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Day 1
Well, I finally got to Skye! And what a brilliant couple of days I had. If anyone is thinking of going to Skye I can recommend SkyeHi. Graham was excellent and gave me a lot of confidence. Whilst I felt that I managed all the scrambling OK the route finding would have been very difficult not to say impossible without a guide. In addition to that, having a guide makes it possible to undertake interesting routes that aren’t in the Munro books.
I met Graham and another client, John, at Sligachan at 8am and we were soon heading out along the path towards Sgurr nan Gillean.
- The walk in
There was a sprinkling of snow in the corrie and along the ridge and the views were stunning. In the distance we could pick out the Old Man of Storr.
- Old Man of Storr
On gaining the ridge at the Bealach a Bhasteir
- Am Basteir
we dumped our rucksacks, put on our helmets and harnesses and made our way round to our first bit of excitement, a climb up a short chimney.
- John at the top of the first climb
We were soon at the top and were confronted by the next challenge, weaving in and out of pinnacles with a fair bit of exposure all around.
- 2nd climb
Then we had some good scrambling up the west ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean.
- Just to prove I was there too!
We encountered some icy slabs near the top
- Near the window
and roped up again before squeezing through the window and on up to the summit cairn.
- Summit Sgurr nan Gillean
The excitement was not over though as on the descent we were lowered off to the bottom of our first climb.
- A long way down
After a quick snack we set off along the ridge for Am Basteir. This was fairly straightforward apart from a short vertical section for which we roped up again.
- Summit of Am Basteir
Then it was back to the bealach to pick up our gear and have a late lunch. As we sat there a Tornado (which we originally thought was a boat!) rose up out of the sea near Loch Coruisk and roared up over the ridge, doing a roll as it went past. Show off! We dropped down into the corrie and followed the path under the north face of Am Basteir to the Bealach nan Lice and on up to the summit of Bruach na Frithe.
- Summit of Bruach na Frithe
We then retraced our steps back to Coire a’ Bhasteir and down to Sligachan.