The views from Gars-bheinn are spectacular and worth the walk just to be there. A couple of minutes admiring and photographing them and at 11:05am our traverse of the ridge began. We passed the 'group of five' soon after and they, like us, were travelling light having dumped their sacks on the ridge above Coire a Ghrunnda. Part way up Nan Eag we caught up with the two we had passed earlier. They were taking a rest but continued when we reached them and tried to keep up with us. This they managed, with some difficulty, until the summit as we were travelling light and they were heavily loaded. It was midday as we took photos on the summit of Sgurr nan Eag and drank the last of our ½ litre of water. It had been just, and only just, enough not least because the sun was shining brightly and it felt quite warm. Then we quickly threaded our way down towards the bealach. We passed two more groups of two people, both of which were out for the day. Just before we reached our rucksacks we passed a 'dump' of sacks from the groups we had just seen and the 'group of five'. By the time we found ours it was 12:25 and we were feeling hungry after an early breakfast! We decided it was time for lunch and took off our boots to dry our feet and socks while we eat our sandwiches. We expected the two heavily laden 'traversers' and the 'group of five' to catch and pass us at this point but nobody did before we set off again half an hour later. We skirted Caisteal a Garb-choire and climbed Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn. (Here we encountered some other walkers coming from the opposite direction who were heading out to Sgurr Dubh Mor. Although this is in itself an excellent scramble it is off of the ridge and adds about an hour to your time. This time we had planned to give it a miss. We had also decided that attempting the TD gap was not on our agenda. We had never climbed the TD gap and were not even sure we would be able to. It is relatively straight forward to contour around below it and then climb the west ridge of Sgurr Alasdair. This option does not involve any additional descent (the path contours at about 860m) and has the advantage of taking in Sgurr Alasdair which, whilst not strictly speaking on the ridge, is the highest peak in the Cuillin. We passed the bottom of the TD gap at around 2:00pm but could see no one in it or climbing it. It is apparently possible to climb (moderate) down out of it to the path we were on. Sixty metres below us, the highest spring on the ridge (at 800m) was clearly visible as a bright green patch (NG 450 206). If you ascend to the ridge without going via Coire a Ghrunnda then this is the place to replenish your water supply. We climbed to a point just below the lowest point on the west ridge of Sgurr Alasdair and then contoured back on ourselves to gain access to a chimney which is an interesting scramble. Upon exiting the top of the chimney I looked over and noticed a very large bird perched on the ridge. Although it looked completely black against the blue sky it was so large I surmised it may well have been and eagle particularly when it soared down out across the valley. From here a short scramble upwards brought us quickly to the summit of Sgurr Alasdair by 2:40pm.