Thursday, September 22, 2016

Out on two feet, instead of two wheels

There I was again, near the bottom of a scrambling route in the Cuillin finding it hard. I'd already asked Paddy for the rope but it hadn't made climbing the little groove thing any easier apart from the feeling that I should have been safe had I slipped. Not that I wanted to test that theory out.
Maybe I should back up a bit. That might have helped in the groove too. I was on holiday on Skye and had booked a day out with Paddy McGuire for some scrambling "fun" in the hills. I'd say it is an annual thing but in this case I hadn't been out for 2 years. The weather also wasn't helping. I had also been totally unprepared for the glorious weather. The forecast had not been favourable; the best thing had been the suggestion that the wind wouldn't be bad but it had mentioned rain pretty much all day. So you can imagine my surprise when I turned the corner on the road to see all the Cuillin out in front of me, pretty as a picture. I didn't have much of a clue of things to suggest to do as I had been concentrating on bad weather concepts. I was also aware that it had been horribly wet, not even 24 hours before, so some things were likely to still be wet. Paddy suggested the north west ridge of Sgurr a Mhadaidh and I'd agreed. The route should be pleasant and short, good if the weather turned for the worse.
Waterfall on the way into the ridge
Having driven down Glen Brittle and geared up, a walk up through Coire a Ghreadaidh saw us both decide we had the wrong clothes on as we got uncomfortably warm in the sun. I think we must have been motoring as we overtook one party, older, and stayed in front of another, younger and more determined looking. In what seemed like good time we were putting on harnesses and helmets right underneath the face of Mhadaidh. Getting on to the ridge looked like it might be interesting but, in fact when we moved off, a little ledge (somewhat like Collies ledge) took us easily to the crest. Then after a couple of minutes along a pleasant ridge we came to the groove.
Taken from the walk in, our objective was the little ridge above the waterfall on the skyline
Paddy took his time up it but still made it look easy. Getting into the bottom of it I instantly realised I was back to square one as far as dealing with the exposure. I was all too aware of the space behind me. This was where I asked for the security of the rope. Bouyed by the connection to Paddy I started to climb. I could feel that the slabby walls forming groove were still damp from the rain the day before. No great encouragement there then. I inched my way up, not finding the holds that Paddy had used or, at least, not trusting them the way he did. The groove had a nasty end. It was topped with some rocks making difficult to exit. Eventually, with a little natty rope work to allow me to move to the right, I got my feet high enough to work my way around one of the restricting rocks and back onto the crest of the ridge.
That success gave me some confidence and although we used the easier line until the next unavoidable step in the ridge I began to feel better about scrambling again. Drying rock also helped. At the next difficulty Paddy went ahead again with the rope and I waited until he said I was safe to climb. And this time I made a much better fist of it. I even enjoyed it. And it was just a little later on that I noticed we weren't taking in a little bit of ridge which would involve some more technical scrambling. I suggested we might. And, even though Paddy asked me to put the rope on again (quite rightly - it was no place to fall), I enjoyed the wee slab to conquer this part. The drops were now considerable on one side and no less intimidating on the other. However, it was just a few short steps to the junction of face and ridge which marked the end of the difficulties.
I'm happy now. Good photo by Paddy.
Paddy wrapped the rope around him in case I needed it later and we scrambled our way to the summit of the Cuillin's lowest Munro, Sgurr a Mhadaidh. I had asked Paddy if we could also take in Sgurr a Ghreadaidh as it seemed a shame to put in the effort and not do it, given the weather. So we descended to An Dorus from where I was talked up the first few feet of the north ridge of Ghreadaidh, where the main problem lies.  It's easy really but you have to make a coming move from a small foothold that's difficult to see once you have secured your hands to make the step up. As ever, it's good to have the reassurance that climbing with a guide gives.
The ridge up from here was not much more of a walk and we chatted our way up the slabs and boulders. Chatting is the main thing that occurs when I'm out with Paddy; fitness from cycling helps here as I'm rarely so badly out of breath that I can't talk. The main cause of energy burn on these days is from my nerves. Whilst I love these days there's a fair amount of trepidation involved and I don't find it an easy experience. Climbing past The Wart (a surreal feature on the ridge) brought us, in fairly quick time, close to the summit of the hill. As the summit was small and fairly crowded we sat just down from it for a very welcome lunch. Paddy was not impressed with the idea of a Marmite, cheese, salami and jam sandwich and although I wasn't actually having one, they are very nice.
The views from our lunch spot were great. Down over Loch Coruisk and onward to Blabheinn; the day was glorious. The sun had teased some moisture from the hills creating curtains of clouds hanging on one side of the ridge or the other creating an other worldly look to some of the hills. Soon enough, though, it was time to move on.
In hindsight I should probably have accepted that this was the end of the day and we should have gone down by the same route to an Dorus  followed by the scree shoot down and back to the coire that we had come up. But I was hungry for more and so I said yes to the offer of pushing on along the ridge to Sgurr na Banachdich.
Loch Coruisk
I wasn't to realise this until later though so, for the moment, I revelled in the scramble along to Ghreadaidh's south top often, but mistakenly, thought to look higher than the main peak. My very first time out with Paddy had seen us do this route the other way around, from Banachdich to Mhadaidh (without the tricky ridge we'd come up) but we'd missed out the south top so this was a lovely addition. On the scramble down from this we saw the remains of a volcanic vent with all the little bits of rock jammed together showing a cracked surface. The rocks of the Cuillin are fascinating.
The view south from Ghreadaidh 
The last scrambling of the day came as we climbed, and descended, the three teeth and the peak of Sgurr Thormaid before ascending the scree to the shoulder before the top of Sgurr na Banachdich. It was here that I began to worry. My legs were starting to feel tired and the muscles starting to ache, just a little. Signs of things to come I thought.
Thormaid and the Teeth 
We dropped our sacks and made the 5 minute journey to the summit of our third Munro of the day. Once again the views were tremendous. It's an odd top, the summit of Banachdich. It's a relatively easy walk to get there although it is over punishing steep scree (more of which later) but the top sits right on the edge of the precipitously steep East face. It is wise not to run up to the summit cairn!
All too soon we left the cairn and headed down to our sacks and on to the descent. We met some people still making the ascent and I tried to be encouraging. We were now following the younger group from the moning's coire tramp as they had used the An Dorus approach which is quicker and easier than our route. I had hoped we might catch and overtake them. Paddy would have, with ease, but it was on this steep and, seemingly, never ending scree that my legs pretty much gave way. The problem with hillwalking is that the only exercise that gets you fit for it is hillwalking. And I hadn't done this kind of walking for 2 years. So despite being fit and cycling strong my legs were not happy. Particularly, my over used and abused quads. For a wee while all I could do was stumble down a few yards, catch myself and then repeat the exercise. I'm sure Paddy noticed as I'm sure I went quiet, not a usual state of affairs. However it was better, if not good, once we finally made it to the lush grass and then the main path. And, at last, we made it back to the van. I have to say that climbing in, and out, of the van was not easy.
Just before the road this waterfall caught my eye. I may have needed a sit down.
It was still a great day and made so by the great company, patience and professionalism that Paddy brings to his job. So thanks, again, to him.

Postscript 

It took my legs a good while to recover, but a day off, some golf and then some tandem riding did the trick.


4 comments:

  1. Excellent stuff, well done. Looked a really good day out. Just need to do it a bit more ;-)

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  2. Thanks Jim, doing it more would be good. If I could guarantee the weather...

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  3. A great narrative of your day in the Cuillin’s, a very enjoyable read from one who hasn't been up any hills in a long time!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it Carole. I do like the occasional scramble among the hills I love.

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