Bruach na Frithe North Ridge

Tue 24 May 2016
This was day three of our climbing club’s Glenbrittle Memorial Hut meet and I was starting to learn… Learn to climb better? no… learn to scramble better? nope… I was starting to learn that no-one was going to ask me to accompany them on anything being done by the various members of the club. Time to take a different tack…

Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh & Banachdich Tops – Gripping Stuff!

Thu 9 July 2015
This was the Cuillin round I’d been dreading ever since I’d decided to bag Munro Tops as it traverses the exceedingly narrow South Top of Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh – probably the narrowest section of ridge in Scotland! I wanted good weather for this – no rain and no wind – as we’d saved this for the Thursday, I was lucky and it was a calm and fine day, although cold and dull.

I’d woken a couple of times in the night with nerves – how would I find the knife-edged ridge? Would I be terrified on the sections where I would have to sit astride and shuffle my way along? Was I even supple enough nowadays to shuffle along a ridge with no footholds on the sides? How long was that section and would my nerve hold out? At last it was time for me to get up and meet my guide Andy at The Slig to find out – I was almost relieved to get out of bed…

Sgurr Sgumain to Thearlaich

Wed 8 July 2015
After meeting our new guide Andy the night before in the Sligachan Inn, it was decided we’d meet up there the next morning at 0900 to car-share to Glen Brittle. Richard duly dragged me out of bed with a coffee at 0815 after having to get up earlier to prepare flasks etc and I sat to eat my breakfast while checking my phone. The weather had been horrible all night – high winds and heavy rain – my spirits were lower than the prevailing cloudbase as I imagined sliding around on slippery, steep and narrow Cuillin peaks while being gusted around…

L-R Sgurrs Sgumain, Alasdair, Thearlaich (R Wood)

The Stupendous Basteir Gorge

On one of the days in August 2014 when I called off a walk with my guide into the Cuillin due to dreish weather in the morning (makes the rock lethally wet), I decided it was time Richard had a trip to the very spectacular Basteir Gorge. On my previous Am Basteir trip with the guide he was trying to get me to take photos of Gillean’s Pinnacle Ridge but I just couldn’t take my eyes off the gorge!

The Basteir Tooth

Fri 19 Sep 2014
On the basis of the continuing superb September weather and great forecast, I quickly rang my usual Skye Guide Jonah on the Tuesday night and, finding he was free for the rest of the week, hurriedly booked time off work and set off for Skye on Thursday afternoon. My objectives were to do two walks to try to bag some of the remaining Munro Tops I had left to do in the Cuillin – seven in all which would take three walks to do. I thought trying to do them all would be pushing both my nerve and my luck too far really as the Cuillin Munro Tops are a pretty ‘exciting’ bunch!

As I arrived at Kyle and the Skye Bridge, however, I became worried at the amount of low cloud and mist – it was so bad that, as I drove over the bridge, I couldn’t even see the sea below me! A familiar feeling of foreboding crept over me…

Loch Coruisk & a Visit to The Bad Step

Thu 7 Aug 2014
At last, Richard and I finally managed to get to Loch Coruisk for our long-promised walk around its shore – we didn’t get the weather we’d hoped for though, even though it was forecast for the day. I’d originally tried to book another guide to take me onto the Cuillin Ridge as my guide had left the island for the rest of the week and the weather was supposed to be superb. In the end, I was glad I hadn’t managed to hire one!

Skye Cuillin – A Summing Up

One of the questions Munroists ask regularly on forums and the like, is which Cuillin peaks are the easiest and hardest. When they are nervous mountaineers like me, this is accompanied by much studying of horrifying photos, reading of blog and forums posts and much trying to make sense of the maps etc.

Now all the Cuillin Munros are finally behind me, I’ve been thinking what my answers would now be to those worried questioners. Here is what I’ve decided…

Southern Cuillin (Richard’s photo)

Am Basteir – The Executioner!

Wed 28 August 2013

The day before we were to do Am Basteir, Richard wrecked his knee – it would just be me and Jonah the guide then… Despite the fact that I’d done the In Pinn without any difficulties on the Sunday, the weather was more dubious for this one and I wouldn’t be on the rope as much so I was again very nervous the night before.

The Inaccessible Pinnacle – Part 2

Part 1 of this report left you hanging above the scary Inaccessible Pinnacle (or In Pinn) just before I had to tackle it. I’d put my rock boots on and had a little rest – now the time had come to head down the steep slope to tackle my rock climb of around 150 feet up the steep, very narrow and exposed east ridge…

The Inaccessible Pinnacle

Sun 25 Aug 2013

The moment every non-scrambling, height-averse, cowardly Munroist dreads had arrived… I’d made contact with our Skye Guide, Jonah, we’d arrived on the island and The Inaccessible Pinnacle (fondly nicknamed ‘The In Pinn’) was scheduled for the next day. A very gloomy Mountain Coward hit the pub that night. I was saying I was going to ‘meet my doom’ to the hoteliers of our regular watering hole, the Sconser Lodge…