Cuillin Ridge Traverse

Guided Cuillin Ridge Traverse – Come join us!

The Black Cuillin Ridge Traverse on the Isle of Skye is the most demanding ridge scramble in the whole of the UK.

It has been a test piece for mountaineers venturing to larger peaks for years. The Cuillin Ridge is about 13km in length, (20km including the approach and descent) and once on the ridge proper, never drops you below the 725m contour line.

Peaks:

The Cuillin Ridge traverse has over twenty peaks of 914m and above, eleven of which have the iconic status of being a Munro. The hardest and definitely most technical of which is the Inaccessible Pinnacle. Check out our Inaccessible Pinnacle day for further information and booking details.

Our guided Cuillin Ridge Traverses bags all 11 of the Munro summits.

From south to north the Munro summits are:

Sgurr nan Eag » 924 metres

Sgur Dubh Mor » 944 metres

Sgurr Alasdair » 992 metres

Sgr Mhicchoinnich » 948 metres

Sgurr Dearg – The Inaccessible Pinnacle » 986 metres

Sgurr na Banachdaich » 965 metres

Sgur a’ Mhadaidh » 918 metres

Sgurr a’ Ghreadaidh » 973 metres

Bruach na Frithe » 958 metres

Am Bastier » 934 metres

Sgurr nan Gillean » 964 metres

Maximum effort!

The Guided Cuillin Ridge Traverse involves maximum effort, a high level of stamina and definitely not for the faint hearted. As you’ll be predominantly walking (although with a rope) on tight rope edges, in possibly rain, wind and drizzle. To have every chance of success, we require you to have experience in hill walking and scrambling. And consider yourself to fall into our silver and preferably gold category of fitness. Click here to find out more. *

The ridge itself is over 11 kilometres in length. That probably doesn’t sound lots but there are lots of height losses and height gains to be overcome!

The Cuillin Ridge involves lots and lots of scrambling terrain at grade 2/3. Some rock climbing if taking in the Inaccessible Pinnacle, and involve multiple abseils along the ridge.

The days are broken down into two very long days. So day one will be around 12/13 hours. And day two will be around 9/10 hours.

What to bring:

what to bring Cuillin Ridge traverse

Image taken from Cuillins guide book – A Trendall

The ridge crossing takes two full days, and you’ll need to carry your own backpack with bivouac gear. Assistance with this is available upon booking. Your backpack shouldn’t weigh more than 9/10 kgs initially, and it will get lighter as you consume water and food.

We run a Guided Cuillin Ridge Traverse with an overnight bivouac. If weather doesn’t play ball then we may decide/choose to come down and sleep in the valley rather than have an unpleasant night on the ridge!

Below are some examples of what kit to bring. This doesn’t mean rush out and spend loads on the latest equipment. Vinted, Gumtree, Ebay are all great resources and half of my wardrobe is made up of people buying things as they’ve seen the latest ‘You Tube’ vids. Realised it’s not for them and got rid of it for half price and even more! So keep your eyes open and can guarantee you a deal. Plus it’s recycling so what’s not to like?

Bags:

Sleeping bags are hard to get right. Too cold and you end up shivering half the night, too warm and your carrying that extra weight for nothing, and bulk and could be too hot! Remember the night temps could be 0 degrees in summer! So having something whereby you can wear clothes and make do with a 5 /8 degree bag say, may just work. At the end of the day you are not going to sleep very well anyway – Unless you can sleep anywhere that is. If it’s raining you’ll probably end up coming down anyway that night. As it’s not a fun experience sleeping in the rain – heavy – I mean and ends up being just a ‘suffer fest’ and or test of endurance!

When?

The best dates to attempt a Guided Cuillin Ridge Traverse are between the months of May through to September. May is, and has been pretty reliable for the past few seasons, and generally has zero midges! That said the Cuillins can hold snow, and can snow in June/July. Although this is rare.

Accommodation:

Most instructors sleep and have Campervans. So if you are lucky enough to have one, ace. Because Skye’s accommodation can get rammed if you book and leave things to the last minute! Cough, cough – Book early my friends! Then you can relax, get cheaper accommodation and the dates you want. Simples. Check out Here our recommendations for places to stay. This is not inclusive of everywhere on the island but some of the main places. What we do recommend is if you are booking the traverse, then keep you accommodation open. Meaning if you do have to retreat off the ridge in the middle of the night because of rain, you have somewhere to stay!

Kit Ideas:

Pack – 30L minimum 40L Maximum – Something like this: Here

Bivvy bag – Old X army are good but bit heavy – These do the trick – Here

Stove – Share! Or you’re instructor just may bring theirs and use between group – Don’t forget gas! – But something like this – Here

Sleeping bag – Tricky! As most people don’t own one, and don’t want to spend a fortune. This is the top end/what I have/use – Here

Cheaper sleeping bag – Here

Roll mat – A closed cell foam mat is the way to go = No punctures! – Here

Cuillin ridge traverse - A typical ground on the cuillins

Experience needed:

As mentioned you should be physically fit and ready for a massive challenge. This is probably as big as it gets in the UK and is fine, training for the Alpine environment. We suggest this to our clients, or our 4 day Guided Cuillin Munro course before embarking on their Alps trip.

The ridge is as big as any Alpine peak, so walking up some of the easier – Grand Paradiso – Alpine peaks although good training isn’t anything similar to what the Ridge has to offer.

You will need to have experience in scrambling terrain and let us know what you have done in the past. Therefore the partner you have chosen to complete this with you, must be the same and hopefully been on some if not the same adventures as yourself in the past. Above all you must be confident, fit (have we said that before?!) and up to the challenge. This is not to be taken lightly and we see lots of parties fail on the ridge due to inexperience, and underestimating this awesome ridge.

If you’re at all unsure we’d be more than happy to chat with you about you’re concerns/questions.

Weather:

The Cuillins has its own unique weather. In fact it has the most unpredictable weather in the UK for sure! above all no two days are rarely the same! I have known it to have definitely four seasons in the same day. Therefore the longer you can stay up on Skye the better the chances are of you succeeding. Therefore if you were to book on a 4/5 day course you would have a greater success rate of completing the ridge that someone who is in a whistle stop tour of the island and only has 2/3 days.

Kit list:

A full and extensive kit list will be supplied once the person or party has confirmed the booking. We go above and beyond when it comes to help and advice, and spend a lot of time advising potential clients on recommended kit/what to bring. As well as what not to bring…

How to book:

Send an enquiry through with your preferred dates here: Contact. And tell us your preferred date for your Guided Cuillin Ridge Traverse.

And we aim to get back to you within the same day. Once we agree a date that suits, then a deposit will be taken. Full payment is made one calendar month before your course commences.

Prices and Dates:

** Our Ridge Traverse package price is £1050 for a 1:1 crossing. This includes all equipment, guide and insurance.

** For 1:2 parties the price is £600 per person.

We also do a 4 day package meaning that this gives you more flexibility in case of fatigue, injury and or weather changes.

4 day – 1:1 = £1,400 1:2 = £1,550

This doesn’t include accommodation or food. We are happy to recommend on both these subjects.

A £50 deposit is required to book a place. See our Contact and Pricing page for more details.

For larger groups please get in touch for pricing.

* Max persons per instructor is 1-2. Anymore an additional instructor will be needed.

** The price is for a 3 day crossing. This is to allow a weather window of a day if needs be, and do the crossing on the 2 best days. If the guide feels it inappropriate to cross the ridge due to weather, or clients personal ability and or fitness. Then he or she will make a call and an alternative day/s will follow. So for example some general hill walking, or scrambling will take place instead of the full traverse.

Info:

The prices include guiding and instructing along the Cuillin Ridge. We can also help with equipment hire if needs be. But if you’re thinking of the Cuillin Ridge Traverse, you should ideally have some of your own kit already. Things like rucksack, bivvy and sleeping bag etc. We can advise on what to buy and possibly lend you some kit if needs be. ALL hardwear – helmet harness etc are provided. If you have your own great bring it and our team will give it a check and see if it’s fit for purpose.

What’s not included: Accommodation, which you’ll need to pre book for the first and last nights. Food, personal equipment – We are fully insured but we advise your own personal insurance.

To hopefully ensure a successful crossing of the Cuillin Ridge, the best two days out of three will be used. The spare day will be either a rest day, or a low level guided day depending on the group and instructor.

Benefits:

Cuillin Ridge Traverses – privately guided on dates that are flexible to your schedule.
Can also provide training days in preparation for the traverse.
Maximum of 1:2 per guide. And we only guide teams that know each other.

Dates wise, you decide when you can/prefer to go and we’ll arrange the Guide/s accordingly. Please be aware that although the Cuillin Ridge Traverse can be done in wind and rain, there is a limit. If the weather doesn’t play ball, we’ll try our best to be flexible and come up with an alternative plan.

Useful Links:

Alpkit’s top 10 tips – Here

Preparing for the Cuillin Ridge – Here

Danny MacAskill’s amazing bike traverse! – Here