After allowing a decent interval after the revised start time of 14.00 for latecomers to arrive proceedings were started with a briefing from the Hares – Grumblewald, Greg and Viaggro. It was the usual stuff that we have come to expect from Grumble – lots of noise and little substance. Dire warnings about how dangerous certain sections were and “don’t go here” and “don’t go there”, which the more experienced Himalayan Hashers have learned to completely ignore. I think nine checks were announced with three of them, numbers three, six and eight, I believe, being holding checks (some of us ignore everything he says!).

Off on the usual start heading south, down to the khulo and then following it further south before turning left down towards the river and Check One at the suspension bridge over to Taukhel. This must have been a 600 metre back check, as the trail actually continued (somewhat boringly) along the khulo until Check Two at the next bridge upstream. The trail was found by the slower moving members of the pack (Shrivelled) with only 3 FRBs (Keeled, Towed and Fat Forward, who was obviously trying to get his ‘s’ back by the pace he was setting) making it to Check One. Shrivelled bought the falsie across the river from Check Two and it was left to Rotter to find the real trail running up the river.

Holding Check Three was found by Keeled and Towed, but they has missed the excitement of the run up river owing to their dedicated checking of other parallel and more gentle trails. They were found on the brand new suspended bridge high over the gorge, mocking the pack below who had to face the massive steep (and extremely dangerous (no it wasn't - you wouldn't know because you avoided it - GM)) climb from the river up to the bridge. (If the conflict continues for a bit longer we should soon be able to circumnavigate the valley entirely on bridges!) Check Three was another back check and I’ve no idea who found the trail out as, along with Shrivelled and Fast Forward, I was checking across towards Tika Bhairab and ended up languishing at the back of the pack. Anyway the trail then took us off to the west and more familiar territory for Grumblewald’s runs.

There were another couple of checks on the way up the hill to the standard holding check on the cliff top overlooking Dukuchhap. From here the only way was down, and down and down we went via Check Seven, all the way into the first of the infamous three gorges and Holding Check Eight. Shrivelled led the way initially, having taken a judicious shortcut down the road to outflank Towed and Fast Forward who were first away from the check, but from Check Seven it is once again not clear what happened. Grumblewald was as usual making so much noise that those of us who were doing some serious checking simply couldn’t hear one another and we all know him well enough to know that what he is calling isn’t always the correct trail.

From the gorge it was straight up the hill and pretty much straight home. Check Nine eluded me, but then I’d seen a lot of paper on the day and decided that the straight way back to the beer was the best. We got there to find a few of the walkers already back, but they claimed to have been misguided by Viaggro and got lost. However, who would believe anything Tuna Dip says? Mind you, with legs that short she probably can’t go as far as the others!

Anyway the pack trickled in followed closely by the walkers. Surprise arrivals were Hurry K, The Fox and Gnhasher who had been oblivious to the onset of winter and started their run at 3.00 p.m.

With a little gentle prompting from Towed Under, the GM called the circle to order and the Hares into the middle soon after all were back. Comments were few, as were offers of a score. Such was the enthusiasm displayed by the jury that I have completely forgotten the score that was finally awarded.

There were three Virgins to be welcomed, one left over from last week and two fresh ones from this week. Unless the GM gets the piccies and stats up on the webshite before I finish this (he did, just, but I can’t be arsed changing it all), I have no idea who this week’s were, but suspect last weeks was Cornelie.

The proceedings that followed were that down-downs were awarded, in no particular order, to:

There only remained the Hashit and, as with last week, it was simply a matter of which of the Hares it went to. Once again there wasn’t much debate. A weak case was put forward for awarding it to Greg who was heard on the run to be blaming everything on Grumblewald, and it was suggested that Viaggro had lost some of the walkers, but the overwhelming view was that, once again, IT WAS ALL GRUMBLEWALD’S FAULT.

Thanks to Mrs Rotter for the hash catering and to the Hares for a seriously up and down run.