Walkhighlands

A friend has booked Paddy for June 2018, so he hasn't retired yet.

He guided us up the Pinn & Sgurr McChoinnich, Sgurr Dhub Mor & Sgurr Alasdair and also Am Basteir - we were very happy to be guided by him.

Thanls Helen & bunny, I have e-mailed Paddy, just awaiting a reply

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately Paddy is fully booked, but have got booked up for 22 May with Skye Adventures, so am looking forward to climbing the In Pinn.

Skye Adventure are brilliant! You're in very safe hands & guaranteed a good trip

Don't mean to hijack this thread but I still have to do the Cuillins and as it is quite tricky terrain I would be keen to use a guide but don't have a good understanding of what a guide actually does. I guess he will know the routes inside out but how do they help you on the technical stuff? Do they top rope you on dicey stages so if you fall it is not terminal?

Thanks for any info.

Mal

malrobb wrote:Don't mean to hijack this thread but I still have to do the Cuillins and as it is quite tricky terrain I would be keen to use a guide but don't have a good understanding of what a guide actually does. I guess he will know the routes inside out but how do they help you on the technical stuff? Do they top rope you on dicey stages so if you fall it is not terminal?

Thanks for any info.

Mal

More or less. His knowledge of routes is invaluable. We did the other things without a guide and these days were about 50% longer than those with a guide. On Sgurr Thearlich our guide more or less had me on a lead, which wasn't going to do anything to save me, but almost forced me to follow. At one point we made a headlong dash up a sloping boulder with a huge crack in it, and I somehow arrived at the top. I don't know if that is in any book. For the In Pinn, Sgurr Mhic Coinich and Sgurr Alasdair apart from that he only used the rope to get up and down the In Pinn. I was obviously the weakest link andmy husband and young guy we teamed up with more or less just followed on. The same with Bruach na Frith, Am Basteir and Sgurr nan Gillean. He top roped me (I can't remember if he did it for the others down a bad step on Am Basteir and up a chimney on Sgurr nan Gillean. Apart from that we were all un-roped. I met Mike this year 14 years after we did this, and amazingly he remembered my name. I don't know if this was because we traumatised him Below, for instance, is Collie's Ledge which we just walked along....falling would have been bad, but why would we? However, it looked a lot less hairy doing it than the photo makes it
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malrobb wrote:Don't mean to hijack this thread but I still have to do the Cuillins and as it is quite tricky terrain I would be keen to use a guide but don't have a good understanding of what a guide actually does. I guess he will know the routes inside out but how do they help you on the technical stuff? Do they top rope you on dicey stages so if you fall it is not terminal?

Hi Mal.

Many years ago when we'd barely been up a hill we decided a week guided in the Cuilin sounded like a good idea. The only times the rope came out were up & down the Inn Pinn and ascending Nicholsons Chimney on Gillean. At the time I was never convinced I'd find my way round without a guide, they seemed to know the area intimately with all the little tricks to bypass and reappear where it got tricky.

Winding on many years, several ascents of the ridge and a lot of rock climbing experience and I still find the navigation "interesting" at times.My plan A is to stick to the crest. Plan B is if it looks hard then its the wrong way and back track.

So I'd say its the security on steep ground you gain and that local knowledge which has been built up over years on the ridge which you'll gain from a guide.

Thanks for the insight Sgurr and prog 99, really useful.

Mal

I'm going in mid June with Paddy, so he isn't retiring yet!
Glad to get a course in with the Skye legend though.

malrobb wrote:Don't mean to hijack this thread but I still have to do the Cuillins and as it is quite tricky terrain I would be keen to use a guide but don't have a good understanding of what a guide actually does. I guess he will know the routes inside out but how do they help you on the technical stuff? Do they top rope you on dicey stages so if you fall it is not terminal?

Thanks for any info.

Mal

In my experience, the key part of the service is their ability to find routes that avoid the need for the 'technical stuff', so at the end of the day you look back and say 'I could have done that without a guide' but if you'd have tried it yourself you would have got into seriously hairy places and/or failed to reach the required summits - knowing where the good hand-hold is to take the sting out of a 'bad step', when to drop off the ridge-line and traverse round to avoid the awkward crag, etc. And the ability to abseil out of of the King's Chimney or down the In Pin etc open open some great routes that I would not have ever tackled on my own. Worth every penny, in my opinion!

BtB