Edinburgh Mountaineering Club: Meet Report
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Alison on the Five Sisters - Fiona C Bla Bheinn from the Cuillin Ridge - Fiona C
Alison on the Five Sisters - Fiona C

Meet Report

1st to 3rd September 2002 - 12 Get High In Skye...

Over the glorious long weekend, it is fair to say that the EMC have must ambled, scrambled and rock-climbed virtually every inch of the Cuillin ridge (and some of the Trotternish ridge) between us in varying parties. Saturday seemed to be the whole of the Scottish summer rolled into one day. This did catch a few out in terms of carrying enough water or sun lotion, but no-one was going to complain after a day of clear blue skies with views for miles around. Bill must have done some seat-of-the-pants scrambling on Sgurr Dubh Mor though, leaving the rest of his group fearful of exposure for the remainder of the day. Some needle and thread in the evening however and Bill's shorts lived to see another day!

In the evening, rather than going to the pub, the pub came to us with lashings of beer being ferried in from the Old Inn next door. This enabled us to share tales of our adventures in the hostel, and when these ran out Kenny put the justice system to rights and we all decided that the 'Scotland Today' news team were rubbish ('allegedly' - Ed)! Don't ask me why ... Meanwhile Keith-Arthur-Daly-Bevan wandered the hostel doing a roaring trade selling cheap bridge tickets!

On the Sunday it was a game of two halves, quite literally. We set off on a more typical Scottish summer's day; thick mist and a chilling dampness in the air. Once above 2000 feet however we were above a cloud inversion and Costa del Cuillin returned. Bare legs, bare chests and lashings of sun lotion were out again as we all lounged around at the top as if it was a perfectly normal thing to be doing in Skye in September. Whilst we didn't relish descending down into the mist again, we were at least delighted by the Brockenspectres that accompanied us.

Of his day with Alan on Sgurr na Banachdich et al, Martin beamed 'it was the sort of day you wait a life time for'. Of their lower level walk in the clag on the Trotternish, Lesley, Owen and Richard said 'Hrumph...'.

After a night in the pub (a return match was due), everyone got up on Monday to much more gray and drizzly weather. No doubt some took an airing in the hills on the way home, but certainly everyone went home with their own highlights of a spectacular weekend!

Nicola