Pinnacle Ridge and Knights Peak

[chazzyboy19]

This trip was booked through Skye Adventure with Neil Phillips as guide. Met Neil at Sligachan MRT post and after checking gear we headed off along the good path across the moor, this is the path to the "tourist route" on Gillean and at a laege cairn, we left the path and heade up to the foot of Pinnacle Ridge and harnessed and helmeted up. Moving together for most of the time we made our way up, its the route finding that always gets me on these hills, Neil just seemed to know where to go as we linked ledges and rakes with some scrambling, at one time we stopped for a breather and found we were at nearly 800m height , so far so good and no major issues. I never even noticed the first two pinnacles, they are more like protrusions into Corrie Basteir than bumps on the ridge. Pinnacle three however is steeper and has a blocky top requiring an awkward move to get to the position to abseil into the gap, the abseil is straightforward, and a second downclimb put us below Knights Peak which was my main objective for the day, as my book of Munros tables still has it as a Munro top. Some steep rock soon had us atop Knights and I awarded myself a tick, moving on the descent to the gap before Gillain took some care, and the ascent to the summit although steep was quite easy, we finished up to the summit by taking a route to the left that Neil had not previously climbed, this proved straightforward enough. After lunch at the summit we headed off through the window and down the ridge toward Bealach Bhasteir, catching up with a large guided group at the abseil point. Rather than wait Neil suggested moving further along the ridge and descending another gulley which we did and proceeded to the bealach. Harnesses off we descended the scree path to the corrie floor where we took of helmets and walked back to the Slig. The weather gods were very kind with sunshine all day and light winds, Thanks to Skye Adventure and Neil Phillips for an excellent day out.

[gaffr]

Nice clear images.....a pleasant day out when combined with the descent of West Ridge.