It was sun, sun, sun at our Introductory Meet for prospective members on 8th April 2017.

Southern Sandstone experts Angela Clough and Rick Sewards led the team putting up top ropes for twenty visitors to the club.

Some familiar faces from Harry and Jules’ Castle/ Brownswood event came along, together with a host of others. Some had already booked themselves onto the May Day weekend training in the Peak District, so they got a chance to meet each other.

The single pitch sandstone routes offered challenges for everyone including Cia, Angela and Rick!

There were gentle warm up routes like Harden Gully 2a and Claire 3a. Then progression on routes like Sylvies slab 4b (though even Angela admitted finding a bit desperate for the grade). The characterful route Sapper (most did the 5a start) ends with a crazy squeeze through a hole. Here’s Joe getting into the necessary banana shape to attempt it, and having a rest at the same time.

The top end of the spectrum were climbs like Seltzer 5b and Drosophila 5b, mainly for the experts. For some of our visitors, this was their first day climbing on real rock. But that didn’t hold them back at all. See Pradip on the left, Alessia right, on Babylon 4b. Others were reacquainting themselves with skills which they hadn’t used for a while, like Stephen below. The MMC crew got to play too, Anna’s on the right below at the start of Sapper 5a.

         

The great weather made it a very relaxing day out… unless you had your lunch nicked by the resident dog.

Jules conjured up a perfect end to a perfect day with a visit to the Huntsman pub where we could all enjoy drinks in the beer garden in the last of the sunshine. As Anna’s car set off back for London, most of the rest sat down to a good meal and some more time to get to know each other.

We look forward to meeting our new friends again.

Huge thanks especially to Jules for organising everyone, Angela and Rick, for sharing their intimate knowledge of the crag and driving all the way from Chepstow to host! Also Cia, Anna, Harry, David, Chuck and Dan for making it all run smoothly on the day.

Alix