Completing the Cuillin back at the start

[Quadbarrel]

If you'd told us in December last year on Beinn a' Bheithir that the next proper munro-bagging outing for both of us together would be the Cuillins in October, we'd have thought you were kidding.

But unfortunately running races and the great Scottish weather has meant that us fair-weather-walkers have not made it up since (although me and my sisters did Meall a' Bhuiridh while Dad was at work). So we went ambitious again:

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We'd tried to get on the ridge the day before, but the weather was horrific so we were delighted to see the ridge lovely and clear setting off. This is when Dad's good camera kacked it, so all these photos are off his iPhone.

The Red and Black Cuillin

We headed up the path to Bealach a' Mhaim then turned off to Fionn Choire.

We turned off the path to gain the north-west ridge of Bruach na Frithe.

Dad likes artistic reflections

Higher up

What a wonderful....... corrie

Looking north

We emerged onto the main ridge just below the top and headed up to where we first summited the ridge 2 years ago.

Good to be back in the hills

Southern Cuillin

Lota Corrie and the mainland

Where we're going

We started heading down the ridge to Bealach nan Lice after a snack.

Looking to the Red Cuillin

We decided to head out to Sgurr a' Bhasteir because we'd read it had great views to Sgurr nan Gillean.

Am Basteir needs a better dentist if it only has one black tooth

Towards the top

Some cloud bubbled up as we were at the top, so we made haste in returning to the main ridge.

Gillean and Basteir

The cloud then took our advice to sod off .

We headed down to the left at the bealach before nan Lice and picked up the path below Am Basteir.

It's quite big

We lost a lot more height than we wanted to to get round to Bealach a' Bhasteir. From there we headed up the ridge towards Am Basteir before taking the Bad Step bypass down to the left, which was hard to locate and harder to follow, as we realized standing just above the Bad Step back on the ridge. We then had to redescend and ascend to just below the Bad Step.

You must have a massive stride if it's not the Bad Steps for you

We got to the top, where it was odd to the think we were standing on The Executioner's head.

What a beautiful....... ridge

Sgurr nan Gillean's west ridge

We were looking at Sgurr nan Gillean's west ridge with the SMC Skye Scrambles book knowing it was a moderate climb and the only other option would be to lose a load of height into Lota Corrie and do the south face, which is only grade 3. It didn't look too hard so we decided to 'go and have a look', the fateful phrase that never leads to just looking.

We reached the end of the climbing section after doing the tooth groove and arete with the only sacrifice made being clean pants. We then did the rest of the west ridge with relative ease.

Dad and 'the window', although I don't know why he doesn't use the door...

We then reached our final summit of the main Cuillin ridge (bar the last 7m of the Inn Pinn ), 1 year and 363 days after our first summit, Bruach na Frithe (or a couple of hours if you want).

Funny looking down on the Red Cuillin when they look so big from Sligachan!

We then descended the south-east ridge, or the 'tourist' route.

Grippy Gabbro!

Then we descended the corrie (the hard way ) and gained the path towards Sligachan.

Bla Bheinn

We have jelly legs for a reason looking at how high they look!

Back to Glendale then, where the girls decided we should go to Neist Point. My legs begged to differ on the way back up there .

[Alteknacker]

Boy, did you have the perfect weather! And your pics really showcase it. It's just such a brilliant place when it's like that - the best on the planet!

[Silverhill]

A fantastic day, for some fantastic hills. I see you have at least two more reasons to go back to Skye. I hope you will have equally good weather on those occasions.