Not a cloud in the Skye

Well the sun decided to stay shining and I had a good couple days rest so on Tuesday night I called my friend Josh whom I know from Chamonix to see if he fancied going for a climb. Josh is now back home in the Lakes and we have been trying to get out a climb together in Scotland but the weather has never allowed. So given the amazing forecast in Scotland we decided that we would meet in Glasgow on Tuesday night and ditch one of our cars then travel up together to the Isle of Skye and have a crack at the Cuillin Ridge Traverse on Wednesday.
I had already done the full traverse a couple of years back with my friend Gary and it was an awesome awesome route albeit extremely tough going but not really any hard climbing involved at all , just lots and lots of tricky and very exposed scrambling and down climbing with the odd abseil thrown in. Anyway I had always been super keen to go back and do it all over again and with the great forecast then now was the time to do it.
For anyone unfamiliar with the Cuillin Ridge it is one of the most classic ridge traverses in the world and without doubt the most famous and best in the UK. From beginning to end it stretches for 26km(11km of which involving moderate/difficult climbing and tricky route finding) and covers 11 Munro.The overall ascent is 3000m. Most tackle it over 2 days with a bivi on the route , some even spend time doing sections of the route over many weeks/months before just to know what they are letting themselves in for(a bit over the top if you ask me) Anyway its a long trip and prior knowledge is definitely helpful but not a must. Just make sure you have a good forecast , I could imagine it being very problematic with bad visibility , just wait for good weather , I know that can take some time but trust me its worth the wait.

We arrived in Glen Brittle campsite at 12am on Wednesday morning , sorted out what kit we were taking(2.5 litres water, harness , helmet and a wind shirt each plus 1 x 50 metre rope) we have both learnt the meaning of Alpine Lightweight. It was then bed at 1am. After a very short sleep next to the car we woke at 4am , got on a brew then set off at 4.30am.

Just about to set off 4.30am and its light

It all starts off with a long walk in to gain the ridge in about two and a half hours , we chose to skip the first Munro as that means gaining the ridge then walking to bag the summit then walking back the way you have come(waste of time) , 2 hours walking to get to the top of a peak , to both of us this seems pointless but I'm sure the purists out there will strongly disagree , we were there to traverse the fun way and were not fussed at all about ticking off outlying peaks. We were going to have a laugh and enjoy it. We gained the ridge just after the first peak and got stuck in. A little Diff scramble up to Sgurr Alasdair then some tricky down climbing and an abseil led us over to Collies Ledge then more awesome scrambling brought us to the Inaccessible Pinnacle(the Inn Pin) , now this little peak has a big reputation being the only Munro where you need to do a little climb to summit and then abseil off the back , most Munroists see this as a scary peak to bag and many hire guides for this alone. To be totally honest its super easy climbing on massive holds and its not that steep however it is very very exposed and narrow the closer to the top you get and anyone without a head for heights or any climbing experience would definitely require the use of a rope just for a bit of confidence. So we shot up the Inn Pin and abseiled off the back then continued along the ridge with very easy scrambling and loads of descent then more ascent. Its very hard to break down the route and describe it but it involves lots of quite tricky down climbing and some moderate to difficult climbing. Some sections you may get to an overhang that looks that it will require an abseil but if you just slow down and look around then most of the time there is a way to climb down , it may be tricky and a bit bold at times but there is usually a way down without using the rope. We done 4 abseils in total and 3 of them we had to , 1 of them was my mistake as I didn't look well enough below and we could have down climbed it. Not a big deal its just all about speed and if you don't want to waste time then keeping the rope away is the way to do it. We passed a fair few teams who were moving quite slow and all of them had spent the previous night on the ridge.

The Ridge - Most of it

Collies Ledge

Abseilling off the Inn Pin

The day was turning out to be a scorcher and once we had got to Am Basteir(2nd last peak) we were both pretty knackered. After Basteir its a climb up onto Sgurr nan Gillean then a brutal long descent all the way back down to the Sligachan pub. I wasn't fussed about bagging the last peak as I had already done it and to be quite honest the normal route off it is horrible so since Josh wasn't fussed about doing it either we bailed from Bastier to take the shorter and slightly quicker route down to the pub , it was still a  2 hour plod out in the sweltering heat with no water left. We got back down to the bottom and were at the pub by 4pm and were very excited about a nice cold pint. We ordered at the bar and I must say we were both horribly disappointed , it was awful , the beer was rotten and was not the end we expected.

The Inn Pin is the peak furthest away straight behind me , we started the day from the peaks on left 

Just heading to some of the trickier route finding up the peak ahead

It was now time to find a way back to collect my car from the start! Its 16 miles from the pub on a crap country road and takes ages , I was not really in the mood to run it although I did have my running shoes with me(a stroke of genius after remembering how brutal walking out was last time) so it was time to start hitching. Long story short , we eventually got to my car 3 hours and 3 hitches later at 7pm. For some reason we then decided it would be a good idea to drive to Glencoe.

Awkward slabs to descend

Brilliant easy climbing

More awesome fun climbing , no idea what part though

Apologies if anyone was hoping for a more detailed description on the ridge but to be honest it can be so complex in places it would just bore to fill you with all the details and to be totally honest lots of sections of it become a blurr , even though I had already done the ridge not that long ago this time at some sections of it I couldnt remember being there before. Some bits were clear in my memory some not so. To sum it all up , its an incredible route and definitely the best ridge route in the UK , climbing experience is a must (there a a couple of sections of V Diff/ Severe rock climbing , these can be passed but are worth doing if you have the energy) even though as I said before the climbing is not super difficult , you must be able to move fast and be very very comfortable soloing awkward moves and be very good with exposure and tricky down climbing. Josh summed it all up well by saying "you should be able to down climb anything your climbing up , if you cant do that then you have taken a wrong turn somewhere". If anyone would like any further info on the ridge then please get in touch and I would be happy to help out or even come do it again!

Happy feet - soooo glad I packed those shoes

Cooling off on the walk out

So we arrived in Glencoe around 10pm on Wednesday night after being on the go since 4am and with 3 hours sleep. It was time for a kip.
Waking up at 7am to glorious sunny weather in Glencoe is very rare so we couldn't just drive back home without doing something. I decided that since Josh drove all the way from the Lakes then I might as well take him up one of my favourite little climbs in Glencoe so after breakfast(tea and tesco triple choc cookies , amazing) we set off up North Buttress on the Buachaille at 10am and we were back at the car for 1pm. its a great little climb up the North Face of Stob Dearg otherwise known as the Buachaille , its not hard but its quite steep and a very direct route to the top and its never got anyone else on it!
We had a stop off for some food on way home at the stupidly expensive Green Welly Stop then I dropped Josh back with his car in Dumbarton and we both headed our separate ways after an awesome 2 days.

The brilliant North Buttress

Awesome view out to Rannoch moor

My new passport was awaiting me on arrival in Largs so I am now all booked up and ready to head back to Cham on Tuesday. So until then I am going to rest tomorrow as I am completely knackered and see whats in store for the weekend and at the moment the forecast is yet again looking great. Hmmmmm whats next.