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After stomping up Ben More on Xmas morning i had no intention of not walking on New Years day
I met Stuart at Ardvorlich house at 8.45am.
Ben Vorlich & Stuc a Croin would be our targets today, but not the usual route....
This route would be via Ben Our then to Stuc a Croin and finally acsending the South face of Vorlich before descending its North face.
We started at 9am and soon came to the 2nd of the small dams, it was here we ascended west to Ben Our.
This was through pathless moorland, but we soon reached our destination which provided views of our targets for today.
We headed South for a bit then South East to the Bealach between South Side of Vorlich/North Stuc a Chroin
What faced us now was a very tricky scramble straight up the North face of Stuc a Chroin
This was very steep, rocky and icy. Most of the scrambling sections required you to hand hold iced over rock
One slip here and it was curtains. I tried not to think too much and got on with navigating my way through the ice and rocks....we had put our crampons on at the start of the ascent.
I reached the top and was buzzing on the adrenalin, Stuart followed soon after.
We both agreed that this ascent was dangerous and shouldn't be atempted without crampons or some scrambling experience.
We stopped at the summit of Stuc a Chroin and i had a lovely bottle of Budvar Dark, happy New Year
That Budvar got demolished quickly
Off we went to descend the NW gully of Stuc a Chroin
This was relatively easy and was a great opportunity to get in some ice axe self arrest practice
Our next target was soon in view....
Ben Vorlich
This was a slog going up the South face, but enjoyable.
Looking back to Stuc a Chroin - still can't believe we went up that face!!.
We soon reached the summit of Ben Vorlich.
Views to Tarmachan Ridge and Lawers Range from summit of Ben Vorlich
Dooterbang
It was now a case of descending the popular path which most folk take up Ben Vorlich
It was very icy so we took our time.
We got back to the cars at 3.30pm.
What a fab day
Happy New Year.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5suUY_QGPg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]