The Cuillin Ridge at its best

I’ve had three great days on the Cuillin Ridge, two of which I was working for Mike of Skye Guides. Last Wednesday I continued my homework of the Ridge by running Gars-bheinn to the An Stac before descending the scree’s. It was roasting hot with barely a breath of wind meaning it was pretty tough going in the bright sunshine. I didn’t do too bad on timing arriving back at the van after 6 hours of running, maybe if I get a slightly quicker descent off Sgurr Thealach I may get some time back when I finally man up and try and run the complete ridge.

Thursday I was joined by Duncan, an Aberdonian farmer who is well used to a hard days graft. Like many before him however, he soon became aware of the effort required to summit multi Munro’s over a day! We managed the Southern three Sgurr nan Eag, Sgurr Dubh Mor and Sgurr Alasdair before the run down the Great Stone Shoot into Coire Lagan. It was another blistering day in the sunshine with very little wind, we even utilised the spring underneath Sgurr Alasdair to fill up our bottles before making the final ascent of the day. Duncan and I got on very well, it was a great laugh and very rewarding to see him tick three more of his ‘Munro list’.

Duncan atop Sgurr nan Eag

And descending the Great Stone Shoot

Yesterday Mike and I took a group of seven up the In Pinn followed by a traverse of Sgur Mhic Coinnich. The day was arranged to mark John’s 60th birthday and retirement so it was a really cool seeing all the family members ascending the Pinn before continuing with part of the Coire Lagan round before taking a dip in the Lochain.

Pauline, Dave and John enjoying the Pinn in superb weather

Mike leading the guys toward Sgurr Mhic Coinnich

Skye is simply amazing when the weather is kind and people arrive with an open mind expecting an adventure. Three more Skye days next week, lets hope for a bit more of the same…..