Am Basteir

Peak: Am Basteir (934m/3064ft)
Area: Cuillin, Skye
This peak is an impressive blade of rock when seen from Sgurr nan Gillean and also has an alluring name which has traditionally been translated as 'the executioner'. On my last proper visit to Skye, in 1993, I clearly remember a 30 second clearance in an appalling week of weather as we sat on the tiny summit of Gillean. Am Basteir looked good then, but it's taken me 22 years to come back (it rained continually that week in 1993!). This was just one of my usual short early morning outings, adopting a lightweight running approach with small sack and fell running shoes. The weather wasn't great, a cold north-westerly put the air temperature at 1C on the ridge, with a considerable windchill. Not ideal for scrambling. The path up towards Coire a'Bhasteir from Sligachan is just gently inclining and superbly runnable. I made very rapid progress, gaining the spur in 20 minutes. This broad spur is not easy to negotiate, with tenuous paths running between small crags, but it leads below Pinnacle Ridge to the atmospheric Coire a'Bhasteir. In these conditions of drizzle and swirling mist, it borders on intimidating. The onward route is a little tricky, and I had to downclimb a gully at one point to pick up the main path which is obvious once you are on it. This leads via long scree zigzags up to the Bealach a'Bhasteir: a tight col between Gillean and Am Basteir. Visibility was quite bad and the rock was soaking as I embarked on the East Ridge of Am Basteir. This is easy, just shattered sloping shelves and scree, but quite neatly defined, and leads to the 'bad step'. This is steep on the crest, and I had no wish to reverse what looked like 4b moves on wet rock in my damaged Mud Claws. I traversed sloping and soaking gabbro shelves to the left sounding out a feasible descent, eventually locating an easier downclimb about 20ft below the crest: steep but with good holds. It's then just a short jog up a fairly narrow continuation ridge to the top: very cold, shifting mist with the odd view of the Bhasteir tooth emerging from the mist and rain. It was nice to be on the main Cuillin ridge in these conditions: nobody around. A quick descent, very easy to reclimb the bad step, led to the bealach. Then good scree running down to a cold and wet corrie floor. Fine running all the way back to Sligachan: less than three hours in total, so back at our cottage before lunch.