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| Hebrides ferry to take me to Uig and the Cuillin, on a wet drizzly day |
Landed in Uig at 1330 after an uneventful crossing. Headed to one of the port cafe's, unfortunately the kitchen was closed so had to settle for cold sandwidge and pretty rubbish machine coffee. All in all probably should have picked a different one! But at least it was dry inside, unlike outside where the rain was falling with alarming heaviness. I kept telling myself it'll be alright, there's meant to be a weather window tomorrow and Saturday...
Mike arrived just after 1400, great to see him again! Also he rocked up in a 2L diesel turbo 2013 TDI VW Golf - what a hire car! Funny story of how he'd wanted to upgrade, but it was gonna cost too much so he just accepted the keys, walked round to the garage to see a little Fiat Panda waiting for him. Sigh, walked up to it and pressed the button, to which the hazard lights of the TDI Golf parked next to it lit up = score!!
Set off south down Skye to the main town of Portree and to Co-Op for food shopping. I was taking it all very seriously, calculating calories in my head, looking for the balanced electrolyte powder to add to my water - Mike on the other hand was chilled out! I kept reminding him that this is no ordinary route, it's the Cuillin, became a bit of a running joke :) Found a nice little cafe for a late lunch of mac cheese and bacon, overlooking a very wet harbour - the rain hadn't stopped yet. Drove down to Sligachan (pronounced sli-ga-han with a quick middle 'ga') and discussed tactics before sorting through all the gear and kitting up. Gear wise we took wires 10/8/7/6/5, 3x 120cm slings, 2x 240cm slings, my 60m half rope and belay plates/prussics. The mini-guide recommends 45m rope but I wasn't gonna chop mine so just carried the excess weight round. Could defo use a shorter rope - I've since looked at a 7.9mm 50m rope for ~£100 on rockrun, would have been better. Clothing was long sleeved merino base layer, fleece and hardshell, leggings and hardshell trousers - could have left the waterproof trousers had weather looked better. In end was glad I took them! Footwear I opted for my Sportiva Trango S Evo boots in the end - was still raining when we were setting off and approach shoes would have been soaked before even getting to ridge.
Plan was to leave car parked at Sligachan hotel and take all camping stuff up to Loch Coir a'Ghrunnda, a lochan at 700m near the start of the ridge. Hitched a lift down to Glen Brittle - really nice guy picked us up in a Volvo estate. He was going to Carbost but we got chatting and he then very kindly drove us all the way to Glen Brittle instead - legend! Arrived at the campsite there around 1800 and set off on the walk in, looking decidedly D of E-esque - we had small packs for the ridge and our camping stuff wouldn't fit in. I'd brought a big dry sack to stash it all in at the Lochan, and so we'd put our sleeping bags/mats/tent in that and just carried it in our arms on way up, swapping over every so often - not very pro!
Raining on walk in, and the first river we met required a bit of walking upstream before we were able to cross it. Mike went over, I threw the bag to him and jumped across. Back on the path for 30mins we then met another river that we were not going to be able to get across with dry feet. Boots came off, tied round neck and waded across - felt pretty adventurous with river in spate, like we were on a proper expedition! So much water pouring off the hills, tops all enveloped in cloud. Boots back on there were no more rivers to cross on the last bit of the approach. Bit of scrambling at the end then we popped out at the lochan just as dark was setting in, around 2000. Tent up rapidly, it was cold! Couscous first course, followed by chicken/veg/noodle soup for seconds. Finished off with hot chocolate before quickly reviewing route. Lights off by 2200, alarms set for 0430. We were ready for the epic to come!
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