Last weekend was the MPS Christmas Meal in Hathersage. On Saturday we climbed at Stanage Plantation, where amongst other things I failed to second an E1 5b. Hamish and Chris both tackled Pot Black, an E2 5b route which looked scary just from the top (see below).

Despite nearly getting locked in the car park, we made it back for Christmas dinner, which was excellent. After some digestion time, it was followed by several hours of games seemingly specifically designed to lead to horrific bruising to cruel and unusual parts of the body. That’s right, the table traverse defeated me once again.

Sunday morning dawned bright, clear, and cold, and so Vince, Dean and I went Pineappling. You can read Vince’s full report here, but suffice to say that I only managed to get up one (Wet and Slimy Crack). The technique for the majority of them seems to entail throwing yourself at large lumps of gritstone at high speed, rather than any kind of technical prowess (and yes, I still failed!).

So good weather, the NIPS all seem like very nice people, and Christmas dinner was great. Job well done.