Back along the Pentland Skyline again after a year

Mark, who's looking decidedly portly in this picture, shows us the route to the Skyline!

The push up West Kip which is probably 3 times steeper than this photo depicts!

Made it to the top of Scald Law, highest of the Pentland Hills.

Near the top of Black Hill this morning, Sunday.

 

A short rest on the cairn at the top of Black Hill.

Wednesday night saw Dougie, Marc, Mark and me have a go at the Pentland Skyline which we hadn't done for at least a year and it turned out to be quite eventful with Mad Max losing control on the loose stony track down from Scald Law and discover that flesh does not fare too well when it comes into sudden contact with loose rocks. After shedding a bit of blood he decided he was fit enough to continue, he'd have been ridiculed otherwise, and we managed to complete the trip without further damage to body or bike, though in my case I think it was down to sheer luck mainly.

This morning Baz and I went in search of the track up Black Hill, or at least the start of it, which we could see clearly on Wednesday night from the top of Scald Law but the mystery continues down at ground level. It's the Pentland equivalent to Brigadoon, maybe what we saw on Wednesday night was a figment of our imagination! Anyway after a hike a bike we came across the track and after a hard climb to the summit we were rewarded with a long steep descent to make up for it. 130+ miles this week and over 10000 feet of climbing to keep the years target in sight.