Sgurr Alasdair
This is why we came to Skye. The Cuillin ridge. Some of the best hills in Britain, the island has 12 Munros (peaks over 3000 ft) as surveyed by Sir Hugh Munro and published in 1891.
We spoke to two guides and mountain rescue team members Jonah and Tony the night before, they told us there would be a weather window today between 7am and 12:30, after that get off the hills.
Set off at 7:30 and got up to Sgurr Dearg by 10:00, where this shot is taken just below.
The mist and rain came and went but the rocks were becoming more and more slippy, we made our way slowly down the slab below the 'In Pinn' and up to the peak on the left Sgurr Mhic Choinnich going was tricky and a couple of places a wrong step would have been fatal. The desent we had chosen was down the 'great stone chute' the light grey line down the centre, we decided against trying for Sgurr Alasdair the highest pointed peak, as time was against us and we could see the weather coming in, but to get to the 'chute' we had to get over Sgurr Thearlaich the angled slab to the left of the TD gap, the notch at the top. Sgurr Thearlaich should not be attempted in the rain and mist, we headed down and tryed to find our alternate desent route down another scree slope down on the left.
By now the visibility was down to 10/15 ft we found our scree slope at a small bealach and headed down. Scree can be a great way to get off a hill in good conditions but here it was heavy and hard, you should stay close as falling stone can take away your feet, I have a lovely bruise from a boulder Steve sent down after me.
We got back to the car at around 3:30 one munro done and tired.
That evening we went to the pub, Tony and Jonha were out on a rescue, a German walker 71 was stuck up by the In Pinn on Sgurr Dearg, the other rescue teams had gone to rescue two schoolgirls with broken legs on the Isle of Rum, the helicopter going over spotted a distress light on the ground and sent in the coordinates to the MRT (Mountain Rescue Team) two guys from Arizona lost by Loch Brittle they sent another team out for them. Meanwhile Tony and Jonah went up what would normally take us 2/3 hours in 1 and half, even at 10 yards they were unable to hear each others whistles Jonah found the 71 yr old man hunkered down at the base of the In Pinn fit and well they radioed in and told his family he was safe, the leader asked if he was well enough to come down the quick way along the west ridge of the window buttress, "he is tonight" they replied.
5 successful rescues in one night.
If I sound in awe of these people its because what they do is phenomenal. After quickly recounting their work, bought us a pint and asked how our walk had gone,by the way, Tony did all these peaks with three new walkers before going back out again that night, the guiding is for money the rescue is free.
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- Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
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- f/14.0
- 24mm
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