Earlier in the week the forecast was looking grim for the weekend, but from Thursday it was very promising for Saturday. So Ben Vorlich was decided upon for a good day out, and what a perfect day it was.

The Inveruglas car park was getting busy when I arrived at twenty past nine. Quickly booted and kitted and it was time for the off, but not before a long linger over Loch Lomond which was quite stunning with the sun just above the Ben.


A quick stroll along the service road to the collapsed little cairn marking the start of the Walkhighlands route and I was on and up the hill. This first stretch was the most problematic of the day with the runoff frozen solid on and around the path making for a very slippy initial ascent. Thoughts were it would be worse coming down and better off avoiding on the return. I eventually lost the path as I got towards the snow line. After gingerly edging across a couple of snow patches I decided to put the crampons on as I hit the snow proper.

Here I met a chap from Bolton, he was staying at Glencoe, coming down for the day to Ben Vorlich, before back to Glencoe for the evening and then home to Bolton in the morning. He does this once a month and has a real love of the hills. We walked together for a short while before I needed a photo stop (breather!) and he went about his way, breaking the path for me. The weather was perfect, very clear and no wind. I could see the chimney at Inverkip Power Station 25 miles away and all the views were quite stunning. From now until the top took a while due to frequent stops to gaze, soak up the views and take photos.

At one point the silence was broken as a rescue helicopter flew past, it then circled and flew right above me, a few minutes later I saw it down towards the southern end of Loch Lomond.

Making my way along the false peaks was invigorating, stomping in the deep, crunchy snow following the tracks broken by others. Then the trig point appears and you are nearly there. I could see a little gathering at the summit a few hundred metres along, with a smile and that quiet satisfaction I stomped across to the top. I passed Bolton man, he said he would have only gone to trig point if he hadn't seen the group at the summit cairn and pleased he had done the true top.

There were a couple in the midst of lunch and 4 guys just setting off back down again. I stopped for lunch, but a bit of very cold clag unfortunately arrived which foreshortened my stay at the top. I then met Steve, took a photo for him on the cairn, but he was for heading down for lunch out of the clag.


The descent was as good, the clag disappeared, the views were stunning and I took a path down nearer to the dam avoiding that slippy ascent route. I ended on a short track coming up from the main service road near the dam. This would make a good alternative path up.

Steve came off the hill at the same time at the original slippy path, we then strolled the 20 minutes back to the car park putting the world to rights. I put a finish to the day with a light refreshment at my 19th Monro, The Drovers at Inverarnan. Perfect.