Thunderbirds Are Go...

After the cancellation of the final Gold DofE exped on Skye, Craig found himself 'sans-purpose' on Sunday; thankfully Mark was planning a raid on Curved Ridge with Jane so we made our way with much anticipation...a Sunday of play rather than work!

 

The weather was atmospheric but generally dry and windless.  A Lagangarbh start saw us make good progress to the start of the trail, just ahead of an MCoS intro to scrambling party.   Jane on a short rope saw us past the difficulties of the first major steepening.

There followed a desolate cry from the mist as a crag fast scrambler on the far side of D Gully asked us four some assistance.  Craig and Mark made their way, threw a rope loop to him and he was up and over the short difficulty in no time.  He was thankful for the assist, sheepishly admitting he had decided to solo unknown ground after getting bored waiting for others in his group...lessons learned all round, they continued without incident to the summit with a spring in their step.

We continued on and up, reaching the top of CR in good time; seeking further adventure, we made for the top of Crowberry Tower by way of a pleasant view into Crowberry Gully under the face of the Tower. This is a lovely scramble with fabulous situations on positive holds the whole way, if a little exposed at times.

Lunch on the Tower (the best lunch spot on the planet??) followed by a further scramble down and onwards over the summit saw us descending a rather busy Tourist Route back to the car, past disabled dogs and two year old summiteers!

All in a great day catching up with life away from work.

Now lets get planning for winter...

Classic Rock...

Arderikie Wall**** HS 4b

Gerry and Mark took advantage of the good forecast and headed North to Binnein Shuas.

Some thoughts from Mark...

We walked up the estate track with various overnight camping teams heading out in what can only be described as July weather.

Not having any coins we tossed a wee blue lip balm tin to see who was first up and I win. Gerry had climbed the route many years before with George so it seemed only right. We followed Gary’s description and ran the original 12m first and second pitch together.

The climbing and situation was fantastic if not a little run out on the top section, but the holds were good and with such good weather it was easy to just keep climbing. Gerry arrived at the belay looking relaxed and eager to tackle the impressive looking flake (I was slightly jealous of this to be honest). Pitch dispatched without drama and I led through on yet another great pitch on great rock with good gear. Being ‘now’ in the groove  the final two pitches went by in a flash and left us feeling we wanted another 10 pitches !!!

The route is amazing and impressive in equal measures and well worth getting up early for. It’s been on Craig’s list for a while also so perhaps I'll get to lead the flake pitch sometime soon.

Meanwhile Craig and Bill ran back-to-back Duke of Edinburgh Silver awards on the hills near Kenmore.