My opening three peaks were the eastern end of the southern Cluanie ridge, in contrast to the sisterly peaks to the west, these are collectively known as 'The Brother's Ridge'. I drove up to the finish and cycled back down to the Cluanie Inn, stowed the bike and set off up the road to the start point.
I made a navigational error early on but this was easily rectified and got me back on track. This is the route taken http://connect.garmin.com/activity/181865377
It was tough going once the track petered out and a big surprise was in store; in total contrast to the rest of the incredibly hot week, I encountered a lot of snow! Despite a mild spring, they'd had a huge dump of snow the previous Tuesday and because of the height, it refused to melt! It was deep and disconcerting as far as navigation, and steady walking was concerned.
Before too long, and with no fanfare at all, there was the unmistakeable paraphernalia that marked the summit of Aonach Meadhoin.
It got very slippery underfoot now as I made my way to the second summit of the day, Sgurr a' Bhealaich Dheirg.
The view down into Glen Cluanie from the ridge.
It was just before the second summit that I saw my first people of the day. It turned out they were a walking club up from Glasgow to bag this ridge. It took a while for them to out-and-back on the narrow ridge to the trig-point and when I got there, I understood why. It is a very knife-edge arm of rock leading up and out to the highest point and with the deep snow and ice covering the rocks, it was a tricky manoeuvre to make it.
It was now that my 'trusty' Canon decided to run out of battery power so I was reduced to using my mobile phone to get the pictures I wanted!
Through this deep snow lay the last peak, the easiest to pronounce, Saileag. I took this looking back at the route just taken.
Me signalling 'three' so I'd know which one this was!
From this summit, it was immediately downhill to the Bealach an Lapan and it got progressively steeper as it headed from there to the pine forest. I'd say this was the worst part of the day as the quads above the knees really suffer on a slope like this. It got to the point where the sharp peak of Sgurr nan Spainteach (the Spaniard's Peak) ahead to the west, being the end point of the Five Sisters Ridge, seemed more enticing than the steep drop. Either way, that was my opening three under my belt and I came off the mountain with a real sense of achievement.
Got back to the car, got the stove going and heated up a quick dried stew and drank copious amounts of water to ease the thirst brought on by the increasing heat that was going to become a real problem in the coming week.
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