Last week’s tragic accident in Coire Lagan on Skye – when rockfall hit half-a-dozen climbers, killing 56-year-old Tessa Cousins and injuring the others – was a reminder of just how much loose stuff there is in the corries and on the ridges of the Cuillin.
There always has been, of course, given the rubble-like nature of much of the terrain. Go up on to the ridge and look around in clear weather and there’s a fair chance that some new scar of rockfall will be visible, most often on one of the corrie headwalls – and, the Cuillin being the Cuillin, the corries have big wraparound headwalls that enclose you on three sides.
There have been various notable collapses and vanishings on the ridge itself, most famously the Gendarme on the west ridge of Sgurr nan Gillean and the very top block of the Inaccessible Pinnacle (both believed to have been struck by lightning, in 1987 and 2007 respectively). The bad step on the east-ridge approach to Am Basteir has twice increased in difficulty because of, in all probability, scrambler-induced erosion. (The Scottish Mountaineering Club’s revised edition of Skye Scrambles – which will soon be reviewed here – reckons that downclimbing the bad step is now Very Difficult – and a pretty exposed V Diff at that – whereas in the mid-1980s it was merely a medium-grade, if still airy, scramble.)
As for the Cioch / Sron na Ciche area, it is both a Mecca for climbers and a place with a long reputation for instability – and the recent tragedy prompted a shuddersome memory for another climber who had a near-fatal mishap here four years ago.
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Eddie Dealtry was mentioned in these pages just a few weeks ago in the context of fellrunning, but he is a strong all-round hill man with an interest in all the arts – running, walking, scrambling and climbing. In June 2007, he and a friend were on Sron na Ciche just along from Cioch Direct. “After ascending two pitches of Cioch West and giving up in deteriorating weather,” Dealtry recalls, “it was while descending the gully just to the east that a concealed rock made a groan and took me off and away to the bottom”. Crucially – and near-disastrously – Dealtry had not only unroped for the scrambly descent but had also removed his helmet. “There was a huge jug of a handhold at the back of a crack: what must have been a jammed boulder. I had three points of contact, a hand and two feet well placed. I heard a grinding noise and next thing I was still vertical but in mid-air. I have no idea how you fly outwards but keep vertical.” He fell about eight metres. “Lights out for a couple of minutes, then exponentially reducing amnesia: that’s Loch Brittle … I’ve screwed up on Skye … where’s my climbing mate, Jim?” His mate was OK higher up, but Dealtry was in a bit of a mess. He managed to walk out, was given 26 stitches for head injuries – “including a perfect Joan Collins eyelift” – and overnighted in Broadford hospital before spending the rest of the summer recuperating from the other main injury acquired during the fall – damaged knee ligaments. “Ironic,” he noted shortly after the accident. “Fall down a rock and end up with a typical, slowly recovering running injury.” “Really glad to be alive," Dealtry said when asked about it again this week, four years on and in light of someone else having not been so lucky. "The moral in my case: wear your helmet descending. In addition, nowadays we’re willing to get the rope out again while moving across crags between climbs. That would hopefully save you from one unstable boulder.” More generally, there is the question of whether Cuillin rockfalls are on the increase – and, if so, why? Possible factors could be the modern-day increase in walker/scrambler/climber traffic, and the freeze-thaw consequences of hard winters such as the two just experienced. Or – conversely – is there no real increase at all, and it’s all just a bit random? Mike Lates is a highly respected and very experienced mountain guide, owner of the Skye Guides company. Like all his colleagues, he has a professional interest in accident avoidance and safety. “My feeling is that the quantity of rockfall hasn’t increased,” Lates said when asked this week for his thoughts, “but the coverage of incidents has, like the rest of the media, shot through the roof with the internet etc. Attributing incidents to loose rock is something I have actively been increasing coverage of, in order to try to educate visiting climbers. “Historically, accidents are reported as ‘tragic incidents’, with little other clue as to why they occurred. To my knowledge, a huge majority up here are directly caused by pulling or touching loose rock. The Cioch Direct incident seems particularly unfortunate as placing a camming device seems to have been enough to loosen off the block. It could even be that under-use – rather than over-use – is a factor in some places. “The crystalline nature of the rocks, younger age (than most types) and lack of traffic compared to more popular scrambling and climbing mountain areas such as the Lakes and Snowdonia all make the medium far less reliable than most British mountaineers are used to,” says Lates. “International visitors used to climbing in the high Alps and Rockies still extol the virtues of gabbro and the Cuillin much the same as the famous [Professor James] Forbes quote – ‘I have never seen a rock so adapted for clambering’.” (It is worth noting the Skye Scrambles description of Midget Ridge, a Difficult climb on the quieter, Coruisk side of Sgurr na Banachdich: “There are occasional loose holds and the climb could do with more traffic.” Similarly, the east ridge of the In Pinn became steadily easier and more solid as it was “cleaned” by climbers in the decades following the first ascent by the Pilkington brothers in 1880.) As to Lates’ own experience, he is aware of numerous changes to the hills where he makes his living. “Since I arrived in 1993, I have witnessed the huge rockfalls into Loch Coruisk (over 200 metres wide and 20 metres high in 1999), and even bigger in the Sgumain Stone Shoot at Easter 1997. The In Pinn was hit by lightning in 2007 and lost a huge chunk on its north-west corner (any good shot of the short end shows this well) as well as height. “Cioch Direct has had an underpublicised history of looseness since the very first ascent in 1907. [Ashley] Abraham described the terrifying block coming off on the first ascent and told his children it was the most scared he ever was in the all his climbing days. More recently, the Yard-arm fell off the same route in 2003.” Lates notes that incidents have happened all over the Cuillin: “I have found abseil blocks just “gone” (Bidein Druim nam Ramh, circa 2000), massive lightning strikes changing routes (the Imposter on Clach Glas, 2008) and continuous erosion such as the Window on Sgurr nan Gillean at the moment. The list is never-ending, literally.” With climbers and scramblers in the firing-line, the most important issue is one of avoidance. “Knowing that pulling on blocks is the major cause of accidents is a benefit,” Lates says, “but learning to operate safely is the key. Keep weight on feet where they push blocks back into place, mantelshelf or push down as opposed to hauling with hands. If a block looks loose, just don’t touch it at all if any alternative exists – this includes blocks right up to the size of small cars. Only direct-belay off blocks that are truly huge and solid – there are not many of these!” Loose-rock safety is a complex and continually altering subject. “There is a need to emphasise scepticism about any block, no matter how large,” Lates says. Overall, he is keen to stress that people should not be discouraged from exploring the Cuillin – quite the opposite in fact, as there is nowhere else like them in these islands, and they provide wonderful experiences and excellent training for higher ranges abroad. And as if to show the relentless and pretty random nature of rockfall and slope slippage on the Cuillin, look at these pictures, taken on Saturday 4 June – four days after the Cioch Direct incident – and showing a massive landslide on the Coruisk side of Sgurr nan Eag, towards the southern end of the range. No one was hurt, and it seems to have been just “something that happened”, rather than triggered by human agency. It won’t be the last such incident, by any means, but it shows the sheer physical power of what can and does happen. It would be wrong to give the impression that rocks rain down from all sides as soon as one ventures into the Cuillin – but care and concentration are needed, as on any piece of steep, rough ground elsewhere. “Climb and scramble with the old adage of ‘the leader must not fall’,” says Lates, “and with Whymper’s famous quote from Scrambles Amongst the Alps – ‘Look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end’ – and you will live to enjoy another day in the best mountains in Britain.” – Read the Skye Guides blog.Donate to us: support independent, intelligent, in-depth Scottish journalism from just 3p a day
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