Inn Pinn

  • the inn-pinn
  • couple standing near the inn pink skye
  • view from the inn pink skye
  • steep climbing on the inaccessible pinnacle
  • inn pink looking back onto the southern cuillins
  • On Skyes cuillin-ridge
  • abseil inn pinn-munros
  • On top of the inaccessible-pinnacle-inn-pinn

The Inaccessible Pinnacle

 

The History:

The Inaccessible Pinnacle or Inn Pinn, is considered to be the hardest Munro out of the 282 Munros found in Scotland.  The Isle of Skye has 12 Munros in total, the most iconic of which is the Inaccessible Pinnacle.

For a Rock climber the actual climbing on the ‘Inn Pinn’ is pretty straightforward. Although that said, in strong winds and rain, the exposure and situation of this iconic peak, can somewhat intensify and feels considerably harder than the ‘Moderate’ climbing grade it is given.

The Inaccessible Pinnacle was first climbed way back in 1880 by Lawrence and Charles Pilkington. The equipment back then was extremely primitive by today’s standards, and a fall would have most likely resulted in to a fatality.

Ascent of the Inaccessible Pinnacle:

Nowadays with modern equipment, better footwear and peoples general fitness and well being has improved. The Inaccessible Pinnacle or ‘Inn Pinn’ as it’s known, is definitely achievable for a fit hill walker with very little scrambling experience.

Our Guides will look after you every step of the way. You will need a confident approach and have trust in the equipment we use (it works!) The holds are big on the climb, and every move leads to a good handhold or foothold. Therefore you need to trust and use your feet as they were designed – to be stood on!

The route we use is by the East Ridge. This is 68m in total, and is possibly the photograph you’ve seen (see our images) when you’ve been researching the Inn Pinn. We will break the climb up into bite-sized chunks. This makes people feel secure as we can watch from a vantage point whilst you are climbing. As instructors, we can then offer you tips and tricks to help you bypass a section that to you may look impassable.

In conclusion your ascent of the Inaccessible Pinnacle will be one to remember. We will take photos of your day on request, leaving you to focus and enjoy the surroundings. Our Guides will look after all the technical rope work and decision making that goes along with Rock Climbing. This then leaves you to fully concentrate on the job in hand. To conquer the Inn Pinn!

What to bring?

The walk into the Inaccessible Pinnacle is around 2/2.5 hours. So general walking kit will be needed for that. If you’re unsure then when we’ve confirmed your booking we will send out a full kit list. For the ascent of the Inn Pinn if you have your own climbing harness and helmet, then let us know. If not we can lend you these. We will provide all other climbing equipment and hard wear.

Useful Links:

The Guardian – Inn Pinn info – Here

UKC logbook – Here

Danny MacAskill amazing bike crossing! – Here

Experience needed:

No previous Rock Climbing experience is necessary. Although if you have been to a climbing wall/gym, or have Rock Climbed outside then all the better. The Inaccessible Pinnacle is more like a harder grade scramble, so experience in scrambling will help you but not essential. The approach climbs up the ridge of Sgurr Dearg and takes around 2.5 hours to reach the Inn Pinn. If you’re keen, willing, fit and up for it then this is for you.

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 staying on Skye or in the nearby are for a week say, you’d have a greater success rate of getting the Inn Pinn done. More often than not its the wind that will stop play on the Pinn.

Therefore if this is the case an alternative day will be done. So bagging a different easier peak. Likewise it can happen whereby our instructor/s may have a free day later on in the week and are happy to fit you in on an alternate date. This is not always the case but worth mentioning as it can happen.

Prices and dates:

Flexible dates mean that we can fit around you. Tell us the date/s that you can do and we’ll sort out the rest.

Price for 1-1 is £295 Price for 1:2 is £150 per person.

In addition to our Guided Inaccessible Pinnacle day. We also run other Cuillin Ridge courses. See our Guided Cuillin Ridge Traverse – Four Day Cuillin Munro course for more information.

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

For larger groups of 3 persons please get in touch for pricing.

2022 saw many ascents in the Cuillin hills. Some of which was an ascent of the ‘Inn Pinn’ Here’s a quick video with Sky news anchor Kay Burley & British Adventurer Jordan Wylie discussing their ascent.