King Cobra - Sgurr Mhic Connich

King Cobra is one of them routes that everyone wants to climb yet nobody has. The reasons for this revolve mostly around the same circumstance, location. Hidden away from the traffic round in the upper Coruisk basin, the route sits on the upper buttress of Sgurr Mhic Connich's north face. Its first ascent was made by a somewhat famous duo in Tom Patey and Chris Bonington. It has long been on my radar but never a serious objective as until recently I simply wasn't good enough. Dave and myself had manged to pull off an ascent of The Steeple the previous week so were both climbing pretty well.

The Upper Buttress of Mhic Connich's North Face 

We approached through Coire Lagan then up to Bealach Mhic Connich. Leaving kit here we then headed down the Coruisk side of the ridge and looked for a terrace to cut in to the bottom of the cliff. After a couple of false attempts that led us to very steep dead ends, we eventually dropped right down and our cliff come into view.

Heading up to Bealach Mhic Connich

Dave fancied the crux second pitch so after scrambling up the easy ground at the start I led up an initial easy corner. The crux pitch found Dave traversing into a 'bottomless corner' which he then climbed. It was short but sustained and Dave made a good job of it. From the top of the pitch life was good. We were on one of the most spectacular cliffs in Scotland and we had it to ourselves. The northern half of the Cullin ridge provided an immense back drop to the vast rocky depths of Coruisk below us. It was a warm summers day and we had just nailed the crux of our route. Now I just had to led a couple of easier pitches and that would be us.

Dropping down the Coruisk side of the ridge

The next pitch was an easy but gearless 15m of 4b. As stated in the guidebook there is no belay at the top so I done the logical thing and started up the next pitch which was 30m and 5a. My world changed in an instant. I found myself on steep vertical finger cracks. fair at the grade but I really wasn't ready for them. I got up them and found myself below a wet corner. I got a good runner in here and extended it. The way ahead was painfully obvious. Off to my left was a steep slab with small holds and no gear. The pitch to here had trended to the right and now the moves up this slab went out onto very exposed ground above the lower cliff. 

Dave seconding the 5a pitch

I moved very carefully up this creeping further and further away from my last runner. I reached a wet crimp and could breathe a little. I looked far left to where I would have to traverse. my only potential gear as well as my next holds consisted of very loose looking flakes. they were too far for me to test them but I stretched over and put a nut in behind one of them. It was my only bit of gear for a long way and as this dodgy looking flake was my next handhold. All my eggs were now in one basket. I committed to the flake and it held. An easy couple of juggy moves followed then I was atop an  impressive perch. 

Dave on the final pitch

From the perch I took a minute to gather myself and started laughing. While the climbing was not desperate it had been a very intimidating pitch and a fall in the upper part was not an option. I spent some time getting a belay I was happy with and finally brought Dave up. I was glad to find to he also found the pitch exciting. He remarked after I gave him the beta on the wet crimp "if you were glad to get to this wet crimp you must have been in a very dark place".

Dave on Vulcan Wall

Dave led on up from the perch to the top up pretty easy ground. From here we headed back to Bealach Mhic Connich then decided we had time to nip up Vulcan wall to finish the day off. I had failed on Vulcan wall a few years back so it was good to finally get another go at it, It is also west facing so gets the evening sun. We headed round the ridge over Thearlaich and Alisdair to the top of the Sgumain stone shoot We then dropped down and geared up at the base of the wall. Dave led the first pitch which I had led previously giving me the second. I topped out in time to get eaten alive by midges and we then raced down into Glen Brittle.