UKH

Anyone done it?

How does it compare with say the Cuillin Ridge in terms of commitment, difficulty etc?

In reply to Trangia:

The weather is far more predictable and it's much shorter. This all means needing to carry less spare kit / food / water. However, once on it, there are no easy short cuts to getting off. Here's a little more info about the Bernia: http://www.mountain-journeys.co.uk/ridge-traverses--easy-climbs.html

The rock fax guide for the area now includes the ridge and it's very good (the guide and the ridge).

Mark

In reply to Trangia:

Straightforward, couple of abseils and a short bolted section. Great day out though, would happily do it again.
Some of our shots here - http://www.prog99.com/Holidays/Bernia%20Ridge%20-%20November%202010/index.h...

I think we used Ryans guide(archived below) but there are also the usual continental paint marks along the route.
http://web.archive.org/web/20120722043245/http://www.ryanglass-mountaineeri...

In reply

Many thanks for the advice. I was walking last week in the Sierra Aitana and looking out over the ridge from the summits of Puig Campana and Aitana. It looks fantastic and I am planning to go back and do it.

In reply to Mike-W-99:

I used Ryan Glass's guide as mentioned. Probably best to do it East to West first time round like most other folk but do not start mid way, walk on good track/path past far East summit first then traverse this and all the tops E -W.

The Red dots have all been placed for traversing this way ! My only minor criticism of Ryans guide is he is a bit vague about differentiating between tracks you could drive on and narrow paths thro the undergrowth.

Thread on here about doing it W-E a couple of years back " bernia ridge backwards ? "

Enjoyable day out , I would compare it to walking up to the TD gap and doing the crossing of this only then back to Glen Brittle. All the Cuillin ridge is probably about 4-5 times the effort.

Watch out for the Bulls.

In reply to Trangia:

It's a great day out, but I was hoping for a bit more exposed scrambling. Don't bother with trad gear, one short pitch, one (maybe two if you aren't confident) abseil and plenty of exposed scrambling (especially on the first half of the ridge). The final walk to he summit goes on, even the false summits have false summits.

http://mp-m.uk/dpmaD

In reply to Trangia:




This was pretty much our experience when we did the route at New Year. It is a fantastic day out, with some great views and positions, and highly recommended, but I was slightly disappointed by the ease of most the scrambling (and most of the second half of the ridge is more of a walk). There a few exposed spots, particularly early on, but on the whole the scrambling is technically much easier than the Cuillin Ridge. Oddly some of the easier scrambling sections later on had been equipped with cables/ropes.

Car to car it took us 7 hours as a party of four. I've never tried to do the whole of the Cuillin Ridge in one go, but I reckon I'd be pushing it to complete that in two days.

It is worth a slight detour to crawl through the tunnel near the start of the ridge into the Lost World on the other side

In reply to CathS:

It is worth a slight detour to crawl through the tunnel near the start of the ridge into the Lost World on the other side

We did the walk all round the ridge and through the tunnel, amazing walk, next time we plan to do the ridge proper!