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Trip report for Skye 2011-10-06
Well we started on the wed travelling up from London to Skye arriving in the evening pitching the tent in the slig campsite and heading over the road for a quick half and decide what route to tackle in the morning, after checking the conditions for the coming days we found that the ridge would be to windy and so decided to drive down to glen shiel to bag the four brother’s,
a few from the way up
the glen sheil brouthers
near the top of ciste dubh
at the summit
near the summit of sgurr a' bhealaich
going down after completing the ridge by saileag
After a great day on the hills if a wee bit wet we drove back to Skye stopping quickly on the way back to grab sum pics of eilean donan castle
Then once again a pint was taken in the slig whilst discussing the next day’s plans
The plan was to drive down to glen brittle and assess the weather and either go for sgurr Alistair with Chris. Paul and Kenny were going to do sgurr nan eag, but if the wind was still to strong then we would come back up to the mr hut and do sgurr na bannachdich By the tourist route, the latter option was taken and when we got to the mr hut we sat in the car for around 30 min to see if the weather would subside to a drizzl rather than sheet rain, it did so we went for it .after about 30 min walking the weather turned wetter and the buckets were coming down with the rain so Kenny decided that enough was enough and headed back to the car but me Chris and Paul decided to continue, the stream on our left was getting faster and deeper so we continued to its head before crossing it and going up the scree slope to gain the ridge then turning right to walk along the ridge to the summit, the wind was gathering strength all the way up gusting to 44mph so we didn’t hang around and decided to descend along the ridge back towards the mr hut we had to micro nav down through scree and cliffs with little or no visibility with was very mentally taxing and could have been very dangerous for any one how was in the slightest bit concerned about there nav skills and I cant state enough that if you are not well practiced in nav in white out conditions or the dark, then you Should get a guide to help you on the cuillin as it will bite you if you don’t. when we dropped down under the cloud but still in the rain we noticed that the river we walked along on the way in was now a raging torrent of water that was impossible to cross so we went down along the path on our side getting back to the car . I took the camera but it was to wet to get it out and as it turned out it was to wet in the bag as well as when I tried to switch it on it would not work and is still in the wardrobe drying and might cum back to life in a week or so fingers crossed. on returning to the slig we were delighted to see that the weather was to be much better in the morning so we decided to go for the corrie lagen round starting with the in pin.
In the morning we set of early to beat the crowds and went strait up the front of sgurr derg when wee gained the top the in pin popped it’s head over the summit and we noticed three climbers on the east side but as we came over the top we noticed that there was no queue so we descended to the bottom of the pin and had a bite to eat before roping up I led the route placing two pieces of pro on route to the first belay point before bringing Chris up then setting of on the second much easier pitch to the top. All the time being mindful of the raf /mrt training exercise going on at the top of the great stone shoot all this and no wind and clear sky’s how good was that I’m still trying to get the fixed grin of my face, after abbing of we went back to get our kit witch had been ditched at the bottom of the pin we then set of towards sgurr mhic choinnich the route finding was ok and we soon got round to the top of the ann stack scree then the reel fun started, a long and dif grade 3 scramble to the narrow summit then retracy our footsteps back down around 30m to find the start of collies ledge the path is easy to spot from above so finding it was no problem, as we got to the far end under the kings chimney we had a decision to make the time was getting on and we would have to go over sgurr thearlaich to get to sgurr alistais and the clag was coming in so we decided to call it a day and head down towards the great stone soot and back to the car all in all a great day. And as for Alistair well that’s a perfect excuse to go back not that you need one
on route up sgurr dearg with alistair in the background
guess whare
the rest of the days route
the first pitch
top belay
perma grin
looking back at the in pin
on we go
looking back at the way we came down
the start of colies ledge
Well I hope you all enjoyed this report as much as I enjoyed being in Skye and doing the walks
