3A - The SADDLE
Sgurr na Sgine with the Saddle behind from Sgurr a' Bhac Chaolais which Eddie had to run over. Photo tms.nickbramhall.com
9.7 miles 1540 metres
Start Sunday 18.20
The Saddle 19.59
Sgurr na Sgine 20.34
Finish 21.05
Squares: green - start. Circles summits: green - this leg, yellow - changeover. Map Colin Matheson
Time: Scheduled 3.03 Actual 2.45
While lying in the sun waiting for Mark, there was a noticeable change in the weather. Cloud and a cold wind sprang up – then Mark was there and we were off. My foot remained jammed on an imaginary break pedal as we made the whole trip to Sgriol in under an hour!
It was good to be able to see Ifor for most of the way as he stormed up and down his hill, so I was all ready when he arrived.
By this time it was obvious that a weather front was on us, and sure enough the first drops of rain fell before I was 100 metres high. It was a great run up a previously unvisited glen, and then shoot up a perfect line on an unknown ridge. The oncoming storm and night were extra incentives to push hard all the way but I was still very pleased with my 99 minutes for nearly 7 miles.
The summit of The Saddle was just in cloud, so I struck down well worn footprints to a clutter of boulders. Five minutes saw me through these, and looking back I saw a clean grassy descent to the south! The next five minutes took me the remaining 8 or 9 hundred feet to the col.
Sgurr na Sgine taken diagonally proved interesting with many scrambly bits making this section a bit slow. I turned the cliffs off the hill to the right, not risking a likely looking gully I could not see the bottom of. Despite the extra distance it was a very quick 1000 ft descent.
Ironically for a Munro event, the next section over the Corbett, (since 1993 replaced by a slightly higher point elsewhere,) was the one bit I felt thoroughly familiar with. The broken rock to start with made me realise why it had taken me ¾ hour to get down here in ice and sun thaw conditions a few months previously. Nevertheless the climb seemed short and I was soon whooping down the next ridge, both to express my joy and to warn Ross. It was just now beginning to rain and blow hard for the first time.
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