Mountain Diary and Conditions

With only Sgurr nan Gillean and Am Basteir left to do before Darren completed all the Munros on the main Cuillin Ridge, we made our way up to Coire Bhasteir this morning in more rain than we expected. There's a theme here! It wasn't a day for hanging around, so we quickly made our way up Am Basteir, before the clouds finally parted, giving us some great views of our next objective, the West Ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean.

A quick ascent of Tooth Groove and the exposed Arete saw us making our way up easier ground to the summit. We retraced our steps, before abseiling down Nicholson's Chimney. To add a bit of variation to the day, we then traversed beneath Pinnacle Ridge, to join the base of the ridge. The ground is quite bouldery in places, but quite straight forward.

That gave us ten Munros over the three days, leaving Darren with only the Knoydart Munros and Beinn na Lap to round of his round of the Munros.

A day of mixed weather on Skye today, with a couple of showers through the morning as Mike, Darren and I made our way round Sgurr Nan Eag, Sgurr Dubh Mor and over to Sgurr Alasdair. Whilst on Sgurr Alasdair, the skies cleared, giving us some excellent views of the Cuillins and beyond.

Quite a few others enjoying the Cuillins today.

The sunshine and great weather continue. With most folk wearing t-shirt and shorts today, it was hard to believe that we're almost at the end of September, but as ever, the Scottish weather has a habit of throwing in some very pleasant surprises (and more often than you might think!).

I was back out with Hilton, who wanted to recce Curved Ridge in preparation for the Glencoe Skyline Race tomorrow. We weren't the only ones making the most of the glorious weather, with plenty of other teams on North Buttress, Curved Ridge and queues on Agag's Groove. The markers for the race have been put out, so we stuck to them all the way to the summit, giving a couple of variations here and there.

Again like yesterday, not wanting to expend too much energy and effort, we chose not to continue over Stob na Doire and instead descended Coire na Tulaich.

Just another reminder that we have a space left on our guided Aonach Eagach day on the 28th September, so get in touch if you would like to tackle this excellent scramble!

http://51.38.64.114/…/aonach-eagach…/

The weather has certainly kept us on our toes over the past couple of days, with the winds changing all the time. Fortunately, the forecasts have been reliable and so with a bit of juggling, we've been able to make the most of the past couple of days.

Yesterday, with the winds forecast to pick up at 1ish, we decided to tackle Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh and Sgurr a'Mhadaidh. The rains eased through the day, but as expected, the winds picked up.

Today, with a damp and windy start, we took in one of the more straightforward Munros; Sgurr na Banachdich before heading over to the In Pinn, by which time the winds had eased enough to allow for a safe ascent. To finish the day, we took in Sgurr Mhic Choinnich (which was drying out slowly but surely), before descending the An Stac screes. So that's 8 of the 11 Munros ticked off this week, with the northern end to go tomorrow.

We have a couple of spaces left on our Skye Munros Course running 24-27 September.

For Dan and Ollie second day, with a reasonable forecast, we took our chances and headed for Raeburn's Arete, which takes a direct line up the blunt arete up to the First Platform on North East Buttress. Our plan worked, but not without getting a good soaking as the rains arrived much earlier than expected!

Fortunately, the rock is rough enough where it needs to be and whilst it is more difficult in the rain, it is feasible. On reaching the first platform, we carefully traversed off back into Coire Leis, just as the sun popped out and dried up some of the rain.