Trent, that is all well and good and I agree I was climbing and crossing his path, however, he was in IMC and had no right to be there. This is the point you have missed. Had the ATC been dealing with other matters and I was not alerted we would have collided or been damned lucky not to.
You are correct about rising ground. I am and was fully aware of where I was and my surroundings so I stayed down and visual, and orbited. By rights I should have been safe to climb in cloud with no reported IFR traffic.
This clown was not IFR and was not in VMC conditions as required by the VFR. And he was not on the CTAF or Area frequency.