Annual Dinner Trip Report
This February, an army of stoats prepared to head to North Wales on the famous Annual Dinner trip! Neither of the social secs had looked at the weather forecast in the hope that it would bring them good luck with the weekend’s weather - and this seemed to pay off! When the stoats arrived at the hut in the evening they found out that the whole weekend was going to be sunny (a first for Annual Dinner…).
After arriving at the hut and snuggling up into their beds, the stoats settled down and dreamt sweet, sweet dreams of touching rocks. On Saturday morning, the stoats woke up early and clambered into the stoat-mobiles, making their way to Castle Inn Quarry for some sport climbing. UBMC filled up the entire crag and managed to set up a lot of top ropes for keen stoats, making Harry (resident Trad-dad) very unhappy. Three of the club’s keen boulderers also snuck off to find some of the shorter climbs that Wales has to offer. After a successful day of climbing in the limestone quarry, they headed back to the hut to get dressed up for dinner!
With the stoats looking suitably presentable, they all set off for the pub. The executive decision was made to mix and drink the meanie AFTER the meal (learning from previous year’s mistakes), but the club’s President - always up for a sesh - still managed to put away a decent amount of wine before the pub. The pub was an interesting experience to say the least… there was no set menu so the stoats went wild and one stoat even ordered an omelette! Every single meal at the pub also came with a side of chips (even the fish and chips had an extra side of chips?!). Once the stoats had eaten their fill (of chips), they headed back to the hut for a night of meanie drinking.
As the social secs hid away to concoct the meanie, the other stoats changed out of their black tie attire and got their meanie vessels and pennies ready. After the meanie was mixed, the stoats gathered around outside for an incredible fire spinning show and there were ‘oooh’s and ‘aahhh’s heard all the way over in Bangor. Table climbing, sock-wrestling and other climbing related shenanigans took place, with some stoats having a climb around the inside of the hut itself! The meanie was consumed predominantly by a few hardcore stoats, some of them staying up until the early hours, while the antisocial social sec Freya snuck off early (again!) to go to sleep during the sock wrestling.
Early on Sunday morning, the stoats crawled out of the hut and drove to Australia (the slate quarry not the country). For some of the stoats this was their first time ever seeing Australia in the sun, and it was nice to be able to see this wet-weather crag with clear skies. Some great sending was done by UBMC crushers, and even the team secs (who are famously scared of heights) were forced up some routes. Eventually, the stoats began to tire and they started the weary journey back to McDonalds and then home.
A great trip was had by all and it was a nice break from the classic rain that is normally had on Annual Dinner. Time to start getting psyched for next year!