The Inaccessible Pinnacle Skye - third time lucky 2010.
Round one.
In 2010 I was 50 and for my 50th birthday I had asked for a guide to climb the In Pinn (Inaccessible Pinnacle) on Skye. The person arranging it for me had found a guide in the back of Trail magazine but I did not like the terms and conditions they were imposing. i.e. it was £250 up front whether you got up or not. Don't think so!!
Anyway I had contacted my 2 climbing buddies to see if they were going to come to Skye too, yes they were in. I arranged to stay at the Sligachan Hotel, always wanted to stay there. Because it was March we were going, got a very good rate b&b and only £10 for a evening meal + extra for pudding and a fair bit of alcohol was consumed in the hotel bar too. As for a guide I had found Tony Hanlay of Skye mountain guides, £50 up front for a deposit - much better. As my 2 buddies are school teachers we had to go in the school holidays. Had the hotel and guide booked all we needed now was the weather.(fat chance) We were going for 3 days so that gave us a better chance of getting a good day. March 28-31st 2010 , watched the weather a lot in the days up till we left for Skye. Snow forecast later in the week. (Great). We set off on the 28th in Brian's car as he had the biggest boot for all the gear.
Graham, Me and Brian - 10am 28th of March 2010 eager for the climb.
I think this was the trip where we stopped in Tiso Inverness as there are toilets in there and Brian came away with "pity there's not a cafe in here" to which either Graham or myself replied." Look up". There is a cafe upstairs in Tiso Inverness, by the way its not run by Tiso and the waitresses can be a bit abrupt but its a handy pit stop with good bacon rolls.
Fed and relieved we took the north road by Loch Carron to Skye and arrived at the Sligachan Hotel around 3.30 in the afternoon, we got checked in and contacted Tony Hanley. He would meet us later in the hotel.
Sligachan hotel.
Nice night so we went out side to take a few pics. Then we tried out the hotel bar, really good. Tony came and met with us and said. "Due to the weather coming in we would have to go tomorrow the 29th". That was fine with us. Evening meal next on the agenda, good food here, then we spent the rest of the night in the hotel bar. The open fire gave it a nice atmosphere, if you could get the right seats.
Brian and Graham cosy in the bar by the fire in the right seats.
There is a long bar at the other end of the hotel which has 200 odd whiskies but it was not open at this time of year. The hotel has its own brewery with 4 or 5 different beers of which I think Brian and Graham tried them all over the course of the visit. Guiness for me and the occasional dark rum - tell a lie I did mix my drinks and had a ginger beer in between pints.
I went for a walk over the road and up Allt Dearg Beg for about 3 km just to take a few photos while the other two stayed in the bar. I think they were wondering where I got to by the time I returned.
After one or two + pints I retired to my single room and Brian and Graham had a twin room to share.
Fed again we went to meet Tony at the memorial hut in Glen Brittle. Tony had informed us that there would be one other person coming too. Met Tony and sorted out what kit we needed for the accent. The other person was a woman who had come up from England
Us at the start of the climb - notice the snow higher up on the mountains.
After the photo we set off up to the In Pinn it's a fair climb, steep in places and a bit of scrambling to do. Another guide, a friend of Tony's Jonah Jones came with us too, just for a walk I think as this was their first accent this year. The 6 of us set off, as it was an early in the year walk I was finding the pace or as Tony kept saying "A nice steady pace", taxing. We headed up from the Memorial hut on the path past the water fall that everyone's got a photo of.
On the south side of Alt Corie na Banachdich to the shoulder on the west side of Sgurr Dearg. This is where it gets steeper. As we climbed higher we got good views to the south of Rum and Egg.
Some scrambling to do about 1/2 way up through a small chimney for about 70 foot or so, after that it flattens out a good bit till you hit 900m ish and more scrambling. Photos of this bit will be in part 3. As we came up the flattish bit we could see Sgurr Alasdair had snow on the top and we had a few snow showers passing by us "hmm"!
Sgurr Alasdair
Now just as we got to the steep bit at 900m ish, a party of about 15 school kids appeared at the top of the steep bit making their way back down. They passed us after scrambling down and we carried on up the steep bit. As we ascended there was quite a big drop off to our right side into Corie Lagan.
We ended up on a ledge with a big drop off to our right as we climbed up and came to a stop at an even steeper section. I was first behind Tony and as I put my foot one step forward the word changed to Iced rock and extremely slippy. Graham seemed to want to turn back at this point. Tony called a halt till he went further up for a look see. When he came back down it was debate time - asking us what we wanted to do i.e. go on or go back. He had reckoned we would have had to abseil down to the base of the In Pinn as it would be very icy there. I seemed to be the spokesman at this point and said "We will go with your decision as you know what's up ahead". Tony mulled it over and decided we should head back down, much to Grahams relief I think. So we about faced and headed back down. We had reached 927m only 50m short in height of the In Pinn but a world away in these conditions. Everybody seemed to be in a cheery mood as we descended. Once we were back down the scrambly bit we stopped for a cuppa.
Graham and Jonah with the school kids in the back ground.
This photo might have been on the way up.
Fed and watered we made our way back down to the Memorial hut in Glen Brittle.
Now Jonah and his partner run a B&B with a bar and just so we could drown our sorrows he said "I'll open the bar if you want to come over". Guess where we went next? No you're wrong - Lol I am lying we went to the bar, most unusual for us???
Good little bar in the b&b had a few pints with Tony and Jonah and the woman but I still can't remember her name, Jane possibly well I'll just call her that for now.
We had squared up with Tony when we got to the cars in Glen Brittle and he said he would take us up again at no extra charge as he had called a halt to the climb mainly for safety reasons and brown trousers are very uncomfortable when your walking, lol.
First class chap. X army and so was Jonah.
Back to the hotel for a bath and a change of clothes. It had been quite cold up on the mountain with snow showers passing us by, so it was great to get into a hot bath for a soak. Met Brian and Graham in the bar and we went to the dining room for our evening meal. A few main courses to choose from but I settled on the beef steak pie made with highland cow meat. One of the best pies I have ever had delicious, I think Brian had Venison lasagne which he enjoyed greatly and I don't remember what Graham had I'm sure he will remind me but I remember he had the Venison Lasagne the next night and enjoyed it. You're right we only think about food, drink and hills or maybe it's hills, drink and food. It was about a tenner for a main course and well worth the money. Now where do you think we went from the dining room to - out fur a walk?
Don't think so, yep bar here we come. Spent the rest of the night in the bar mixing my Guinness with drinks of ginger beer to try and keep up with the other two.
A day left to fill in. The next morning I met the other two at breakfast and ordered the full monty again so the two vultures sitting opposite could fight over my sausages and they did. Now Jane, Janice or whatever her name was had arranged to come out for a run with us to fill in her day as she was staying on her own in some hostel somewhere near Jonahs place. So it was decided we would go and have a look at the Old Man of Storr up past Portree. Now the snow was lying on the hills down to about 400m ish this morning with snow showers passing by and it was quite windy. Anyhow we went up to the car park for the Old Man of Storr and kitted up in full winter gear. Brian, Graham and I set off up the path through the wood while Jane decided to remain in the car and text here buddies. When we reached the top of the wood and came into the open Graham decided he was not going any further, due to the sideways snow maybe.
Graham heading back down.
Now Brian and myself carried on up the path till The Old Man was in front of us. It was pretty wild by this point and the path headed south along and round. Well along this path is the only time I have felt my legs cold in my waterproof trousers, the 70mph wind and snow might have had something to do with it , as we battled head first into the wind and snow along the path.
The Old Man just visible on the right.
This is the south side and somewhere in front is a path up. Brian leading the way we got some odd bits of shelter as we made our way up to the Old Man.
Brain in front of the Old Man.
In this video its shaky because I am getting blown about all over the place.
Brian and myself made our way back to the car a wee bit cold from the snow storm.
Its a fair climb up from the car park to the Old Man.
What Brian and myself did not know was that just behind the old man there's a huge cliff face, but we couldn't see it from 50 foot away due to the snow storm. When we were on our way down it cleared and I got this great picture of the old man.
Well I like it, looks like something out of a Thunderbirds episode I think. I could just see Thunderbird 2 hovering over the top rescuing someone.
Back at the car and what to do now? Portree then for a squeery around and something to eat. Brian parked the car in the square and we all piled out. Now I had remembered this cafe down a lane and upstairs from a previous trip to Portree and I set off with the others following, The Corntral restaurant on Bayfield Road Edinburgh
Portree visited we took a run across the island to Cioch Outdoor Clothing, Struan where I nearly spent the money for the electric bill on a new jacket. Great stuff not cheap though over £200 for a jacket, made of the same stuff as Paramo. Decided to leave before breaking the bank. Back to the Sligachan Hotel around lunch time.
Jane left on her way to wherever she was heading.
Brian and I decided to go and check out the route to Blabheinn while Graham remained at the hotel. Snow was still sitting on the hills around 400m ish as we headed to find Blabhein to fill in the afternoon.
If you want to see more photos from our trip go here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dino60/sets/72157623623376885/with/4479982866/
The snow storms were raging across the top of Blabheinn when we got there but it did clear later. Route found, we found yet another cafe called The Blue Shed cafe and of course we had to give it a go, still on holiday so had an excuse. Damn fine cakes and a cup o tea.
Fed yet again we headed back to the hotel for our last evening there. When we had been away there had been a power cut and after that my tv did not work, ah well just have to go to the bar. On return we found Graham in the bar by the fire with a pint and reading a book. Last evening meal tonight so I think we had pudding too. A few pints in the bar and a dark rum and I retired to bed. Woke up around 5am to find snow on the ground outside the hotel and still no tv. 3 hours is a long time to fill in till breakfast with no tv to watch or book to read.
Now we had the 240 mile drive home today and the forecast was not good. Killed the time till breakfast time with a bath and then packed my bags. The other 2 were down before me when I came down and we went in for our last breakfast and yep the vultures were at me sausages again.
We paid our bills and packed up the car. Brian driving we had a bit of a debate about which route to take after we were off Skye. The route up by Loch Caron has some steep hills on it so we opted for Glen Sheil still with a big hill to climb up to the Clunie Inn. We had a stop off at Eilen Donan castle for a few pics.
Eilen Donan Castle.
As we climbed up through Glen Sheil the road got worse with snow. Brian keeping the speed down as he made his way along Glen Sheil.
The view I had from the back seat in Glen Sheil.
We got to Inverness where there was no snow and into Tiso's for, yep more food. Did seem to eat a lot on this trip. Graham was checking roads closed on his Iphone and I got reports from home of roads closed.
A96 closed from Fochabers to Huntly and Huntly to Lumsden blocked by fallen trees also Portsoy to Huntly blocked and that would be the 3 roads we could have take home. Lol.
We got to Fochabers where the police had a car across the A96 stopping anyone getting onto it - Portsoy road then. Graham's wife and kids were at Portsoy staying so we called in past for a visit and a rest for Brian.
After a break at Portsoy took the road to Huntly now open but with a lot of snow still on it.
On reaching huntly we took the Lumsden road.
I'll let the next few pictures tell you how bad that was.
We made it home, a 4 to 5 hour journey had taken over 7 hours this time and I think Brian was quite tired when we got home with all the driving that day.
End of round one.
Round 2 and 3 to come for my 2,1/2 fans. Ok ist 3 lol.Dino 60
Tip top. How did I forget about all that snow!!
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