We had been building up to our first Cuillin adventure for a long time having only previously visitted Skye at the very start of our Munro journey nearly 30 years ago when our B and B hosts put the fear of God into us telling us we should not on any account even think about venturing into the mountains!!!
March didn't seem the best time for a first ascent, but we had flights booked to Inverness and 3 nights at the Cluanie Inn and after much ummming and arrrring we decided nothing could be lost by booking a guide for a day on Skye. Our first port of call basically told us the same thing as our B and B host from 30 years ago but the wonderful Duncan Francis agreed to take us on and we met up Friday evening to discuss plans for the day.
I say "discuss plans for the day" but given we had zero experience in the Cuillins this basically amounted to Duncan telling us
1- we would be going for Sgùrr a' Mhadaidh, and Sgùrr a' Ghreadaidh
2 - the weather forecast was pretty awfull; and
3 - most worryingly of all, he had harnesses and helmets for us both! What was this all about - we were expecting a gentle stroll in the hills!!!
Anyway, Saturday morning dawned and with it a 0630 departure from Cluanie with a great "packed breakfast" from the Inn, and serious fear in our hearts! We reached the Glen Brittle Lodge at 0800 where we met up with Duncan, together with a whole load of other serious mountaineers in the Lodge all of whom had about a million times more experience than us!
Duncan though was pretty sanguine, axes were discarded as being surplus to requirements but crampons were packed, along with the previously mentioned helmets and harnesses (eek!).
The walk in was pretty chilled, a lovely gentle stroll up the valley, no sign of blue skies, but no sign of any precipitation either. That all changed when Dubcan announced it was time to put on harnesses at which point it strted to gently hail on us! After half an hour or so of steep but pretty comfortable climbing Duncan told us to rope up (actually he roped us up because we had no idea!) and told us we were going up what appeared to be a vertical cilff not dissimilar to the Hillary Step! Nonetheless, a "tight rope" (aka bulk hauling) got us up and after another 45 minutes of frankly terrifying walking / scrambiling / climbing / hauling through what was now pretty much a blizzard we got to the top of Sgùrr a' Mhadaidh - our first Cuillin Munro !
Backtracking through the snow, we got lowered down to the bealach, then, relatively easily ascended to Sgùrr a' Ghreadaidh
Return to the valley was then relatively straightforward and miraculously, after descending from the ridge the snow stopped, the skies cleaered and we walked back to the valley in the sunshine admiring the views.
All in all a marvelous day, thnaks so much to Duncan for getting us up and keeping us safe, Can't wait to come back again for our next Munro (Maybe In Pinn?) when hopefully weather will be better!