all the time both for safety and navigation. It’s all too easy to be distracted while talking and to lose track of where you are especially in poor visibility.
Make any transitions from walking/scrambling/climbing slick and avoid unnecessary time wasting.
Ensure your shoe laces are well done up and if they are overly long, cut them down. Lots of modern footwear comes with laces that seem to come untied incredibly easy, so experiment. Stop and remove stones from your footwear as soon as you notice their presence rather than plodding on and getting blisters.
Remember, practice makes perfect.
Climber on slabs/corners leading up to Sgurr a’ Mhadaidh’s third top (Section 7)
Research
Research is probably the most common denominator between successful teams. Make sure you read accounts, watch videos on Youtube, look at photos and peruse guidebooks until you know the ridge inside out. Become a Cuillin bore, a Cuillin obsessive and ruthlessly devour all available information. Below are some recommended resources:
UK Climbing has several informative articles and a very active forum with more than 350 different threads on the Cuillin alone (www.ukclimbing.com).
YouTube has lots of videos ranging from amateurish, nausea-inducing head cam productions to full scale advertorials. The pick of the latter include a traverse sponsored by Salewa and another by Rab. In the former, a reporter from Trail Magazine is guided along the ridge over two days whilst the latter features running the ridge in a day.
There are several guidebooks and inspirational books about the Cuillin mountains. Details can be found in Appendix B.
Practice
Your preparation should involve long days that include rough walking and scrambles or enchainments of easy climbs. Practice, for example, in Snowdonia, on Idwal Slabs then Cneifon Arete before carrying on along the tops to do something on Tryfan. For the full pre-Cuillin practice, you could then carry on to do the Snowdon Horseshoe or the Amphitheatre Buttress. If you are planning to do a multi-day ridge, then get out and practice with full bivi gear and actually bivi out so that everything becomes second nature to you.
If time allows, try to get to Skye and get on some of the routes listed in the chapter in this book on classic scrambles. Take care though not to use up any good weather on your practice and then find that when you come to do the traverse your luck has run out.
Make sure all your technical climbing skills are up to scratch and you can lead quickly with a pack, build belays quickly and abseil in a safe fashion. Practice leading with a fairly minimal rack so that you get used to placing less gear and running things out a bit more than usual.
For a team to succeed, it needs to solo the vast majority of the ridge. Time is lost each and every time the rope is used. What could be soloed in a few minutes might take an hour to pitch. Practice soloing on easy ground and gradually build up the difficulty. Remember, there is as much descent as ascent so practice down-climbing.
Try and allow a few extra days so you can get used to the Cuillin gabbro and basalt; how good the friction can be on the gabbro and how slippery damp basalt can be. Get out and train for the ridge but, if possible, recce some of it in preparation for the big day.
On the summit of Gars-bheinn about to start a one-day traverse (Section 1)
Planning
Take on board all the available information and plan according to your capabilities, the weather, available time and desired outcome. Decide on a one-day or multi-day traverse, and whether your approach will be from Elgol or Glen Brittle. Work out how you will retrieve cars from Glen Brittle or Elgol once the ridge is finished, as well as where you will be based on Skye (Glen Brittle, the Sligachan, Broadford or further afield).
Buy any specific hill foods before you get to Skye. Most people will travel through Fort William, which has a range of outdoor shops for last minute purchases, as well as gas for stoves etc. It also has large shops such as Lidl and Morrisons for the more budget conscious. Do you need to stash food/water etc high on the ridge? An Dorus, the notional midpoint, is easily accessed from the path by the Glen Brittle Youth Hostel. Pre-placing water makes good sense especially in hot conditions or for single day, light and fast attempts.
Preparation
Last minute plans and preparation are vital. Be ready for the weather window you have been hoping for and don’t get out of sync with the weather patterns. It is no good if your gear is saturated from practice days in poor weather when a glorious forecast is posted and you will kick yourself if you are exhausted when the weather comes good.
A rest day prior to the traverse makes good sense. Sit on the campsite and chill, rest your legs and eat and drink to capacity. Peruse the guides and maps, pack and repack, go to the pub but don’t overdo it. Make sure you have food and water ready for your return, which may be after the shops and pubs close. In your rush to get away, don’t leave your tents or other accommodation in a mess because once you’re off the hill, you will just want to crash out. Have everything packed and good to go so you simply need to wake up, dress in your pre-chosen clothes, breakfast and go. Don’t forget to set an alarm (or two).
Ascent to summit of Sgurr Thearlaich from top of The Great Stone Chute (Classic scramble 7)
Strategy and tactics
The big, strategic question is what are you realistically hoping to achieve? A complete traverse with all the climbing bits, starting at Gars-bheinn and finishing on Sgurr nan Gillean? Or, will you be satisfied just getting from Gars-bheinn to Gillean, perhaps making the tactical decisions to omit the T-D Gap and Naismith’s? In many ways just getting from end to end is a fine achievement even if some bits have been bypassed. The whole ridge is slightly artificial since not even the most hardened purist will take the most direct line the whole way; it’s just not possible. Remember that purity of the traverse comes a long way after safety and enjoyment, the two most important factors for a successful hill day. My partner on a traverse, Kevin Woods, brilliantly described our day as a ‘full house – 11 Munros, four classic climbs and a bunch of other spiky bits for the hell of it’. We did the whole ridge, all the Munros, all the climbs and descended by Pinnacle Ridge for a perfect day. I have had good traverses when climbs have been missed out and bypasses taken due to the weather or other problems. I call this the Cuillin Ridge Light; a tactic which opens up the traverse as a possibility for many walkers and scramblers who are not hardcore climbers.
Direction of travel
The vast majority of summer traversers go south to north and there are good reasons for this but the north to south approach has its own benefits. South to north means you get some classic climbs, finish on the stunning summit of Sgurr nan Gillean and can descend to the Sligachan for a celebratory drink.
But south to north means some of the most complicated and sustained sections like the four tops of Sgurr a’ Mhadaidh and Bidein come late in the traverse when bodies and minds are already fatigued. To face the Bhasteir Tooth so close to the end is a big challenge. It’s a long initial slog out to the start on Gars-bheinn and there
