Cuillin Ridge Diary 2006; Window Buttress

Wednesday 24 May 2006
Glen Brittle Cottage

I go for a run up Coire Lagan and the sun comes out on me. We shop in the camp site shop and I sit in the garden in the sun for a while then meander in the gorse bushes and the moss covered woodland that backs onto the garden and in turn leads out to the mountains.

Thursday 25 May 2006

Window Buttress Diff, Coire na Banachdaich South Side
Make an early start with pre-packed sandwiches, made the night before. First we walk up Coire Banachdaich and have some route finding difficulties, – I lead us up a steep wet unlikely gully, that we have to retreat carefully down. There is snow on top of Banachdaich. We to the Inaccessible Pinnacle after deciding that the descent down the Bealach into Coruisk is too snowy and uncertain. The In Pin is windy and strange in the mist. Guided groups are teetering slowly towards it. We climb Sgurr na Banachdaich which is a bit of a scramble while the mist clears temporarily but at the summit it has loomed over us again and we see nothing. As we descend, we can see Window Buttress and the boulders, providing a sheltered spot to put on our harnesses. So when we get to the base of the climb we can whip out the rope and off we go, moving together, Soon we arrive at the window feature and scramble to the top, coming out on the slopes of Sgurr Deargh where we have already been. For the first time it is warm and faintly sunny as we sit and enjoy the view.