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5 Sisters

5 Sisters


Postby basscadet » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:41 am

Route description: Five Sisters of Kintail

Munros included on this walk: Sgùrr Fhuaran, Sgùrr na Càrnach, Sgùrr na Ciste Duibhe

Date walked: 15/09/2012

Time taken: 8 hours

Distance: 14.48 km

Ascent: 1411m

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So this weekend I had arranged to go over to Kintail with Leithy for a go at the sisters. I arrived at dusk on friday night and set up the tent on the beach behind Kintail Lodge Hotel. It had been a dry journey over until I hit Glen Sheil where there was hill to hill clag and heavy rain.. Saw an eagle - almost crashed the car.. had a huge skid in the wet and gave myself a heart attack :lol:
Leithy turned up at about half 9, and after he had managed to fill the tent with the biggest blow up mattress I had ever seen, we got stuck into the tinnies.. He confessed that it was his birthday! All the more reason to hit the tinnies :D oh how we laughed, god knows when we got to sleep, I remember 2.30, and it was a good while after that :shock:
So it was a late start to the proceedings on Saturday morning. In my usual disorganised, catastrophic way, I had come away for a hillwalking weekend, without packing any suitable clothing :? So Leithy lent me a pair of chav tracksuit bottoms to wear :lol: The weather forecast hadn't been that good, but with Leithy's lucky weather faerie,on side, it looked like it would be a good day. The mists were lifting :)
We went down to the Jacobite to try and get a bit of breakfast, but it wasnt open :( I transferred my stuff into Leithy's car, and we headed back up Glen Shiel to the start point. I remember doing the same climb up for the Brothers, and I wasn't looking forward to it much, but in actual fact, it wasn't as bad as I remembered, although it did help that I actually found the path this time :lol:

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Without any breakfast, we were forced to stop for first lunch part way up. A party of 4 caught up with us, whom we leapfrogged with all day :roll:
Despite the stop, we got up to the ridge in only a little over an hour.. We stopped again for a we while to let the other party stay ahead.

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Once we were up the first climb, we could see the rest of the ridge set out in front of us

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and after much undulation, there was the climb up to the first of the sisters.. Sgurr nan Spainteach.
We got great views, although it was a little hazy. Even more of the ridge was revealed before us..

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The winds over the ridge were pretty savage.. Enough to rob your mouth of your slevers, although I only got pushed over a couple of times.. Made chatting a bit difficult though :(
As we descended for Spainteach, we hit a wee scramble.. quite fun :D Then it was up, up, up to the first of the Munro's, Sgurr na ciste duibhe.

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unfortunately at this point, we started to get clagged in a bit, and the bonny views disappeared for an hour or two. We did get a glimpse of Loch Duich.

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Th winds were still a bit airy, so we didnt stop for a photoshoot at Sgurr na Carnach - kept on going along the rocky ridge. The path was well defined all the way :)
By the time we hit Sgurr a Fhuaran, the clag had lifted somewhat, although it was still pretty darn windy.

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Leithy had a brief argument with a wifie from the other party about which hill was the final sister :lol: before we set off for Sgurr nan Saighead. The path looked to be going the wrong direction, but Leithy found us a path that went the way we wanted to go.. it was pretty darn steep though with plenty of rocks and slippy gravel.. A couple of hundred metres down, we realised that the initial path must curve back on itself, as we re-met the main path on the other side of a boulderfield :lol:
The final sister looked pretty darn fine :)

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We managed to miss the ridge path and were quite a bit round the bypass, before we realised. Leithy took a direct route to the summit, I went along and up the path :D

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Tired after a very late night, I fell asleep for a wee snooze hiding from the wind behind the cairn. I woke up cold though, after not very long according to Leithy...
The descent didn't seem to take that long.. There was an awkward steep boggy section but in the glen the path improved dramatically and we made excellent progress with the pub at the forefront of our minds :lol:

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We did get distracted on the descent for a while by the biggest patch of ripe brambles I have seen for ages. I felt ill I ate so many!! And after a long wait, we finally got our breakfast in the jacobite before going to pick up leithy's car :lol:
It had taken us 8 hours, but according to the GPS, we had been stopped for over 3 of them! not exactly pushing it.. anyone would think we were hungover or something :think:
I cant believe I got a bit of good weather at last. Yaay! thanks Leithy :thumbup:
Last edited by basscadet on Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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basscadet
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby ChrisW » Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:46 am

A real cracker of a report B, hell of a hike to make with a heavy head. You got some beautiful photos all along the ridge and were definitely rocking the 'Adidas trackie bottoms' look, courtesy of Leithy :lol: :lol:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby dooterbang » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:22 am

Nice troosers guys :D

Happy birthday to Leithy.

Well done on tackling them hills whilst half ****!

Thank goodness you wern't alone when having a sisters siesta.
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby Graeme D » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:59 am

That was one serious chavtastic and hilarious read! :lol: :lol: :lol: Just one thing though ...... camping on a beach????? Dunno about the wisdom of that! :shock: :shock: :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby Johnny Corbett » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:19 am

A cracking walk this and not a bad day you both got for it. Thoughs trackies are cool, i have a blue pair which date back to the 80's :lol:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby monty » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:06 pm

Tracksuit bottoms!!!! Thats it, you two are barred fae walkhighlands :lol: :lol: :lol:

Nice report and some good photos. :D
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby basscadet » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:17 pm

Thanks for your replies and compliments folks.. :D

Camping on the beach there is pretty cool.. although a couple of nice titanium pegs were sacrificed to the rock gods in the process :lol:
There is a demolition team in just now, cutting up the old ferry to be taken for scrap, so we were awoken rather early both on Saturday and Sunday by their bantering and industrial cutting equipment :crazy:

We were talking on the way down after the walk.. Both me and Leithy once would of thought of this as a big day, but we treated it like a bit of fun.. No research into the route, no doubts we would get it done, no sore feet or aches after. Just a wee wander really, easy as could be :lol:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby basscadet » Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:20 pm

monty wrote:Tracksuit bottoms!!!! Thats it, you two are barred fae walkhighlands :lol: :lol: :lol:

Nice report and some good photos. :D


Well at least we did all 5 sisters.. Not like the amateurs, that only bag the munro's :wink:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby simon-b » Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:43 pm

This brings nice memories from three weeks ago when I did these, BC.

If those trackies did the job, then they did the job. The "proper" mountain trousers I wore for this walk had a faulty pocket zip and I nearly lost my map. And the belt kept slipping so I had to keep hitching them up.

Good to see you got the views, nice shot of Sgurr nan Saighead.
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby Graeme D » Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:29 pm

basscadet wrote:There is a demolition team in just now, cutting up the old ferry to be taken for scrap, so we were awoken rather early both on Saturday and Sunday by their bantering and industrial cutting equipment


I'm sure it wasn't that bad BC ........ compared to the chainsaw imitation snorer (who shall remain nameless!) in the bunkhouse in Braemar last month!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby jonny616 » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:07 pm

Great read & photos. Did these on a previous WH meet. Had similar argument about the last sister. The biggest vote & a couple of books since say the 875 point on the map forget the name now. :D
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby rockhopper » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:36 pm

well done both - some nice ridge photos as well but not too sure about the tracksuit bottoms :) - saw your next report as well...nice lazy way to spend a Sunday - cheers :)
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby quoman » Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:26 am

Hi BC... your racking them up now wasn't that long ago we were roughly on the same number of hills the 5 sisters look superb, plus a nice we walk on the sunday to finnish the weekend off.
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby basscadet » Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:50 am

quoman wrote:Hi BC... your racking them up now wasn't that long ago we were roughly on the same number of hills the 5 sisters look superb, plus a nice we walk on the sunday to finnish the weekend off.


Aye, time to calm down with the madbagging I've been thinking.. want to have some left for the next couple of years.. :(

Graeme D wrote:I'm sure it wasn't that bad BC ........ compared to the chainsaw imitation snorer (who shall remain nameless!) in the bunkhouse in Braemar last month!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:


Oh I didn't notice.. All quiet in the girls booth.. although drunken induced slumber is more difficult to interrupt.. Youll have to drink more next time :lol:
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Re: 5 Sisters

Postby SMRussell » Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:21 pm

What a stylish pair :wink:

Very jealous - what amazing views! Taking on this route after a late night getting bevvied? Blugh! You pair of crazies!
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