The Black Cuillin of Skye has to be one of the finest mountaineering playgrounds in the UK, if not the best, so I jumped at the opportunity to guide the most technical of all the Munros, The Inaccessible Pinnacle, or the Inn Pinn for short. I was working for
Martin Moran, and guiding Craig, Mike, Anona and Steve. Mike and Steve had climbed a bit in the past, whereas for Craig and Anona it was their first real experience of climbing outdoors, what a fantastic place to start!
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| Mike and Steve surrounded by clouds on the final pitch |
We started out from the BMC Hut at Glen Brittle, and made our way up the scree slopes of Sron Dearg and onto Sgurr Dearg. The weather throughout the ascent was very changable, with strong gusts and rain coming through regularly. As we approached the summit of Sgurr Dearg, the clouds rolled in, obscuring views in every direction. Due to the low visibility, it was only when standing on Sgurr Dearg, that the incredible Inn Pinn could be seen, and for first timers, it is an exhilarating sight, as the knife blade of basalt, which is only meters thick at it's base rears up from the gabbro mountain.
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| Anona and Craigon the summit of the Inn Pinn |
Mike and Steve opted to be guided first, so we roped up and made our way down the loose ground to the base of the East Ridge. From here, it is a moderate rock climb to reach the summit, requiring two or three pitches, particularly when the rock is damp, which it was for Mike and Steve's ascent. We soon gained the summit, before abseiling off the west face, which can be done in a 20m abseil off an in-situ steel cable. With a quick turnaround, I was back up the Inn Pinn with Craig and Anona, both of whom, considering their limited climbing experiences, did very well, and as we reached the summit, the clouds lifted, giving us fantastic panoramic views of the surrounding area, which was impressive to say the least.
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| Anona abseiling off the Inn Pinn |
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Looking at the west face of the Inn Pinn,
with Sgurr Mhic Choinnich in the background |
We then descended back down the way we had come, everyone immensely satisfied having reached the summit of the 'mountaineer's Munro'.
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| The knife blade of rock that is the Inn Pinn |
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| Looking back to Sgurr Na Banachdich |
