The First Munro, Bla Bheinn 929m

Wow, what an adventure. Was an epic first Munro with so much emotions to process...

It was my first Munro, and a pretty sketchy one indeed. We started off this journey with a late night hike into the Isle of Skye towards our campsite. It was a beautiful coastal site with the prominent peak right behind us. That was the munro, Bla Bheinn.

The team comprised of Jonny, Maddie, Amina, Manas and myself. We set off early the next morning to tackle this mountain :) Started off with a gentle climb up the grassland as we trekked towards the rocky areas where we had to scramble up. There were so many false summits. We eventually had a short break on a peak (which we though was the summit haha)

We saw people at the far end and we realised, it wasn't the peak. This led to one of the more exhilarating part of the journey where we had to scramble along a mountain cliff with a verticle drop to access the true summit. And yep we eventually made it to the summit of Bla Bleinn.

We had ran out of water and we had to take the same traverse twice in order to head down to a stream. After a trekking down a scree with loose rocks we eventually reached a stream. After refreshing ourselves at the lake, we realised there is a longgg journey back to the the first campsite. After a few chocolate cookies, we soon marched back to our first campsite in high spirits :)

Well, we thought this was the end of the journey...NOPE HAHA! We realised that the tide has risen, the bridge to our second campite is gone, and we needed to cross the river. It getting dark, and we were warned of the bad step on the way to the bothy. After scouting around, we found a shallow region where we managed to traverse across the river.

Wow, that was a sigh of relief. But gosh, the coastal traverse was steep and we were on all fours trying to get across the slopes. It was getting dark and we thought we were done with the bad step.

Welps, we were wrong again! A large boulder lay between us and the path. We stood there, in shock...so many thoughs flashed through our minds. Should we turn back? But we have no reception, we have no means of contacting the rest of the club. They will have to send mountain rescue if we were gone. Should we continue? But its very risky to traverse such a section at night, something might happen.

Yep...we decided to take that risk. I really admire Jonny for his courage. He scrambled up that rock and scouted forward. It was a long section. I felt afraid then, it was my first time on such terrain. We down to 4 headlamps, a friend with a bad knee and very steep slopes that could send us plunging 15m into the sea. It took us much courage to traverse this section at night. We stuck together as a team under Jonny's leadership as he shuttled us across the section of slopes.

I remember that there was a section that I lost my footing. That moment, Amina and Manas managed to grab hold of me and pulled me up. It was a slew of emotions, fearful, thankful and in shock. But I was so so so thankful that they caught hold of me. That hug then really gave a huge sense of assurance.

I could remember everyone in the team was rather fearful. But Jonny stayed composed leading us across. It was a team effort, as we encouraged each other through difficult times and we eventually made it across.

But we weren't out of the woods yet, we still needed to navigate to the bothy. It was dark and our minds were on fight of flight mode. But soon, we saw 2 specks of light in the distance. It was someone looking for us! That light reignited our sense of hope and gave us the strength to push on. We soon linked up with Santi and Noah who were the president and secretary of the mountaineering club. It was such a huge relief to see them and we know that we are gonna be safe...

That day I am really really really glad to be alive haha. This experience taught me that confidence is a state of mind and its important to not let fear control our body. Sometimes being confident can really be that fine line between life and death. Really admire how Jonny stayed so calm through this entire expedition. He took control of the danger areas and kinda gave us the confidence to pull through all the sketchy terrain. This time we really owe each other our lives, most importantly we made it back safe :)

Was glad that God kept us safe through the journey. We were with a right group of people who didn't give up when things were tough and really gave each other the trust and emotional support to power through difficult times. Sometimes even simple hug or a pat on the back really makes a difference...

My first munro, but a real sketchy one...But one that I will always remember. Will this stop me from scaling more munros? Nope! I guess each climb has it lessons. And I am very glad that whoever is up there has kept us safe despite the many challenges.

1/282 Munros Done :)