Our best Advanced Camp to date ran over the second May bank holiday weekend. This time it was the Isle of Skye, the jaw-dropping Cuillin ridge and some incredible adventures with a very special set of people.

The Team: Ed, Matt, Neal, Grant, Erez, Peter, James, Ollie, Danny, Adam, Jack, Rupert, David, Alex and Max.

Heathrow
Heathrow Terminal 1 was the place to be on Friday night. Everybody was at least 20 minutes early (for a change), so we were able to check-in and have an easy life at the airport.

BA
British Airways provided our flights from London to Glasgow. We were easily the noisiest people on the plane, and the business travellers might consider flying with somebody else next time. Seriously though our flights were on time, comfortable and the scouts loved the free food and drinks. We'll fly with them again.

Through the night
We decided to drive all the way to Sligachan from Glasgow, with just a brief stop in Fort William. This did not take as long as expected, but still saw us arriving at our campsite at 4am. Luckily the bus was comfy enough for everybody but the drivers to catch up on some sleep.

Sheep in the road
The Isle of Skye has quick well designed A-roads that you can make surprisingly swift progress on. This is until you go around a blind corner and a sheep is sleeping across the middle of the road. And won't move. Even when you honk the horn. Right next to it. We decided to slow down and spare it, but Skye has to have the most blaze sheep about road safety. We blame the farmers for not drilling home the green cross code.

4am tents
We rolled into Sligachan Campsite at 4am on Saturday morning, following a long drive by minibus from Glasgow. A few folks were getting up for an early breakfast and an early start, but we fought the wind and got our tents up quite quickly ready for a good morning's sleep.

Portree
The scouts arose early, despite their unusual bedtime and were wanting things to do other than disrupt the leaders sleep by being noisy. We all headed to Portree to go shopping for food and last-minute kit purchases, before hitting an exhibition about the island's sea eagle population and the magnificent Cuillin ridge. It was interesting, dry and had a tea room, which we spent a bit of time in, mainly so Rupert could put ice creams on his head.

Coastal Hike
To shake down, we took a short jaunt along the costal path from Portree towards Trotternish and admire the cliffs and sea views. We scrambled to the cliff tops and enjoyed the scenery before retiring to the Sligachan hotel for a fun-packed evening of chat and to plan the next day's mountaineering.

Sgurr Nan Gillean
For our first mountain day we were joined by our regular mountain instructor Andy Brown. Andy and his partner in climb (get it?, sorry) Sandy orchestrated a route up the South East ridge to the summit of Sgurr Nan Gillean (or Peak of the Young Men in english). This was a grade 3 scramble up a precarious ridge which was very exciting. We roped several sections and had some interesting moves across slabs at the top above big drops to achieve the summit. It even snowed at the top to complete the most interesting mountain day we have ever done. Sun, snow, hail, rain, sleet, cloud, winds and calm all presented themselves and we finished the ascent with a long abseil to the path home.

Boat Charter
On a very sunny bank holiday monday we chartered a fishing boat from Elgol to take us to Loch Coruisk at the heart of the Cuillin mountains. This saved us a very long walk across the coast and gave us a unique view and perspective of the island and the hills. Our legs appreciated it as much as our eyes.

Dubhs Ridge
The Dubhs Ridge is the longest scramble in the UK and it has to be said is quite simply stunning. The views are amazing and the scrambling itself is sublime. It's on gabbro - the grippiest rock in the world, and had slabs to crawl your way up and several rope sections. We made incredible time to the top that did not involve a slip from anyone. This was mountaineering at its best and all fo the scouts did superbly to make such an accomplished ascent. Absolutely exhausted, we returned to the boat home to admire the views of what we had just completed.

The Slig
Opposite the campsite is the Sligachan Hotel, or Slig as those in the know called it. We took everybody here for a well deserved meal. The scouts had cooked their own food for the rest of the weekend so were worthy of a little treat. We tucked into local seafood, pasta and heary portions of chips to provide everybody with energy for our final hill day. We were joined by Andy, Sandy and Jay for a little refreshment and it was great to celebrate the story so far together.

Sgurr Alistair
Our final mountain day was to the highest peak on Skye, Sgurr Alistair. A long slog and slightly scary scramble (all well protected!) got us to a saddle below the summit. We decided here to head down to the valley due to time pressure, which was a shame, but ultimately the sensible and right decision. It also meant we could have a fun descent next to a waterfall, enjoy a cave and a climb, to skim stones and jump into a beautiful lake at the bottom. It was also the hottest day of the year and we saw the island in its full glory which is something we will always remember.

Midgetastic
The midges were not as bad as they could have been. But they were still bad. Fortunately we stocked up on midge cream and headnets so were okay, but it is part of the Scottish way after all.

Haunted Hostel
We stayed our final night north of the border at Loch Lomond Youth Hostel, a converted castle overlooking the lake. It was great and is actually haunted. Despite keeping their cameras under the pillow all night, the scouts were slightly disappointed not to get a visit from the resident ghost during the night.

Jet Ski Off
Unfortunately we had to cancel our jet skiing session on the final day due to the rain. The scouts were very mature about it and did not complain. However the good news is that we have managed to rearrange a replacement session on the south coast instead, so all is not lost.

Swim
We had a great day despite our jet ski disappointment by visiting the swimming pool in Greenock. This involved slides, wave machines, tube rides and a general sense of being clean. Lovely.

Bowl
We followed this with a quick bowling session at Clydebank Megabowl. We clearly have some King Pins in the group, as we've never seen so many strikes in 90 minutes. Or they're just lucky!

72nd Glasgow
Thanks again to Jim and Robert at 72nd Glasgow, who provided us with stoves for the scouts who needed them to cook on. Along with their ever-essential advice and help whenever we visit Scotland.

Home
It was finally time to head home and we got to the airport in good time to relax and have a pleasant flight home. At Heathrow we all met the parents and people were relieved to go home for a sleep, wash and to relive the memories from a most excellent adventure.

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P.S.
Some things that will mean nothing except to the people who were there:
"There's a good Bernard above your right hand"
"You can't go shopping"
"Get a strike!"
"I'm not going anywhere until I've had my Rocky"
"Calm down, you're getting cross"
The access ramp on the back of the bus
Flattest tyre in the world
"Whose turn is it to carry the rope?"