The saddle,forcan ridge and sgurr na sgine

[JB likes a beer]

Planned weekend in glen shiel ,with Alan s ,Alistair s,gammy leg walker and stretch. we had planned to rough it this time and stay in tents at glen shiel camp site,me alan s and alistair are doing the saddle and sgurr na sgine,stretch and glw where going to do the south glen shiel ridge,we drove up on friday night through crap weather me,alan s and glw met up with stretch at the commando memorial and we were meeting alistair s next morning at start of walk. glw jumped into stretch's hire car and followed me and alan s to the cluanie inn for a well deserved cold pint ,we then decided to head to camp site as the weather was dry,5mins later the rain started again we drove into campsite and found a small patch of grass that was left and it was waterlogged ,we all decided to drive back towards the cluanie and find a place to pitch a tent,as we couldnt find a bowling green to pitch or tents on we ended up back at the cluanie and decided to ask if they had any rooms , to our amazement they had a room with 4 single beds our luck was changing ,we emptied the jeep with what was far too much gear,including gas stove and a cool box with our bar in it ,after a few beers and a bottle of scotlands finest buckfast we all got to bed at 12.00pm ,i couldnt get to sleep was it the high caffiene count in the buckfast or was it the excitement of doing the forcan ridge with alan s no it was the SNORING from one of my room mates ,
Glw the human alarm clock was up and we soon started getting ready,stretch nearly electricuted himself making coffee in the room from a dodgy kettle,me and alan s didnt want to lose to much of our camping experience so decided to make our soup on the gas stove from the boot of the jeep ,Glw and stretch made a decision to come with us as the weather was to bad to do the ridge ,finally we all got going and met up with alistair s for the start of the walk.
We walked back towards the cluanie from the car park for a short distance and crossed the road and through a gate and headed up the very visible stalkers path to the col between biod an fhithich and meallan odhar,we all decided to push on and were soon at the start of the dry stone dyke at the foot of the forcan ridge,after fuelling up and alot of thinking me and alan s decided to climb up and do the forcan ridge and if things were bad turn back and catch up with the others bypassing the ridge , there was a short burst of sunshine and me and alan s went for it climbing up and along the ridge it soon clagged in and started to snow and hail stones were dropping there wasnt much to be afraid off until we came to a 10ft drop straight in front of us but we dropped to the right of it and pushed on to the summit really enjoyed this ridge and would do it again.
Glw,alistair and stretch had just been to the summit minutes before us and had dropped back off for some food, there is a path leading away from the summit to the west which we followed for a short time before realising it was the wrong way ,we cut across the snow covered top and found the scree,rocky path back towards bealach coire mhalagain.the others headed off towards sgurr na sgine ,while me and alan s put our fleeces on and had our soup,soon we were on the move again and met the others on top of sgurr na sgine ,the rain was now really heavy and the wind had picked up.
We all decided to head back to the car we quickly dropped off sgurr na sgine and headed up and over faochag ,what a drop off very steep but quick descent crossed over a bridge and across open field to road and back to the car a really enjoyable day with good company whatever the weather

view whilst making soup

start of walk

wh gang on the stalkers path

nearly at dry stone dyke

bypass route

route for me and alan s

summit

gang on faochag

view of descent from south glen shiel ridge that me and alan s done 13/6/09

[gammy leg walker]

Nice one jb,full credit to you and Alan for sticking with the ridge in that weather,that descent of Faochag was steep mate really done my gammy knee in,feeling it today

[Alastair S]

Nice one jb,full credit to you and Alan for sticking with the ridge in that weather

Ditto from me. If I hadn't had company I very much doubt I'd go on to Sgurr na Sgine. In fact when it was tipping it down 15 minutes before you turned up I wasn't fancying it at all

that descent of Faochag was steep mate really done my gammy knee in,feeling it today

I'm not surprised, that descent seemed to go on forever. Very happy to that footbridge however.

[kevsbald]

When walking off of Faochag, my mate and I thought it was so steep, we re-named it to 'copulating porcine'. Or words to that effect.

[JB likes a beer]

Nice one jb,full credit to you and Alan for sticking with the ridge in that weather,that descent of Faochag was steep mate really done my gammy knee in,feeling it today

credit goes to you mate for sticking with it ,my legs are sore today also struggling with the stairs

[JB likes a beer]

Nice one jb,full credit to you and Alan for sticking with the ridge in that weather

Ditto from me. If I hadn't had company I very much doubt I'd go on to Sgurr na Sgine. In fact when it was tipping it down 15 minutes before you turned up I wasn't fancying it at all

that descent of Faochag was steep mate really done my gammy knee in,feeling it today

I'm not surprised, that descent seemed to go on forever. Very happy to that footbridge however.

thanks for the company alistair was nice to meet you, that footbridge was a happy sight at the end didnt fancy a river crossing

[JB likes a beer]

When walking off of Faochag, my mate and I thought it was so steep, we re-named it to 'copulating porcine'. Or words to that effect.

, we all had a view words aswell kev mostly when will this fecking end

[Alan S]

Excellent stuff mate really glad we decided to do the ridge, got to go down as one of my favourites, i must tell gammy and stretch about it one day, i never got a chance at the weekend