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Ben Vorlich Stuc a Chroin Map Chris had decided he'd stay at the bottom today and recuperate, which was fair enough as he'd not done this sort of thing before and it had been a fairly gruelling introduction the day before. We drove along the south side of Loch Earn to Ardvorlich (approaching from the east because the approach from the west was still blocked, the bridge at Edinample having been closed since the floods of last year - shocking tardiness, eh). We parked the car, booted up and set off in good dry, clear conditions at 10.10. The initial approach is up Glen Vorlich via a gently ascending landrover track and after a kilometre or so we met a bloke coming the other way, carrying a shotgun over his shoulder. He said hello and was amiable enough - got into his landrover and drove off. Further along the landrover track became a path and continued, wending its way up the northern ridge of Ben Vorlich, becoming quite gruelling in the upper stages. Once again the crampons were very useful as there was a lot of snow up there.
We reached the trig point at 12.25 and walked along the short summit ridge to cop the cairn at that end as well.
After the odd photo and a pause for breath and views we carried on, descending easily from Ben Vorlich to the Bealachan Dubh Choirein. As we progressed along this broad, snow-covered ridge we were presented with the ever-more intimidating sight of Stuc a Chroin's northern buttress - a massive, snow-clad, rocky pyramid which rose up before us at an incline of at least 60 degrees. It reminded me of the eastern face of An Stuc in the Ben Lawers group, and that didn't bolster my confidence much. How on earth were we going to get up this, I wondered.
Well the guide book describes the direct ascent as a scramble 'not for the inexperienced', but adds that there's an easier path somewhere over to the right. Naturally we sought out the Softies' Path, following some footsteps which were bearing off to the right, but Andrew soon got fed up with this. He said it was taking us too far out of the way and losing us too much height and reckoned we'd do better to bite the bullet and go for the direct route - short and direct. It was true there were footprints in the snow, showing a way up the mountainside, although in places they were faint and snowed over. We set off after them. The way up turned out to be extremely steep, dangerous and scary, not to mention very physically demanding. There was a lot of snow on the face and I was grateful for the crampons - it seemed a miracle that Andrew was able to get by without them, but he followed on behind me, making use of the holes I made in the snow. In some of the steepest sections I was almost on all fours and had to jam my extended fingers into the snow to gain purchase, just hoping that the snow itself would stay firm and not slide off the hillside en masse.
When we finally managed to haul ourselves up onto the top we were rewarded with a tremendous blast of icy wind, driving us back towards the edge and whipping the snow directly into our faces. I started laughing when I was safely at the top, just needing to release the tension that had built up inside me for the ascent had been quite dangerous in places. The laughter stayed just the right side of hysteria, I hope. Still, the hard work was done now and we were on the ridge leading to the summit. After a brief pause to recover our strength we pressed on and followed the gently rising ridge to the end where there were two cairns a couple of hundred yards apart. We copped them both. (14.10)
At the westernmost cairn it was very windy and quite cold. We had a quick bite to eat and then turned back to make our way down to the low point on the ridge, halfway between the summit and the daunting northern buttress. We had decided we were definitely not returning via the Maniacs' Route and sought for the upper end of the Softies' Route instead. Contouring over to the NW arm of Stuc a Chroin we went a short way along it then descended into the bowl-like corrie of the Allt a Choire Fhuadaraich. Even descending that way was pretty steep but our feet were cushioned by the snow, cutting their own natural steps in it, and so we were able to make good progress.
We then contoured round the corrie to the col between Ben Vorlich and Creagan nan Gabhar and, having crested it were then able to easily descend into the valley of the Coire Buidhe. Leaving the snow line behind we trekked through soggy heather with not much of a path anywhere until we reached the original outbpound path and followed that back to the car (16.45).
The weather had been good, tops free of cloud, dry, and good views. Ten minutes after reaching the car it started to rain. That night we stayed in Callendar at Inver-Enys (£18), run by Mrs Anne Collier. | |||||||
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