The North Cuillins, Isle of Skye - 1st and 2nd June 2011

Pronunciation/Translation: Bruach na Frithe - brooach na freea (slope of the deer forest), Am Basteir - am bastar (meaning obscure), Sgurr nan Gillean - skoor nan geelyan (peak of the young men)

 

It was a special time of year again, Last year we spent most of Shona's "birthday week" up in the Cuillins of Skye. This year we had planned to visit Arran and do some climbing around the A'Chir Ridge. The only problem with going to Arran would be that we'd be depending on good weather, as taking the car on the ferry is costly to say the least.

Sadly the weather was not going to play ball. Winds were tearing down trees and the rain just didn't give up over the weekend. With Arran ruled out, we decided that regardless of the rain we'd take the road north to Skye again, with an overnight stop on the way in Glen Etive.

We camped at our usual spot beside the River Etive and Shona christened her new stove, cooking up a hearty meal of sausages and noodles. Also getting it's first use was her new Mountain Hardwear sleeping bag, which she reported later as having been suitably toasty.
Tuesday night was exceptionally wet, I don't think it stopped raining all night. When we peered out of the tent on Wednesday morning we were both shocked at the level of the river right next to where we had pitched. Raging torrents of water swept past us only 3 metres away.

We contemplated returning to Glasgow, but thought "what the heck" and continued onwards to Skye. First stop was at Portree. Shona was on the look out for a nice piece of antler she had seen last year in a shop window, unfortunately the shop in question appeared to have changed hands and was now selling outdoor clothing, oh err! Some obligatory fish and chips were purchased down by the harbour instead, and we drove back to the campsite by the Sligachan Hotel.

Not many tents were utilising the site. The warden told us that several had been taken out to sea the previous day by the gale force winds...  not very reassuring. It was a struggle to pitch, but once up, our tent seemed to cope admirably with the fierce southerly gusts. Just in case, we parked the car as close as possible to shelter it, then took refuge in the Hotel for some refreshments.

Another very windy night of camping was had. Aided by the soundtrack outside, I think at one point I dreamt I was camped on Everest's South Col. Fortunately the rain had decided to ease and by the time morning came the sun was doing it's best to peer through the clouds. We knew from our trip to Skye last year that on the Cuillins the weather conditions really do make much more of a difference. The day was brightening up fast and by the time we had packed up all our camping gear the three peaks of Sgurr nan Gillean, Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe were now in clear view, beckoning us to take a closer look.

We parked at the Sligachan Hotel car park and crossed the A863 onto a boggy track which took us towards the Alt Dearg Beag. The track follows the north side of the stream for a while before allowing an easy crossing over a well made wooden footbridge.
The track continues south to Coire Riabhach, but as we reached the protruding slopes of the ridge which walls up Coire a Bhasteir we moved southwest onto higher ground and started climbing up towards the Knight's Peak and Pinnacle Ridge.

The ascent from around 550m to 700m beneath Pinnacle Ridge was the toughest part of the route. Several steep gullies cut down from the jagged ridge above and every turn provides challenging terrain of scree, boulders and difficult gully crossings. There is a more defined path which connects the Coire a Bhasteir to the Bealach a Bhasteir, but we had chosen to climb up to the base of the Pinnacle Ridge further east, moving onto West Ridge just below Sgurr nan Gillean. 

Once upon the West Ridge it's a good idea to find somewhere comfortable to sit and await the summit traffic jams to clear. To summit Am Basteir it's best to let anyone already on the top to get back to the bealach as it's strictly a single track ascent. Much more challenging is the summit of Sgurr nan Gillean which many climbers prefer to do safely with ropes, harness and helmet. On the west side of the Am Basteir summit there is quite a few tricky down climbs to gain access to Bruach na Frithe. We decided to give these a miss as we had the dogs with us.

After enjoying a quick bite to eat back on the West Ridge we got ready to head back down into the Coire a Bhasteir, this time using the track. Two gents trudged past us on the ridge towards Sgurr nan Gillean, both had their gaiters on back to front, which was a bit worrying! The track quickly took us down to the base of the coire. We decided to skirt across the top of the Alt Dearg Beag to the east and retrace our steps in reverse from our earlier ascent.

We made it back to Sligachan in good time and dogs seemed pleased to curl up in the back seat of the car as we set off on our long journey southbound on the mainland.