free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
This wee visit to Skye was part of a warming up for my completion of the Munros the following week, and also I had wanted to climb these since I first saw them some 30 odd years ago when I was first on Skye
As usual it was a fairly early start leaving Doune at 630am which was as usual just to try and beat the tourist traffic
Which I seemed to do until I hit Skye at just about the same time as the B and Bs were chucking out
The drive and weather was pretty good but the cloud was low and although the forecast was good the rain made an appearance just as I was pulling into the layby at the Head of Loch Ainort it absolutely **** down and it went on for at least an hour
- **** Down
- That look pretty much summed things up !
and I was really thinking the weather was so wrong it was going to be a wet walk, so I sat for over an hour and the cloud had started to lift so it was time to go.
- The first look at our days route
- Water run-off but still time to head :-)
It did turn out to be the correct thing to do as within a half hour from start it began to clear even more and even wee glimpses of the sun and that meant that the water proofs could come off
- Where we were to go !
- Drying up at last :-)
Its a pretty obvious path that you follow up the ridge till you meet an old fence line then things begin to get a wee bit more interesting , not scary but you just have to pay a bit more attention to your footing as there is increasing amounts of scree and boulders.
- Lifting cloud and views out towards Loch Coruisk
The path does pick its way through the boulders all the way to the summit but the very top was mostly clagged in and pretty windy too by the time I got there,
- A break in the cloud and Jura having a bad hair day :-)
- Claggy summit
so we had to be a bit carefull as I wasn't quite sure how the path went around the rocks to get the descent on to Belig,
- Belig from Garbh Bheinn
but with a wee bit of care you will find the path and surely enough it takes you to where you want to be. The ridge, although rocks and scree is pretty easy going as it widens out as it drops in altitude, at about 750mts I came out of the clag and then could see easily where I was meant to be. That was the last of the clag for that day as it just lifted and got clearer all day from then on
I carried on and just a wee bit up Belig
- Garbh Bheinn from Belig
- Superb
- :-)
Just about where the wall starts and had a tea break and I just marvelled at how these Masons and labourers managed to build such walls on that kind of angle and at how big some of the stones were that they used
- How did they do it ???
Its a steady climb all the way to the top of Belig and the higher you get the better the views get
in all directions it just gets better and better.
- Belig Summit and a gorgeous views.
- A very tired Jura :-(
Tea and photos done it was time to negotiate the scree almost all the way down the N ridge back to the start, good fun but you do have to be careful and the final push to the car park was a bit boggy in places so I ended up with wet feet where I had kept them dry all the rest of the day
So that was that , the Garbh Bheinn - Belig, loop ended up being a descent day out with some fairly good photos and views
- Belig and Garbh Bheinn pano
- Stats
From there my journey took me to the Sligachan camp site so I duly got the tent up and then some food followed with a couple of beers
But it was a bit early yet so I took the camera and went for a wander while planning tomorrows walk and the day just continued to get better and better (apart from the midges) and I think I got some pretty good photos of the Sligachan end of the Cuillin ridge before retiring ready for an early start on Glamig the next day
- Jura at her best
- The Gorgeous Cuillin
- The Gorgeous Cuillin again :-)
- The Garbh Bheinn ridge with Marsco
- Glamaig from Garbh Bheinn, Tomorrows Target