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The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain


Postby ianaird » Tue Nov 23, 2010 12:49 am

Date walked: 20/11/2010

Time taken: 5 hours

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Had noticed this interesting top during the summer when out for a walk with the family at the fairy pools.

I decided to read up on it and find out if there was a route up for a non-climber and was glad to find out there was :D

I was going to do this walk/scramble with a climber earlier in the year but we opted for pinnacle ridge instead, our plan of attack was to go up the spur hit the ridge and head on to Bruach na Frithe, this being unknown territory i never really had a plan for Saturday, i would take it as it comes, and being on my own i would be proceeding with caution..

Weather was good with not to much snow on the tops, was actually quite mild, down to the mid-layers by the end of the day.

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After an hour and a pleasant walk up the well constructed path past the fairy pools i arrived at the bottom of the spur with the menacing gash of Waterpipe gully next to my route up(that hopefully is for another day).

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Views from the spur and looking down into Waterpipe gully

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After an hour i arrived at the top of the spur with splendid views of the ridge and the scary looking Bidean Druim nan Ramh straight ahead

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The summit of the Spur



Looking north and back towards the spur

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Looking over to Bruach na Frithe

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After a quick cup of tea and a phone call to my climber buddy, i was heading along the ridge with the intension of getting on to Bruach na Frithe.

skirting below Bidean where i had a close encounter with a rather large rock which decided it wanted to move after i lay my hand on it, it was up on to the ridge which was wet, slippy and frozen in places.
With the nerves a bit jolted after the moving rock i came across a rather large gash on the ridge which my friend forgot to mention, it was only a large step or a small jump but with the conditions underfoot the way they were if i was to slip here there would be no second chances, 2000 odd ft drop either side, it was time to bail out.

Retracing my steps and back towards i think the corrie of Tairneilear which looked the best option.

Some times the head has to rule over the heart, i know i will do this route again so it was the sensible choice to bail out at this point.

Looking down at my exit route and some more photos of around.

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Looking towards Blavin

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It was a fine day which i will repeat one day to complete it, but never the less the Spur is a fine route on it's own and as you can tell from the photos this is a serious scramble and not for the faint hearted but well worth a visit.
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ianaird
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Re: The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

Postby mountain coward » Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:52 am

Until your last line about it being a serious scramble, from some of the photos, I was wondering if it was do-able for the like of me. Some of your photos said yes, the others said not. So I'm glad you clarified it at the end with that statement! :D I was starting to get ideas! :lol:

Great post and photos though... :D
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Re: The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

Postby malky_c » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:29 am

When the rest of the country is covered in cloud, there's a good chance the Cuillin aren't :lol:

Enjoyed your report. Took me back to the time I did this route with some friends. Once on the main ridge we headed south, and the day culminated in two of us doing the In Pinn on a whim :D . If there's one way to avoid waking up in a cold sweat at the thought of doing the pinnacle, then that was it!

I've never done the section of ridge between the Bidein and Bruach na Frithe, but I know there's a couple of abseils involved (I'm guessing you got to the one at An Casteil). I was with a couple of other people who went to do the route once, but I decided to call it a day and descend (probably the same route you went back down). I could hear the arguments over route choice drifting down from the ridge for the next half hour or so :lol:
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Re: The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

Postby ianaird » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:12 pm

malky_c wrote:When the rest of the country is covered in cloud, there's a good chance the Cuillin aren't :lol:

Enjoyed your report. Took me back to the time I did this route with some friends. Once on the main ridge we headed south, and the day culminated in two of us doing the In Pinn on a whim :D . If there's one way to avoid waking up in a cold sweat at the thought of doing the pinnacle, then that was it!

I've never done the section of ridge between the Bidein and Bruach na Frithe, but I know there's a couple of abseils involved (I'm guessing you got to the one at An Casteil). I was with a couple of other people who went to do the route once, but I decided to call it a day and descend (probably the same route you went back down). I could hear the arguments over route choice drifting down from the ridge for the next half hour or so :lol:


Got on to An Casteil Kinley where you come across that horrible step, if i had crossed that then you start to decend and there is a small down climb or abseil, my mate thought i would of managed to down climb it but my worry was if it was to slippy or i did not have the nerve to down climb i would have to get back across that damn gap.
You can see it in this photo but it does not look so bad from below and zoomed in..(right hand side of photo)

20-11-10 444.JPG
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Re: The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

Postby malky_c » Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:33 pm

Ah, I think I recognise the bit you had problems with from other photos I've seen. If I'm correct, this is one of the ways of dealing with it (although you'll probably never catch me doing that)!
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Re: The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

Postby mountain coward » Wed Nov 24, 2010 9:09 am

malky_c wrote:Ah, I think I recognise the bit you had problems with from other photos I've seen. If I'm correct, this is one of the ways of dealing with it (although you'll probably never catch me doing that)!


:lol: That's an horrendous solution!
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Re: The Spur- Sgurr an Fheadain

Postby ianaird » Thu Nov 25, 2010 9:39 pm

malky_c wrote:Ah, I think I recognise the bit you had problems with from other photos I've seen. If I'm correct, this is one of the ways of dealing with it (although you'll probably never catch me doing that)!


that is it...did not fancy it on the day for some reason :shock: will have to do it at some point i suppose... :eh:
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