Singin' in the Rain: Sgurr Mhic Choinnich

[thewildlassielife]

It was wet again but we were going for one more! We headed to the campsite at the end of Glenbrittle and met Jonah (our guide).

Jen:

Usually this munro is climbed with Sgurr Dearg - the Inaccesible Pinnacle - however with the high wind speeds Jonah had warned us at the bottom that we were going for one munro only. Jonah was always thinking of the best for us - would we like to wait for another day or time when we could climb them both together to save guiding costs? We were all itching to get another munro climbed and have another challenging but rewarding day on the hill, so of course we were raring to go.

We headed up to the Coire Lagan and decided to wait out the rain in a couple of shelters Jonah and Iain had brought. We needed to stay warm and so a game that we'd been playing the night before resurfaced: HEADS UP (which is a great way to keep moving, but decidedly tricky to play in such an enclosed space).

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

We ate sandwiches, mimed quite difficult mimes inside a shelter (such as 'hurdling') and waited out the torrential downpour. As it eased off we left our shelters...it was so cold! We started moving quickly up the scree slope. Helmets were on in case of a dislodged stone falling.

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

Cara:

This was another hard day in terms of climbing and heart rate. There were some big steps which had to be taken and me and Sam have quite little legs. At one point, frustrated by how easy other people found these big steps round boulders, Sam called Iain an 'octopus'. I think this was supposed to be an insult, due to her angry tone, but it actually just made us all laugh.

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

We made it to the top and back down without incident but knew at this stage that this would probably be our last munro of the week due to the weather forecasted for the next day. We would have to leave the southern ones, and the In Pinn for another time. We went with Jonah back to his local pub, The Old Inn, in Carbost for a celebratory drink. We had completed half of the munros on Skye!

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

It was at this point we first met Mack. Mack was Jonah's collie, and he was one of the mountain rescue dogs for Scotland. We had spent a while with Jonah asking him about Mack and were keen to meet him. So we met him in the car park at Carbost and would get to know him the following year when we returned.

Untitled by Cara Morison, on Flickr

We had loved our trip to Skye but we knew we had unfinished business here...