Steady away on Pinnacle Ridge, Sgurr Nan Gillean.

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Ken: Alex and I enjoyed a quiet day on Pinnacle Ridge on Sgurr Nan Gillean today, as a warm up for a full ridge traverse starting tomorrow.

An ascent of Pinnacle Ridge and descent of the West Ridge of Sgurr Nan Gillean lends itself well as a warm up, with a bit of everything en route, from sustained section of steep scrambling, scree and loose rocks, down-climbing and a couple of abseils, without being too long a day.

It was another glorious day, but this spell of excellent weather isn’t without its problems. There’s currently a fairly extensive hill fire on the hillside west of Sligachan which has spread alarmingly quickly throughout the day. Looked to be another hill fire on Applecross too.

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Sgurr Nan Gillean, Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe

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Ken: We rounded off our final day of our Skye Munros Course (run in conjunction with Steven Fallon Mountain Guiding) with the northern three Munros, Sgurr Nan Gillean, Am Basteir and Bruach na Frithe.

It was another brilliant day on Skye, with wall to wall sunshine. We ascended and descended both the West Ridge of Sgurr Nan Gillean and the East Ridge of Am Basteir, before traversing beneath the imposing north face of Am Basteir and it’s Tooth, before making our way up Bruach na Frithe and down via Fionn Choire.

There is still some snow to cross in Coire a’ Bhastier, but it’s soft, and well tracked.

So that’s all 11 Munros on the main Cuillin Ridge completed over the past 4 days. Well done to our team this week!

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The great conditions continue in the Cuillins, Skye.

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Ken: A cloudy start soon gave way to a scorcher of a day on Skye, with wall to wall sunshine for day 3 of our Skye Munros Course, run in conjunction with Steven Fallon Mountain Guiding.

We kicked the day off with an ascent of the Am Stac screes and over onto Sgurr Mhic Choinnich, before retracing our steps and tackling the mighty In Pinn, which despite the weather, was relatively quiet.

For many Munroists, the In Pinn can pose their most significant technical challenge, but the team made little fuss with the ascent up the East Ridge.

From here it was a straightforward journey over to our third Munro of the day, Sgurr Na Banachdich.

Looks like more of the same weather tomorrow, summer has arrived!

Fancy tackling the Inaccessible Pinnacle?
For more info, visit: https://westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/courses/guide-in-pinn/

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Pleasant conditions on Skye

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Ken: For the second day of our Skye Munros Course, which we run in conjunction with Steven Fallon Mountain Guiding, the weather gods were kind to us, and granted us favourable conditions for us to tackle the southern 3 Munros, Sgurr Nan Eag, Sgurr Dubh Mor and Sgurr Alasdair.

For some reason, I’ve often found myself tackling these three in the rain and cloud, so it was great to get expansive views and to be able to see where we were going!

The team did well, and took the day within their stride. The decent of the Great Stone Chute was, as ever, met with varying degrees of enthusiasm!

There is still a small patch of avoidable snow beneath Sgurr Alasdair, and quite a bit on the ledges on the north side of Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn.

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Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh and Mhadaidh today.

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Ken: Our hardy bunch of mountaineers braved the wind, rain and sleet to bag the Munros of
Steve and I are running a Skye Munros Course, in conjunction with Steven Fallon Mountain Guiding this week, and with the worst forecast for the week making its appearance today, we decided to go for a shortish day on the two central Munros on the main Cuillin Ridge. The team did well, and we were back down just before we developed webbed feet.

Visibility was fairly limited for much of the day, but it did clear on descending back into Coire a’ Ghreadaidh and the snow has completely gone from both An Dorus and Eag Dubh now. Things are looking up for the remainder of the week!

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Pinnacle Ridge, Sgurr Nan Gillean

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Ken: We had a West Coast Mountain Guides’ team ascent of Pinnacle Ridge on Sgurr Nan Gillean yesterday.

I was out with Claire, who had come over from Singapore for a short break in the UK. Steve was up ahead with John, Mark and Donald.

Pinnacle Ridge is well sheltered from the prevailing South westerly winds, so we’re were able to enjoy the dry rock in relatively calm conditions.

Once we reached the summit of Sgurr Nan Gillean, the winds made themselves known, and gave us a short and blustery descent of the SE Ridge.

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Up Castle Ridge, down Ledge Route

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Ken: For Steve’s third and final day, we were back on Ben Nevis, this time we made an ascent of Castle Ridge. We couldn’t have asked for better conditions on the route, with dry rock throughout. We made good progress up the ridge, with Steve enjoying the steep, but positive crux.

We continued up to the summit of Carn Dearg, where we had to cross a large patch of surprisingly firm snow, for which an axe was useful. From the summit of Carn Dearg, we descended Ledge Route, which again, was bone dry and a joy to descend.

On reaching the large bowl part way up No. 5 Gully, we veered right, and traversed onto the top of Moonlight Gully, where we bumped into a couple of keen skiers, who had descended No.5 Gully until the snow ran out. We did have to traverse across a couple of large patches of snow here, but it was usefully soft, but again, having an axe was handy ,if not essential at this point.

And so ends three varied days of scrambling on the brilliant ridges to be found on the west coast of the Highlands. Long may the sunshine and dry conditions continue!

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Golden Oldie, Aonach Mor

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Ken: I was back out with Steve today, and we made use of the gondola at Nevis Range, and made our way round to the West Face of Aonach Mor. There we climbed Golden Oldie, which even outwith winter, is an excellent and atmospheric rocky scramble.

The day started off clear, as we made our way to the base of the route, but the clouds descended as we set off up the initial grooves. Fortunately, the rain didn’t really become too heavy.

We made steady progress up the granite blocks and slabs, which culminate in a brilliant section of exposed ridge, which Steve felt was the highlight of the day. From here, a short down climb and an easier section saw us topping out right by the summit cairn of Aonach Mor. We made a quick descent through the clouds, keeping our fingers crossed in the hope that the gondola was still running, which it thankfully was!

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Dry on Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis

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Ken: I’m back in Lochaber this week, and was out with Steve today. Back in October, Steve and I climbed Tower Ridge, but due to the weather, we weren’t treated to many views (or much dry rock), so we were back on Tower Ridge today, this time enjoying it in all its glory.

Due to an awkward looking large patch of snow, with a steep snout, sitting in the East Gully of the Douglas Gap, we traversed onto the ridge slightly higher up, and spent much of the rest of the route on dry rock. We crossed a couple of small patches of soft snow before the Eastern Traverse. The Eastern Traverse itself was snow free, but a sizeable patch of snow meant we climbed the Fallen Block Chimney on the outside.

Once above the chimney, it was dry rock almost all the way, with only a slight detour required on the exit gully to avoid some firm patches of ice. We didn’t need crampons at all, but used axes for about 5m or so.

The Red Burn still provided a quick descent, but the snow is getting quite thin lower down.

If you fancy a day of private guiding on Tower Ridge, visit: https://westcoast-mountainguides.co.uk/courses/tower-ridge-guide/

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Skye Cuillin Traverse

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Steve: Following several rescheduled attempts Jenny, Kyle and I took our chance as a weak ridge of high pressure allowed us to finally complete a traverse of Skye’s Cuillin Ridge.

Making use of a great forecast yesterday we cruised over the first 8 Munros enabling us to enjoy a luxurious bivi at Glaic Mor. There’s plenty if snow here to melt for water and several very flat and sheltered places to sleep. It’s also about 2/3 of the way along the ridge giving us the best chance of staying dry on our second and final day.

I knew the northern end was still blocked by snow, however; I had a couple of tricks up my sleeve and convinced Jenny and Kyle to leave the crampons behind. After Bruach na Frithe we cut under Am Basteir on the Lota Coire side before carving a line back up to the bealach. It was then up and down Am Basteir before traversing Sgurr nan Gillean hence achieving a snow free adventure on one of the UK’s most sought after mountain challenges.

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