Coire Lagan

Backblip

The other day Nick had been telling us about descending The Great Stone Shute after he'd been scrambling with a couple of the LSCC members. It sounded horrible but it was great today to actually see it, to the righthand side in the photo, with several parties going up it, presumably on their way to bag Sgùrr Alasdair. 

This morning three members set off for the Inaccessible Pinnacle and the rest of us walked up to the lochan Coire Lagan. The slabs leading up to the lochan's edge were great to walk up, the rock's so grippy, and so I avoided much of the stony path. It's an amazing place, I've never been anywhere like it and I just stood and stared. 

Then I noticed three people ascending the steep scree to the lefthand side, thought the clothing matched that of our three members and then, after checking the map, realised that the In Pin was at the top. It definitely looked like them, but the one at the back was struggling. We sat down and ate lunch and suddenly Richard appeared, covered in stone dust. He'd come down the part of the scree that he'd gone up, feeling unable to get to the top and said he wasn't killing himself like that! The trouble was that Richard had the climbing rope, so the other two weren't going to be able to do the In Pin anyway.

Apparently on the way out from the hut Nick had insisted that he knew the best way up, even though the other two had disagreed. He didn't. By the time that Fi and Nick had reached the top of the scree they were so exhausted that they wouldn't have been able to climb the In Pin even if they'd had a rope. But it wasn't a complete waste of time as they went up Sgùrr Dearg and then descended the path they'd intended to ascend by. Fi arrived back at the hut saying she was completely broken, and I cooked her dinner for the second day running while she started recovering. 

Extras include the scree, but I doubt you can make out our members - they're on the nearest whitish line.

5.17 miles
1,852 feet elevation gain