The northern top of the Five Sisters Ridge

The journey up turned out to be nice weather, it was the first trip I went hiking in Scotland when the first day was without rain. It was a balmy day at 25^oC, it was also the 1st weekend of the school holidays and obviously there was lots of traffic through the highlands.

I was to have the longest spell of continuos nice weather so far with three hiking days out of six with no rain. My aim was to climb all the summits between the Skye road and Glen Strathfarrar. It didn’t turn out that way with dad having low fitness and the rain at the end getting my mood down. In the end, giving up for me half way through was a good thing as the weather on the abandoned week was to be distinctly wild.

The view east from Sgurr Fhuaran
to the brothers of Kintail

The first day was a traverse of the five sisters of Kintail (at long last!). We set off at 8.15am to try to beat the heat up to the main ridge. But as soon as we hit the slopes I realised it was to be a long day, dad was very slow needing regular rests, already I wandered if we were to finish the sisters traverse today or tomorrow.

Once up on to a side ridge, a break was taken for me to refill a two litre water bottle. It was a good move as we had to ration the stuff later on. The main ridge was reached after four hours of climbing 1000m. The ridge was moderately narrow with steep grass one side and steep cliffs the other side but no scrambling was needed and didn’t feel exposed. After lunch we climbed the first Munro. The view suddenly opened out to the South Glen Shiel ridge and beyond. Out of all the summits I climbed so far, this one ranked very highly.

Sgurr na Carnach seen from Sgurr Fhuaran. Me in the foreground

Sgurr na Sgine and The Saddle seen from the Kintail Ridge

A decision was made to continue the traverse, dad fell asleep on many summits as a lazy day unfolded. His slowness was a mixed blessing actually as staying on the ridge close to sunset is very photogenic with long shadows being cast by the mountains. We finished and pitched the tent just off the ridge close to a trickle. Now this was the best campsite so far for me. We were ~800m up with a spectacular view down the northern corrie. We may not climb the lot but we sure had some nice views.

The South Glen Shiel Ridge
seen from the Kintail Ridge

A leisurely start of 10.00am was made the next day, it was best to continue the traverse of the ridge as it was nice and midges would provide much pain going via the glen. It was the first Scotland trip to be done with a camera for me, and looking back it is worth bringing one. Without one, the memories of the trip would be lost with time. The day was getting hazy and some clouds were building up so eagle eyes were out for the ominous ones again. In the end the rain never happened despite ‘risk of thunder’ being mentioned on the radio.

The Five sisters of Kintail as seen from the Brothers of Kintail

The view north east to the Affric hills from the Kintail

The campsite was low down this time between Am Bathach and A’Chralaig. Once the sun was down the midges were out in force. The midge proof tent saved us though:- until breakfast!

Breakfast was hell! It was spent running around looking mad, the midges eventually went when the sun came out but on setting off a new creature introduced itself- Cleggs! These are huge insects, they land on your skin, and when they take off it’s really painful as their sucking probe is barbed. When you kill em you splat blood all over.

We decided not to traverse the Cluanie Horseshoe as I felt dad would be too slow, instead we headed into Glen Affric to traverse the Affric summits. Dad was still very slow on the tracks complaining of blisters. We didn’t get as far as I hoped so we headed off up a side glen beneath Sgurr na Lapaich ready to climb some summits the next day. We were high up this time so midges were less bothersome.

The Cluanie horseshoe in the background

We awoke to humid hazy weather, after setting off it became clear that we weren’t going to stay dry. The cloud was steadily lowering as we headed for the bealach to the west of Mam Sodhail. The traverse went to Mam Sodhail and Carn Eige and then back again, it was dry upto the second ascent of Mam Sodhail, then the rain set in. We didn’t climb the outlying summit of Carn Eige as the weather wasn’t warm for dad to hang around while I would go off.

The rain was heavy and I was starting to realise the limitations of Goretex in being breathable. At the bealach to An Socath the rain stopped and a gloomy look to the Kintail peaks was given. The condensation in my jacket made me cold at lunch and a prompt romp up to the next summit was made to warm up. It didn’t rain for the remaining walk that day, the cloud actually cleared up when we arrived at the camp site.

I quickly unpacked and re packed for my final summit. The rain did quite a lot to improve the visibility and the afternoon felt fresh. A big cloud was forming over Lochaber and during the walk this extended to cover the entirety of the Great Glen. I could see flashes of lightning and the accompanying rumbles. That kept my pace up but the views in all directions were quite something I’d never seen before. It was evening and shadows were lengthening, the wilderness to the north looked vast and lonely and I longed to be there. With some breeze, the night was comfortable.

It was drizzly and we were both feeling a bit soft, so we waited until 11.00am for it to stop. We then made our walk, the summit was partially misted and rain set in for a time descending from the summit but it cleared when we reached Glen Affric. The route up to the hanging corrie east of Beinn Fhada’s summit took the north east ridge, this we did very quickly climbing 500m in an hour. The views at the top were worth it with a view straight down Glen Affric.

The last day it turned out to be, again the morning was drizzly and we waited, but we waited in vane this time for the weather was grim as can be. We started at noon and tried to find a way up to corrie but it became too steep for dads likening so we went round to the east ridge to attain the summit. I decided to try the west ridge as a descent off the mountain instead of the northern corrie. It was pleasantly narrow but I slipped over on the treacherous rocks. We descended to a bealach and an imposing rise loomed out of the mist ahead. It was a definite scramble, we went up to it but decided to retreat as the rock was like Teflon and our big packs wouldn’t exactly help balance in that circumstance. We went down the northern corrie and down the subsequent glen. I felt disappointed with the weather as we went to Morvern. However I would be back many more times in the future. Three weeks from this time I was in Norway!