Hill: Ben Geary (Waternish, Isle of Skye)
Date: Thursday 6th September 2012
Company: Just myself

A very short walk today in really foul conditions. The forecast was for constant rain and gusts up to 100mph. The constant rain was correct and I reckon the wind-speed was a steady 50mph with gusts possibly to 60mph.

All photos taken with mobile phone – no way the DSLR was coming out today.

Click here to see a map of the route undertaken

I parked beside the 20mph sign a short distance from the school and then set off along a track towards the summit.

Start of walk (near school):


I followed the track as much as possible but it became much fainter as I progressed towards the summit.

Track towards Ben Geary:


Looking back towards school and water works:


Despite wearing my XCR Goretex waterproofs, I still got soaked to the skin in the driving rain.

Ascending Ben Geary:


At the summit, I climbed over a fence to also go to a small cairn. I then returned immediately to the car – no hanging around today!

Approaching the summit trig point:


Summit transmitter:


A thoroughly unpleasant walk, that would probably be a wee cracker in good conditions .

After spending a few hours in the Sligachan Hotel, to get out of the rain and write-up my report of Ben Geary, I decided to head out again to ascend a second hill. The rain had eased-off a bit and the strong winds were starting to calm down so I set off for an ascent of Arnaval in Minginish.


Hill: Arnaval (Minginish, Isle of Skye)
Date: Thursday 6th September
Company: Just myself

I parked near the high point of the road, giving a starting height of 188m.

Click here to see a map of the route undertaken

The ascent of this hill was mostly pathless and extremely wet underfoot.

Looking towards hill from starting point:


On reaching a fence, I followed it a short distance until finding a section where the barbed-wire was detached from the top of the post.

Fence:


What looks a relatively flat area on the map felt like a land of 1000 knolls in the mist.

Pools not marked on map:


Thanks to the GPS, I managed to head pretty-much directly for the summit without having to search about in the mist.

Approaching summit:


On reaching the summit, I visited the summit cairn, several rocks which could potentially be as high and another cairn which could be higher than the larger cairn.

Looking towards summit cairn:


A few rocks marking another potential summit:


I returned via roughly the same route. The highlight of the walk was seeing a dragonfly. It was alive but was probably quite cold and not keen to move.

Dragonfly: