First footing on Ben Vorlich

[tomyboy73]

A day in front of the tv with a bottle (or 6) of beer watching(should be screaming at) the old firm match is usually the done thing this time of year but with itchy feet and a limited number of days available when the wife is off work i decided to head for them hills, realising the result, madness and fallout text messages would still be the same regardless of whether i watched it or not would be the same anyway. So after contacting a few friends only myself and Jim O were up for some high jinks of the sober variety and headed off to Loch Lomond and the path to Loch Sloy intent on testing ourselves on Ben Vorlich and/or Ben Vane. We left the car about 10 o`clock and headed out towards the dam, passing the path to Vane we looked out for the cairn that would signal the start of the path up Vorlich. I walked Vorlich in september on a damp cloudy day, which resulted in the most obscure climb up and down this mountain which has probably ever been done, see http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7223. But although today was cold and grey, conditions overhead were excellent and and snow topped mountains were in clear view all around us. As i missed the cairn last time i was determined to find the path without any problems but we walked past the cairn as it had been flattened, probably by the local sheep who might be **** off by everyone walking all over their dinner. Realising our mistake after a couple of hundred yards we headed back to the ruined cairn but only after escaping the clutches of the local flesh eating giant caterpillars

giant caterpillar

Before heading up i decided to rebuild the cairn for any other weary walkers heading this way.

Cairn path

Although the big thaw has been on for a few days now the path up was immediately icy in patches and great care had to be taken so as not to fall and crack your skull.

icy !

As the path appeared and disappeared amongst the snow and ice we came across an unfortunate beast who had fallen victim to the caterpillars.

poor cow !

With our eyes pealed and our ears pricked for these ravenous beasts we headed up into a giant snowfield and equipped ourselves with hands and knees to tackle the wintry conditions.

well equipped

We eventually found Yeti`s big footprints and used these as our stairway to heaven(hopefully not literally)

The Yeti`s Staircase

We reached the top of the ridge and a passing crow told us that we were safe from the caterpillars up here but to watch out for their more dangerous allies, the giant fire breathing dragonflies of narnain !

Dragonfly

On the ridge we stopped for some tea and as the meat in my fridge was off and every shop in the land was still closed we had to share some Elven bread Jim and kept from his last trip to Mordor, to stave off our starvation. We had some great views to the west of Loch Lomond and were glad we had come up this way.

west

and back towards Arrochar

east

We had no milk for our tea but Jim insisted the fine white powder he had in a little bag would help instead and i began to wonder which one of us had watched too many movies. But throwing caution to the wind i tried it and it wasn`t worth it, remember kids, just say no. We then packed up our works and headed on up the mountain, Jim asking me if any of it was vaguely familiar to my last visit. I said "aye, there`s loads of grass and big rocks all over the place" he replied with "no, your last visit up here, not the seedy underworld you haunt on a saturday night!" . We then walked on in subdued silence up the rest of the hill carefully avoiding deep snow holes and ice covered rocks to find ourselves at the first summit cairn, when i realised the first time i came up i here that i almost walked around the whole mountain before reaching the top as i had arrived at the summit from a competely different angle as to now. We shook hands and as i turned around from taking in the magnificent views i found out Jim`s real reason for hostility. He secretly harboured jealousy about my early cairn building abilities and decided to build one of his own at the top!

Jim`s cairn

And he didn`t stop there, he then proceded to encase me in concrete !

concrete coat

He soon set me free and we made up again, shook hands and walked over to the other slightly higher cairn on the other side and i can quite honestly say the only similarities from this walk to my last up here are the top and bottom of the hill, but at least this time i had a good walking buddy with me and clear views in every direction.

top1

top2

top3

top4

top5

Only problem now was that we had to walk back down as we had forgotten our hang gliders and Jim advised me not to jump as Loch Sloy was still frozen over.

don`t jump !

Jim still slightly peeved that we couldn`t glide over to Ben Vane.

Jim

So we slipped and slid our way down on the snow and ice, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not and as we got to the bottom come 3 o`clock we reflected on a great day and my phone started going crazy as text after text came in telling me that my team had won to add the gloss to a great day`s walk.

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[skuk007]

Great report Tomy - you do have a bit of an imagination don't you - still it does take your mind off the long slog up Vorlich. Maybe you were still feeling the effects of the Xmas refresments?

P.S. We wuz robbed in that game.

[yorkie bagger]

Really funny report that - especially liked the photo where you were encased in concrete I'm hoping those poor creatures (caterpillar and dragonfly) weren't really there at this time of year and that they were old photos!

That thick ice on the path looked scary!

[tomyboy73]

:lol: Really funny report that - especially liked the photo where you were encased in concrete I'm hoping those poor creatures (caterpillar and dragonfly) weren't really there at this time of year and that they were old photos!

That thick ice on the path looked scary!

glad you liked it, the caterpillar was there although not the dragonfly. the real story can be found at
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=922908

[tomyboy73]

Great report Tomy - you do have a bit of an imagination don't you - still it does take your mind off the long slog up Vorlich. Maybe you were still feeling the effects of the Xmas refresments?

P.S. We wuz robbed in that game.

thanks, been reading to much lately, better luck to your team next time

[tomyboy73]

having a recap of this walk as we might be going up here next sunday, what a lot of bull i used to write !