Our last club trip of the year took us all the way ‘oop-north’ to the wonderful and snowy Lake District for the annual Christmas trip. This is always an amazing trip and this year certainly didn’t disappoint.

Saturday saw several groups hit the hills, each making the most of the fantastic conditions. One group went to Coniston, one up Helvellyn and two groups making the most of their winter skills training and completing Sharp Edge on Blencathra. On Saturday night, the whole group gathered back in the hut for a massive black-tie Christmas dinner with all the trimmings cooked by the big-man himself. Several rounds of pudding, after eights, quizzes, gin pong and sing-songs promptly followed to round off a fantastic night.
Sunday witnessed the obligatory hangovers, fry-up, food comas, mass snowball fight and sledging mayhem before the drive back to Bath and onwards to home for Christmas.

A massive thank you to everyone that came along and especially to the committee, drivers, cooks and the infamous ‘barmen’.

So we headed to Dartmoor in the last weekend in November, stubbornly ignoring the fact that of all the places to walk at this time of year, Dartmoor is probably the boggiest and with the best chance of pissing rain!
Fortunately we lucked out with the weather and although there were many wet feet and a freezing wind there wasn’t any rain on either day. On the saturday some nav practice was had and the short walk gave all the people new to Dartmoor a nice flavour for the place. We also headed to one of England’s most cut-off pubs in the evening, after some of us discovered that you shouldn’t play monopoly with economists.
On sunday we set off from the old club favourite, Meldon reservoir, and headed over Yes Tor before walking back across the viaduct and past the old quarry.
This trip introduced a lot of new people to club trips, and I hope everybody enjoyed it and will be coming back for more!

Big thank-you to all of our members who came out last night for our Face Paint Social and made the night so good. Never have you seen such a happy lion bellowing S Club 7 lyrics

The past weekend saw the BUMC having a great time at one of the furthest weekend trips, the North York Moors. With sunshine all day Saturday lots of climbing was done at Scugdale, with some people pushing their grade, and others doing as many as 12 routes!

For the evening, we decided to head into Stokesley to go to a good microbrewery pub visited on previous trips. Once there it was announced that it was the pub’s 10th anniversary, meaning free food on the buffet table and live music throughout the evening! On Sunday the weather turned for the worse with a thick fog covering all in sight and although it kept the crags wet, it didn’t dampen our spirits! We decided to go walking around the hills of the western moors on a route that took in many viewpoints. Sadly the fog meant that we had about 30m visibility. One highlight was seeing the many grouse, some guinea fowl and even a peacock! Thanks to Dave for planning a walk at such short notice and to the drivers for taking us the long journey there!

George

Contrary to the forecast, Saturday the 5^th of November was an absolutely glorious day in Exmoor. We all had a smashing walk, thanks to Owen for organising and driving.

The walk started at the car park at county gate (it took Owen a while to realise it was called county gate because we were on the border of two counties, Devon and Somerset). We followed a path across fields down a valley to Brendon. From here we walked along the East Lyn River to Watersmeet, taking in wonderful views of the river and woodland countryside. At Watersmeet we cut uphill towards Countisbury. When arriving in Countisbury we noticed a pub with a rather odd name, which some of our party found fairly amusing. We then pasted through Countisbury to the coast and Foreland Point, from here we encountered stunting views of the British coast line so decided to stop for lunch.

After lunch we followed the South West Coast Path and then back to county gate car park. Here we decided to indulge in tea and cakes at a near be cafe, what a lovely way to end a grand day out.

Becky x

http://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walks/walks/walk_map/1262/ for walk route.

The last weekend of October saw the BUMC arrive in the Peak District for some classic, single pitch climbing.

Saturday was spent at Stanage Popular where the weather held just long enough to get a full days climbing in before the rain sent us all running for the minibuses at about 5ish.

Saturday night was a casual affair with the jam jar game making its second appearance in two trips. Will’s guitar was also whipped out for a bit of a sing-along.

We awoke on Sunday to find that Stanage High Neb, our intended destination for the day, was still in the clouds. A few of us decided to go for a walk along while we waited for the fog to lift, while the braver amongst us set off to climb the dripping wet gritstone.

Eventually the clouds parted and the sun soon dried the rock enough for everyone to get climbing and for Geoff to have a go at Quietus (E2 5c).

Our trip to the Brecon Beacons on the 22nd of Octorber was the first day trip of the year. Look out for our day trips to Exmoor (walking) and Cheddar Gorge (climbing, weather permitting) next weekend on Saturday the 5th.

Keep an eye on your inbox people!

So it begins! The first weekend trip of the year was a resounding success, taking place in North Wales over the weekend of the 14^th-16^th October.  The sun was shining on us the whole time and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

Saturday saw many people go climbing at Milestone Butress, with others scrambling around the Snowdon horseshoe, as well as an intrepid band of walkers covering a whopping 15km over the Carneddau. A massive feast was whipped up by the committee in the evening to fill all those hungry bellies and prepare you for a massive Sunday! 

Sunday saw more climbing, scrambling up Tryfan and even more walkers enjoying the last of the weather. A fantastic weekend had by all and hopefully the shape of things to come! A massive shout-out goes to all the drivers and the committee for making this happen as well as all the Freshers for showing such enthusiasm and always having a smile on your face.

 Until next time!

Owen

BUMC Chairman

Thursday the 6th of October saw the club welcome our newest members with our first social of the year which started off on Campus, at Parade, before a brief walk down to our local “The Ram”

It was at this point that the real bonding could begin! Members were paired off at random and clipped together at the waist , leading to all sorts of shenanigans on our way to the third and final pub of the evening “The Beau Nash”.

To end the night the we headed over to what was at first a very empty Weir Lounge. It soon filled up though and the allure of the Weir Lounge Poles proved to much for most resulting in more then a few comical photo’s.

On the Sunday ending Freshers’ Week a big group of us got up bright and early to meet on campus for a light walk around some of the many parks in Bath. We went from campus, around the golf course and down to the Avon canal. Going through Bathampton we found ourselves in Sydney Gardens and continued through to reach Henrietta Park, where we stopped for a break. Climbing of a very tall tree was attempted, but we soon decided to back off the route while the tree still had most of it’s bark intact. After continuing on through town we arrived at Victoria Park.

With the Royal Cresent as a backdrop, some of us sat on the grass chatting, while others had a good nerf throw and catch session. Even the chairman, Owen, made an appearance, joining us in the wonderful sunshine. Ater that we headed through town, to Widcombe, where we headed up around Prior park. Finally, a long climb through a wooded meadow lead us back to campus, having had a great day out in the sunshine.