Summer seemed to roar in out of nowhere last week - coinciding nicely with my 3 day trip to Scotland with Dafydd. He wanted to climb the Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Skye ridge and left it with me to decide the rest. We arrived in Glenbrittle on Saturday evening - to less than brilliant weather but the following day we awoke to dry weather and the whole ridge was clear. We set off for the steep west ridge of Sgurr Dearg. A good path led us to the foot and then some nice scrambling saw us on the main ridge with the day's objective ahead of us - The In Pin! We quickly geared up and made short work of the Moderate climb up the east ridge. We abseiled off and set off along the ridge towards Sgurr Na Banachdich, a great part of the ridge with some exposed but straight forward scrambling. We headed back down to Glenbrittle via the screes of Coir' an Eich. A fine start to the trip.
Skye's highest point, Sgurr Alasdair was the objective for day 2 - via the curious prow of rock 'the Cioch', of Highlander sword fight fame. We scrambled to the base of the impressive Cioch slab before climbing Cioch Corner (a Difficult grade climb). After a brief dual on the Cioch we traversed into Eastern Gully and scrambled to the summit of Sgurr Sgumain. The ridge from here to Sgurr Alasdair involves some pretty serious terrain and the 'Bad Step' - never that difficult but careful route finding is needed. The weather was fantastic and the view across Coire Ghrunnda to the south end of the ridge and out to sea was stunning. We descended into Coire Lagan via the Great Stone Shoot.
Our last day of the Highland tour we climbed the classic Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor. Another stunning day.
