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The original plan was to split the reporting duties between the 5 of us, especially as there will be 5 reports to compose. Anyway, Simon has come up with 7 excuses as to why he should be excused writing duties, I won't list them as I would hate to embarass him - only joking
So here we go again day 4 on Skye and yet again the forecast 'could be better', the meeting place was at Sligachan and today's target was to be Bruach na Frithe, which I can almost pronounce - probably not to Simon's standard as he is the resident hill expert, especially when it comes to pronunciation
Once again it was a 9am start and it was actually quite pleasant, we had been advised by Paddy (guide) to bring our ice axes as he was anticipating things to get 'interesting' higher up
We asked if crampons would be required and the polite reply was - if we needed crampons we would be turning back, sounds a bit ominous
We set off from the parking area at Sligachan and followed a well established path that was a tad damp in places, but nothing to register it on the bog factor scale.
DSCF1885 by
Martin Beswick, quick pose before we hit the path
DSCF1888 by
Martin Beswick, first of the showers
DSCF1893 by
Martin Beswick, water feature
The plan was to go up via the north ridge and descend by Fionn Choire, the next few shots are of the ascent up the north ridge, which as we got higher became rather spectacular
DSCF1899 by
Martin Beswick, going up
DSCF1903 by
Martin Beswick, looking back to Sligachan
DSCF1906 by
Martin Beswick, still going up
DSCF1912 by
Martin Beswick, North Ridge, looking pretty interesting
DSCF1913 by
Martin Beswick,
At this point I will apologise again for the 'rear end' shots, for obvious reasons I couldn't be at the front so I was "tail-end-Charlie", not so good going up, but ideal for the descents
The north ridge was an interesting and excellent route up, the views the east were enough to motivate anyone to carry on
DSCF1917 by
Martin Beswick, starting to get interesting
DSCF1920 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF1925 by
Martin Beswick, still ascending
DSCF1932 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF1935 by
Martin Beswick, not sure what Paddy was pointing at?
DSCF1937 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF1938 by
Martin Beswick, Must have missed something, as everyone is looking!
DSCF1943 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF1946 by
Martin Beswick, looking back down the ridge
DSCF1947 by
Martin Beswick, we have now reached the snow line, quite a bit further to go yet and this is the middle of May
DSCF1951 by
Martin Beswick, still going up
DSCF1963 by
Martin Beswick, another shot looking back - how did we get up that
DSCF1964 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF1968 by
Martin Beswick, Andy, a picture of elegance and grace
DSCF1971 by
Martin Beswick, one last shot back before we entered the cloud
DSCF1974 by
Martin Beswick, One of the bigger summits on the island
The summit was reached and like most of the summits we had to take it in turn to 'touch the top', yet again we were denied any views. I have a feeling that the summit was rather exposed, so the cloud may have been our friend. As it was rather chilly on top, we didn't hang around. The route up had only a slight dusting of snow, the route down was the opposite. As the hill was quite popular the footsteps in the snow were easy to follow and the deep ones avoided
The descent was fairly straight forward, but great care had to be taken especially on the rocky sections with a thin layer of snow.
DSCF1978 by
Martin Beswick, and onto the descent, one obvious addition to the equation, more and deeper white stuff
DSCF1981 by
Martin Beswick, Follow the leader down
DSCF1986 by
Martin Beswick, much deeper snow now
DSCF1989 by
Martin Beswick, Then out of the clag this monstrocity appears - WOW
DSCF1992 by
Martin Beswick, looking back
DSCF1996 by
Martin Beswick, Simon taking a picture of Paddy taking a picture etc, etc
DSCF1997 by
Martin Beswick, zoom to folk on the north ridge
DSCF1998 by
Martin Beswick, 6 guys we met on the summit from Burnley, on a drinking sorry walking holiday
DSCF2001 by
Martin Beswick, zoom shot looking at Carbost
DSCF2005 by
Martin Beswick, still looks amazing
DSCF2006 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF2016 by
Martin Beswick, busy hill
DSCF2023 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF2037 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF2040 by
Martin Beswick,
DSCF2049 by
Martin Beswick, Nice new bridge
DSCF2050 by
Martin Beswick, Water feature
Another great day like all 5 days that will be remembered for along time, especially as I have the photo's to look back at.
As this is my last public Skye WR I would like to thank Paddy, you were an absolute star, the thing that probably worries you the most is we WILL be back. Also thanks to Simon for inviting me and 'letting' me do another report, also to Karen, Jimmy and Andy. I think we helped each other through one or two tough moments, maybe slightly more than one or two
I think we even kept Paddy amused with some of our banter.
And finally (bit like a speech) huge thanks to Karen, for the candles, I will let Karen explain that story
I now hand the baton over to Karen who "volunteered" to compose the final report, I won't steal her thunder suffice to say it was an epic