My 1st Munro ! Ben Vorlich , Loch Earn

[steven65]

At last my 1st munro aged 44 yrs and i was as excited as any youngster would have been on the same event. We had planned to go on Sunday 25 / 4 , but Saturday suited better. So off we went nice & early at 5.10 am me picking up my mates Steven & Davie en route. We arrived at Ardvorlich at 630 am , trainers off boots on, hat on ,back pack on and away we went. A lovely smokey smell from the overnight fishermens fire filled the air - but no smell of burning sausages though , i was using my newly bought sticks which i think are great. It wasnt` cold at all and we were hopefull that the mist would burn off as the weather was to brighten up .Wrong. Anyway on we went stopping occasionally for a breather and to try and admire the view behind and below us. We saw 2 white hares - separately - which i thought was a great thing to see.Towards the top the mist/clouds kept rolling in and then clearing away with the odd blue sky clear spot. The last 20 feet were a wee bit dodgy due to the snow,but Steven had his ice axe - just incase - so he kicked out some foot holds and we carefully made our way to the summit. I circled around the cairn/triangulation point with my hand on top of it , proud of my achievement - i`m sure as you read this you can recall your 1st munro too ! I felt great.
Now it was time for the best cup of coffee i`ve ever had and a wee sandwich & some fotos. We had hoped/planned to do Stuc a` Chroin as well - which we could partially see - but the quickly changing clouds below us put paid to that.So its for another , hopefully a fairer day. We could see Ben More & Stobinian off to our L/H side but nothing else at all due to the low cloud base all around. As we left to come down 2 huge black crows appeared to see if we`d left any goodies behind but they were onto plums ! On the way down we passed 40 + folk along the trail heading up , most said hi & were pleasant , coming down & looking back up the mist/clouds didn`t clear - so i don`t think anyone would have enjoyed great views. We were back at the car at 1120 - 2hrs 40 mins to go up & 1 hr 40 mins to come down. I wasn`t dissapointed as we hadn`t done Stuc a` Chroin , I was looking forward to the views at the top - unfortunately not this time. Better luck next time eh ! ........well not really I went up Dumyat on Sun 25/4 with my brother & our dogs , nice and early again at 7am , but at the top it rained all the way home and although much lower no views of Stirling ,too bad.
Unfortunately the rain & lack of views did nothing to impress Oskar my schnauzer on Dumyat - he peed on the cairn
Thats 3 hills in a row with cloud / sleet / rain / mist hopefully i`ll be somewhere nice in Scotland when our summer hits.

[Red Peak]

Well done, Steven. Doing your 1st Munro is a wonderful feeling. Trouble is, there's then the small matter of another 282 of them ...
Hope you get better weather for your next climb.

[acrophobic]

Aaaahhh! Ben Vorlich was my first, too... at age 51... and still my only one.
But that is going to change ! Taking the plane to Scotland tomorrow (volcano ash permitting) and bag a couple more!

[gammy leg walker]

Well done on your 1st munro,mine was Ben Lomond at 48 yrs young ,now just wish I had started 10/15 years earlier,but better late than never,more power to the oldies

[steven65]

Cheers for the replies guys , its nice as a newbie to get positive feedback from folks
I`m off to Glencoe on Sunday - weather permitting - with 3 mates , we`re either going to do Buachaillie Etive Beag & Stob Dubh , or Buachaillle Etive Mor - Stob na Broige & Stob Dearg.
They`re all more experienced than me so i`ll be in good hands, on a wee side note are these 2 routes suitable for a well behaved dog ? I`m keen on Oskar accompanying me on as many outings as possible - he thoroughly enjoyed Ben Lomond on May Day - Mon 3 / 5 / 2010.

[Freewheelin]

the wee boochil would be ok for your dog - the big boochil might be a wee bit difficult for it at the top of the corrie.
both hills are excellent - enjoy!

[mountain coward]

Wow! what a time to set off! What did you do all afternoon? try to catch up on sleep? Then you wouldn't sleep that night...

What an ornate cairn - must get up to that one soon and see it

[gaffr]

Can't remember seeing the 'brazier cum fire sigalling thing'. Has it gone up in recent times? Will be hard to extract the tins and rubbish from underneath the stones filling the basket.

[steven65]

Hi guys , re Buachaillle thanks for the info - i`m sure Oskar WILL enjoy it same as me , i`ll stick a foto on next week.

The BIG cairn was actually on Dumyat near Stirling / Menstrie -not as my post may have indicated on Ben Vorlich -sorry for any possible confusion , & aye folk had put some rubbish in it , why ? take it home with you !!

Finally , although i`ll be 45 in 4 weeks , there`ll be plenty of time to sleep when i`m old .I`ve always been keen to get up and on with the day hasta la sempre !

[mountain coward]

As to Buachaille Etive Mor, there are at least 4 ways up/down it so you don't have to do Coire na Tulaich if you don't want to - I haven't done that route yet (see my 'Green Buachaille Etive Mor' report for details of other routes with absolutely no scrambling and just a bit of steep)

[Graeme D]

Can't remember seeing the 'brazier cum fire sigalling thing'. Has it gone up in recent times? Will be hard to extract the tins and rubbish from underneath the stones filling the basket.

Yeah, don't recall clocking that either. I know the vis wasn't great that day, but even still! Quite cool looking structure though.

[Poljes]

Hi, this is my first visit to the forum having just registered today. I thought I would look at something obvious such as my first Munro. It was really spooky to look in and read your commentary. Ben Vorlich was also my first Munro and I walked it on the 25th April . My pal John and I went up to the Trossachs on the 24th and had a walk by Glen Finglas. We stayed at a backpackers on the Saturday night and did Ben Vorlich on the Sunday Morning.

It sounds as though you had the better of the two days as we had mist and some snow and rain, most of which I was actually not too unhappy about as it helped to cool down my ageing body (I'm 48). We had fine and clear weather on the Saturday but visibility at the top on the Sunday was almost zero and like you we didn't go on to do Stuc a` Chroin. I have to say thanks to you (probably) for the footholds we got on the ice for the last wee stretch to the summit, we had no ice axe just one set of poles that John carried - I must get some of those!

You practically wrote our day as we met a load of folk on the way down too. I haven't done my second yet but will get round to it soon. Great memory.

[smirnie71]

Well done Steven, love your reports and know exactly how you feel on many fronts but especially achieving your first Munro.
My first 'Big' Mountain was Snowdon which I loved but reaching the ridge on Cadair Idris on a winter walk last March just made me burst in to tears because i felt so proud and because to me it was an immense achievement. The feeling of reaching the top of my first Munro more or less defied words and I just wish I lived in Scotland in order to explore more! Here's a little write up on my first walk http://walkingwithfatty.blogspot.com/2010/09/scoring-sgor-gaoith-mounatin-of-mind.html
As for more scottish walks, I'm workingh on that - a move to gods own country is planned and hopefully will happen in next 5 years or so.
I see you've bagged a few more munros so it clearly suits you this walking malarky!
My next big excursion is Three Peaks with my dad in law who's 70, very fit and deafblind - his idea!

[2dalmatians]

Congratulations on your first munro and a nice hill to start with! The first of many I'm sure.

[ChrisW]

Congratulations on your first, but if you are so unlucky with the weather on a regular basis you might want to post a warning when you are going out so we know to stay indoors that day