The Isle of Skye
11 Scottish Munros, 1 epic ridge – 1 Scottish isle
Cuillin Ridge Traverse – 1 EPIC adventure
A traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye is possibly Britain’s greatest mountaineering challenge. This iconic ridge is the UK’s most alpine mountain range; as well as representing the premier mountaineering route in the UK. These 11 Scottish mountains, were the last of Britain’s mountains to be climbed and for good reason. While the ridge itself is around 12Km kilometres long, it is 12Km of sustained technical movement with a need for constant mountain scrambling up to grade 3, and up to four climbs, graded up to severe.
Tactics for traversing the Cuillins
Our focus will be on completing a traverse of the ridge from end to end. Your guide will choose appropriate routes through the Black Cuillin mountains, based on your experience and personal objectives. Variations such as including harder sections of rock climbing such as the TD Gap and Naismith’s Route, or ticking the outlying Munro of Sgurr Dubh Mor as part of the traverse can be discussed; these will depend on experience, fitness, progress and weather conditions.
We usually undertake the traverse over a two day period with an overnight bivvy on the ridge. You should expect two 10-12+ hour days, carrying all personal equipment including overnight kit over exposed, technical ground, with rough ground on ascents and descents. This is not a challenge to be taken lightly!
The best time of year for a traverse is May to September.
Prices are based on booking a 3-day window, of which the best 2 days will be used for the traverse. The third day will be used as a rest day, unless otherwise arranged.
The Inaccessible Pinnacle
(the In Pinn)
The Inaccessible Pinnacle is Scotland’s only Munro that requires rock climbing to get to its summit. Graded as a ‘moderate’ climb, anyone with a good head for heights should be able to reasonably make the ascent of this remote Scottish summit. The guided ascent of the In Pinn, involves an approach via the West Ridge or Coire na Banachdich, followed by a roped climb of the Pinnacle’s East Ridge. Normally on Skye we like to work at a ratio not exceeding 1:2, but for a day climbing the In Pinn we can work with up to four clients. (The ascent and descent is undertaken two at a time).
To descend from this pinnacle you will undertake a wonderfully airy abseil to get you back down to the ridge itself. The day starts and finishes at Glen Brittle and normally takes around 6 hours, depending on weather and how busy it is.
Price: £350 (for up to 2 people) Add £40 per extra person up to 4 people.
If you need this one summit to complete your list, then there is no better way to go about it than hiring one of our team to guide you.
Skye Munros
Summit the Munros on the main Black Cuillin ridge with four days of guiding. The mountains of Skye are unlike those anywhere else in the UK, being steeper, rockier, and with few/no easy ‘walking’ routes!
This adventure will involve a significant amount of scrambling ground from grade 1 to grade 3, as well as some roped climbing and abseiling. A low instructor to client ratio will mean that you have the highest level of attention paid to your personal safety. In order that you safely and enjoyably make the very most out of your time on Skye, our experienced and supportive instructor will constantly be assessing your level of comfort with the terrain, and will provide protection with a rope for the more technical scrambling and climbing sections.
Book a 5 day window for this adventure (for the price of four days) and we will aim to head out on the four best-weather days, with the spare day set aside as a well-earned rest day.
n.b. Bla-bheinn is a relatively easy/non-technical Munro, which many Munroists would be happy climbing independently. We therefore do not normally include an ascent of Bla-bheinn on our Munro package. Guiding on Bla-bheinn can be arranged by request, including via the classic Clach Glas-Blaven traverse.
