Great Climb. Boggy Return.
Surprisingly close to home, just off the A82, Ben Vorlich and Stuc a’ Chroin are a popular pair of Munros that look down onto Loch Earn. The former is a popular Munro for beginners, with the later being that bit tougher and gives us our first taste of a proper scramble!
Previous Failures.
These two were Matt’s choice, and to be honest, I was glad he chose them. Ever since my Duke of Edinburgh Silver expedition, where our camp at the south base of Ben Vorlich failed in spectacular fashion, I vowed never to return. I won’t go into too much detail: but in the dark, with rain and gale-force winds, seeing my freshly erected tent go sailing down a river did nothing for my love of the Scottish Highlands at the time.
Suffice to say, 25 years later and although a fair bit heavier, I most certainly was wiser and eager for the challenge. Regardless, Matt wanted to bag these two, and I would be thankful if I managed to earn redemption from my previous failure.
Having done my usual, and watched every video I could find on YouTube of the two Munros the night before we left, I convinced Nathan that this pair weren’t quite suitable for him just yet, but I promised I’d take him on the next one.
I wouldn’t be taking my dog either. The path up Ben Vorlich was doable for Roman, but the route to the top of Stuc A’ Chroin looked a proper scramble. There is a bypass path, but to be honest I was really looking forward to the scramble. Matt’s dog Tara, however, would be joining us!
Another Mistake.
We left not too early, but early enough to ensure we were the first ones through the door of Greggs at Stirling services when it opened. After devouring our usual bacon rolls we set off on the short trip to Lochearnhead, where we hung a right and hugged the shoreline of Loch Earn for a few miles before reaching our intended parking spot. It was quite busy, even at that time in the morning, with lots of cars lining the road on both sides. Disappointingly, there were some vehicles parked in the designated passing places, potentially hindering access to any emergency vehicles.
We got ourselves all set for the mammoth day ahead, but as I clicked start on my Garmin I realised my biggest mistake: I hadn’t charged my it! It was down to a lowly 22% and I knew it more than likely wouldn’t last the full day. Ach well. You learn from your mistakes, and I’ll add charging all devices, including my watch, to my night before checklist!
Immediately after we left the car and entered into the estate we had to keep Tara on a short leash due to the amount of sheep that lined either side of the path. It wasn’t really steep, but you’re climbing pretty much as soon as you leave the car park. I remember thinking how tame the sheep were, but given that they probably see hundreds of people every day, they’re most likely just used to people.
Professional Hikers.
We kept up a good pace, or so I thought. We had actually managed to pass a couple of groups that were walking slowly, or taking breaks, and I thought we were going great guns until 3 older walkers with poles passed us, striding along like proper Alpine Skiers! You could see that every stroke of the poles had purpose and meaning as they literally glided past us.
“Now they’re professionals” I claimed to Matt, nodding towards the Hikers, my thumbs tucked harder into the straps of my rucksack as I plodded on at a much more conservative pace, focused solely on putting one foot after the other.
Matt didn’t moan or complain, but he was strangely silent. I think both of us thought we were proper Hikers at that point. We’d conquered the big bad Buachaille and Ben Nevis, so a beginner Munro should be fair straight forward. This wasn’t. We should’ve stopped sooner than we did, but I think both of us were trying to blitz up in one go, determined to catch the Pro Hikers who were now out of sight.
One and Done?
Tara was loving life, and now we had went through a few gates and there were no sheep in sight, she was off the lead and enjoying the climb. The path runs alongside the main river that feeds into Loch Earn, so there were plenty of opportunities for her to grab a drink whenever she wanted.
As the path became less and less maintained, we started to get the full view of Ben Vorlich, and boy did it look a monster. The weather forecast was good, but the cloud base was hovering around the 900m mark. We stopped briefly to catch our breath, just as the clouds parted to reveal the steep path to the summit. It was still pretty busy and you could make out several sets of figures in front of us heading to the same goal.
I do remember looking up at this point and thinking that this last section was going to be a hard push, however with Tara eagerly setting the pace, we crested the final peak and tagged the summit of Ben Vorlich. It was actually busier than we expected, and instead of stopping, we headed on to the south summit of Ben Vorlich, as many of the hikers at the top began the trek back down only doing the one Munro for the day.
New Directions.
It took us a second to get our bearings, but once on the lower summit we could see Ben Vorlich in front of us, with Stuc a’ Chroin to the left, looking rather menacing! The cloud had lifted higher and we were now getting some fantastic views down towards Callendar direction.
The proper route had us returning to the summit of Ben Vorlich and then heading down towards Stuc a’ Chroin, but Matt had spotted a small path that went diagonally off the South summit and looked to end at the beallach between the two Munros. We thought it definitely looked a quicker option, but in hindsight we probably should’ve went back to the first summit and went down from there, as this path was steep and very narrow. At points I was having to shimmy sideways and diagonally to stop myself falling forward and down the side of the hill.
Once down and onto the Beallach, things didn’t get much easier. There was quite a few boggy sections where we were having to jump from rock to rock to avoid the mud. However, this was relatively easy and once we gained a bit of height towards Stuc a’ Chroin, things began to get a bit more rocky and bit less boggy.
The Lunch before the Scramble.
My watch was now buzzing at me, reminding me to charge it soon. I cleared the notification with a grumble and noticed the time; close to Midday and my stomach was beginning to grumble too. I got Matt’s attention and pointed to some rather large boulders, where I suggested we stop for something to eat before we started the scramble to the top of Stuc a’ Chroin.
I was getting super nervous and excited about the scramble as we tucked into our sandwiches for lunch. I didn’t know what to expect, would I even make it past the first chimney I’d read about? Or would I have to bail out to the bypass path?Would Tara even make it up the scramble? I know she’s a big German Shephard, but some of the rocks looked a step too far, even her!
I tried to calm myself as I realised I was simply overthinking things as a reaction to the anxiety I was feeling.
My racing thoughts were interrupted by a pair of walkers on their way to start the climb.
“Did either of you lose a dog lead back there?” One of them asked, pointing back towards the steep side of Ben Vorlich which we’d came down about 30 minutes previous.
“Awww shit!” Matt exclaimed, his hands searching for the invisible lead that once hung round his neck. Although Matt went back to try and find it, he couldn’t see it, it must have fallen off on our steep descent and we’ve not realised. This could be an interesting return journey through the fields of sheep without a lead!
Fortunately, I always carry a wound piece of paracord on the zip of my bag, so once unravelled it made an ideal temporary lead!
My First Scramble!
We kept following the path up and around to the base of the scramble to the summit. The two guys who had passed us at lunch were at stopped at the bottom and unsure how to proceed.
“Do we just go straight up here?” One of them asked me. I felt rather proud at this moment; although I still felt like a total rookie mountaineer, I obviously didn’t look totally out of place if someone was asking me for directions!
I looked up and saw the chimney like section I had read about. You needed to do a couple of big steps across the rocks to get onto the chimney, but with Matt and the 2 guys watching me, I lept up with new found confidence and scaled the first section without issue. Matt was quick to follow and Tara scrambled up behind like a dog at Crufts!
Now this was what I was looking for, instant height gained and perfect rock placements for scrambling. From that point, the main path zig zags along the front face of the mountain, and you don’t gain that much height. However, if you’re more adventurous, like I was, you can scramble vertically to get to the top. Although they did try and follow my more direct route up, it was too much of a jump up for Matt and Tara. Matt pulled her off to the side and they both went up the zig zags instead of straight up.
About half way up the face I stopped to take some pictures and spotted the 2 guys below us making their way up, vertically.
“Are you ok?” I shouted down as one of them hugged a large boulder as if it was a lifebuoy.
“I really hate heights!” Was the reply! What was he doing up a Munro if he hates heights? He must be a brave man!
“Don’t worry, use the zig zags instead of coming straight up!” Were my words of encouragement. I was guiding them up, intentionally or not, so I did feel some kind of responsibility for the pair of them to get to the top safely. I’m not sure how I would have felt had either of them fallen whilst following my non conventional route!
I only seemed to get quicker as I scrambled to the top, the summit not revealing itself until you were fully up and over the main face. What a buzz though, I was proper sweaty and so energised I genuinely felt like I had taken some kind of happy pill! The relief and the joy from conquering a genuine worry and fear was pretty emotional. My whole body was tingling and I was bouncing like Tigger at the top as I waited for Matt and Tara.
Although we could see the summit a couple of hundred metres in front of us, the clouds were starting to roll in. It did give me the opportunity to get some good silhouette shots of Matt and Tara as they walked in front of me, but the views at the second summit were coming and going.
We exchanged pleasantries with the other pair of hikers who had now made it to the summit, before we headed over to the lower Western summit to enjoy slightly better views. Matt and I shared a beer to toast our achievements, as we sat for a good half hour and soaked in the atmosphere from my 8th and 9th Munros.
More Falls than a Night Out in Bathgate.
I still felt pretty good, but I definitely didn’t want to go back the way we came. The climb back to the top of Vorlich wouldn’t be fun, so we opted to go down the Northern shoulder of Stuc a’ Chroin and take a diagonal route over the shoulder of Ben Vorlich before joining back up with the path we’d went up to get to the top of Ben Vorlich.
The descent started pretty quick and fast. It wasn’t too steep or rocky, but the grass was hiding several bogs and deep holes Unfortunately, I found several of these on multiple occasions. The worst one was when my right leg slipped out from under me and I ended up falling down on top of my bent leg, hyper flexing it and causing a lot of pain. Had there not been 2 people that had just walked passed us, I would’ve let out a scream for sure! I wasn’t the only one falling either, Matt took a tumble and on my second slip I declared myself 2-1 up in slips, and it became a bit of a competition! We found the best way to save ourselves from any injuries was to just go with the slide and try to make the fall into a roll instead. I think we stopped counting after 6 each! Although the distance wasn’t too far, we weren’t making quick progress due to the terrain and I was beginning to slow down.
Smile!
As Matt and Tara took the lower road, I tried to stay high and avoid any more bogs as we finally crested the shoulder of Ben Vorlich and could see the main path down in the valley below us. We didn’t quite take the proper route back to the main path and ended up joining the path at about the 600m mark. Now it felt like the homeward stretch.
Once we went through the final gates and were joined by the sheep guarding the road, I could literally taste the end. With Tara on my paracord lead, we navigated through the sheep who were a lot closer to the path than on the ascent. I even saw one sheep standing proud for a young lady taking a picture with her digital SLR.
“He’s posing for you!” I exclaimed in a jovial manner, but I think she misinterpreted my intentions and swiftly ran off down the hill in pursuit of her partner without even looking or acknowledging me. Weird one. Must have been foreign I thought to myself. Not used to our friendly and patriotic culture I hoped.
I hadn’t chosen to take my big Nikon Digital camera with me on the trip, and instead was forced to try and take some pictures of the fearless sheep with my phone for a change. The pictures came out OK for social media, but if I want to print any of my pictures, or get some proper light captures, I definitely can’t forget my big camera on adventure like this.
Another Grand Day Out!
As we made our way down the final mile to the car, and my watch vibrating for the last time, I was already planning our next adventure in my head. I took this as a good sign, and felt proud that I’ve achieved yet another 2 Munros in a single day. The fact that I wasn’t regretting my life choices all the time was also a big bonus!
I also felt Nathan probably could’ve done the scramble, even if he’d used the zig zags and not the vertical climb. So I’d do my research over the next few days and try and find a Munro that would be more suitable. With the proper planning this time round, he’d hopefully get his first cloud-free summit!
