Skye's first Munro - Sgor Gaoith

Climbed by year and month

Climbed by year and month

Sgor Gaoith means the windy peak in Gaelic. Having recently climbed Meall a' Bhuachaille with Skye I thought it time for her first munro. With the Cairngorm ski centre car parks still shut (what was the point of closing them anyway!) I chose Sgor Gaoith as a reasonable, but not excessive, step up. Since it was a Sunday I also wanted to be away from the crowds.

It was also my first munro since November last year because of looking after Jessie, then getting Skye settled in and some training, and of course lockdown from Covid-19. A set of circumstances in which I could do little to change the outcome of, just cope best as I could.

Sunday 12th of July was true to forecast, warm, breezy with no rain until that evening. And so it proved. The car park before Achlean Farm was busy with only a few easy spaces to get into with the campervan. Once settled I got breakfast for us both. A couple of wild campers came back to their cars and left. I soon got us sorted and ready to leave by 8:30am. Walking into the mountains always gives me a sense of anticipation. I set an easy pace that I kept to for the day. Not a hurry, nor an amble, and didn't care how long it took.

Skye was always ahead and I had to call her back often. She was alive with excitement. We met a guy coming down whom she took offence at. She stood back from him and barked, something about him that triggered bad memories perhaps? Thankfully she came without too much trouble when I called her. I'm really curious as to what that was about as I've seen it a couple of times so far.

Nearing the summit we were overtaken by two people on e-bikes. I thought to myself, there's only one person I'm aware of who can ride like that on crazy rocky terrain and that's Danny MacAskill. I put Skye on the lead as I know the summit is perched on the edge of a cliff and I didn't know how Skye would behave. Danny was a nice guy, had a chat to various people and left with his mate for the good bit, downwards.

A nice couple with a lovely blue merle border collie took some photos of Skye and I at the summit which I've since tweeted to Scottish SPCS from where we adopted Skye. I shared some tinned mackerel with Skye a little way down the windward slope, there was nowhere on the lee side as it's a almost shear drop to Loch Einich.

We ambled our way back, and were at the van just over 6hours after we left. A good effort I thought, and better than I expected.