Bla Bheinn

Sunday 4th September 2016

While planning this holiday I decided that I would spend a night on the Isle of Skye for no other reason than because I love this island. I was going to have a rest from hillwalking on this day which I would spend sightseeing on Skye, but the weather forecast for the following day was so poor I switched things and the walk that I had planned for Monday now got moved to Sunday. It hadn’t taken me long to decide which mountain I was going to go up on the Isle of Skye as Bla Bheinn (Blaven) is sometimes described as the best mountain on Skye, which is praise indeed as this island also boasts the awesome Cuillin Range. Bla Bheinn has much in common with its famous gabbro-encrusted neighbours but is more accessible than the fearsome Cuillin Mountains and standing a distance apart from them offers a magical viewpoint towards those razor-toothed mountains that are so loved by rock climbers. I climbed Bla Bheinn by the south ridge eight years ago, which is probably the best route, but by far the most popular route starts from the shore of Loch Slapin up the eastern slopes, and that was the route that I now took.

After driving across to the Isle of Skye I parked up in rather drizzly conditions that did not bode well for the day. There was hardly a breath of wind which encouraged the midges to come out and attack me soon after I opened the door of my car. The John Muir Trust owns the land around Bla Bheinn, and they have done an excellent job preserving the land for wildlife and improving the footpath that leads up to Bla Bheinn that had previously been famously boggy. It was a pleasure to walk on that path across the moor with the heather gorgeously decked out in its purple flowers and the Allt na Dunaiche stream in a gorge on my left. The clouds were low on all the mountains around me, which spoilt my view ahead towards the jagged line of the northern ridge of Bla Bheinn. After passing a spectacular waterfall I climbed into a wide circle of rock that had an eerie closed in feeling due to the cloud coming half way down the slope of the corrie. This was Choire a’Caise, which lies to the east of Bla Bheinn.

A clear, well-made path crosses the stream before climbing into the narrowing Coire Uaigneich with enormous, dark cliffs looming over me on both sides as I slowly made the climb. The terrain eased as I came into the spookily tranquil Fionna-choire where the well-made path vanished and I was left to find my own way on a maze of faint, contradictory paths up the rest of the mountain. My surroundings looked amazing with rock dominating in every direction and stone shoots coming steeply down into the corrie from all around. A guidebook had warned against trying to climb up the Great Scree Gully directly ahead of me that looked like the obvious route, but instead recommended that I take an emerging path that climbs the southern slopes of the east ridge. This path took me to the foot of a steep stone chimney, a narrow channel up the side of the mountain that provided me with an entertaining scramble to the foot of a great lump of rock that may have been part of the Great Prow, whatever that is.

By now I was enveloped in clouds with still a long way to go up a fabulously rock-covered terrain as O tried to find the best route up this complex mountain. Since I had no view, the climb was not particularly enthralling as I was largely making my way up loose stones with just one scrambling moment around a chock stone to enliven the proceedings. As I neared the summit the sun started to come out and blue sky appeared overhead. Eagerly I took my waterproofs off, but by now my top was soaked with sweat so I soon became so cold I had to put my cagoule back on, and as I looked back over the past few days I realised that this had happened a couple of times. Ideally a hillwalking top should allow sweat to pass through (known as wicking), but the top that I had been wearing was not doing this. A cotton top does not wick so should not be worn when hillwalking. The top that I was wearing was actually a cheap polyester top that was also absorbing my sweat and was leaving me cold and clammy. I’ll not be wearing this top again.

When I reached the summit of Bla Bheinn I had no views west towards the Cuillin ridge despite the weak sun, so instead of admiring the view I made my way south towards the col that separates the summit from the south top. Eight Years ago I had came to the summit from the south top crossing the gap on a tricky, exposed scramble, but this time when I attempted the crossing I chickened out as it just seemed too exposed. I do remember that eight years ago it was trickier going in this direction and it was only the knowledge that I had just crossed the gap not long before that enabled me to cross it then. Whatever the reason, what I could do eight years ago I couldn’t do now, so I returned to the summit of Bla Bheinn and had my lunch. The clouds were breaking to the west and offering me with tantalising, but ultimately frustrating, views of the jagged Black Cuillin while the best views were north towards the smooth-sloped Red Cuillin. Soon the clouds closed in around me once again and I decided that I would have to start making my way back down the mountain.

I made my way slowly down the mountain with a goal of avoiding the two scrambling moments that I had encountered on the ascent by taking one of the many other faint paths that I had seen during my crawl up the mountain. The chock stone was avoided surprisingly easily to the right while the stone channel was bypassed by zigzagging down to the top of a stone chute that was not the easiest thing to descend, but the experience was made as short as I could make it by keeping out of the chute for as long as possible before emerging once more in the delightful Fionna-choire and below the clouds. At the top of Coire Uaigneich I suddenly had surprising views of the sun shining on Beinn Dearg Mhór and Beinn na Caillich. While Bla Bheinn and the Black Cuillin had held onto their clouds, the Red Cuillin were basking in the sunshine and now that I was finally below the clouds I was enjoying great views of these distinctive mountains. I had a very pleasant descent in the sunshine down the rocky path into Choire a’Caise and from there down the heather-fringed path through the moor with the glorious Red Cuillin before me and the awesome crags of Bla Bheinn behind me.

I now had good views of the serrated northern ridge of Bla Bheinn over the tops of Clach Glas and Sgurr nan Each that are strictly rock climbers territory. Bla Bheinn may graciously allow mere walkers to climb it, but there are still parts of this mountain that are decidedly Cuillin in their nature. Bla Bheinn is a great, awesome mountain, and I was astonished at the complexity of the paths that lead through the rocky landscape up to the summit and enabled me to take almost a completely different route down to Fionna-choire as I’d taken up. I’m not disappointed that I didn’t manage to cross the col to the south top, but I do wish that the weather had been better so that I could have seen the astonishing views across to the Cuillin ridge, but the glorious views that I had on my descent were a welcome consolation. After all the problems that I have had with the weather on this holiday, it was great to enjoy a bit of sunshine before the rain started falling again the following day.