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I'd hoped to go up here last Saturday - but the weather was not permitting. Then I tried yesterday but my car malfunctioned on the road up, so it seemed like there was some kind of force preventing me getting to climb these hills. I'd also been a bit anxious about how to get up Stuc a'Chroin in the snow - that prow thing looked a little fearsome to a novice like me...did read through the various reports on here and didn't have the best of night's sleep thinking about it
Anyway - forecast was reasonable - a little fresh snow in the morning and moderate winds, so I got going about 7.30 and made it along to the parking beside Ardvorlich Estate just after nine. There were a few others there setting off to, so at least there would be other souls out and about if anything did happen
File1039 by
23weasels, on Flickr
After walking through the Estate path the hills all around, and the path were covered in 1-2 inches of new snow. My legs were a bit sore from my exertions up Binnien an Fhidhlier yesterday, but pressed on. Began to see the outline of Vorlich against the heavy sky.
File1043 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Met a woman who told me she was waiting for a party coming up, two of whom were going to get married at the top of Vorlich! Nice day for a white wedding, anyway
Not that far after the path splits it became increasingly icy under the snow and by the time I was about two thirds of the way up had to put the crampons on. There were good views back to the hills up to the North
File1051 by
23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
File1055 by
23weasels, on Flickr
and it was good to see a lack of clag at the top for a change, although the sky was leaden coloured. As I reached the last haul up Vorlich, met one of these runner blokes coming down - amazing
Made the summit of Vorlich in 2 hours and had a wee look round - didn't want to cool down too much.
File1069 by
23weasels, on Flickr
File1071 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Looking over to SaC...
File1076 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Cairn to N of Vorlich top
At this point I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to attempt SaC, but did decide to walk down to the bealach to have a closer inspection. It's quite a drop in height, following the metal fence posts.
File1080 by
23weasels, on Flickr
File1082 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Stopped to have a roll and consider what to do in a sheltered spot near the base, with a good look onto "the Prow".
File1084 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Plus a wee look back up at Vorlich
File1088 by
23weasels, on Flickr
I did have a route up on my GPS, but I reckoned it would be quite hard to follow in the snow - I also thought about going off round the WSW and climbing up the steepish route out of the corrie, but from the way the wind had been blowing I was worried that there was going to be quite a bit of cornicing at the top. So I thought I'd give the prow route a go - what's the worst that could happen
It looked a bit steeper from the bottom than when I'd been looking over at it on the way down Vorlich. Initially I did try and see where the GPS route was going to take me, but I found that too challenging to look at whilst I was going up, and I wasn't keen on heading for the rocks that were sticking out of the snow as there was no telling how difficult they were going to be to get around - I didn't fancy scrambling over the rocks in crampons. So I thought the direct route was called for and decided to front point it straight up. The snow was well frozen and was taking my weight well - this was the first time I'd been out in my G12 crampons and thought I'd see how they fared. Pretty tiring, but didn't feel too scared unless I looked down
File1092 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Most of the way up...
Think it was actually easier to go up in this kind of snow than in non-snow conditions.
By the time I pulled myself over the edge and could walk on horizontal as opposed to what felt like nearly vertical stuff in bits I was exhilarated and did let out a small squeak of joy at getting up there
File1094 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Again great views back to Vorlich and down the steep North side of SaC.
File1096 by
23weasels, on Flickr
File1098 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Headed over to the cairns along the ridge -
File1100 by
23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
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23weasels, on Flickr
another walker was just leaving as I was arriving, having presumably come up the south route, so I had the top to myself.
File1109 by
23weasels, on Flickr
To put the icing on the cake, got a double raven flyover as I walked from the North to the South cairn - yay!
File1114 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Headed along to the descent route which heads down a steep gully (marked with a cairn at the top) from the West aspect of SaC. This gave me plenty of practice about how to walk steep downhill with crampons on - truly a day of learning for me!.
File1126 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Side of the prow of SaC
File1118 by
23weasels, on Flickr
File1119 by
23weasels, on Flickr
Another view of Prow of SaC
File1127 by
23weasels, on Flickr
And the full length:
File1131 by
23weasels, on Flickr
File1133 by
23weasels, on Flickr
The WH route contours round a NW outcrop of Vorlich which does save on distance compared with going down into the flat areas nearer Glen Ample, but was hard going on the legs in a mixture of powdery and hard frozen snow - seemed to go on for miles! Finally got back in sight of the return path, with a few walkers heading down. Trek back to the car was uneventful if a bit slippy in places - had to resort to eating snow as my reservoir tube had frozen solid
and I was quite thirsty after that walk. Snow was starting to fall (lightly) as I got back to the car for just before 3pm.
Gates out to the road
File1137 by
23weasels, on Flickr
{ I did have some pics of the adventure, but gutted to find that they're corrupted on the SD card after I viewed them once
- if anyone has any tips for trying to restore such things, I'd be most grateful, otherwise imagination will have to suffice - Ha - downloaded some fancy software that fixed that problem}.
Felt really good about today - one of these times when you know you've tested yourself a little by doing something that challenged you a bit and it went OK