
While I already climbed the three northernmost peaks of the Cuillin ridge in August 2017, the eight other ones remained to be visited, with the most tantalising of them all, the Inaccessible Pinnacle! Also known as Sgùrr Dearg. And The Pin. The ICMS workshop was a unique opportunity for this. Which called for a guide in order to maximise the chances of success and also minimise the weight of my bag. In retrospect, given the wet and windy conditions that day, I could not have climbed the Pin by myself… There was no technical difficulty, plenty of holds for feet and hands, and the two pitches were quite short. But climbing with wet gloves, frozen hands, and hiking boots, under a strong wind, made it a wee bit challenging, with the protection set midway by the (free-climbing) guide reassuring. The abseil was short (20m) and straightforward, even though the gale was pushing us sideway. It took less than one hour from the bottom of the pinnacle to the top and back to said bottom. Luckily, there was no other team before us, as we passed two of them on the hike up, and thus we did not have to wait in miserable conditions. And, bonus!, we were finished early enough to scramble to the nearby Sgùrr na Banachdaich (with some route finding skills required from Adam, my guide, in the relentless mist) and be back at the car in less than six hours. A terrific experience, fully enjoyed, if sadly missing the views (and hence the pictures!) since we stayed in the cloud the entire day. It is most unlikely that there will be another ICMS workshop to visit the other Skye Munroes before I retire!




Watched (with supplementary oxygen) 
![Somewhat surprisingly, I had not yet watched this filming of Alex Honnold's free solo climb of Free Rider on El Capitan, Yosemite. Mostly because I had not seen it on my usual channels. But also because I was and still is ambivalent about free soloing. While I understand that Honnold's abilities are way above the 7c+ level of Free Rider, the ratio risk to ability in this approach remains infinite. A single slip of one foot and... Some of the hardest passages made me cringe to the point I stopped the video for a while. As it seems much much harder than 7c+. (Adam Ondra stated that climbing 9a was easier than free soloing this route. He also wondered whether the free-solo climbing is good or not, whether [he] should write about it or not.) While the filming was impressive and as little intrusive as possible, I also wondered at the impact it had on Honnold and his commitment to trying the climb. It was most interesting to see him stopping an earlier attempt after a few hundred feet because he felt this pressure was too high. On the other hand, I did not appreciate the inter-personal parts as imho it stops being personal once filmed and broadcasted. Still, in the end, this is a unique exploit for climbing, exhibiting a perfection in hold placements the whole 1000+ meters.](https://i0.wp.com/lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/docfilmswebsite_1080x1600_freesolo_91d7bed0.jpeg?w=450&ssl=1)