As my options are starting to decrease with every outing I opted to try the Forcan Ridge, I contacted Tommy (tommyatr) as I knew he was planning to clock up his 100th Munro on Forcan We agreed on Friday and as the week progressed the forecast was improving, could this be too good to be true, especially as my track record in Kintail isn't overly impressive, only had one decent day
I advertised in the 'meets' section that we were heading to Kintail and I managed to get a couple of "bites", David (kaiserstein) and Paul (Captain Haddock), I sorted out the travel arrangements and we agreed to meet at the 'Commando Memorial" at 8am. The plan was going along swimmingly until I got a text from Tommy informing me that he was stuck in Glencoe as traffic was being held up because of a road accident
Tommy estimated he would be about an hour late and had already decided to tackle something in Glencoe, so now we were down to 3 We arrived at the start point a fairly big layby and things were looking rather promising, hardly a cloud in the sky and the temperature was perfect for walking and importantly too cold for the wee bitey things
We made an assumption that there looked like a short cut just across the road from the layby, mainly because there looked like a path across the grass which could possibly join up with the main path further up. After about 100m we reached a fence and a very damp boggy area, so we decided to abandon that plan and retreat back to the road
After a short walk along the road the main path appeared and off we set uphill, the path was excellent and not too steep.
Looking back
Good path uphill
First peek of the ridge 
Looking down Glen Shiel
Looking across to the SistersAfter a couple of pauses on the ascent, purely to take photographs it wasn't long before we reached the bealach. By this time we were glad it wasn't any hotter as we were overheating a wee bit. On reaching the bealach we could see the ridge and it did look rather interesting
We followed the path which took us towards the ridge and let the fun begin 
Action shot crawling up the slabs
Action shot number 2
Dave posing, Glen Shiel behind
Paul posing
Follow the path 
Still going up
The Ridge
Dave having fun
Paul taking careThe Ridge itself is as easy or as difficult as you want to make it, there are exposed narrow paths but any of the difficult scrambling bits can be avoided. Having read a few WR's we knew there was going to a 30m descent to negotiate if we fancied it. I must mention that David being a 'compleatist' did the walk a year or two ago, he did say the weather conditions were slightly different. I won't describe the Ridge hopefully the numerous photo's I took will do the talking and demonstrate what a fantastic walk this is
David looking down
David leading the way
Looking across towards the Kyle
Looking across to the Sisters
David thinking of going off-piste
Penny for your thoughts
David following the ridge
Action shot
Paul following David
More action
Flying
Paul having a break to pose
Hide and seek
Paul appearing
Pose
Before
Elegant 
Down
David surveying the way ahead
Me propping up a rock
Squishing down a narrow chimney
The awkward descent if you fancy it
David having a scramble
Another narrow bit
Path very obvious
Paul & David following the ridge, I took the lower route to take action shots
More high level action
Final high level shot
Looking back, the ridge does look impossible to cross
The way ahead
More posing
Follow the path
Not far to the summit now
Looking back from the summit
The Saddle summit pose
Looking SW, nice little lochan
Looking NW, another lochan
Looking westAnd now the descent of 300m down to the bealach before the final ascent of Sgurr na Sgine. The path was easy to follow and once the bealach was reached it was onwards and upwards. There are a few boulder fields to cross along with a few more small descents and ascents before the summit is reached. We met our first human being on the bealach who we had seen in the distance in front of us, so we stopped for a chat, he was heading in the opposite direction to go along the shoulder before the final descent. It was a bit of a trudge up to the 2nd summit, but after a continuous plod we eventually arrived. The views of the South Glen Shiel Ridge were amazing and I still couldn't fathom out how there are 7 Munro's along it
The descent down to the bealach
The way ahead to the 2nd summit
Looking back to the Ridge, the shoulder for the final descent is on the right
2nd summit
South Glen Shiel Ridge
Looking East
The shoulder that leads to the descentAnd now it is time to head back to the car, the first part takes you back down to the bealach. Once the bealach is reached you then follow the path to the right which takes you along a long shoulder. The shoulder is a wee bit undulating with a slight incline at the end, then the descent begins for real. From this point you can see the road and cars looked absolutely tiny and previous WR's warned us about the steep descent, so we were expecting the worst. We found the descent nowhere near as bad as some folk have said, maybe the dry conditions clouded our judgement, but the path kind of zig-zags down, although steep, not overly steep. The shoulder has about 3 or 4 large flattish stages before reaching the bottom, I would imagine the bottom area can be a bit of a bogfest after a spot or two of rain
It was good to reach the flat ground as the knees were certainly complaining, there is a burn to cross before you reach the road and the short walk back to the car.
The Forcan Ridge is an amazing and superb walk, apologies if I posted too many photo's. I hope they demonstrate that the Ridge can be as hard or as difficult as you want to make it. I appreciate we were really lucky with not only the conditions, but also the weather.
Many thanks to David and Paul for keeping me company, I hope you both enjoyed the day as much as I did
Not sure what is next, it may even be yet another visit to Kintail - Ciste Dhubh, maybe as soon as next week
