Brothers Ridge in the snow and sun

[gld73]

Arranging to do a walk weeks in advance of the actual date is a pretty big gamble given the unpredictable nature of Highlands weather! But sometimes the gamble pays off. I'd thought about doing the Brothers Ridge solo before but knew the 2 car option would be preferable ... so when I saw JimmySquirrel's post last month on the WH Meeting Up board looking for anyone who wanted to do one of the Kintail ridge hikes when he was up on holiday, and saw it coincided with one of my days off, I dropped him a line, and we tentatively agreed to do the Brothers Ridge if the weather was even half decent...

12th April came ... and so did the sunshine

Asides from the ascent and descent which were mostly clear, there was still a nice amount of snow for the majority of the walk - Had crampons with us, but never needed them, and only used the ice axes to get to/from the 2nd (and most spectacular!) summit, Sgurr a Bhealaich Dheirg. We followed the WH route, so nothing unique to describe on that front, but thought I'd put a few photos here to at least give people an idea of current snow levels in the Kintail / Glen Shiel area (and surrounding areas - the views were superb!) in case anyone's heading there this weekend ...

Looking back from the Brothers to the Five Sisters

panorama of the South Glen Shiel ridge opposite

The second summit looked okay from a distance ....

...it looked a bit more daunting close up...

View back from the summit cairn, ready to crawl'n'ice axe back along ..!

Views were clear all round, including SE towards Ben Nevis

Aonach Meadhoin's summit cairn had a much less precarious approach :)

End of the winter wonderland, the Cluanie Inn in sight

A great day out, thanks JS!!

[Coop]

Fantastic area. I remember my 5 mile walk along the main road to the car after this walk- in the rain.

Cheers for the heads up with the snow conditions . I'm in the area again Monday for a few days.

[gld73]

On the steep walk down to the Cluanie Inn, I was actually thinking it might have been quite nice to then have a relatively flat few miles to walk back to the car as a warm down, rather than getting straight into a car off the hill. Pretty sure I would have changed my mind about that, half a mile along the road mind ... Especially if it was raining!!

[Sunshine60]

Great Pics

[dogplodder]

Yep, the second summit looks a bit more of a challenge than when I was there!