The Skye's the limit
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2006
1
81
100
Trip End
Sep 08, 2008
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Cuillin Hills,
United Kingdom
Monday, June 23, 2008
Although it didn't look far as the crow flies, it took us about 45 minutes to drive the winding road through Broadford and Torrin to the small car park at the head of Loch Slapin. With a bit of rain falling and the clouds moving back in, Bla Bheinn looked pretty daunting, with sheets of steep scree and two massive buttresses split by a deep gully. In fact, it looked to be one only for rockclimbers.
The first part of the walk was relatively easy going, up a gently sloping hill beside the small river of Allt na Dunaiche. There were a couple of hairy crossings before the slope flattened out into a moorland, and thankfully the rain stopped. From here, it was a steeper climb, beneath the huge buttresses of Bla Bheinn into the very impressive Coirre Uaigneigh up to the south. We were offered a pleasant break from the stone hopping here, with a few boulders dotting an otherwise flat grassy plain, with a view of Loch Fionna-choire on a shelf to the east.
It took us another twenty minutes or so to climb some steep scree before we found ourselves on a shelf with another small loch, offering fantastic views over the Cuillin Sound out to the Isles of Rum and Eigg. We had a bite for lunch here, trying to figure out where exactly we had to climb up from. There seemed to be no discernible trail, although on closer inspection we found one, which swung up the western flank of the munro, snaking its way through lines of small cliffs on more scree. It was another 40 minutes or so before we reached the summit of the south peak, which offered absolutely stunning views out over the both the Black and Red Cuillins, and Garbh-bheinn.
However, this wasn't the main summit, and it took quite a bit of work to make it up the final 4 metres. At first, we had to very carefully climb down an almost vertical cliff face, before negotiating a ridiculously narrow ridge with almost certain death on either side. From here though it was straight forward, and in a few more minutes we found ourselves at the main summit, with clear blue skies and sunshine! The view was breathtaking, and no words could really do it any justice. A few others joined us up there, including two friendly older couples and one guy who climbed up, sat down, ate a sandwich and then turned back. We figured he was a 'munro bagger', concerned more with ticking the peak off his list than spending an hour savouring the views like Steve and I.
With some reluctance, we finally dragged ourselves down and made for the long haul back to the carpark. We didn't stop much along the way, except at the small shelf we had lunch at, and near the waterfall of Allt na Dunaiche to take a few shots. We made a few stops on the drive back to the campsite though, including one at a ruined church and cemetery, one on the side of the road at a place offering great views of the nearby hills, and a longer stop in Portree, where we went for a walk to take some photos and have a big dinner at one of the local pubs.
It was an awesome day. At the summit of Bla Bheinn, I told one of the guys it was my first munro, and he assured me not all of the other 283 were quite as spectacular. We were really lucky with the weather, and we certainly picked a good one to climb. I'd read plenty about the magic of the Isle of Skye, but now I could see why the locals said it was so special. Luckily, we had most of the next day to explore more of the Trotternish peninsula, before making our way back to the mainland and north up to Torridon.
