KYQ4: Sgurr Dubh Mor - Keith's Fifth Round of Munros

Keith compleating round 5 on Sgurr Dubh Mor

Sunday, 5 June 2022

Keith has been a friend and regular hill walking companion for over thirty years. He is one of the most accomplished hill walkers in Scotland with 3 Corbett rounds, a Graham round and an almost complete round of the Scottish Marilyns. Today he would be finishing his fifth round of Munros and fourth round of Munro tops, including all the ones that have been deleted from the current list. He is a hill runner, has completed many long-distance trails in the UK, Europe and beyond and has competed in numerous long-distance mountain marathons.

I had met him through a running club at work, we had half a dozen races each year and he was part of the Strathclyde team in the Nalgo national cross country championships. We hosted these in Strathclyde Park in 1990 and won the team prize. Keith asked me after the event if would I be prepared to partner him in the Scottish Island Peaks Race, a yacht and running event of two or three days, depending on tides and winds. Each yacht has a team of three sailors and two runners involving 65 miles of running including Ben More on Mull, the Paps of Jura and Goat Fell on Arran. Keith lent me a video of the previous year's race and, initially, I thought you must be joking. I had started climbing the Munros in 1989 and was a reasonable road runner with a sub 33minute 10k but I had never done any hill races. Keith persisted in persuading me. After we ran a trial 19-miles hill run to Ben Lomond and back after work one evening, I decided to give it a go. The Island Peaks race was a seminal event and we came sixth out of 57 starters.

I began to do hill races and we partnered with each other in the International Mountain Marathon. Although Keith had already completed a round of Munros, he was well into his next round and he helped John and me as we gained traction in our attempt at the Munros. He had hill wisdom and would push us to do an extra hill on long days out and in winter conditions he would be a reliable guide as we pushed the length and boundaries of our expeditions. Four years later in 1993, we had finished the first round of Munros. This was in no short measure because of Keith's sage advice and encouragement. Thirty years later, he is still pounding round the hills, competing in the occasional trail race, cycling and he remains a veritable source of encouragement and support.

He has guided dozens of others from his walking clubs towards their Munro compleations. In short, he is a totally reliable, knowledgable, thoughtful and ultra-safe companion. He has been nudging towards his fifth round for several years as he focused on Grahams and Marilyn hills. Skye, as so often in people's Munro rounds, was the place of his final Munros. When I contacted him about finishing the Corbetts, he mentioned that he was only two short of finishing his fifth round of Munros. We decided given the price of fuel to combine the two events. John and I had the privilege to climb Sgurr na Eag and Sgurr Dubh Mor with him and although we slowed him down on the scrambles it was a good way to pay respects to our mentor and good companion over the past thirty years.

Ascent:       1759 metres
Distance:    20 kilometres
Time:          9 hours 29 minutes

Sgurr nan Eag    924m    3hrs 38mins
Sgurr Dubh an Da Dubh Bheinn   938m    5hrs 10mins
Sgurr Dubh Mor                            944m    5hrs 45mins

After two long days in Torridon and Skye and not having walked on three consecutive days since Covid interrupted life, this was going to be a big day. We dawdled a bit at breakfast and it was a slow drive across to Skye and down Glen Brittle that was bristling with camper vans. We had to park half a mile short of the normal parking spot and the campsite that had served us on dozens of occasions was now filled with camper vans with only a few tents to be seen. We wasted no time heading up the steep path that heads towards Coire Lagan and turned right at the first junction to cross a burn and begin the long path that circles around Sron na Ciche to Coir' a Ghrunnda. We passed 8 other walkers on the ascent and had the usual trouble tottering across the boulder field before climbing through the bolsters of gabbro that protect the beautiful Loch Coir' a' Ghrunnda.

We halted at the Loch to have some food and top up our water, the day had heated up and there was no breeze to cool us. After taking an anti-clockwise route around the loch we found the steep rocky path that heads towards the Sgurr an Eag ridge. Finding the right route to clamber through the rock outcrops and boulders requires a bit of care. There is then a path along the ridge to the summit and as I found out it is better to keep to the right when the path splits. It is about a kilometre from the bealach to the rocky summit that overlooks Loch Coruisk and Rum. It was time for a break and to replenish our food, rehydrate and absorb the spectacular views of the Cuillin ridge.

The walk, scramble and climb to Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn is a complex route finding exercise, but ultimately not too difficult if you find the right lines. We undercut Caisteal a' Garbh Choire to the right before being slightly delayed by following a couple of climbers who had a detailed climbers handbook but kept getting it wrong. When they peeled off for the Thearlaich-Dubh gap we thought that "using ideas as our maps we'll meet on edges soon". We did edge our way to the top and settled our nerves before dropping down to the bealach before Sgurr Dubh Mor. The route from here is notoriously tricky as it corkscrews upwards by chimneys, ledges and rock bands but, with Keith in a determined mood, we made the summit without too much hesitation. I felt a bit guilty about having nothing but a handshake to offer Keith. It was 5pm and we lingered awhile reflecting that this could be the last time on this Munro, which is one of the hardest Munros to reach because of the long walk in and then the complexity of the topography. John and I were anxious to make the downclimbs from the summit before any false sense of feeling that we had done it seeped in.

We still had a long and difficult ascent over Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn and then down to the Loch. Our earlier ambitious thoughts about climbing Sgurr Alasdair had receded given the time. We made the mistake of attempting a fairly direct descent through the rock bands instead of heading towards the T-D gap and finding a more relaxed route down from there. By the time we reached the Loch and gorged ourselves on water from the burn, it was 7pm with another 7 kilometres to get back to the car beyond the campsite.

A party of four, three Irish and one French, who had ascended Sgurr Dubh Mor from Loch Coruisk via the Slabs and who had topped out a few minutes after we left the summit found a better descent route and caught us as we descended the gabbro boulders below Coire Ghrunnda. When they heard we were a group of seventy-year-olds they began to hare down as we sauntered on. The evening light was perfect but by the end of the gabbro and the start of the vegetation at 500 metres we had reached the midge level. The midges were out for vengeance after two years when they had missed their victims. The seventy year olds had caught up with the Irish/French party by the time we reached the campsite. It was full of people moving gingerly whilst wearing midge nets whilst their dogs were chasing their tails in vain attempt to escape the beasts. As we reached the car a welcome sea breeze scattered the midges and we were able to change shoes and socks, remove unwanted clothes and start the 90-minute journey back to Achmore.

Arriving at the cottage at 11:30pm meant that I was too tired to be bothered with a meal. A celebratory beer with Keith and a shower were my only activities before turning in. Three long days on the hills had taken their toll and we had agreed to make a leisurely journey home tomorrow. Yesteryear we would have been plotting another few days of hill bashing but we were so much younger then, we're older than that now.