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New Years Day Double....

New Years Day Double....


Postby dooterbang » Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:24 pm

Route description: Ben Vorlich and Stùc a' Chròin

Munros included on this walk: Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn), Stùc a' Chròin

Date walked: 01/01/2011

Time taken: 6.5 hours

Distance: 14 km

Ascent: 1400m

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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.
Image


We headed South for a bit then South East to the Bealach between South Side of Vorlich/North Stuc a Chroin
Image

What faced us now was a very tricky scramble straight up the North face of Stuc a Chroin :wtf:

This was very steep, rocky and icy. Most of the scrambling sections required you to hand hold iced over rock :shock:
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.
Image

Image

Image

I reached the top and was buzzing on the adrenalin, Stuart followed soon after.
Image

Image

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 :D
Image


That Budvar got demolished quickly :lol:

Off we went to descend the NW gully of Stuc a Chroin
Image


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
Image


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!!.
Image


We soon reached the summit of Ben Vorlich.

Views to Tarmachan Ridge and Lawers Range from summit of Ben Vorlich
Image


Dooterbang :D
Image


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 :D

Happy New Year.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5suUY_QGPg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]
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dooterbang
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby malky_c » Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:53 pm

Looks like you've been a busy bugger this christmas, and lucky with the weather too :D Looked like a nice day out - I'm guessing you've done these before?

Had plans for today but got up too late and couldn't be bothered. Hope to put them into action tomorrow instead.
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby dooterbang » Sat Jan 01, 2011 10:56 pm

malky_c wrote:Looks like you've been a busy bugger this christmas, and lucky with the weather too :D Looked like a nice day out - I'm guessing you've done these before?

Had plans for today but got up too late and couldn't be bothered. Hope to put them into action tomorrow instead.


Malky your becoming a lazy young boy :lol:

Hadn't done Stuc a Chroin.

Weather looks good next few days. I aint out till Tuesday, then work Wednesday :(
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby Merry-walker » Sat Jan 01, 2011 11:00 pm

Only one Bud?? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cracking report Doots :D
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby dooterbang » Sat Jan 01, 2011 11:10 pm

Merry-walker wrote:Only one Bud?? :lol: :lol: :lol:


One for the hills and 8 for home :D
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby Merry-walker » Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:21 am

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :D :D :D :D
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby Graeme D » Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:30 am

Top notch stuff once again Dooterbang! Looks lke you had all the ingredients required for a great day in the hills (and a few more ingredients back home in the fridge as well!) 8)
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby skuk007 » Sun Jan 02, 2011 12:16 pm

Great report Dooterbang, and great photos, really like those first two.
The fourth one is one I would probably have in a nightmare, do you have no fear? :lol:
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby LeithySuburbs » Sun Jan 02, 2011 12:21 pm

Good effort. I was just getting home when you were heading off :lol: .

Out on Xmas and NY day - you must really dislike your family :lol: ;) .
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby Bruadair » Sun Jan 02, 2011 1:20 pm

Great report DB...looks to have been a good outing and must feel good banging in a double on first day of new year.

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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby dooterbang » Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:39 pm

skuk007 wrote:Great report Dooterbang, and great photos, really like those first two.
The fourth one is one I would probably have in a nightmare, do you have no fear? :lol:


Oh i was scared alright, but further down when it was mostly rock and ice as i found it more difficult. When higher there was more snow and i felt comfortable and had full trust in my crampons and ice axe. It is a daunting face in these conditions though. I was more surprised i managed to take photos and a video whilst ascending this :o
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby dooterbang » Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:42 pm

LeithySuburbs wrote:Good effort. I was just getting home when you were heading off :lol: .

Still raving hard Leithy :wink:


LeithySuburbs wrote:Out on Xmas and NY day - you must really dislike your family :lol: ;) .

I'm an orphan :shock: :lol:
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby dooterbang » Sun Jan 02, 2011 8:43 pm

Graeme Dewar wrote:Looks lke you had all the ingredients required for a great day in the hills (and a few more ingredients back home in the fridge as well!) 8)

A potion of the magic stuff :D
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby davetherave » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:30 am

Well done Dooterbang, superb effort in completing Stuc a Chroin. I like the pics you took of your targets from Our Hill.

dooterbang wrote:Looking back to Stuc a Chroin - still can't believe we went up that face!!.


In that picture, did you go up the bit to the left of the snub... the bit that looks like a slight gully/weakness or even a white snow chute.

I think that was the line we took when we failed on our first attempt. I got scared of a cornice around the top, we then decided to turn back about 25 m from completing.

Stuc a chroin pic from Vorlichs south side is a cracker. :D
Last edited by davetherave on Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Years Day Double....

Postby dooterbang » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:51 am

davetherave wrote:In that picture, did you go up the bit to the left of the snub... the bit that looks like a slight gully/weakness or even a white snow shute.

I think that was the line we took when we failed on our first attempt. I got scared of a cornice around the top, we then decided to turn back about 25 m from completing.


We both started veering towards the left and then i spotted the above mentioned chute. I then scurried left 30ft and ascended it, found this ok as i'm more confident on snow than rock.

Could imagine this being scary if plenty of snow had fallen to create a cornice.

Was it not scarier going back down :shock: ?
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