Last of the winter ridgelines.
Last of the winter ridgelines.
“A winter Cuillin traverse… There’s a certain aura of mystery to it,” says Hamish Frost, mountain sports photographer. “I'm always interested in photographing stuff that hasn't been that well photographed before, and a winter Cuillin ridge traverse just hasn't, because you have to get the right conditions.”
The weather on the Isle of Skye on Scotland’s west coast is notoriously unstable. Combined with a particularly fickle Scottish winter and a team with busy schedules, timing the right conditions turned out be difficult. Several postponed shoots and schedule clashes later, Hamish spotted a sudden cold snap and a fleeting weather window on the forecast at the end of March 2024. Finally, just as Scotland’s winter climbing season had been all but written off, climber Greg Boswell, photographer Hamish Frost, aspirant mountain guide Caspar McKeever, and mountaineering instructor Ella Wright made their way to Skye to attempt a winter traverse of this legendary ridge.
”The Cuillin is a pretty cool place because a lot of its climbing history is actually in the names of its summits and features,” explains Caspar. “A lot of the early climbers in the British golden age of climbing came to Skye and did loads of cool mountaineering and left their mark on it. Like Sgùrr Alasdair, is named after Skye local, Alexander Nicolson, who climbed it first, and Sgùrr MhicChoinnich, is named after a local guide. There are not many other places like that in Scotland.”
The Cuillin ridge dominates the southern end of the Isle of Skye. Its wild, serrated silhouette, like a sleeping dragon’s backbone, rises sharply from sea level, forged by powerful volcanic activity over 60 million years ago. Centuries of weather and glaciation have sculpted the black Gabbro to form a mountaineer’s playground of sweeping arêtes and vertical precipices, all formed of sharp, grippy rock. Renowned for fast-changing weather and persistent mist, a full traverse of the ridge is a sought-after achievement, linking 11 Munros (Scottish mountains over 914 metres), crossing over 30 summits, and negotiating a handful of short climbs. While most climbers would take a couple of days over this feat, the quickest have traversed the ridge in under five hours (in winter) and under three hours (in summer).
Hamish and his team planned to take the more leisurely approach to maximise their opportunity for photographs, negotiating the ridge over two days with a bivi midway along. But the weather had other ideas.
“It wasn't quite as wintery as we would have liked, but it was also looking windy… Like really, really windy,” says Hamish. “I agonised for a while but our plan for a two-day traverse was probably going to be too ambitious. We decided to go up on the first day and start midway along, around one of the areas that is most photogenic, do a little circuit, and basically see how we got on in the conditions.”
Meanwhile, on his journey to the island from the east of Scotland, Greg had spied a potential alternative. “I had driven through Torridon and it was looking sunny and sparkling and wintery. It looked so good. So, in the back of mind I was thinking, that's definitely a Plan B.” Besides bringing his unflappable demeanour and climbing prowess to Hamish’s shoot, Greg had also been roped in to work behind the lens. “Greg's getting increasingly handy with the camera and so with him as my rope partner, I would be free to shoot Caspar and Ella without being roped up to them on trickier pitches.”
The team met on Skye, and although they awoke to a more wintery morning than expected, they quickly abandoned plans to bivi up high that night. The wind was gusting strongly and the prospect of a sunny day two on Torridon was much more appealing.
“On the way up, we actually nearly got completely blown off the hill,” says Greg. “There was a point where we were going up the slopes to the ridge and you couldn't stay on your feet. I was thinking, if this gets much worse, we are just going to have to bail.”
As they progressed higher towards the ridge the winds ebbed and flowed, but conditions underfoot were increasingly difficult. Midway between summer and winter conditions, there wasn't much build-up of snow and névé. Crampons scraped and slithered on uneven ground, and the climbers struggled to keep their footing between powerful gusts of wind.
“You're hobbling around with your crampons thinking, should we take them off?” remembers Greg. “It wasn’t super technical, but you had to use your feet to stay secure, just labour intensive and really uncomfortable to move around. You needed to stay pretty savvy because it could turn to bullet hard ice any second. You couldn’t let your guard down.
The team moved slowly on a circuit around Coire Laggan, up the Inaccessible Pinnacle, and then on towards the south, to Sgùrr Alasdair, before descending down the Great Stone Chute. As they staggered along the ridge, the light was dramatic and the snow was swirling, perfect for the atmospheric photos Hamish was after.
“It was a hard first day on the hill. We had to concentrate and stay switched on but that comes across in the photos, you can see it in their faces. It looks like an authentic, tough day out in the hills because it was a tough day out in the hills.”
They descended weather-beaten but undeterred. A sunny day in Torridon beckoned. They drove back to the mainland and headed 50 miles north to camp in the carpark at the foot of Liathach. Guardian of the Torridon hills, the mountain looms over the glen like a wise, weathered sentinel. The name, Liathach means "The Grey One" in Gaelic, perfectly capturing its brooding presence. Considered by many mountaineers as one of Scotland’s finest mountains, the Liathach ridge traverse is perhaps rivalled only by the Cuillin and An Teallach to the north.
“It's this huge, hulking mass, that sort of coalesces at the top to this dragon’s spine, or a stegosaurus’ back with pointy pinnacles all the way along for about eight kilometres.”
“My top tips for Scottish ridge days? Be flexible around conditions and don't be too wedded to a plan. Be prepared to change your route at a moment’s notice, take the right kit, and be prepared for anything and everything.”
The team awoke to a sunny, wintery morning and an Alpine-like view. Having spent time living in Torridon, running the trails and climbing its peaks, Greg led the way to a lesser-known path. This route took them to the far east end of the ridge so they could traverse the entire spine, east to west. “It feels a bit like something from Lord of the Rings that path, it's definitely the kind of trail that Gollum would know about,” says Greg.
A slightly easier climb in terms of technicality, they cruised along, in the knowledge that as they approached the west end, a view of the sunset on the horizon would be laid out in front of them. Hamish directed, and they doubled back now and then to perfect the photos, enjoying a perfect Scottish mountain day.
“Even when it's minging, there's a big difference between being out in terrible weather with people who are competent, who can deal with it all themselves, and being out in bad weather when you're responsible for everything and everybody,” says Caspar, who had embraced his new role as a model on the trip. “It’s a very different experience. So, when you're out on a nice day hanging out with friends, doing a fun thing, sure, you've got to go backwards and forwards a few times, but so what? We’re all just happy to be in the mountains.
The team’s two-day ridge climbing adventure is as close to the perfect representation of a Scottish mountain mission as you can get. Unpredictable conditions. Howling winds. Full grit. Full grim. Fast-changing weather. A pivot to Plan B. An unexpected reward and two glorious, if very different, mountain days.
“My top tips for Scottish ridge days?” Greg thinks. “Be flexible around conditions and don't be too wedded to a plan. Be prepared to change your route at a moment’s notice, take the right kit, and be prepared for anything and everything.”
Words by @amywhereoutthere
