The Inaccessible Pinnacle round 2
Here we go again to Skye for another go at the In Pinn June 26th and 27th 2010.
This would be on a budget trip unlike our first foray to Skye earlier in the year. Camping at Sligachan hotel campsite this time. The 3 of us off again - myself, Brian and Graham. If I remember right we left in the afternoon so we would get to Skye in the evening or around 6-7pm ish. Usual pit stop in Tiso Inverness, yes eating again. Then over by Achnasheen stopping at the train station as the loos are always open. Handy tip to remember, and then on to Loch Carron and Skye. As normal when you get to the 7 miles of single track road heaps of cars coming towards you. Got to the campsite and put up our tents. I had my trusty old 2 man tent and Graham was sharing a tent with Brian.
My little trusty tent in the foreground (now retired) and Brian's tent behind.
Got the tents up and headed over to the hotel long bar which was open at this time of year. Got a table and ordered food more or less the same menu as the last time but did not taste so good to me in this big open bar as it had in the hotel dining room. Still good though and about the same price. To tell you the truth I much preferred the hotel bar, there was no atmosphere in the long bar. The bar was quite busy when we went in and over against the bar were Tony and Jonah the mountain guides. I had contacted Tony earlier in the week about going up the In Pinn but as usual it would be all about the weather. I had said to Tony we would come up anyway and hope for the best.
The forecast was not good, high wind and rain coming in from the southwest.(Darn) not the word I wanted to use but we will keep it clean for now. We went over to see Tony and Jonah who seemed to be in a merry state - must have been celebrating something. The In Pinn would be out due to the high winds. I had said to Tony " Yes it's going to be a tad windy ". Which the reply was "A tad!!!" repeated a few times. I think his merry state had exaggerate his reply. I suggested Sgurr Alistair to which he replied " No don't go there in the high winds". I then suggested Blabheinn to him. That would be ok in the wind. We then received some directions from him as to the route. "When you get up to Corie Uaigneich look for a rock the size of a ****** house and take a right". This is good information as Blabheinn has 2 tops and to get from the south top to the north is interesting - brown trouser factor 4-6 ish. The north top is the Munro summit.
We left the bar around 9.30pm and went back to the tents and the warden appeared to get his £5 each for the campsite and as usual in Skye the damn midge were on the go. A fashion show of midge nets around the camp site.
Graham and myself in our colourful midge nets.
The toilet block has the lights on all night so that just attracts the little sods. Play dodge the midge when you have to go. I decided to go into my tent and read for a while and the bold heros decided to go back to the pub, told me they were going for a walk. Graham and Brian that is. Found out the next day they got chucked out in the end so the pub could close not sure what time that was. I was wakened through the night by loud snoring from a tent near me and I don't have a clue who it could have been (much).???? lol
Saumes Bar.
Got up early 5.30ish and headed to the shower block and my little pals were there waiting to ambush me when I ventured in. When you're tied to the throne the little b's seem to know it and have a go, better in the shower as they get washed away there.
Went for a shave and had to wash down the sink to clean the dead midges off first.
The black dots are midges.
The three S's done left the toilet block and headed back to the tents. Movement from my two buddies. Got the stove out and Brian got his stove out to cook bacon butties and fill the flasks, around 6 am now.
Chef me cooking up the bacon for breakfast.
The other two seemed a bit rough this morning that's when I found out they had been in the bar till close. A few pints then you could say.
Breakfast and ablutions taken care of we packed up the tents and set off for Blabheinn.
When we got to the car park it's a bit of a rough road so Graham and I jumped out to lighten the load as Brian drove in and parked.
Got kitted up in boots and so on and headed for the path.
It's a not too bad path alongside Allt na Dunaiche for about 2km, not that steep along here. We took turns walking in front and seemed to rattle along.
Graham and Brian on the Blabheinn path.
After 2 km you get to the steeper bit and get views of things to come.
Time to change down a gear as the path gets steeper. The path crosses Allt na Dunaiche and heads up in to Coire Uaigneich. It more or less follows the burn up crossing it as you go up. As we climbed we kept debating at each really big rock if this was the ******* big rock Tony was on about with quite a bit of laughter as well. After about 600m of up it levels out in to Coire Uaigneich just to soften you up for the next bit. And this is where the ******* big rock the size of house is to be found. More like the size of a woman who lived in a shoe house. The path goes straight past the big rock but that will take you to the south top and enjoy getting back to the north top from there. Turn right or north just before the big rock and there is a faint path heading up and it's a very steep up. When is ever anything else on Skye, lol.
Stopped just up a bit from the rock for elevenses. Yes, more food.
The mist was down onto the tops now but still clear where we were at about 420m.
Find a low range gear from here up 500m accent in just over 1km of walking / scrambling.
Graham making his way up the sort of path to Blabheinn north summit.
It gets steeper than this. Brian leading the way up through the rocks as we climbed.
Brian up ahead.
Graham and myself acknowledging Brian's wise crack about something.
Into the gloom as we climbed higher getting colder. Graham on to Iphone checking route of a hill website as it kind of disappears as you go up.
We came across a huge gully to one side and of course the bold Brian had to investigate.
Ok that's just 1/2 of it.
The other 1/2 of the picture.
Don't go down there. I think that's a one way trip down!
After passing this it's scrambling time up through a gully, not far to the top now and as we approached the top Brian and Graham stop short so as to let me get there first as I thought this was Munro 100 for me. Ok who can't count? Discovered later it was 103 oops. Forgot about the 2 in Glen Fishie. Ah well!!. So take no notice of the 100 sing on the photo.
Me at the top with a small drop behind in the mist - no I'm telling fibs it's huge. No glasses due to weather high winds and very wet mist rattling by. Took them off so I could see where I was going.
Text time on Blabheinn, and Graham remember to text wife!! As he nearly forgot.
Blabheinn summit cairn, what a view on a clear day. LOL.
Photos taken we headed back down the way we came. We had thought about going to the south cairn but decided against it as we could only see a short distance. Turned out to be a smart move. Just down from the cairn the path splits left and right and as we started down the right path with sod all visibility, debate time. I was for going back up a bit and down the left path as that's the one we came up and we did not know what was down this path. The other two seemed to agree and we about turned and went down the left path with scrambling just ahead. Go down through that not too bad and out into the clear, found the proper path down pretty steep and eroded on the way back to the corie. Stopped for a break. Met a few people heading up when we got to the corie.
Back into better weather down here.
Coire Uaigneich
As we got near the car we met a young woman from the John Muir trust who look after this area. She tried to get us to join the trust but it's a bit far from home to Skye, over 200 miles each way. Got changed into car gear and Brian drove out of the car park and we jumped in. We had a really good walk up Blabheinn, its a hill I think we would all like to climb again on a good day. You never know.
Drove round to the other side of the loch near the cafe and stopped for one last look.
Look the damn mist has lifted off the top, typical!
Homeward bound now Brian driving - no snow this time. Stopped at Eilean Donan castle again. Graham got his smoke break.
For a change it was decided that we would go home via Spean Bridge Inverness . Followed A87 till we got to the short cut to Invergarrie and turned off stopping at the view point at Loch Garry, for a short break.
Looking over Loch Garrie.
We joined the A82 at Invergarrie and headed south for Spean Bridge Spean Bridge Spean Bridge Inverness , Mike Graham's brother had said there was a back road to the A9 at Fort Augustus
Not a good road, single track most of the way across to the A9 at Daviot. Every time Brian caught up to a car he would encouraged them to get out of his way and for some peculiar reason they pulled into the side every time. You can work out yourselves how he achieved this. Lets just say he would be filling your rear view mirror. We don't now how this happed but it did. After what seemed like a long time on this road B851 we reached the A9 at Daviot phew!! Graham could relax his braking leg a bit on the A9 for a wee while. Aviemore next stop for chips. I know all we seem to do is eat, lol. Good chip shop in Aviemore with a few tables outside. We got our chips and sat outside to eat them, chips are always roasting hot here. One more very important stop after this on the way home. The Boat Inn, Boat Of Garten. This is where we always stop for a pint if we are coming home this way. Brian has a picture on Flicker with him sitting in a seat in the bar for every visit.
The three heros at the Boat Inn.
It may have been this visit we discovered there was a big car park on a higher level as parking is all ways limited here. Unfortunately you have to come down a set of steps which can be a tad painful after you have bagged a Munro and sat in the back of a car for 3 hours. Liquid refreshment had, we set off for the drive over the Lecht and home just over an hour later. We all enjoyed this trip to Skye and the elusive IN PINN.
End of torture for now for my 2 1/2 fans.
Round 3, the prize - to come when I can be bothered.
Probably won't be that long now it's dark at around 7.00pm .
Dino60
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