Factor 50 and cold feet on Ben Vane

[budvarone]

Taking advantage of the excellent forecast, we, headed up to Loch Lomond, arriving at the visitor centre at Inveruglas at 8.30, the car park was already quite busy with tourist buses and walkers. The scenery around Loch Lomond was stunning,but we didn't hang about for too long, we were planning on spending our day climbing the Bens Vane and Vorlich, so we set off.

Looking down Loch Lomond, with a cloudy Ben Lomond on the left.

It was already pretty warm and I appreciated the brief moments of shade provided by the trees on the path from the car park, I usually forget sun screen and a hat but had remembered both this time, I'd applied liberal quantities of sun screen to my face, but not to my arms as I'd already rubbed them with midge repellent, and I wasn't sure what the effect, if any, of combining the two would be!
After a couple of miles we turned left and crossed the bridge, and had cracking views of A' Chrois directly in front of us.

A' Chrois and Neil

We soon left the road and headed up the hillside following a narrow path. I'd read that the first part of the path was pretty boggy, have to say I didn't find it too bad, perhaps the sun had dried the worse parts!

The real work starts now!

First sight of Sloy Dam.

Following the path we crossed a level area but soon started to gain height, and as we did the views around us opened up and as usual I brought up the rear due to my stopping every 5 minutes to take a pic, but it was such a fantastic day, I couldn't let the opportunity slip by.

Gaining height.

Starting to get interesting!

The path so far.

Looking over to the path up Ben Vorlich.

Getting a bit more hands on now.

Quite steep now, cracking views tho'

Looking across to the summit of Ben Vorlich.

I'd read about the false summits but I'd neglected to find out how many there actually were, and as we scrambled steadily upwards I kept thinking that the end was in sight only to be disappointed that there was another, much higher, part to negotiate, this disappointment was very brief as I was REALLY enjoying myself, I'd done a wee bit of scrambling on The Cobbler and on Narnain, but nothing like this...I loved it!

Making steady progress

Reaching the top of another false summit

The final summit eventually came into sight....

A' Chrois and the path.

Two and a half hours after leaving the car park, we reached the summit, and the views were fantastic...makes it all worth it!

Beinn Narnain, The Cobbler and Beinn Ime

Our summit shot

Looking across to Loch Katrine.

Our original plan was to leave the summit, head straight down to the dam and go straight up Ben Vorlich from there, so after applying more factor 50, we started our descent, however, after having a recky at our proposed route down, we decided against it and made our way back down the way we came up. Once back on the road we decided that as we were all nearly out of water (and also knackered!) we'd shelve our plan to go for Vorlich and leave it for another day. We did decide to walk up to the dam to end the day, and set off up the road. I'll admit now that I don't like cattle, so when we saw some on the road ahead, I chickened out and said I'd head back to the car park, and about turned, leaving the others to walk on to the dam. I'd been walking back for about 15 mins when I saw a "comfy" looking rock at the side of the road, so still having some of my lunch and a TINY drop of Lucozade left, I stopped here, sat on the rock ate my lunch, and waited on the others to return. There was a wee burn next to the rock and it looked SO cool and inviting, so the boots and socks came off and the feet went in....BLISS!!!

Sloy Dam

My feet..in a cold burn...fantastic!

The guys turned up just as I was drying my feet and we made our way back down to Inveruglas, OK, we didn't manage Ben Vorlich, but we'd had a great day, we'll be back soon to complete our original plan, hopefully there'll be no coos around then!

[Katrina]

I was coming down off Vorlich and I seen you guys heading towards the dam, I thought you were a crowd of young 'uns going for a swim lol. I ran out of water also, I had to ask the power station security guard for a refill I think everyone had a dunk in that stream Crackin day!

[dtr42]

the security guy is realy helpful [think he must get asked for water 20-30 times a day ]he should set up a stall with hot dogs and cold beer/juice he would make a fortune

[budvarone]

I thought about asking him for water as we walked back to the car park, but when we reached his hut it was shut! The overpriced Irn Bru I bought at the cafe at the car park was the best one I've tasted EVER!!! It didn't touch the sides!

[dtr42]

i have an ice box i keep my juice in in the car so when i come back my 49p irn bru tastes even better lol