UKC

Thinking of doing the Dubh Slabs as a round trip from Coruisk instead of carrying on over the ridge. From the top of the slabs, is it possible to escape into An Garbh-choire or do the slabs need downclimbing? Or are there other escape options?

In reply to climbwhenready:

The panoramic route is to follow the main ridge all the way to Gars Bheinn and then descend the ridge (north-east) to the landing stage at Loch Scavaig. More adventurous would be to follow the main ridge north over Alasdair and Thearlach before descending east into little visited Coire an Lochain (perhaps with a detour along the ridge to the summit of Sgurr Coire an Lochain, the final summit to be scaled in Scotland). The lochan lies in an absolutely stunning hollow beneath the towering ramparts of Sgurr Dubh Mor. Then traverse from 200-300ft below the lochan into the next coire to the south-south-east and on down to Coruisk, a short hour from there to the landing stage.

In reply to climbwhenready:
If you are up to climbing the Dubhs Ridge, then there are feasible escapes, of the same or lower grade, pretty much wherever you look.

Great, thanks! Just wanted to make sure before toodling off there that I didn't have a silly plan.

In reply to climbwhenready:

Kinda depends whether you mean the dubhs slabs or the ridge proper, but either way- there are escapes.

The slabs themselves (which I think went at around hvd or s and in two pitches as we had a team of three on a half rope) are easily walk-offable left or right.

If you're carrying on for the slab scrambling above towards the ridge proper, you can ascend to the abseil point. When doing the full ridge a couple of years ago, we saw a team ahead of us escape to the right just after the ab'. We instead carried on up all the way then descended the back wall of the left hand corrie (easily) and a late evening of rock hopping the huge boulders of the corrie to descend to the side of the slabs. The above description of carrying on to the other side sounds better still, but we had a boat waiting on anchor, so needed to end up back where we began.

Either way: you can't really lose with your idea, whichever way you do it. I'd certainly suggest doing the full ridge though if you have time. It's a wonderful setting, varied scrambling from slabs to knife edge, quieter than many Skye venues at this time of year. Easier and less serious than the Lagan horseshoe that we did this year, if that's the kind of vibe that you have in mind. Not quite as good, mind you (as someone pointed out in the other thread) but so very worth a visit.

Oh- we took a while to find the corner that gains the final top onto the ridge, as described by dan bailey in his ridges book. When we did, it was super slimey and felt- surprisingly- about vs in that condition). I gather that you can turn a feature on the crest instead, which is said to be simpler both in terms of route finding and moves.

Top day out

In reply to climbwhenready:

It's worth noting that descending down An Garbh-Choire itself to Loch Coruisk is very possible, but takes aaaages as it's full of massive sharp peridotite (I think?) boulders. It's well named...

In reply to victim of mathematics:

Bailing off the other side down Coir a Chaoruinn is possible, but there is a step part half way down that can be a bit tricky unless you have an ab rope.