(Blog entry below the photographs)
All too soon (or not soon enough?), M’s alarm quietly sounded at 3.00 am, and we started getting up. Eating and drinking what we could, we stashed our sleeping gear near the cave, and set off up to Sgurr Alasdair, the highest point in the Cuillin. Getting onto the ridge shortly after 5.00 am, we enjoyed a lovely sunrise over an inversion. Interestingly, the tiny summit of Alasdair felt roomier than on my previous visit which I think must have been over 10 years ago, when I clung on to the rock in order to take a couple of photos on my 35mm film camera before the film ran out.
From there, we were on the go for 13 hours to the point when we got to the summit of Sgurr nan Gillean, the last on the traverse, stopping for as little time as possible. To save time, we ended up not doing some of the harder climbing sections, such as the Thearlaich-Dubh Gap, King’s Chimney, and Naismith’s Route on the Basteir Tooth, and also skirted around Am Basteir, one of the Munros on the ridge (we also missed out the Munro Sgurr nan Eag at the south end of the ridge due to the alternative start), but this seemed an acceptable compromise in order to complete the traverse and not have to come down from the ridge before Sgurr nan Gillean for one reason or another. (In fact , it gives us something to go back for at a later date!) The traverse was the main objective.
We did get to climb up the In Pinn (Inaccessible Pinnacle, said to be the hardest Munro to summit due to its ascent being a rock climb), which was pleasing, as we had looked at it on our trips to the Cuillin over the years and wondered if we ever would. Surprisingly, I did not feel the exposure on it, though of course I was seconding the climb, following the very capable M who led the route. It was interesting how M being there to take care of protecting the climbs and harder scrambles took away much of the fear in exposed situations, allowing us to concentrate on our technique. He also knew the way very well, which meant that we wasted no time route-finding. He had also efficiently stashed 9 litres of water along the way to keep us going for the day (there is very little water to be found along the ridge).
On reaching Sgurr na Banachdich, the next peak after Sgurr Dearg, I found that I had no particular memory of our last visit to this summit quite a number of years ago with A from Edinburgh, whom B and I had walked with after we met him on the ridge on the day. What I do remember is walking out along to the end of Sgurr nan Gobhar and awkwardly descending a narrow person-wide gully to get back to the Glen Brittle road, slightly tearing the seat of my waterproof troursers in the process. The summit of Bruach na Frithe did not feel particularly familiar either, though I suppose we had taken a different way up to it and back the previous time 9 years ago.
As we had to keep moving as fast as possible, there was not much time to stop and process what we were doing and take in our surroundings, only a few moments here and there to take some quick photographs. While I enjoyed all the scrambling and bits of easy climbing, the second day is a bit of a blur in terms of its details and progression, with photographs serving as the only reminders of certain moments along the way. (This could mean that either we would have to do the traverse again (!), in order to take it in more fully, or maybe return to go over certain sections again to get a better sense of what we are doing.) However, the fact that we were pressed for time in order to complete the traverse may have helped remove any opportunity for me to get anxious or overthink every move in order to keep going. On reaching the bottom of the west ridge approach to Sgurr nan Gillean, I suddenly felt a bit self-conscious as the area was quite crowded with people who were standing around talking, but told myself to forget about them and concentrate on finding the holds to get up to the top. (As we started coming back down the same way in order to descend via the faster Coire a’ Bhasteir way rather than the so-called Tourist Route, I had a chance to downclimb one section and revisit the holds used on the way up, which was interesting.)
We spent a short while at the summit of Sgurr nan Gillean, enjoying the atmospheric display of cloud streaming over the ridgelines into Coire a’ Bhasteir and having M take a photo of us, before heading back down. As soon as we started descending, the weather conditions suddenly changed, with a chilly air blowing around us to envelop us in cloud. We were shrouded in this misty air almost all the way down to road at Sligachan, which was maybe just as well as it meant I had less to distract me from putting one foot in front of the other to get down and finish walking. It felt like a long couple of hours from where we picked up our packs where we’d deposited them below Sgurr nan Gillean until we got down to Sligachan.
Thanks to our guides’ spot-on knowledge and expertise, good companions, and a big enough weather window, we had a really enjoyable two days traversing the ridge! We will definitely be back!