Sgurr Alasdair

As forecast, the weather was indeed looking very good on this the second day of our trip when we had planned to climb Sgurr Mhic Choinnich and Sgurr Alasdair. We managed to get going by about 9 o'clock, setting off in bright sunshine from the Glen Brittle Memorial Hut a kilometre down the road from the Hostel.

The day began with an easy walk over the moors, past the Eas Mor waterfall, then on to Loch an Fhir-bhallaich and finally into the lower reaches of Coire Lagan.

The path to Coire Lagan with Rhum behind

Sgurr na Banachdich

Loch an Fhir-bhallaich with Rhum beyond

Entering Coire Lagan

The peaks around this corrie, Sgurr Dearg, Sgurr Mhic Choinnich, Sgurr Alasdair and Sgurr Sgumain, are certainly impressive and looked superb in clear weather. On our way into Coire Lagan we saw some climbers at the foot of the cliffs of Sron na Ciche, and also a threesome party heading up to the Sgumain stone shoot. After climbing up the slabby slopes of the upper part of the corrie we reached Loch Coire Lagan and there had our first close up view of the scree slopes that awaited us.

Looking up to the Bealach Coire Lagan

From Loch Coire Lagan we first toiled our way up the huge scree slope on the left of the corrie, aiming for the Bealach Coire Lagan between Sgurr Dearg and Sgurr Mhic Choinnich. We found that it was easier to make progress on the sections with larger rocks, but of course there was a bigger potential danger if these were dislodged and rolled down on someone else.

We finally reached the Bealach Coire Lagan, having been a little daunted by the rugged appearance of Sgurr Mhic Choinnich's north-west ridge which we could now see from quite close up.

Looking north to the rest of the Cuillin Ridge

Sgurr na Banachdich from Sgurr Mhic Choinnich

At the Bealach Coire Lagan

Sgurr Mhic Choinnich and Sgurr Alasdair

Sgurr Dearg and the Inaccessible Pinnacle

The In Pin, Sgurr na Banachdich on the right

As the SMC guidebook warns, it did require "some difficult scrambling" to get along the ridge of Sgurr Mhic Choinnich but we managed this section all right and were soon sitting triumphantly at the summit.

We had met a party halfway along the ridge who had suggested we leave our packs and pick them up on the way back. This we had done and we now returned to get them, stopping for lunch at a good spot a little further on. From here there were great views of Sgurr Dearg and the Inaccessible Pinnacle, which, contrary to its name, seemed to have an almost constant stream of visitors climbing up it on this near-perfect day. While we were having lunch George Yeomans, the guide Alasdair had first tried to get to take us up the In Pin, passed us with a group of half a dozen heading for Sgurr Mhic Choinnich.

Looking east to Bla Bheinn

The descent from Sgurr Mhic Choinnich

Once back at the Bealach Coire Lagan we had a fairly rapid descent down the scree nearly to the bottom, then across to begin the ascent of the Great Stone Shoot. This, like the day's first scree climb, was also long and arduous - what else can you say? Eventually though we reached the top, and there met George Yeomans and his group arriving there too. They however had come across via Collie's Ledge, which they assured us was "much easier" than the Stone Shoot. From there it was a short easy scramble to the summit of Sgurr Alasdair.

Loch Coir

Alasdair of course was ecstatic to be getting to the top of "his" Munro - the scramble to the summit he described as "the front drive, which is needing some attention". We also pointed out that "the gardens" were a little lacking in vegetation of any kind! There were still superb views all around - the whole Cuillin Ridge, out to the Western Isles, and what seemed like hundreds of mainland mountains. We stayed at the summit for over half and hour, enjoying the views and celebrating Alasdair's "homecoming", before finally tearing ourselves away and starting back down, soon after five o'clock.

The summit of Sgurr Alasdair

Bla Bheinn from Sgurr Alasdair

Looking north from Sgurr Alasdair

Looking over Glen Brittle, the Western Isles beyond

Sgurr nan Eag and Loch Coir

Climbers heading for Collie

One climber whom we had met at the top had commented, when we said we'd come up by the Stone Shoot, "Did nobody tell you? That's the down escalator!" Which was a very good description of it, of course. It didn't take long to get back down to Loch Coire Lagan - there were some bits you could even run down without too much risk of falling. It was extremely rough on the boots though, and I was wearing my new ones for only the third time - well they certainly took a hammering today!

The "down escalator"

Looking down into Coire Lagan

The screes of Sgurr Mhic Choinnich

At the bottom of the Stone Shoot

Looking up the Stone Shoot

We set off down the corrie in late afternoon sunshine, with beautiful views out to sea and back to the ridge. Given the setting and the weather, not to mention the esteemed company, I reckoned this could well rank as a "best ever" day of Munro-climbing.

Heading back to Glen Brittle

Above Loch an Fhir-bhallaich

The island of Rhum

The path into Coire na Banachdich

Back at the Eas Mor waterfall

The Eas Mor waterfall

The last leg

We got back to the hostel around seven, where Howard cooked up a meal of sausages, potatoes and veg, with dried apricots included especially for Alasdair - he did after all have more to celebrate than anyone! After dinner we got the weather forecast for the rest of the week, which was basically pretty bad news. The bad weather was not supposed to arrive until mid-morning the next day however, so we hatched a hare-brained scheme to leave at around 6am and snap up a couple of Munros before the weather got too bad. Alasdair tried again to phone Gerry Ackroyd, our second choice of guide for the In Pin, but could only get his ansaphone, so reluctantly we gave up on the idea of getting up it on this trip. Looking on the bright side, this actually made it much more likely that when we did do it it would be in decent weather, but it was still a disappointment.