seil down to a ledge below. Phil kept a cool head, rigged up the abseil and headed down to the ledge below. He then free climbed a short way down to the gully further down.

Chris and I then followed Phil and ended up on a small ledge not tied on. I then looked at the subsequent free climb from this point and felt uncomfortable doing this without a rope. Gary then took control and abseiled down to a precarious point above us, untied and free climbed a short way up to a belay point that other climbers had used before (they must have made the same mistake). Gary then made himself safe partly using gear that climbers had left before which included a rusty karibiner (it was the only option),he then lowered the rope to allow Chris and myself to climb safely down. At this point I should thank Gary for a top effort. (Rescuing people with ropes

Charles & Chris, Collies Ledge

looked for another route up the gap, he found one that looked more difficult but by this time we only had the energy to do it the easy way. Eventually the group ahead of us moved on and Phil once again came into his own, none of us really wanted to lead the route so Phil did it with low energy levels in the freezing cold and no rock boots.

Gary then superbly climbed up to the midpoint of the climb, made himself safe and heaved the rucksacks up the route. Myself, Chris and Charles then followed, the time was now 9.30pm!
Once most of us were out of the gap Gary climbed up ahead to look for suitable Bivi sites, as it was obvious to us now that we had run out of time to make it to the Bivi site we wanted. We ended up sleeping at the foot of Sgurr Alistair at about 3800ft with the most amazingly view of Loch Coriusk. After putting on every item of clothing we had we settled down for what I can only describe as an indifferent nights sleep.

Captain Keen (Gary) awoke at 4.30am! and decided against a lie in for all of us, and got us all moving by 5.15. I was sleeping crap, so no problem, but Phil and Charles weren't too impressed, Gary had obviously disturbed their dreams of Famous Five stories and marmalade sandwiches and forced them to pack up their teddy bears and move on.

We left our sacks at the bivi sites and climbed Sgurr Alastair, came back down, collected the sacks and continue moving along the ridge in the warm glow of anticipation knowing that we still had to complete two thirds of the ridge in one day. Unfortunately the luck we had with the weather didn't stay with us the next day and we ended walking along the ridge shrouded in cloud.

This contributed to our first mistake. We came to a point on the ridge where it was unclear as to the route we should take, we made the wrong decision and ended up on a ledge where it was only possible to ab

Chris - Inaccessible Pinnacle

is becoming a habit for Gary)

After this experience I decided to call it a day and got off the ridge at this point, the other four continued  onto the Inaccessible pinnacle (Gary informs me it's the only summit in Scotland where a rope is required to climb it). Phil led the route and everybody else fol

Gary, abseiling off Inaccessible Pinnacle