Ben Vorlich (Loch Lomond) second ascent.

[quagga64]

Having seen a nice sunny day forecast for today I decided to head down to the Lake District and do a circuit taking in Fleetwith Pike, Haystacks, High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike in Buttermere, however with the rucksack packed, routes all printed and alarm set for 4:30, I couldn,t sleep and was still awake at 3:30 despite having been up since 5:30 that morning ! I reset the alarm and got up at 9:30 instead and rather than let the preparations go to waste I quickly decided on a re-ascent of Ben Vorlich at Loch Lomond as a Plan B. Set off at 10 along the M8 and across the Erskine Bridge and was at the Inveruglas car park for 11:20, booted up and paid £4 for all day parking then set off at 11:25. It was a lovely sunny day as forecast and although I didn,t have a walk route printed out I knew it was a pretty straightforward route even though I,d got lost the last time I climbed it in November 2011, back then it was a terrible day with howling winds and thick mist on the tops and I,d only managed to take about 8 photos as I was so cold and wet hence I had always planned a re-ascent someday. Lots of construction work going on up the tarmac road which heads up the glen to the Sloy Dam but I was soon past it and this time I had no problem in spotting the well built boulder staircase heading steeply up the side of Ben Vorlich,s flanks. On my last visit 10 years ago I hadn,t met anyone as I scrambled up the steep grassy slopes having missed the path due to the awful weather conditions, on this occasion I must have passed about 20 to 30 people making their way down as I was making my ascent, one guy with a big golden retriever called Buster had done all the munros three times ! The climb was pretty exhausting and I stopped for plenty of rests, god knows how I managed last time where I didn,t find the path till I was four fifths of the way up ! It was a relief to finally reach the summit ridge from where it was an easy walk along the broad grassy top all the way to the trig pillar with great views all around especially looking back to Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond. Over on my left was Ben Vane and the rest of The Arrochar Alps and over to the right I could see Ben More and the other Crianlarich munros and Loch Arklet. The actual summit is a hundred yards beyond the trig point and marked by a large cairn, here disaster struck as I smashed the screen on my Galaxy S9 phone while I had it on the tripod taking my summit selfie,s, the wind picked up as I was about to sit by the cairn and as the tripod wobbled I rushed over to grab it but was a split second too late and it landed screen down on a big flat slab of rock breaking the screen. At least I only use this phone as a camera on my walks and is not my main phone which is my Galaxy S9 Plus which I bought a couple of months ago. Didn,t bother with anything to eat at the summit as it was pretty cold, I had put my hat and gloves on since gaining the ridge, and so I headed off back down the same way and this time only passed one other couple coming up behind me. Watched the shepherds and dogs driving a large flock of sheep down the glen off Ben Vane as I neared the bottom of the stone staircase but apart from that the walk back was uneventful. Reached the car at 5:30 so a walk time of 6 hours 5 minutes and an hour before it gets dark. Missed the cut off for the Erskine Bridge on the way back and instead came all the way through Clydebank and Glasgow before getting onto the M74 at the Kingston Bridge, got home about 7:30 so it didn,t add too much time onto the journey.