fingeez wrote:Hey Kjudge
Nice to see more from perth on here
I was a little confused reading your post, was it a guide from a different party, telling another guide and party to turn back and go back down? Were you in a guided party? Also did you turn back after this incident?
Ross
Sorry for any confusion.
We never used a guide to get on the hills or over the first summit, it was a couple of guides from other parties, which dismissed our existence!
I was getting pretty impatient (and possibly going to try something reckless) and my friend suggested we cut our losses, admit defeat and head back over the first summit. We started climbing and were stopped by Martin, who asked what was up? And after explaining what had happened, he asked the couple that he was guiding if they didn't mind in getting these two disheartened guys down.
At no point were we looking for charity, or went all that way just to "chance our mit" at getting help.
Like I said we didn't even get close to have a look at the scramble, which (understandably) infuriated me the most!
To their credit the couple were lovely and insisted that we should accept the offer of kindness, and when Martin asked "Can you abseil boys?", it was the perfect comment and attitude to hear.
After the abseil, we thanked them all again, they were off to the pub (after doing the whole ridge over 2 days - one of the party being a 66 year old guy) and we cracked on to Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe. My friend caught a glimpse of "the scramble" from the bottom and felt quietly confident that we would have been able to do it, but that was in the past now. We tackled 'the bad step' with no problems and enjoyed the spectacular views of a cloud free Cuillin ridge.
The contrasting attitudes that day were remarkable, and thanks and appreciation must go to the consideration of these 3 helpful people for their time and altruism.