KYQ4: Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh, the central Skye ridge

Sgurr na Banachdich in the cloud from Glen Brittle campsite

Returning from a week in the Lake District, the Met Office was forecasting a couple of reasonable days on Skye. I was anxious to finish the Skye Ridge leaving me with only Meall na Tarmachan, a fine but easy local mountain, to complete my fifth and final Munro round. Whilst there are many Munros that I will revisit, there are quite a few that I would gladly give a miss. I am not sure that I will be up for the Skye Ridge in 5 years. Although I have enjoyed scrambling and climbing on the ridge in recent weeks, I would probably require a rope and equipment on parts of the ridge and that would spoil the sense of freedom and overcoming risk in the mountains.

As always John and Keith were both keen to accompany me. Keith was also close to finishing his fifth round, including all the tops, to add to his three Corbett rounds, a Graham round, a dozen or more coast-to-coast walks and hundreds of mountain marathons and hill races. There can be few people who have walked more in Scotland. We delayed our trip for a day to avoid two rainy days that ended the month-long drought and travelled up on Wednesday afternoon to the Glen Brittle campsite. We arrived after the rains had passed and a warm breeze was keeping the midges at bay. It meant missing the World Cup semi-finals but England was never as good as the media believed and it was no surprise to discover that they had lost 2-1 to Croatia.

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Ascent: 1327 metres
Distance: 14 kilometres
Time: 10 hours 58 minutes

Sgurr a' Mhadaidh 918m 3hrs 30mins
Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh 973m 4hrs 49mins
south top 968m
Sgurr Thormaid 930m 6hrs 31mins
Sgurr nan Banachdich 965m 6hrs 55mins
Sron Bhuidhe 960m 7hrs 38mins

The Skye ridge is generally seen as four sections, the two munros above Coir Ghrundda in the south; the three summits above Coire Lagan, including the highest Sgurr Alasdair and the Inaccessible Pinnacle; and the three peaks in the north, approached from Sligachan including Sgurr nan Gillean. In the middle are three lesser-known peaks of Sgurr a' Mhadaidh, Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh and Sgurr nan Banachdich. The ridge wriggles between them over rough gabbro laced with basalt dykes. There are a couple of tricky scrambles exiting from An Dorus (the window) and between the twin summits of Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh the exposure is quite breathtaking with massive drops into Coire Uisg on the east of the ridge.

We had driven to Skye with the expectation of good visibility after a couple of days of heavy rain, the first for over a month. Sadly the cloud level remained down to 600 metres in the morning so the ascent was less straightforward than on previous visits. We followed the obvious route to Coire An Dorus but then followed a rogue path up the steep cleft leading to Eag Dubh, the black cleft. Having realised our mistake we lost 45 minutes contouring around to the north over steeply sloping slabs that were still wet from the previous day. When we eventually reached the Coire An Dorus, progress was quick and the scramble up to the summit of Sgurr a' Mhadaidh provided good sport.

We had some food and drink before making the descent to An Dorus. We scrambled down about 50 metres west of the top of the gulley and redirected three other parties who had reached the steep face at the top of the gulley and found the climb unnerving. There is a steep pitch leading to the Sgurr a' Ghreadaidh ridge but, with good holds, it provided no real obstacle. Once on the ridge, the scrambling is enjoyable although the sense of exposure was reduced by the lack of visibility. We peered down the deep cleft of Eag Dubh and realised that we would not have made it had we continued to climb this before realising our mistake.

I had been slightly apprehensive about Sgurr a' Ghradaidh's summit ridge, which is notoriously narrow. Its knife edge is a basalt handrail with a narrow ledge for feet. Below is the mighty abyss of Coire Uisg. It is not called the 'peak of anxiety' for nothing. We continued along to the south peak the thick cloud which inured us to the exposure. We took a long break for the rest of our food, feeling that we had overcome the most difficult obstacles of the day. The cloud came and went as we peered down the 130 metres of vicious descent to the bealach.

The descent was slow going, Sgurr Thormaid and Sgurr na Banchdich loomed out of the cloud like impossible sentinels. By this time we had become more relaxed scrambling and delighted in 45 minutes of climbing on the grippy gabbro that was shredding our fingers. We climbed over the three teeth without realising it and back climbed down Sgurr Thormaid with our confidence rising. The final climb to Banachdich is up a twisting loose scree path. We had completed the three Skye mountains and we lolled on the summit, another Munro round was virtually assured. A guide arrived with his two charges who were feigning exhaustion but they were going to descend via Coir' na Eich to the west.

We continued over the two south tops, one of which is a classified top and therefore an unmissable option for Keith, before eventually reaching Bealach Coire na Banachdich. The path descends from here and makes a long loop south before twisting and turning through numerous rock bands to the floor of the Coire. At last, the clouds were dissipating from the ridge and we enjoyed some sunshine as we walked out over the peat grasslands, passing the impressive waterfall and down to the Glen Brittle Memorial Hut. The farmers had been cutting and collecting the silage and there was a convention of farm machinery in the fields. We met a farmer and her dogs and were told that the day had gone well and everything had been gathered in.

A breeze sprang up and the evening sunshine provided a warm glow as we reached the campsite. It made the evening meal a midge-free feast as we sprawled on the dry grass reflecting on the day's adventure with a sound sleep guaranteed. Never have couscous, a pasta salad and apple pie washed down by several cups of green tea tasted so good. At last, the fifth round looks like it is in the bag. It will have taken almost ten years, more than twice as long as previous rounds but it has been done at the same time as a nearly completed Corbett round so perhaps there is an excuse other than age.