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Out on the Cuillins for the second time this week, but arrived at Glen Brittle some 3 hours later than on
Monday, so after a lie-in until 7:30
, we headed off up towards Coir' a' Ghrunnda.
- Glen Brittle beach
We were planning a very ambitious route, heading up to Loch Coir' a' Ghrunnda, along the ridge to Gars-bhienn via Sgurr nan Eag, then back along to Sgurr Dubh Mor and Sgurr Alasdair, for a quick descent down the Stone Chute and back to the campsite.
So we headed off up the path to Coire Lagan, then turned off and went across Allt Coire Lagan and round Sron na Ciche, straight into the morning sun!
We then headed up the path into Coir' a' Ghrunnda, which was a lot harder than Dad was expecting!
- Looking up, Sgurr Dubh an Da Bhienn peeking out
- Soay behind on one of the harder scrambles
Headed up past Loch Coir' a' Ghrunnda, which was very low, and onto the slopes of Sgurr nan Eag
- Across Loch Coir' a' Ghrunnda to Sgurr Alasdair
Reached the ridge, which wasn't obvious exactly when, then headed up in the frost to the first summit of the day, Sgurr nan Eag
- Sgurr Alasdair behind with Sgurr Thearlaich on the right of the Great Stone Chute
- The Red Cuillins and Bla Bhienn, across Loch Coruisk
- Gars-bhienn looks a long way away
Headed down the south slope of Sgurr nan Eag
- My truly fabulous and amazing artistic shot of Dad
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- Dad's alright attempt at his artistic shot
Headed up to Sgurr a' Choire Bhig
- The buttress of Gars-bhienn behind
The ridge turned into more of an arête, which surprised us both. It reminded me somewhat of
The Devil's Ridge in the Mamores that we did in August.
It's a real shame that Gars-bhienn doesn't have a title of any sort, so many people don't do this ridge. Even the guide books and websites for the Cuillins don't describe this section of the ridge, and if you have time to spare, we'd definitely recommend you make the trip out to the true end of the ridge.
Anyhoo, we reached the summit with fair ease. It was amazing to be able to look back at the entire ridge, knowing that you're right at the end.
- Our 3 munros of the day - Sgurr nan Eag, Alasdair and Dubh Mor. Oh, and there's Dad...
- The same view, except with ME (:D :D :D) in it, as well as the far end of the ridge
- Both of us
Had some lunch (jam sandwiches
) and then headed back along the ridge.
- Sorry about the smudge
- Note the huge, fairly new rockfall at the bottom left, the lowest of the rock we could see was away down at the floor of An Garbh-Choire
It was back over the summit of Sgurr nan Eag, and then over towards Sgurr Dubh an Da Bhienn.
- Loch Coir' a' Ghrunnda in the sunlight
- Sgurr Dubh an Da Bhienn
It was now for the second of our out-and-back excursions, this one to Sgurr Dubh Mor. It was starting to get on in the day, so descending down to the north side of the ridge (very loose scree), we could see frost and ice forming already
. The scramble up to Sgurr Dubh Mor is fairly hard, we had Steven Fallon screenshotted but didn't really need it, then we reached the summit plateau (compared to what we'd just done). Headed along to the far away summit, because I'd read apparently it's the true summit, so we did the photos there.
- It is a very airy summit, to say the least!
- There wasn't anywhere to put the camera...
Headed back the same way onto Sgurr Dubh an Da Bhienn (feel like a rapper every time I say that
), then headed down into Bealach Coire an Lochain. From here we used
Steven Fallon's advice to avoid the TD gap and head round the screes below Sgurr Alasdair.
- Me on our route. Caisteal a' Garbh-Choire in the middle looks giant from Loch Coir' a' Ghrunnda
Headed round, and it was up a tough chimney to the summit of Skye, for a record 3rd time (it was already mine, beat twice for Ben Lomond for Dad).
- The Mini In Pinn on top of the big one!
Descended in the setting sun down the Stone Chute (it's dark in the shadows!) and into Coire Lagan.
- Dad's artistic shot no. 2 (okay it's quite good...)
Met some walkers coming down from Sgurr Mhic Choinnich, so headed down to the campsite with them, where we met the girls, who'd been at Oronsay for the day
- Sgurr Alasdair top right, which we were at the top of 1 1/4 hours ago
