Torrin bunkhouse weekend meet on Skye, 10-12 May 2019

Scrambling, epic walks and a bunch of Grahams is the short story of our Skye weekend.
We had organised a day’s scrambling instruction by Ian Stewart, Mountaineering Scotland’s Mountain Safety Adviser for a team of four members to coincide with our Torrin meet. The day was held under the aegis of Mountaineering Scotland’s excellent clubs programme. Blabheinn and Garbh Bheinn provided a superb arena for the team and other folk to hone their skills and test the efficacy of their sphincter muscles. That was followed by another excellent day on Bruach na Frithe  
When the weather on Skye is fine, there are few places that can surpass it.  We had a little pause for thought on Thursday when Daniel and Dougie reported full on winter conditions in Glen Shiel.  There were only skiffs of snow on the summit ridges on Skye overnight, but the higher peaks on the west mainland remained in full winter garb.  Light winds, sun, little cloud and only a couple of unconfirmed reports of midges on Glamaig gave us superb conditions.  

It may have been the lightheadedness occasioned by such conditions that led Barry and Peter B. to set off from Glenbrittle into Coire Ghrunnda, over Sgurr Dubh Mor, down to Loch Coruisk, over the bad step to Camasunery and thence to the Torrin-Elgol road.    Jim was similarly enthused, taking a superb, long coastal walk on the North West of Skye from Ramasaig to Orbost, thought by many to be the most dramatic cliff-top walk in Britain. Caves, natural arches, goes, stacks and MacLeod’s Maidens, as well as a couple of potentially difficult burn crossings, add a measure of interest to the day.  Not to be outdone, Kirsty R. headed for the Trotternish ridge with a full sack of bottles of water. This was probably quite prudent as the ridge was bone dry.
Rather more modest, but extremely pleasant outings were had on the Grahams of the Red Cuilin and South Skye. The purgatorial screes of Glamaig were experienced by Dougie and Daniel and – having paid no heed to their words – by Robin and Arthur the following day. It is reported that in 1899 a Gurkha soldier ran barefoot from Sligachan to the summit and back in 55 minutes. We took rather longer.
Participants were: Daniel, Dougie, Robin, Michael, Barry, Peter B., Jim, Arthur, Miha, Kirsty R. and Shona