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Went up a mountain and down a hill

Went up a mountain and down a hill


Postby AJMullen » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:12 am

Route description: Ben Vorlich via Loch Sloy

Munros included on this walk: Ben Vorlich (Loch Lomond)

Date walked: 03/04/2011

Time taken: 4 hours

Distance: 13.5 km

Ascent: 945m

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The weather forecast for this walk never looked promising all week and didn't let durquhart and myself down. Made good time and got to Inveruglas car park early in the day. Due to the outlook I decided to suit up in my waterproofs from the off, it didn't take durquhart long to tog up
001.JPG
Promising start

We headed up for Sloy dam, firstly disagreeing whether it was left or right at the substation. Left we went on Urquhart's recommendation (and was right :) ). The next decision was finding the cairn and the path up, to all you who haven't done this trust your instincts. We walked right by the start with Sloy dam impressively in the back drop.
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Hope there's no cracks.

Meeting a father and son we pondered which was the right way up. We chose the service ramp just under 1km from the dam itself.
P030411_12.01.jpg
The wrong way

P030411_12.01_[01].jpg
Turn back the cairn is now on the left

So on we went hoping to find the path further up, as it was a steep start we went on hopeful.
P030411_12.08.jpg
Felt like 2 steps forward 1 back

P030411_12.11.jpg
A wee surprise

It was relentless and just got steeper and steeper as we climbed, still with no clear path the higher we climbed.
P030411_12.57.jpg
No rest!!!

P030411_12.57_[01].jpg
Loosing sight

P030411_13.08_[01].jpg
Still no path

About half way up the side of the mountain climb we did have a wee chance of a rest and a cup of tea, just in time for the rain to start again :).
010.JPG
Thankful for the rest and tea

Got to a point climbing up this I was thinking, no praying please have another way down I knew we wouldn't make it safely back this way. And as we reached what looked like the ridge, with me trailing at the back we could see others walking by. There was no way they came up the same way as us. I scrambled up the last and my prayers were answered.
P030411_13.19.jpg
Thank God we made it

Once on the right path we were only about 20 mins away from the summit. So we had a wee nosy at the path down before we headed for the trig point.
022.JPG
Finally a path!

P030411_13.37.jpg
and finally views on loch Sloy

So we pressed on and once we reached the summit the wind had picked up to gail force so a quick pic then back down as quick as we could
P030411_13.58_[01].jpg
durquhart

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me AJMullen

Once back down we could look back and be thankful for the excitement but no incidents. Taken a few photo's to show you who have still to climb Vorlich.
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The cairn marking the start

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A stream runs under the cairn

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The path is behind this boulder about 10ft up

Anyone honest enough to admit they made the same mistake, go on fess up. Anyway hope you enjoy :)
Last edited by AJMullen on Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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AJMullen
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby durquhart » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:08 am

It was a challange for my first munro. Glad we found the trail when we got to the top as i didnt fancy sliding back down on my bum the way we had went up. :lol:
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby ChrisW » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:01 pm

Great report but looked like bloody hard work :shock: :D
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby Craiging619 » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:44 pm

Great report and thanks for the visual clarification with the path, I'm bound to end up there one day. Think you took one for the team by losing (then finding) it!
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby the_running_man » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:33 pm

Did this a few Sundays ago for the 2nd time so knew where the path started. It's an unrelenting initial climb but well worth it.

And remember that the trig point isn't the summit ;)
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby rockhopper » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:19 pm

Nice trip there despite the weather. It's always a bit depressing when you start off with good weather and then it turns - wouldn't be Scotland otherwise I guess 8)

AJMullen wrote:So on we went hoping to find the path further up, as it was a steep start we went on hopeful.
It was relentless and just got steeper and steeper as we climbed, still with no clear path the higher we climbed.
Yup - you just seem to turn right and then go straight up :shock: Always seems to be windy on top of this hill :lol:
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby Fudgie » Wed May 04, 2011 3:56 pm

Cheers for posting the location of the cairn. I've been thinking about doing this for a while (I've walked up that road but climbed Ben Vane instead) so hopefully I'll be able to find the path that everybody misses :D
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Re: Went up a mountain and down a hill

Postby Johnny Corbett » Wed May 04, 2011 8:57 pm

There is a small cairn on the road up to indicate the start of the climb and the trig point is 941m with the summit about 50metres further north at 943m, so you guys might have to do it al again :D
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