Sgurr nan Eag
Sgurr Dubh Mor
Sgurr Alasdair
6 September 2007
I was again allowed to join a group of walkers led by George Yeomans
of Guiding on Skye ( www.guidingonskye.co.uk ) to climb these
mountains. We met at the Youth Hostel in Glen Brittle, where the
group were staying, and drove to the end of the public road to a car
park beside Glen Brittle Camp Site.
We walked through the camp site and headed up the path leading to
Coir' a'Ghrunnda but once again we were soon into the low cloud with
limited visibility. The path followed a route to the west of Sron na
Ciche before heading into the Coire where large boulders had to be
crossed. The boulders were very wet with small streams appearing due
to the damp conditions.
The route led to Loch Coir' a'Ghrunnda where we took a short break
before climbing onto the ridge north of Sgurr nan Eag. Here it was
windy with frequent periods of rain. We thereafter walked up the
north ridge of Sgurr nan Eag to its summit cairn but it was wet and
windy with no views so there was no point in lingering there so we
headed back down Sgurr nan Eag's north ridge.
George then took us on what he called a bypass route to below the
summit of Sgurr Dubh Mor which we then climbed before heading along
its west ridge over Sgurr Dubh na Da Bheinn. From here we cut across
to the south side of Sgurr Alasdair where we had to rope up before
climbing to the summit cairn of Sgurr Alasdair, the highest mountain
on Skye.
While at the summit we heard shouts and later some whistling somewhere
to the west of Sgurr Alasdair. George responded and shouted that he
would be over shortly. He then made contact with a fellow mountain
rescue team member to notify him of the situation. He saw us off the
summit of Sgurr Alasdair which was horrendously slippy as it mainly
consisted of wet basalt. George gave me instructions as to the route
to take as I had been on Sgurr Alasdair before but not in such poor
weather conditions.
We descended the Great Stone Chute which was hard work for some and
others enjoyed the experience. This descent took around 50 minutes
and thereafter we headed over to the stream that fed Loch Coire Lagan
and followed it to the Loch.
We walked round the north side of the Loch and followed its outflow
still on the north side over some large boulders and into Coire
Lagan. Lower down the cloud started to lift and we could start to
see the route ahead as well as Loch Brittle and the Island of Canna.
Further down we met George who had found the couple responsible for
the distress signal. Fortunately they had just been lost and had
heard our voices and decided to shout for assistance. George had led
them off the mountain by a more difficult route.
We eventually reached the Glen Brittle Camp Site and the end of an
interesting and challenging day.
Time taken - 8.75 hours.
Distance - 13 kilometres.
Height climbed - 1340 metres.
Only two photographs were taken on this walk due to the poor
weather. They can be viewed here:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/gallery07/sgurr_nan_eag_sept07/index.htm
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com