Jun
12
Skye08
It was never going to be a normal trip, this one to Skye. We did the Cuillin Ridge on the first two days! Where do you go from there?
(The start of the Cuillin Ridge)
Accompanied by old friend Jojo Neff (whose idea it was for this trip) and helped along by a generous dose of sunshine and extreme blue skies, waking up on the first morning, the Cuillin Ridge seemed like a logical first thing to do. Except my friend likes a lie in, so we set off with packs that were way too heavy according to Andrew the hut warden (he was right, they were way too full) and climbed from sea level to 3000ft in the full midday sun. There is a reason for alpine starts, and not sweating a litre an hour is one of them.
(Jojo Neff)
(Mike)
Actually water was a major problem on the ridge. At that point Skye had had 8mm of rain in as many weeks, so the ridge was bone dry and I had to drop down in the evening to one of the mid level lochans to fill up our empty bottles and parched throats. In that heat we probably drank 8-10L over two days and were still thirsty.
On we plodded though, determined and sweaty. The first day was a meagre 12 hours of walking, scrambling and climbing.
(The campsite of justice!)
After a good nights sleep, me under the stars in a bivi bag, we woke to an amazing temperate inversion, that lasted all day in lots of places along the coast. Sorry about the rubbish photo, having complained about Jojo having a lie in, I did the same the next day so by the time I awoke the contrast on the cloud was already very high.
(The temperate inversion of justice!)
A bit like us, we had to last all day too - 18 hours from starting walking, doing the InPin right at the start of the day, to returning to the hut at 4am the next morning. Very very tired!
(Climbing the Inaccessible Pinnacle)
(Abseiling, somewhere on the ridge)
If I’m honest I wasn’t that psyched to do the ridge, but I thought it would be fun to do with my friend who was very keen, and I was determined that unless the weather got very bad that we would complete it. In the end I had an absolute blast. Despite the dehydration and being pretty scared for two days, I haven’t climbed in 6 years, the scrambling, climbing, abseiling, bivying under the stars and ridge walking were superb, we really had an amazing time and the Cuillin Ridge definitely deserves its reputation as one of the great ridges in Europe.
(The Cuillin Ridge)
The rest of the week went in a haze of photography, 2 hours sleep a night to catch sunset and sunrise, eating and sleeping at odd times of day trying to work some sort of nightshift pattern, exploring lots of new places (I would have liked a nice golden sandy beach, but I did find a nice black basalt beach) and really just photographing my little socks off in a great place.
One of the aspects of the trip that I found interesting was the sleep deprivation. I always prefer photographing in the morning. It’s not just the light quality or the psychological aspect of the day starting (rather than a slightly sad end), but there is something about me being half asleep that helps me to understand and empathise with my subject, or maybe it just stops me thinking too much, or over analysing the scene. Spending each day on a few hours of sleep dropped me into this state of mind all day, so I found the evenings also quite productive and enjoyable which is quite unusual for me. It was rather refreshing. Welcome to my dreamtime .....
Have a look in the Gallery if you want to see a selection of the work I made.