Sgurr nan Gillian Skye

Pinn done - what next to finish the day off?

A trip to Neist Point, where there's a B&B for the fit on the westerly most point of Skye. It's a bit of a hike up to Neish Point lighthouse, it's about 1/2 a mile + from where you park the car.

Down hill to start with but the way back ups a steep path.  We had a walk down to the light house which is a B&B and also self catering, the only thing is you have to lug all your gear down to it. Just for fun I bagged the mini Munro as I called it 1/2 way down, felt the legs after the In Pinn climb in the morning.

                                               Druin nan Sgarbh 163m

It felt more like 900m to climb up. As it was early evening my wee pals were waiting to ambush me on the path back up to the car. I was out of breath but I didn't stop on the hill pulling myself along on the iron handrail so I could get away from the damn midge.

           The path back to the car parked on top of the cliff top with midge land in-between.

Went back to the Sligachan Hotel for a meal in the Long Bar and my pint of Guinness of course. Had a wee bit of a celebration on finally getting on the In Pinn. Fed and watered retired to my trusty tent with the let down lilo.  Now I have a mummy sleeping bag and I always sleep with it upside down so to speak. The hood part above my head facing down so it covers my head rather than below my head. This proved to be a good idea that night as it was a clear starry night and the temperature in the tent dropped to a few degrees. I was cosy in my sleeping bag but could feel the cold on my face through the night. Slept not too badly only wakening a few times through the night. The campsite was quite busy and people were milling about till well after dark. The plan was to go home in the morning but I woke up to this sight at 6am.

                                        Sgurr nan Gillian, Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe.

They were all basking in the early morning sun, Hmm go home now? don't be daft 3 more Skye Munro's dead ahead. Plan B, packed the rucksack with rope, harness and hard hat but ditched the waterproofs and spare gear to lighten the load and hoped it didn't rain. Big boots on today with stronger heels after yesterday. Left the campsite just after 7am and walked past the hotel, crossed the road for the path to Allt Dearg Beag it's  boggy at first till you get to the first bridge across Allt Dearg Mor.

                                              First bridge to cross.

Someone has built a really good bridge here for walkers to use and the good news is there's no Trolls under it.

  After you're across this bridge it's just short of 2km to the junction of the paths. Left to  Sgurr nan Gillean and straight on to Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe. Quite a good path along here and a few nice pools in the burn you could soak your feet in. I was heading for Sgurr nan Gillean so I took the left turn  heading in to Coire Riabhach and another bridge to cross. Pirate style - walk the plank.

Guess what direction the path goes after this,  Yep starts heading upwards getting steeper and steeper as you ascend. A touch of cloud begining to form on the tops ahead,  I was hoping it would stay clear.

The left hand peak was my target and the path goes up the left hand side and then turns right up the ridge as you look at it in the photo.

You can just see the path heading off to the left of the shoulder with the mist starting to form.

As you get to the shoulder it starts to get steeper but still quite grassy and a bit of bog.

Once you're over the shoulder hang a right or west if you can't see where your going and in front of you will be this sleeping monster.

                                                Sgurr nan Gillean.

It doesn't look too bad from here but as you will see from the next photo it's great fun to climb. There is a path going so far up but it gets rocky and it's hard to find after a while.

The path near the bottom

Ahead lies a stepmaster 10,000 of a path. 2 steps forward but with 2 to 3 back in some bits. Had to get off and on to the bigger rocks at the side to make some progress in parts and it's very steep.

Step Master 10000.

That's the view looking back down - up is even better!

Rock on.

By the time I got to here the cloud was coming and going on the hills behind me Marsco and Blabheinn

Oh, ok I took this down the hill a bit.

By good luck the tops ahead were still clear of cloud. I had a wee bit of scrambling to come, funnily enough I did not get up here all that quickly as it was hard work climbing up through the rocks. As you get near the top it just keeps getting steeper and steeper with loose rock under foot.

Spot the path? It's sort of straight up the middle. Checked the map a few times to see if I was on the right path. Pretty sure they must have filmed a episode of Dr Who here as I am sure I've seen this place before. The cloud started to come down as I reached the base of the last and steepest part

I had taken a right turn near the top after seeing a trail of small cairns which I assumed would lead to the top. Later on that year I read an article in Trail magazine, saying whatever you do don't follow the cairns, hmm a bit late by then. Lol.

You can go left onto the ridge from Sgurr Beag and back along that way, the article had a bit about it but I'm sure there was scrambling that way too.

Sgurr Beag in the mist. You can see the ridge along.

Kept climbing up and it got a bit hairy towards the top and not being able to see what was down the way didn't help either, came to a very narrow ledge with loose stones and then a chimney to the top.

The top is up the V in the middle okay going up but I was not looking forward to coming back this way. I scrambled up the chimney which was not too bad although near vertical in places. Going up through here it felt like being back on the Pinn but with no rope and no guide.

There's a tricky bit just over the top of here with a bit of leaping to get across, right at the top and along to the top. It's a very narrow ridge with a big drop either side. Could not see the drop due to the cloud I was in, not far to the cairn after you make a right.

                                    Me at the top with a fantastic view of the Cuillin - not!  

                  With the mist down I pondered whether to go on to Am Basteir or not.

The route ahead in the photo below.

With not being able to see where I was going and only having a limited knowledge of what lay ahead. I knew there was an abseil down to An Basteir but could not see past the window ahead. Will I, won't I? time. The map is not much help here as to what's up ahead on the ridge. So I decided to go back the way I had come. I'll be back another day. Another advantage was my gps was on all the way up so had the snail trail on it to find my way back down in the mist.

 Photos taken I got my harness on as I intended to abseil the 30 foot chimney on the way down instead of scrambling all the way down. Had to climb down the first part of the chimney to where there was a big rock sticking out. Kicked the s*** out of it a few time to see if it would stay put - bonus it was rock solid. Got a sling out and fed it over the rock while doing a balancing act in the chimney. Took a few goes to get it round but I succeded in the end.  Got the rope out and fed it through the sling 50/50 and through the rope down the chimney it was attached to the sling by the way. For all you that thought I just chucked my rope away. Got the rope into the descender and clipped it into my harness. I use a prusik  loop as well down my left side as that's my best hand. It a bit of a faff  but makes a good hand brake as you abseil. This is the way I was taught to abseil and the person who taught me Alan Crichton in Aberdeen had his life saved by his prusik loop when he was abseiling abroad down a huge mountain, in a hurry didn't clip into the harness in the right place. Clipping into the nylon rings instead of the clipping loop, this only carries a few kg before braking.

Pretty sure he had a brown trouser moment when that happened, grade 5. But with the prusik loop being wound round the rope and clipped round the side of the harness he lived to tell me the tale. It also lets you let go of the rope if you want to take pictures or something.

                   Me using a prusik loop to abseil at Black Rock Gulch at Cove, Aberdeen.

Wandered off the main tale there, so back to the chimney. Got myself lowered down below the sling and abseiled down the chimney to the ledge at the bottom about 30 feet down. Didn't take long, I love abseiling in the wild so to speak.

                                                         I went that a way.

 I tried to get my brand new sling to flick off the rock with the rope but I'd made a good job of putting it round it and it's still there unless someone else retrieved it. Good job they're are a lot cheaper now only about £5. Recovered the rope by magic and packed everything into my rucksack, not light with rope, sling and harness plus food and water in it. Set off down the rocks. I could hear voices in the distance as I descended in the mist following the little cairns back down and when I came out of the mist I could see a few chaps along on the ridge at Sgurr Beag end. They seemed to be waiting to see if the mist would lift - could have had a long wait.  As I got further down  I came on a long curving cliff edge which did not look familiar and no obvious way down.

Trusty gps time, checked the snail trail I had gone too far down this bit so headed back up for the narrow gap I had come up through. It was a nice day when I got back down beside the burn and  along to the plank bridge, made my way back to the hotel for a pint of course.

 Did  n't enjoy that pint for some reason and I still don't like the Long Bar. Then we set off for home, took the north road up by Loch Carron as we had come via Glen Sheil this time. Got to the single track road after Strath Carron and you would have thought a football stadium had just come out the amount of cars we met. A few were not taking any prisoners either. We had to dive into the passing places to get out of their road a few times and as usual when we got to Auchnasheen and the double road not a soul to be seen! It always happens on that road. On to Inverness and headed down to Aviemore for the chip shop. You could get a burger and chips there for under £5 at that time don't know what it is now - Happy Haggis in Kingussie is a bit cheaper usually.

 Headed over the Lecht and home about 5 hours after leaving the Sligachan Hotel, with 2 more Skye Munro's bagged.

There seems to be more than my 2, 1/2 fans reading this rubbish 3, 1/2 even now so I'll just keep writing more rubbish for your torture.

Next time on rubbish writing Beinn Sgritheall, the lonely Munro.  

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Dino60