Cuillins with Winky (part 1)

There comes a time in every would-be Munroist's life when the challenge of the Inaccessible Pinnacle must be faced!  I had stood at the base of its west face back in 2003, and knew then that I would need some experienced assistance to get up there (and back down) in one piece.  And so it was that Iain and I hired the services of Winky O'Neale for a week in late May 2005.

Day 1:  Sunday 29th May


Sgurr a'Mhadaidh, 
Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh and 
Sgurr na Banachdich


We met up with Winky in the pub at Carbost on Saturday evening, to get to know each other, and to make plans for the next day.  "Meet at Glenbrittle Youth Hostel at 9.30am".  That suited us fine, as we would be staying there on Sunday evening.  


Wandering back to our B&B, we hoped the sign on the Free Church was not an omen!  At least, not in the sense implied by the sign!


So, next morning, off down to Glen Brittle to meet up with Winky and her friend, Donna, who was to be climbing with us.


The plan was to complete a round of 3 Munros: Sgurr a' Mhadaidh, Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh and Sgurr na Banachdich. This would involve some scrambling, but nothing too extreme, so was obviously a god choice for Winky to check out our capabilities.

The cloud was low, but with only occasional light showers as we trudged for 2 hours up the path into Coire an Dorus.   Form the coire, we struck up a steep scree covered rocky cleft on our left towards the lowest point on the Sgurr Thuilm - Sgurr a'Mhadaidh ridge.  


Now it was time for climbing gear before a further steep scramble on greasy rocks took us up to the summit (12.30).

I don't remember much detail of the next couple of hours as we scrambled, roped up for security,  along the main ridge south from Sgurr a' Mhadaidh, except the continual need to concentrate on hand and foot, with abysmal drops to left and right, hidden in the mist.  Great fun, though!  


Tricky descents into the two notches of An Dorus ("the door") and Eag Dubh ("black notch"), then back up the other side.

We continued on, engrossed, over Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh, then its south top, then top Sgurr Thormaid and eventually to the top of the 3rd Munro, Sgurr na Banachdich (3pm).  


All the time, there were only occasional glimpses of the valleys below - like this view down into Loch Coruisk from a point on the ridge near Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh.

From Banachdich (left), we descended easily down rough screes back to Glen Brittle.  


"Tomorrow?"  


We had passed the first test, and the weather forecast looked reasonable - so a round of Coire Lagan was proposed:  Sgurr Alasdair, Sgurr Mhic Choinnich and the dreaded Inn Pin!


"Would we have a chance for a practice abseil before the Inn Pin?"  "We'll see" was the enigmatic reply!


(written 23/01/10)

Braemar weekend - May 2005

The 2005 season got off to a start with a camping weekend at Braemar (right).  It's one of our favourite campsites, but they now don't allow tents over 2 x 4m, so we won't be able to go there with our new tent.  Shame!


I had tweeked my back earlier in the week, so was hoping that it would recover enough to get some decent walks.  I drove, but could hardly move when we stopped for a coffee en route.  It felt slightly better when we had the tent up, so decided to give it some exercise ...

The warm up was an evening walk up to Morrone (left).  Nice walk, with good views, but the summit is an industrial wasteland!  We sat with our backs to the radio mast and buildings, and admired the view out to the west!


Next day was Sunday - back still pretty stiff - so went to church and had a couple of short walks down by the river, then up at the Linn o' Dee.   It rained heavily in the afternoon, so we were happy to lie low!

Monday looked better, so we headed off up to the Linn o' Dee car park.  We cycled up Glen Lui to Derry Lodge and dumped the bikes behind the bothy, then set off on foot up the lovely path into Glen Derry (right).  Plenty of mist still hanging around the hill tops, but it looked to be lifting, so we strode ahead optimistically, and reached the Lairig an Laoigh (750m) after a couple of hours.  A shower of rain tried to damp our spirits, but it soon eased off, as we struck up the hillside to the right.   

An easy ascent soon brought us to the first Munro summit, Beinn a' Chaorainn.  On the way up, we met an ex-colleague from back in Craigroyston days.  The weather was improving steadily, so after a stop for lunch, we strolled down and back up to the next top, Beinn a' Chaorainn Beag.  Our reward was a fine rainbow (left).


From there, the onward route was south across the wide plateau of the Moine Bhealadh to reach Beinn Bhreac, the next Munro.

This was lovely easy walking mostly on springy short heather.  Reached the top at 5pm, and out came some fine evening sunshine, so we lay down and sunbathed for a while, before descending over the west top and down a gentle ridge back to Glen Derry.  


view from Beinn Bhreac towards Beinn a' Chaorainn across the Moine Bhealadh (right)










Admired the beautiful evening light on the pine forests, and reached Derry Lodge at 7.30pm.  


Trundled gently down the track on our bikes, glad to rest our feet,  and back to the car at 8pm.

Next day was time to go home, but - just to prove the back was completely sorted - I did a quick jaunt up and down The Cairnwell.  


30 minutes up, and 10 minutes down, louping through the heather!  Great fun!


Carn Aosda from The Cairnwell (right)