KINTAIL LONG, WET & WINDY WEEKEND

The Forcan Ridge in profile from Sgurr na Sgine

The western end of The Five Sisters ridge from Sgurr na Sgine

Kath & Louis coping in the wind

And we could still stand up at the summit!

We'll leave the Forcan Ridge for another time

Return clients Kath & Louis are back up to The Highlands with me for a long weekend of Munro walking amongst the wonderful mountains of Kintail in the north west. Glen Shiel is the main glen in the area and is a delight for the avid Munroist with over 20 Munro's within easy travel from a base at Shiel  Bridge or Claunie. I fired them up prior to this weekend with anticipation of 3 of the finest days out and 3 of the finest ridge walking outings. The Forcan Ridge, The Five Sisters and 'The Brothers' ridge. Well as always the weather has intervined. A forecast of very high winds and very high rainfall put pay to the Forcan Ridge today. Instead we decided if we were going to salvage the day and get just one Munro 'in the bag' then we needed to avoid any length of time spent on narrow ridges. Of course Kintail as many of these! We opted for Sgurr na Sgine which lies adjacent to The Saddle's Forcan Ridge.  We took a line that was sheltered from the SW winds after leaving the good stalkers path at about the 600m contour and veering off into the corrie.  Surprisingly there was only a few short showers throughout the whole day, all the summits were free of cloud 90% of the time and the winds were bearable, only 50-60mph on the final summit ridge. We saw no one and it turned out to be a fab day out. Much water running off the hills, quite spectacular.