Page 39 - 2021 AMA Summer

Lancaster wreckage on Beinn Eighe
Duncan Francis
Once upon a time, there was going to be an AMA Winter Meet. But the bad fairy Covid came along
and scuppered it. Now I wasn’t going to let all of that hard work go to waste and I found out that Dundonnell was free. The Covid restrictions were gradually being lifted and people were gagging to get out, thus the Ridges and Scrambles Meet was born. I offered it first to all those who had signed up for the Winter meet and also offered some CPD. The places got filled and we were off!
As I said in the previous journal, Dundonnell is just spectacular for this sort of thing; the possibilities, as they
say, are endless. Check out Highland Scrambles North to see what I mean. You have access to a whole load of the best mountains and hills in the UK, bristling with ridges and scrambles just waiting to be climbed. Because it was all a bit technical, ratios needed to be 1:2, which meant a lot of instructors and so, to make sure that we could offer a lot of student places, we needed two weeks, with two sets of people coming for each. Places were offered to those with a bit more experience, enabling us to tackle the more challenging scrambles. And all of this worked rather well.
I won’t bore you with the details. All I probably need to say is that we climbed a lot of ridges and scrambles. Cioch Nose in Applecross, various routes on the East Ridge of the Triple Buttresses of Beinn Eighe, Summer Isles Arête on Stac Pollaidh, Lurgain Edge on Cul Beag, Pinnacle Ridge on Cul Mor, East Buttress on Quinaig, Cnoc Duail North Face on Foinaven etc. etc. etc., plus some excellent cragging at Loch Tollaidh and around Gruinard Bay on the few days when high winds made scrambling untenable. It was all brilliant. I will just let the photos speak for themselves! Roll on the next ridges and scrambles meet. This should become an annual thing!
Meeting the locals Stac Pollaidh
High on Quinaig
Pinnacle Ridge on Cul Mor
Glenn scrambling Achnasheen
An Teallach
AMA RIDGES AND SCRAMBLES MEET
Scrambling CPD on An Groban
Gneiss!
Martin and Bob on Cioch Nose Applecross
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 39