I stood with my head bowed before the executioner, desperately searching for the courage to continue.

The plan was to make a solo traverse of The Cuillin Main Ridge with no prior knowledge of the route and no guidebook. It was near the end of a long hard day, I was running on empty and Naismith's Route up the Bhasteir Tooth looked more like HVS than VDiff.

The situation appalled me; just standing at the start of the pitch was intimidating with exposure snapping at my feet and my sac weighing heavily on my shoulders. I turned, walked back 50ft and sat down.

'Are you going up there' 3 men sitting nearby enquired...

'I'm not sure' I replied.

'We looked from where you were and decided to come back another day' they said.

A 10 minute rest didn't make the prospect any more inviting and I forced myself to assess the options. By far the most appealing was to bypass it altogether on the north side, but this was at odds with the true line. My decision was made; I must at least attempt it, but first I had to reduce my load.

I drank as much of my water as I could and tipped away the remaining litre, put on my harness and carefully uncoiled the rope so that it would run out without snagging, and tied on. This brought the sac down to a manageable weight and I put it on my back.

As I stepped out onto the rock and started the initial traverse, the ground dropped away to the right with every step. The awesome exposure had me really rattled and I fought for calm. About 30ft of traversing gained me a ledge and a breathing space, confidence had returned and the moves were starting to flow. A steep awkward wall was followed by a welcome crack with reassuring holds then a short traverse to the right to.......THE CRUX!!! The horror of it hit me right between the eyes, here I was hands on the top faced with a nasty tricky mantelshelf onto a sloping slab; with a dry mouth I launched into it and a few seconds later breathed a sigh of relief as I walked up to the top of the tooth.

As I started to pull the rope up one of the men shouted up 'We are puzzling over how the rope protected you?'

'It didn't, it was just easier to drag it up than carry the weight on my back' I replied.

After repacking the sac I looked for the continuation to the top. Scrambling upwards and rightwards led to a gully which I followed to a steep rock band. The obvious way was up a fiercely overhanging crack and a tentative probe confirmed my suspicions, I did not have enough remaining strength to climb it even if I hauled the sac, another route would have to be found. Moving to the right a short way, I climbed up an awkward undercut chimney and eventually a long tricky step to the left gained another Gully, at last the situation eased and a few minutes later I stood on the summit of Am Basteir. The Executioner had been overcome and the way ahead was open!

POSTSCRIPT

I did the traverse over 2 days with a bivi on the ridge near Sgurr Mhic Choinnich which I highly recommend to savor the position, and frequent stops of between 10 and 30mins to absorb the fantastic scenery. The approach was from Glenbrittle by the interminable scree slope of Gars-bheinn which was soul destroying carrying a heavy sac with 6 litres of water (do it any way but this!) A couple of times I went wrong which resulted in some awkward climbing and an extra abseil. The only thing I knew in advance was that one 50m rope was sufficient for the abseils. I was both physically and mentally exhausted by the time I reached Sligachen.

The next year I returned and did the Greater Traverse with 2 bivis, starting and finishing at Sligachen. To lighten the load I left the rope and harness behind and down climbed the abseils. When I reached the Bhasteir Tooth, the memory of the mantelshelf sent me the long way round!

I can honestly say that it is the finest adventure I have ever had and would say to you all DO IT!