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Sun 2k Marilyns: Ben Shieldaig.
Date: 27/08/2021.
Distance: 4km.
Ascent: 505m.
Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes.
Weather: Warm, sunny, still.
I did think of writing an alternate version of this report - from the photos alone you would believe that it was one of our best days out of the year! However....
Finally I could see another opportunity for a summit camp - we've only done one so far this year. We had agreed to meet David somewhere over the weekend and the weather on Friday evening looked perfect for a high camp, with the conditions from the last few days promising an inversion too. I knocked off work at lunchtime and we packed up, arriving in Shieldaig shortly before 5pm. The sun was out and it was a lovely calm evening - this should have been ominous in itself.
Beinn Shieldaig from the road I had been trying to think of a better way up Ben Shieldaig than the direct route from Loch Dughaill - I had descended this previously and considered it to be steep and rough. However Jackie wasn't keen to add on too much additional distance or ascent so this was the least-bad option. As it turned out, it wasn't nearly as rough as I remembered and there was even a faint path initially (and again higher up along the edge of the deer fence).
An Staonach and Beinn Bhan There wasn't initially a massive evidence of midges and bitey things, but Jackie had a weird crawling sensation in her skin - possibly a heat rash or one of the many bizarre long covid side effects. So she was already sensitive to largely non-existent flying things.
Jackie on the way up The climb is pretty unrelenting, but other than a couple of short sections of deep bracken and heather, the underfoot conditions were largely reasonable. We were slow but had few breaks due to the invisible menaces. As we got higher, the light improved but the wind also dropped and suddenly my dismissal of the midge situation seemed unreasonable - they were everywhere!
Arnisdale hills Beinn Damh We pressed on to the top - both really keen to get there and dreading the possibility of the wind not increasing a bit. When we reached it the views were incredible but we had been driven to a state of madness. We got long sleeves, trousers and midge nets on but things were still unbearable. We discussed going on to the northern summit to pitch the tent as the views were better, then 2 minutes later we were contemplating going back down again. David was due to join us on the summit for the camp but he had started later. He wasn't far behind as we had seen his van arrive around 40 minutes after starting, and I sent him a string of contradictory messages about what we were going to do.
South along Ben Shieldaig to Sgurr a Gharaidh Beinn Damh and Maol Chean-dearg Over Sgurr a Gharaidh to the Arnisdale hills Beinn Alligin, Beinn Dearg and Liathach North summit from the top In the end Jackie wasn't really feeling like going down as she had used the majority of her energy to get up here in the first place. I decided to pitch the tent where we were so we could at least get inside until the temperature dropped some more or some breeze appeared....in my frantic haste I managed to break a pole on the tent
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This was the last straw - time to go! Jackie had spotted David coming up the summit ridge so we decided to wait a few minutes for him to see if he had any tape to make a pole repair. He didn't, and wasn't particularly phased at the idea of abandoning camp so we dropped back down almost immediately. Jackie would just need to manage somehow even it it resulted in her not being able to get off the couch for a couple of days afterwards.
It was such a shame to leave as the inversion was moving in and the Western Isles were clear on the horizon. But on the other hand we couldn't wait to get out of there!
Cloud moving in. Harris hills in the distance David on the way down The going wasn't as bad as feared on the way down and Jackie coped OK in the end. She was definitely tiring towards the bottom but I have seen her worse on smaller hills before, so I thought we would manage. As the temperature dropped the midges dispersed a bit, but they didn't go away completely. The sunset looked like it would be a classic but there was too much cloud on the horizon in the end even though we were still high enough up at that point to enjoy it.
End of the Trotternish, Skye Last of the sun over the Trotternish Loch Dughaill We briefly considered making a temporary tent repair and camping by the road but another flurry of midges changed our minds and we jumped in the car. David retreated to his van and we drove off, arriving home just before 11pm. Before setting out on the hill I had locked our bikes to the fence a few meters from the road as we had planned to do some cycling on Saturday, and I almost forgot to put them back on the car before we left! The one positive thing to come out of our aborted trip was that we had been up our weekend hill and now still had the entire weekend before us
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