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A sunny day on Bruach na Frithe and Am Basteir
Charlie had parked up on the Glenbrittle campsite while I, suspicious of the Skye midge, chose the hostel just up the road a bit. An early (for us pensioners) start was agreed, but not too early after having been driven insane by the tourist approach to single track roads with passing places. (You know, having a picnic, doing your washing, or just making a last minute dive for the offset on the wrong side of the road…)
So at 8.45 we set off from the parking bay just up from the Sligachan Hotel. The sun shone, but the hills were playing hard to get, with clouds shifting from Coire to summit and back again. Nice and dry underfoot, despite the poor summer.
Higher up, we turned right to traverse across to the beginning of Bruch na Frithe’s north west ridge and followed that for a while, an easy walk with only occasional need for using a hand.
As the ridge steps up, the path sidles off to the right, almost contouring the west flank of the ridge before abruptly soaring straight up a band of scree to reclaim the ridge almost at the summit. The cloud was nearly clear by now, with only wisps hiding the tops of the central Cuillin.
Down the tourist route to Bealach Nan Lice, then left onto the Am Basteir bypass path. A bit reminiscent of the Eiger Trail, this descends 100m close up against the northern ramparts of Am Basteir and its tooth before sidling up again towards the Bealach Am Basteir. I was here a few years ago in torrential rain and thick cloud and never glimpsed the bypass path at all.
Up Basteir’s E ridge was a scrambly walk til the Bad Step (cue scary music). Sure enough, it’s only 4 metres or so but with undercut holds impossible to see from above, would be intimidating to downclimb. And a fall to one side would result in a very long drop as the ridge is narrow here. The answer for us was to whip out the rope and abseil. There’s an obliging rock formed to look like Yoda, complete with sticky-out ears which hold your abseil rope securely to the rock while you descend. A very few minutes later we were on Am Basteir’s tiny summit, an even better view point than Bruach, with full-on sunshine by now.
After admiring this for a few minutes we left, taking care to maintain focus til we were past all the big drops. Ascending the Bad Step was very simple when you can see the holds.
Before long we were walking the long miles back to the Sligachan after a memorable Cuillin day.
Now, can we have more of that weather next week…..
