King of the Mountain

There were pictures in the newspaper today of Danny MacAskill, the Skye man who does stunt cycling in the most amazing places. The main picture shows him on top of the Inaccessible Pinnacle, at the summit of Sgurr Dearg on the Cuillin Ridge.

I have never climbed the Inaccessible Pinnacle, let along biked it, but when I was young I did climb in Skye, and I dug out my Climbers’ Guide from these days. Published in 1958, it lists all the mountains and all the rock climbs in the Black Cuillin of the island of Skye.

I well remember spending holidays there with my climbing club, and climbing Sgurr nan Gillian and Sgurr Alasdair, and also rock climbing on the Cioch …… we camped at Loch Coruisk…… happy happy days……and great memories.

I am amazed at Danny’s feat, however, I presume he climbed the pinnacle with his bike on his back, and abseiled down.

On other news, I spent a happy afternoon cooking, while listening to BBC Scotland…… a great discussion with Annie Lennox, and a few of her songs from her new jazz album. And then a discussion about children’s literature. Remember Billy Goat Gruff? Great stuff.

It rained all morning and some of the afternoon, but did I care?