[Trip Index] [Munro Index] [Home] 10th August 2001   Ben Vorlich Map Stayed in Ramsbottom the night before and made good time up to Scotland, through patches of rain, some delay going the street way through Glasgow. Weather OK by this time though, so after fixing up a B&B in Arrochar ('Long Shadows' - £17 - Maria & Iain Gourlay) we set off to climb the mighty Ben Vorlich. We started at 3.15 and took the same long approach as when I climbed Ben Vane 3 years earlier. Up along the access road all the way to the dam at the end of Loch Sloy where we turned right and began the ascent proper. We made our way up the very steep grassy SW slope to the ridge - flowers and grass and no visible path. Andrew diverged a bit to the right on the way up but we both reached the ridge at the same time and from there it was an easy ridge path to the summit (5.40). The Ben Vorlich cairn   The Ben Vorlich summit plateau with Ben Lomond and Loch Lomond behind Loch Sloy dam, on the way down There were great views of Ben Vane and the 'Arrochar Alps' from there and over to the SE was Ben Lomond with the Glasgow-Edinburgh plain beyond. It was hot on the way up, just a T-shirt was enough, but at the top there was a cooling wind and I had to put my fleece on at that point. We left the top at 5.55 and descended SE along an easy path which we should probably have used for the ascent (looking back from the access road, however, it was hard to see the path from there). We got back to the car at 7.40. That evening we had a veg kiev in Callums Bar (£4.95) then visited the Arrochar Hotel, then back to Callums. The barmaid in Callums was blonde and had a tattoo on her right shoulder and another one on her lower back disappearing out of sight below. On the trip I took my trusty new pedometer that Amber had bought me for Father's Day: 6.754 miles, 17014 steps, 2.14 mph, and 765.6 calories. Saw no other soul on the hills all day.