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We are doing the In Pin first thing in the morning........this wasn't exactly what I expected when we contacted our guide, Jonah Jones, on arrival in Skye on the Wednesday night after a 5 hour drive from Edinburgh. But there we were at the car park by the rescue station in Glen Brittle at 08.30 on the Thursday morning raring to go.
The trip had been in the planning for a while, my brother, Colin, who had flown up to Edinburgh from Wales the previous day, and I, had started planning this when we climbed Kilimanjaro earlier in the year, it seemed like a natural progression, Kili followed by the In Pin.
Perhaps at this stage I had better mention my long suffering wife Jacqueline who has "allowed" Colin and I to clear off every now and then to full fill our passion of travelling to far away places and climbing hills and mountains; thanks Jackie much appreciated.
I'm a Munro bagger and love every minute of it, I knew that sooner or later the In Pin was going to have to be conquered if I'm going to reach my target of becoming a "Munroist" and as I'm not getting any younger I didn't want to leave it too long as the knees are getting a bit worn.
We had booked Jonah Jones as our guide, I had read about Jonah in a few other walk reports so felt pretty confident that he was our man. Jonah turned out to be a great guide, he's a top bloke who knows exactly how far to push you and soon learns what you are capable of achieving, apart from that he serves good food and Ale in his Hotel the Taigh Ailean, just past the Talisker Distillery between Carbost and Portnalong.
Back to the start of our walk, Jonah knew that the main purpose of coming to skye was to get as many Munros as possible under our belt and my main aim was the In Pin. The weather report for the Thursday afternoon and the rest of the week wasn't too good with the possibility of rain and high wind, hence 08.30 on day 1 in the car park in Glen Brittle.
We soon set off towards Sgurr Dearg heading for the west shoulder directly in front of us, it's a really good climb up and we made good time, stopping off for a tea break when we reached about the 2,000ft mark.
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- Colin (on the right) and Jonah our guide having a quick cuppa
Following the curve of the ridge the tip of the In Pin suddenly appear in front of you, it looks nothing from this angle, its only when you get up close you realise the size of it and how exposed it is.
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- The In Pin sticking its head over the ridge
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- The In Pin in full view with the lone climbers rope ready for his descent
We didn't waste any time, Jonah had briefed us during the walk up so we new exactly what we were going to do. After getting our harnesses on we made our way down to the base of the East side of the Pinnacle, got roped up and before we knew it Jonah was up and over the first shoulder, I followed on behind with Colin bringing up the rear. The climb up to the summit is great although don't be under any illusions it is narrow and exposed, Jonah had told us to concentrate on the square metre in front of us, this isn't a bad tip as the drop off to the right is "considerable" to say the least. We were all on the summit in no time at all and Jonah was setting up the anchor point for us to abseil down the West face. I went down first, it was great fun, I hadn't abseiled in years and had forgotten how enjoyable it was, it was over far too quickly I felt like going around again.
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- Colin following me up the East ridge
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- Me on the top of the In Pin
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- Colin preparing to abseil
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- The Pinnacle
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- Colin part way down the In Pin
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- Jonah prepares his descent
I would like to say it was a piece of cake.... but to be honest just looking back over the pictures I have just uploaded my palms are dripping with sweat; it was a very enjoyable experience that I was glad to get over and done with and will remember for a long time.... anyway onwards and upwards.
We skirted down and around the In Pin heading for the Bealach which separates Sgurr Dearg from Sgurr Mhic Choinich which was our next target; the route is quite hairy in places and certainly not one to tackle in the wet.
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- The route from the In Pin around the left of An Stac and down to the Bealach below Sgurr Mhic Choinich
We left our bags at the base of Sgurr Mhic Choinich and scrambled up the rocks to our second summit of the day; the weather had held for us and the wind which was starting to get a bit blustery earlier had dropped right off. We turned around and followed the same route back to the Bealach and had a well earned break before starting our descent.
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- The In Pin from Sgurr Mhic Choinich
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- The In Pin and the Bealach from Sgurr Mhic Choinich
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- Sgurr Mhic Choinich, the Great Stone Chute and Sgurr Alasdair on the right
We were back in Glen Brittle by about 3.30. it had been a great day out and one which my brother and I will remember for a long time thanks to Jonah, day 2 and more of the Cuillins to follow.
