by The-Big-Grey-Man » Sat May 21, 2011 10:30 pm
Date walked: 17/05/2011
Time taken: 4.5 hours
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My first trip to Skye for about five years was met with some of the worst weather I’ve ever seen on the misty isle, just endless rain and wind for hours and hours, followed by very short periods of fantastic weather that would last for 5mins or so and then would be replaced by howls of wind and yet more rain, just to remind you that your in the North west Highlands, land of sheep farming, midges, and poor O2 network reception. I had planned for a Monday to Friday trip but went home early on Thursday morning, back to the safety of the central belt were the rain falls straight down instead of side ways.
There was only one brief weather window in the monsoon that was sweeping across the north west highlands and that was on Tuesday morning, were I was able to deal with the small matter of Sgurr nan Gillean, a quite magnificent mountain, which as the munro guide book says, has one of the worlds greatest mountains views from the top, just a pity I couldn’t see it.
- Attachments
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![Skye 001.JPG]()
- THE CLASSIC VIEW OF THE CUILLIN FROM SLIGACHAN
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![Skye 002.JPG]()
- SGURR NAN GILLEAN LOOKING CLEAR
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![Skye 004.JPG]()
- I CLIMBED UP THROUGH THE MAZE OF ROCKS AND BOULDERS, IT COULD BE QUITE EASY TO LOSE YOUR WAY HERE IN MIST, THE VIEW BACK TO SLIGACHAN, WITH THE STORR IN THE BACKGROUND
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![Skye 005.JPG]()
- PINACLE RIDGE
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![Skye 006.JPG]()
- THE RIDGE LOOKS VERY IMPRESSIVE FROM HERE, NOT A PRETTY SIGHT IF YOU AFRAID OF HEIGHTS
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![Skye 010.JPG]()
- THE TINY SUMMIT OF SGURR NAN GILLEAN, AS YOU CAN SEE THERES NO PHOTOS OF ME CLIMBING UP THE RIDGE, AS IT ALL GOT A BIT INTENSE FOR WHILE. THE SUMMIT WAS IN MIST SO NEVER GOT TO SEE THE VIEWS, BUT IT DID GIVE THE IMPRESSION THAT YOUR FLOATING ON THE CLOUDS, I DIDN'T FEEL VERY COMFORTABLE UP THERE WITH THE WEATHER DUE TO CHANGE AT ANY MOMENT SO I DECIDED TO DECEND AFTER ONLY MAYBY A MINUTE OR SO ON THE SUMMIT.
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![Skye 011.JPG]()
- THE WEST RIDGE
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![Skye 012.JPG]()
- LOTA CORRIE
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![Skye 015.JPG]()
- THE MIST BEGINS TO CLEAR
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![Skye 017.JPG]()
- IF ANYTHING THE DECENT WAS HARDER THAN THE ASCENT, I WOULD SAY THAT IS BEST TO KEEP AS DIRECTY ON THE RIDGE AS POSSIBLE
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![Skye 025.JPG]()
- THE INCREDIBLE VIEW ACROSS GLEN SLIGACHAN TO BLA BHEINN
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![Skye 027.JPG]()
- SGURR BEAG FROM THE SOUTH EAST RIDGE
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![Skye 032.JPG]()
- OFF THE RIDGE I STARTED TO FEEL A BIT BETTER, I DONT KNOW IF I LIKE THAT SCRAMBLING STUFF
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![Skye 034.JPG]()
- THE VIEW BACK UP TO THE HILLARY STEP
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![Skye 037.JPG]()
- I THAN BEGAN MAKING MY WAY TOWARDS SGURR BEAG WERE I WAS GOING TO STOP FOR SOME TEA AND MARS BARS
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![Skye 038.JPG]()
- BLA BHEINN
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![Skye 040.JPG]()
- SGURR H-UAMHA
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![Skye 041.JPG]()
- IT REALLY IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE PEAK, SO FAR IT TOPS MY WALKS BY A FAIR DISTANCE
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![Skye 044.JPG]()
- HOPEFULY ILL GET BLA BHEINN DONE TOMORROW
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![Skye 045.JPG]()
- SGURR NAN GILLEAN
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![Skye 047.JPG]()
- THE WEATHER HELD FOR HOUR OR SO MORE IN WHICH TIME I HEADED BACK DOWN PASSING A PARTY WHO WERE BEING GUIDED, RATHER SMUG THAT I GOT TO SUMMIT BEFORE THEY EVEN LEFT THE CARS
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![Skye 049.JPG]()
- THE FAMOUS PHOTO SPOT MY LITTLE POINT AND SHOOT DOESN'T REALLY DO IT JUSTICE
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![Skye 050.JPG]()
- I GOT BACK TO SLIGACHAN FOR ABOUT 1200 AT WHICH POINT I THEN DECIDED TO TRY MARSCO AS I WAS COUNTOURING ROUND THE BACK OF THE HILL I WAS HIT BY WHAT I CAN ONLY DESCRIBE AS A WALL OF WIND AND RAIN, SO THOUGHT BETTER OF IT AND HEADED BACK DOWN
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![Skye 058.JPG]()
- TOOK THESE NEXT PICTURES ON WEDNESDAY IN THE PERIODS WHEN IT WASNT RAINING,I NEVER GOT TO DO BLA BHEINN, BUT I DID GO FOR A WET WALK UP GLEN SLIGACHAN.
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![Skye 070.JPG]()
- OVERALL IT WAS A PRETTY MISERABLE WEEK WITH ONE EXCELLENT MUNRO TO TRY AND BALANCE IT OUT, BUT ILL BE BACK.
