Clach Glas - Bla Bheinn Record?

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Bla Bheinn, Clach Glas and Sgurr nan Each

The Clach Glas - Bla Bheinn traverse is regarded as a classic mountaineering outing in its own right, despite being a much smaller brother to the main Cuillin traverse. Being geologically part of the Black Cuillin, the terrain feels very similar - fantastic rough scrambling with lots of interest.

On Sunday 7/7/13 the weather cleared to give a beautiful sunny day on Skye. I decided to have a go at the Clach Glas - Bla Bheinn record, having seen a round recorded on the Scottish Hill Runners 'Long Distance Records' page where Alastair Matthewson recorded a time of 1hr 57mins 20secs in 1998. I'm sure others must have done fast times on the traverse as its such an obvious objective. I knew the scrambling section of the traverse reasonably having been up there about a month ago, but Sgurr nan Each was new to me.

In keeping with the previously recorded round I started and finished at the bridge over the Allt na Dunaiche (GR 561217), next to the Bla Bheinn car park by Loch Slapin. After a fast run in on the path I headed off right and up to the scrambly summit of Sgurr nan Each (720m), then onwards to Clach Glas "The Matterhorn of Skye" (786m), and then via the grassy Putting Green and the short 'Difficult' graded climbing to summit Bla Bheinn (928m). After an all too short glimpse at the main ridge, it was a quick descent back to the starting point, in a time of 1hr 31mins and 53secs. A dip in the Allt na Dunaiche near its mouth was extremely refreshing.
Ascending Bla Bheinn (Pic: Misha Somerville)

Splits:

Bridge   start
Sgurr nan Each   0.34.46
Clach Glas   0.51.15
Bla Bheinn   1.08.25
Bridge   1.31.53

Another great adventure on Skye!

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