Day 3

The Forcan Ridge

















































































































This was the one I was most looking forward to, a grade 2 scramble up one of the most famous ridges in Scotland to the summit of The Saddle as a main course following on to Sgurr na Sgine for pudding. The path up was relatively kind and the Bealach Coire Mhalagain is a great resting point while you whet your appetite peering up at the ridge ahead. As soon as you get the first taste of hands on rock you know this is going to be great. Airy, scary scrambling begins and thousand foot drops open up on each side. It was a bit dissapointing to see well trodden paths bypassing the best of the scrambling making us wonder why anyone would come to such an amazing place and miss out the very essence of being there. Anyway, ignoring the paths we scrambled on and eventually arrived grinning like idiots at the the summit of The Saddle, 1010 meters. Onwards to Sgurr na Sgine looking back every once in a while to gawp at the amazing razor sharp ridge towering overhead again. We decided to descend from Sgurr na Sgine over the minor top of Faochag instead of retracing our steps and were rewarded by watching the glen fill up with an amazing cloud inversion. We sensed the posibility of seeing a Broken Spectre with the sun behind us and the cloud below and raced down the hill literally chasing our shadows eventually managing to see this rare spectacle. Unfortunately it's extremely difficult to photograph but if you look closely, the 5th picture down you can just make out my shadow on the cloud and the halo effect. Probably my best day on the hills yet.

Here's an example of the graceful balance and poise required for efficient scrambling.