There was a last minute rush for places on this meet. This resulted in the reserve list members having a weekend in the very modestly priced luxury of a chalet while the rest of us made do with the slightly unusual bunkhouse and a few hardy OATs [Old Age Travellers. Not so old these days in some cases, but they still clutter the place up, keep us awake all evening and then retreat for a tranquil night’s sleep elsewhere. Memo to self – find a friendly parking warden to issue a few tickets next time.] cluttered up the recycling centre with an assortment of camper vans.

Friday was a near perfect winter’s day so Jake, Joe, Alan Duncan and David Treagus started the meet a day early and met, with bikes, at Inverey, at some unearthly hour in the morning. They cycled up the glen to Altanour lodge and were rewarded with extensive views of the Cairngorms from the summits of Carn Bhac, Beinn Iutharn Mhor, Mam na Cain and Beinn Iutharn Bheag. Alistair Jeffs meanwhile went to Cairn na Tuirc; well, why not?

The rather poor weather forecast led to a lack of definite plans and a late night session instead. Saturday dawned (?) as miserable as forecast but the MMC members are not put off by such things and eventually all left the hut.

Joe and Dan thought they might try for tea and cake with Liz, and donning ski-googles, set off on their bikes towards Balmoral, into the wind, the snow, the rain, et cetera. They returned, via Invercauld and Mar Lodge, wet footed from a run through the river, cold and tea and cakeless. All in all a Type 2 fun sort of a day.

Colin Cowie set off on his bike to visit the secret howff in Glen Slugain, waking up the three incumbents, some of whom had only arrived at 06:00. He was followed shortly after by Simon and Drummond who walked in from Invercauld. By now the incumbents were well and truly awake. They were followed an hour or so later by Bea, Jen Clarke, Alan and Jake on a circular walk from/to Linn of Quoich. There is no record as to the state of the incumbents when they arrived. However the logical mathematical progression is that they may have anticipated a further party of eight shortly descending on them and decided to evacuate the premises. Clearly this rather splendid howff is not the secret it was a few hours earlier. It is located …..(this section redacted to preserve the tradition and to ensure that future incumbents can get a decent night’s sleep)….

The Munro baggers, Alistair, David and Adrian set off with the triple objectives of Carn Aosda, the Cairnwell and Carn a Gheoidh. However the wind was horrendous, the visibility none existent, the snow and ice appalling, et cetera. Adrian’s dog Smidge had the most sensible idea of descending back to the car by following a chair lift from the Cairnwell so our hardy hill- walkers had no choice but to follow.

A larger group consisting off Evelyn, Fiona & Bob, Jan, Sheena, Ray and John Henderson opted for a pleasant low level walk around Braemar along the Queen’s drive and a lunchstop at Braemar Castle.

The chalet girls, Faye, Theresa and Ellen, went through the pinewoods to Derry Lodge but have left no account of their adventures.

Drummond and Simon dug deep into their pockets, always a painful process, and bought tickets to attend an entertaining talk and book launch by Geoff Allan, author of the new complete Bothy Bible book. Their short pockets [err… short arms?] didn’t extend to actually buying a copy so your humble scribe has probably got the title wrong. This weekend was the first year of a new Braemar Mountain festival which, unfortunately for us, was sold out so there is no report of the Ceilidh or other events.

Saturday night was Dan’s birthday. A succession of cakes with single candles meant he aged three years in one evening. Quite an achievement – Dan, you don’t look a day over 45!

Sunday also dawned a bit wet. Dan, Sheena and Simon headed off to Glenshee, full of hope and with skis at the ready. After tea, no cake and much indecision they eventually headed up into the clouds. The snow got better and more abundant, relatively speaking, and they very soon reached the mist shrouded summit of Carn Aosda.

Simon headed back to the lodge which was the cue for the clouds to instantly lift leaving the hardy duo to ski on in surprisingly good conditions and blue skies to Carn a Gheoidh. Despite the rising temperature they returned in time to beat the thaw and just managed to water-ski back to the car-park.