk" virus overtook Lucy and she baled half way, phoning Jim (who was happily shopping in Fort William) to drive to the rescue. Team O decided that after 5 hours of bumbling along the valley floor (in the mist, oblivious to the fact that glorious sunshine was only a few hundred metres above) they should start ascending something. The main problem was that discussing crap men was infinitely more fascinating that navigating. They toiled up some random hill for half an hour before it became apparent that they only had an hour's daylight left, and continuing would result in certain death at the very least. Therefore, an ignominious retreat was executed, and there began a brain-numbing 20k walk back on the Glen Etive road in the dark. 30 minutes into this, when collective boredom was at a peak and conversations about crap men had long been exhausted (unbelievably), two attractive male members of the RAF Mountain Rescue drove by and offered a lift. Naturally, it would have been rude for the girls to refuse.

Anna and Catherine, Winter Walking Virgins, were keen to join the winter fray as soon as possible and spent the day with a guide in the Lost Valley learning winter skills. All this talk of B2 boots, C2 crampons, ice axe arrests and the like suddenly made sense.

The following day's weather reverted to form with a typical Scottish winter day - storm-force winds, torrential rain and cloud base touching the hut. Luckily, a life-saving institution was a mere 14k away - the Ice Factor at Kinlochleven. Team Testosterone was rejuvenated by the prospect of having something to get their tools stuck into, and could soon be heard grunting their way up the Ice Wall. Niki and Anna were under instruction from Mark Winfield, but he couldn't be too over-zealous with his patronising comments, as they were in possession of some very sharp, pointy things and were probably willing to use them on things other than the ice if needed. Miles, who was suffering from a flu-like virus, prudently wished to avoid too much exercise and decided that a pleasant drive out to Oban would be preferable to moping about in gloomy Fort William. On locating a particularly scenic spot in Oban to his dismay Miles discovered the devastating and tragic loss of his sandwiches. He had, in fact, left them at the hut, where it was discovered a mouse had been tucking into them. Lots of swearing and a well-prepared mouse trap later and revenge was finally obtained the next morning when the thieving rodent met its match.

That evening we were all back at the hut and having our first full evening together. It was a challenge of managing so many people in a very cramped space to cook, eat, drink, manage gear and sleep. For those new to Alpine hut living many lessons were learnt. Then out of nowhere came three additional SMC members who didn't have the key to the Annex they were supposed to stay in. There was lots of manoeuvring with bedding and thermarests but eventually everyone was accommodated for the night in various nooks and crannies of the hut. Our new guests made the mistake of commenting during the evening conversation that they welcome the new non-smoking rules that were being introduced by the Government at which point Anna launched herself into top gear and spent the remainder of the night debating individual freedoms and everything else she could think of with them until they were so exhausted that they could have been tossed out into the cold with rocks for their mattresses and still got a good night's sleep!

On the third day, people were suffering from outdoor-deprivation and plans were made regardless of the weather. Simon, Frank and Tony took Anna out on a navigation exercise around one of the smaller mountains near Kinlochleven. In addition to the navigation challenges presented they also made sure Anna had to cope with the other leadership management skills that are needed in an MMC group such as people needing to pee at different times, people liking other routes better, stopping every half hour for food and general grumbling about the weather and how tired they were. She managed all this and the navigation admirably and so is destined for great things.

Stefan, having arrived later than everyone else was ready to embark on his first day in the mountains and was keen to make the most of it. He turned his nose up at the pathetic plans of everyone else and, despite the weather, forged his way up Great Gully on The Buchaille in poor conditions. That was achievement enough but he was not done there - he then descended via Curved ridge. Still that was not enough. Rather than then just descend back down the path from Curved Ridge he instead decided to traverse the whole North face which he described as "very pleasant with only a few body abseils needed over short drops". Everyone was impressed and somewhat amused as he tried to describe the route in detail for some of the more inexperienced members of the meet as a possible route for them to do following day (Lucy and Jim did start up Great Gully but did not summit. Details became ever more vague as further inquiries were made but it was suspected that hangovers from the previous night may have played a part in the decision to come down early!)

Sarah G, Sarah W, Wendy and Catherine planned a long walk along the West Highland Way to Kinlochleven, around a mountain, then back along the West Highland way back to the hut. Somehow the attraction of the Ice Factor cafe was too much and having walked the short stint there they reportedly never emerged for any further effort that day other than to go to a fancy hotel for a sauna, shower and general pampering. Only Catherine thought this too indulgent and blasted on with the proposed plan, catching up with the Anna navigation party towards the end of the day. Mark And Niki spent most of the day on the climbing wall with a late fell run along some of the West Highland Way.

Towards the end of the day thoughts were towards the final day's activities. Simon optimistically picked up a printed forecast at the Ice Factor for the following day. "80 mph winds, gusting to 100 mph, mobility impossible on the tops". Ah, guess that'll be another day at the Ice Factor then. Heaving heard about the last visit everyone was now keen to try the Ice wall and a mass booking was done for everyone to have a go.

A lively debate occurred the previous evening concerning whether to have New Year's Eve at the Clachaig Inn down the valley or at the hut. A highly reticent and conciliatory group comprising Winfield, Tony, Miles and Simon expressed no interest in influencing a decision either way. 4 hours, 10 suicides later, those still alive agreed that we'd all just do what we wanted and those sober enough to care would meet back at the hut at 10 pm for an MMC love in. The only person revelling in this marathon of group dynamics was Simon - we await our appearance in his next film for Channel Four.

Anna, Simon and Miles did admirable work on the culinary front for those eating at the hut. An awesome salmon, and Quorn, chocolate and chilli creation were produced and Anna did some amazing Blue Peter-style decorations made out of kitchen roll, cardboard, sticky-backed plastic, and a carrot. The result - pure artistic genius.

It was also deemed that Music was needed for New Year hut entertainment. Problem was the hut had a dodgy stereo with only one speaker attached, no CD and a radio which was stuck on shortwave and which couldn't be tuned. The only hope lay in the dual tape deck where only one of the deck's spindles moved and only the play and stop buttons were remained intact on the deck. The next problem was there were no tapes. Mark took on this challenge and ventured out into the stormy night with optimism worthy of a delusional Don Quixote. He ruled out the Kingshouse as a possible source of cassettes. Not because they might not have tapes but because their selection would undoubtedly be too awful. Eventually a petrol station was found which was selling a few items in an accompanying shop. Now usually these shops have items like windshield washer, packets of sweets, the odd milk carton or instant coffee and a bargain bin with dirt-cheap tapes. Not this service station. This one seemed to specialise in a healthy selection of women's lingerie. The mind boggles! Mark eventually found tucked away in the shop a cassette adapter with a stereo jack which we managed to fit to Simon's MP3 mobile phone. With baited breath we assembled and fired up this Heath Robinson musical device back at the hut - miraculously it worked!

10pm arrived and everyone stumbled back to the hut to see off the end of the year, welcome the New Year and polish off any remaining alcohol we could find.

I think everyone would agree it was a fantastic new year, despite a collective total of only one ascent of Buchaille Etive Mor, an ascent for which Stefan wins the greatest achievement of the meet medal.

Tony