The weather in the Peak District has been savage, to say the least, over the last few days. Heavy rain and strong winds battered most areas, keeping most folk confined to the climbing walls.

However, there have been a few bright spells now and then, allowing a few recent repeats of hard grit classics such as 'Equilibrium' (E10) etc.. Dan and myself were out at Stoney Middleton on wednesday, and the crag was in good condition despite a couple of isolated wet weaps.

It looks like the weekend is going to be mixed with good weather on Saturday and showers on Sunday. It is still set to remain windy, which is good news for fast drying gritstone.

Further a field in Scotland, the last few days have seen some good breaks in the weather on the west coast. Associate instructors Andy Turner and Dave Hollinger were quick to take advantage of this with an ascent of 'Cornicopia' VII,9 on Ben Nevis. Not content with one modern classic, they visited the West Face of Aonach Beag to make the first winter ascent of 'Stalking Horse' at VI,7.

The outlook for next week suggests that a large High Pressure system will block recent mild westerlies and pull down cold air from the north. This is likely to bring freezing temperatures to much of the UK, and snowfall to many areas. Check out http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/ and http://www.mwis.org.uk