Sgurr a'Mhadaidh and Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh

[Somerled87]

A great walk, An Dorus was fun, made me feel like a real climber! Struggled to images of the walk online without folk with ropes, helmets and that, which was a bit intimidating, but found it to be fine. A chilly crisp morning, it was nice to get my hands on some warm gabbro on the south facing side of the ridge after climbing out of An Dorus to Sgurr a'Mhadaidh.

Plenty left in the tank for the larger Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh. Exposure was exhilarating. Thought the Wart was really impressive, followed the route around it to the north, as described in the walkhighlands guide. A very enjoyable approach up Coire a'Ghreadaidh, with Sgurr a Banachdich looking impressive to the west.

Coming back down to An Dorus from a'Ghreadaidh was a bit scary as there was glacier-like compacted snow, which was effectively ice. Picked my way down from rocky bit to rocky bit, euphemised (?) it in my head to being like crossing a river trying not to get your feet wet, tried not to think about slipping to my doom... Footprints in the snow were deceptive, as although they looked 10 minutes fresh, they could have been there for weeks or months. Same goes for the patch snow in An Dorus. "Just don't thaw for the next 10 seconds please," as I tiptoe across and out the other side.

Felt confident in my Cuillins scrambling ability after this walk. If I do it again, I'll leave it till later in the day so I don't have the sun in my eyes the whole way up. Would be a lovely evening walk, and perhaps the stone would be a bit warmer on the hands on the North side as it was on the South side. Or could just bring sunglasses and gloves I suppose.