After the fantastic blue-sky day on Monday, and the glimpses of sun through the mist on Tuesday, it was a bit disappointing to wake up on Wednesday morning to find the cloud was well and truly down on the hills this morning as I peered out of Glenbrittle Youth Hostel.
However, as agreed, I met up with Winky O'Neale (Cuillin Guide par excellence!) and her 2 clients for the day, Pam and Tony. The decision was to go for the 3 southern end Cuillin Munros, and hope for a better day tomorrow for Pam and Tony to do the In Pinn. That suited me well, as it would allow me to keep my Munro tally clocking up.
So, off we drove down the road, and parked at Glenbrittle Campsite at 9.20am. The first 10 minutes was dry, then we were into the cloud as we marched up the track into Coire Lagain. Soon we branched off the main path, to cross the coire to the foot of the Sgumain Stone Shoot. Steady upward progress on big wet boulders.
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| Tony, Winky and Pam on the Sgumain Stone Shoot |
Half way up we met a group of climbers looking for the route up to The Cioch, but they seemed to be unsure of the way, or whether they were capable of it. We were very glad we had a reliable guide! Soon we reached the col, and then quickly dropped down to Coir a' Ghrunnda, very spooky in the mist, with huge boulders looming up around the lochan. From here, the going was easier, up rough and broken ground, to reach the rocky summit of Sgurr nan Eag at 1pm. This must be one of the best viewpoints in Scotland, but I'll need to return another day to see it!
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| David, Pam and Tony - summit of Sgurr nan Eag |
There was a cold wind, but it was nicely sheltered below the cairn, so we rested for 30 minutes, eating lunch. Then tIme to move on again, initially retracing our steps, but keeping to the ridge as it descended northwards. An Caisteal loomed out of the mist ahead, and we skirted it below its eastern flanks, passing some incredibly contorted peridodite boulders en route. Returning to the ridge beyond An Caisteal, we scrambled up to reach the summit of Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn (a Munro top) at 14.40. Rather than stop here, we dropped down a little on the east side to a sheltered platform (below), where we left the rucsacs, and put on harnesses.
From here we scrambled down below dramatic pinnacles to the col on the ridge linking to Sgurr Dubh Mor, then scrambled up the other side (roped for security on the damp rocks) to the summit. Again, no view, so a quick about turn, and retraced our steps back to the rucsac howff. 40 minutes out to Sgurr Dubh Mor, and 25 minutes to return.
To avoid this, we took an easy path which led down below the T-D gap, and across the southern face of Alasdair to gain the bealach between Alasdair and Sgumain.
We traversed a short distance across to the foot of a greasy chimney (right), which was to be our route of ascent (the more direct ridge to the summit is blocked by a "bad step.")
We roped up for the climb up the chimney, which required a few tricky (for me!) moves, but at least it wasn't exposed.
The last shove up out of the top required some commitment. "Just go for it", said Winky, "I've got you on the rope!"
From the top of the chimney, steep broken ground led up to the summit of Sgurr Alasdair, the highest point on Skye, adorned with a line of Tibetan-style prayer flags! Now 17.10, but still no view, and a biting wind blowing the drizzle into our faces, so we didn't even stop on the tiny summit - each of us just touching it as we passed over, and down the east ridge to the top of the "great stone shoot" (below).
From the bealach, the "great stone shoot" drops more than 1000ft down to Coire Lagain below - the shortest and quickest descent route from Alasdair, but certainly not the pleasantest (especially on a claggy day like this).
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| descending the "great stone shoot" |
"Awful muddy gravel slide" might have been a more apt name for it. The consistency on this wet day was like ready-mix concrete, and we each descended independently under partial control!
We all breathed a huge sigh of relief once we reached solid ground again in Coire Lagain.
Fron Coire Lagain, we followed the good path back down towards the campsite, where we emerged into brilliant sunshine and a heatwave at 7.30pm!
Worth doing again on a clear day!
Summary:
3 Munros
1 Top
10 hours
Posts
That's a brave and interesting route - I was wondering what you'd do about the TD gap when I saw which peaks you'd done! Glad to see a photo of the chimney up to Alasdair as I've often wondered about that and, when I do Sgumain and Thearlaich, I might elect to go that way (with a guide and rope of course).
ReplyDeleteCarol.