A somewhat better forecast, we head for Spidean Coire nan Clach. Winter is over of course & SAIS has knocked off for summer but, after recent days, we put axes & crampons in the car, you never know. When we get there, the south side of the mountain still carries quite a lot of snow, so put axes & crampons in our rucksacks- you never know.
As we hike up to Coire an Loaigh, we meet a returning Romanian, rebuffed by snow in the coire, then a transatlantic woman with the same story - now only one pair ahead.
Without poles (another story), I get out my axe on the coire headwall. Some squawks come from the pair ahead. At the col they tell us they hope to do the whole ridge, despite the obvious wind & snow. They have no gear. I tell them that the easiest descent is what they hav just come up. She looks horrified. We continue to the trig point but notice them contouring west to continue their traverse avoiding its easiest section. I shout to warn them. They stop to consider & then continue. We worry about them for the next 24 hours.
At the trig point we decide, against my nagging doubt, not to don crampons for the scramble to the summit. The wind & spindrift is now quite unpleasant at times. On reaching the summit, we finally decide to put on crampons for the return, we don't remove them until we reach the floor of the coire.
At the summit we are joined by mother & daughter fell runners, lightly clad. Mother gives daughter their only pair of micro spikes & they continue west.
We descend, this day was only supposed to be a loosener for better weather tomorrow.
Area :
Cuillin and Torridon (Liathach)
This area is on the west coast of Scotland and its most well-known mountains are probably Beinn Eighe (1010m) and Liathach (1055m). The area is bordered by Loch Maree and the A832 to the north and Glen Carron and the A890 to the south. It should not to be confused with The Cuillin which is on Skye and listed in the Western Isles region. The mountains list contains all peaks above 800m.
