Ben Vorlich & Stuc a' Chroin

[Fudgie]

Our original plan was to do An Caisteal and Beinn a' Chroin but when Derek picked me up this morning, he suggested something else as we had both read on here about the seemingly never ending bog on the way in and the way out. He had done Ben Vorlich & Stuc a' Chroin twice before and suggested them as there is a path from to to bottom. I was happy enough with this and we arrived at the car park after 9am and were off and walking at half past. Within ten minutes I had a text from a friend on An Caisteal who said they had only gone 100ft and were already squelching their way through a bog so it looked to be the right decision already.

The walk up was pretty uneventful and we reached the top of Ben Vorlich in just over two hours with most of the walk done in the cloud. As we walked from the trig point to the cairn the cloud parted and we were treated to a fantastic, and very brief, view of the cloud covering the rest of the landscape. We chatted to a few folk who reached the trig point just after us and weren't heading on to the second munro. After heading back into the cloud we reached the summit of Stuc a' Chroin a short while later and I actually enjoyed the scrambling part before the walk along the ridge.

We were conscious that time was marching on and we didn't plan to stay too long here but as we were about to pack our stuff away, the clouds vanished for a few minutes and we had a wonderful view South and West with only one or two tops sticking out above the cloud. We went down by a different route and walked round the side of both mountains meeting up with the main path about a thrid of the way down from the summit of Ben Vorlich. It was quite a boggy route at times but it was better than going back the way we came and we were back at the car in no time.

It took me about fifteen years to do five munro's and I've now done five in three weeks. I've definitely got the bug I took my DSLR along but left my filters at home which meant I didn't get the shots I wanted. There's always next time. One or two of the photo's below are from my camera, the other few are from my phone. Also, when I buy gaiters, it's probably best to wear them as the last picture shows





Ben Vorlich trig point


Stuch a' Chroin cairn






Are the clouds going down, or is the hill going up?

[jwramsay]

You're An Caisteal in the head as you've named one of your photos!

Nice Broken Spectre and a great inversion.

The walk out from An Caisteal & the one behind is a total bog fest BTW

[Fudgie]

You're An Caisteal in the head as you've named one of your photos!

Nice Broken Spectre and a great inversion.

The walk out from An Caisteal & the one behind is a total bog fest BTW

That should be it sorted now

Cheers and I can see An Caisteal being left for quite a while.

[michaelmcp]

Good man, and yep An Caisteal was a bogfest, much more so on the way down as we took the "short-cut" back down from An Caisteal ( slow progress of our kids meant we had no time to go on and do Beinn a' Chroin).

We had some decent breaks in the weather but as is typically the case, it was mostly on the way down !!!

[Huck Finn]

Good pics, great you take your DSLR, it takes me all my time to carry myself up the hills without humping my camera, so I leave it at home, Wish my camera kit was not so heavy.

[Fudgie]

Good pics, great you take your DSLR, it takes me all my time to carry myself up the hills without humping my camera, so I leave it at home, Wish my camera kit was not so heavy.

It was only a body and one lens with me but it was still fairly heavy. It didn't leave the bag at all until the second summit and until the clouds opened up, I was starting to think it was a waste of time. I'll need to take my filters next time as the sky is a bit washed out in those pictures.

I had packed my waterproof jacket and trousers yesterday and I'm delighted to say that they never left the bag. I would say thats a pretty good achievement on a Munro in November

[Huck Finn]

I put mu jacket on as a wind break at one stage yesterday, but what a great change on this time last year

Nov 2010 vs Nov 2011

[Fudgie]

We've had two good weekends for it and I found the temperature yesterday ideal. Even the wind wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.