Hello Skye

I've been on Skye now for nearly 3 weeks and it has been awesome.  Working at Whitewave Outdoor Center is great fun and best of all there has been a bit of time to squeeze in some advenmtures.

Emma (a fellow instructor) and I headed over to Sron na Ciche, in the Cullins, for an awesome day.  The cliff is 1km wide and 300m high so we opted for a mega 4 route linking day.  We started on the amazing Cioch Grooves, then climbed Arrow Route under the Cioch (a huge lump of rock resting on a steep slab).

Emma squeezing over the crux of Cioch Groves, HVS **

The day then got 10 times better when we climbed the four started classic, Integrity.  After passing a bulge, you pull onto a steep slab with an epic crack line all the way up.  The gear is fab and situation even better.  Awesome climb!

The incredible Integrity, VS**** with The Cioch on far left.

We then scooted up one more route to the top of the crag.  Epic day.

Got to love the Cullins

Our local crag is a 15min drive away and has some great little routes on it.  We have now climbed all of the easy classics in our evenings and next time have our eyes on an awesome climb.  It involves shimmying up a toppled pillar that bridges a huge cave/ tunnel thing that passes 20m through the cliff.  Can't wait. 

Awesome climbing at Floodigarry

Laura came for a few days to tour round skye so it was great to catch up and do some cool stuff.

We visited the Quiraing, which is an impressive landslide feature made from a 70million year old lava flow from the Cullin Ridge volcano.  We found a great lion to clamber on and explored the immense cliffs and rock towers.

Lions keeping watch over the Quiraing

With bad weather forecast, we decided that a spot of sea paddling was in order.  The cliff line that we explored, north of Staffin, had tons of caves, arches, stacks and tunnels on it.  It was great fun poking the double sea kayak into the holes and hearing the crash of waves at the back.

Laura exploring the incredibly diverse coastline on the northern tip of Skye

Thanks Emma and Laura for a great intro to Whitewave.