General information about Club meets
This page has been written with a view to going on an outdoor meet during a term-time weekend, but the meets work similarly for the Wednesday night indoor trips we do. In fact even signing up for socials uses pretty much the same form - isn't that nice?
Organising outdoor meets
An official outdoor meet within the UK is organised for every weekend of term - ordinarily a single day trip - and there is at least one full weekend away each term, in addition to the week-long club annual meet in June. Climbing venues for every meet during term are selected in order to cater to the full range of members' climbing abilities - we are just as enthusiastic taking out new people to show them 'the ropes' as we are taking out old people to let them show off. We aim to arrange trips to as many and varied parts of the UK as we can: from popular crags to less visited areas; from gritstone to granite; single-pitch or multi-pitch climbing (or even, heaven save us, sport climbing); or just by general demand for wherever it is people want to go.
Where we actually go and what we actually do, however, is generally very weather dependent and this strongly affects how the meets are organised. Firstly - and most importantly - if you're keen on climbing with CUMC, make sure you get yourself onto the officialmailing list. Ignoring, for the moment, a majority of the barrage of emails that you will begin to receive from the second you hit the 'Subscribe' button, some time at the beginning of each week of term will be an email from one of the meet secs about the outdoor meet that coming weekend, which gives people plenty of time to get their next weekend organised. It'll direct you to back to this website where you will be able to sign up for the trip. That's all you need to do for now.
Signing up for a trip is as simple as filling in a quick form. You'll be able to do this, because you'll already have filled in a membership form to allow you to come on meets. The important things to get right here are what gear (if any) you have, and whether you have a car. From these seemingly minute details, your meet secs can divine such things as whether there'll be enough gear and car spaces. Finally, if you must drop out after having signed up, please let the meet secs know as soon as possible so that you place can be given away to someone else.
Meet logistics
Whoever is arranging said outdoor meet will - employing detailed statistical analysis based on the cumulative distribution of responses to the sigup form - arrange a time and a place to meet for the day of the trip and will coordinate gear with the respondees to make sure everyone's set for the meet. It is then incumbent upon those attending the meet to make sure they have the requisite gear (depending upon the particular circumstances of the climbing venue). This may involve going to 'Teas', which is held every Thursday evening at the abode of CUMC's gear sec, where tea is served (obviously) and all the necessary gear and guidebooks can be picked up, exchanged or dropped off. All meet participants must bring a harness, a belay device and a helmet on the day of the meet (and preferrably some rock shoes). If you are leading, then you must bring a rope and a rack along as well. If you have (and trust!) your own gear, then good for you, otherwise gear can be obtained at Teas.
Paying for meets is easy - petrol money is split between the people in each car (including the driver), and you settle directly with them (This often comes to around £10 for a trip to the Peak District). There's no other cost. Occasionally when there aren't enough drivers going, someone will hire a car. The Club will pay half of the cost of this, and those in the car will split the other half, as well as paying for petrol. This typically adds £10 to the cost of the trip.
On the day of the meet
Having survived Friday in slavering, drooling anticipation of the coming weekend's amazing vertical antics, it's time to get outdoors! We encourage participants to turn up a few minutes before the appointed meeting time - no matter how much beer, sherry, wine, port, gin, vodka or sambuca was poured down their throat the night before (probably by us) - so as to facilitate a quick getaway in anticipation of either a long drive (likely) or the prospect of iffy weather (very likely). We are struggling to deal with our persistent and incredible ability to waste time on the way to the crags, so we appreciate any assistance that can be provided in terms of faff-minimisation.
So: putting aside stopping past someone's house to pick them up because they were just TOO hungover to get to the meeting point, the horrendously priced coffee at motorway services, a quick visit to Outside somewhere to salivate at some shiny new pro, etc. etc. (refer comments re. faffing above), we get to the crag and have a good time. In the off chance (!) of rain, we still go for the meet. Depending on just how bad it's looking, we may go out to the crag to have a looksee and try and get in a route or two, or faff around and wait for the rain to clear or just go indoor climbing somewhere. Whether we end up huddling together under a rock at the base of a crag and reading, going for a coffee somewhere and then a gentle hill walk, or heading off to tackle some problems indoors, it's still nice just to get out of Cam for the day (or days) and have a good time and hopefully a kebab on the way home.