The Occasional Munroist

Route	http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=110
Distance	14.7km
Munros	Ben Vorlich & Stuc a'Chroin

I was rather pushed to find a free day for some hillwalking in August which actually had vaguely decent weather. It eventually came down to Sunday 28th August, the only slight issue being that I had already arranged to be at a Edinburgh International Festival concert on that evening so I had to be back in good time and not so wiped out that I would snooze through it! The choice was to either go for a short drive and a mid-size walk or a longer drive with a short walk. I opted for the former and headed out to do Ben Vorlich & Stuc a'Chroin near Lochearnhead. These hills are not new to me, I first did them in full winter conditions as an undergraduate many years ago which was a truly incredible introduction. This was going to be my fifth outing, typically doing both except for my previous visit when I only did Ben Vorlich due to horribly thick cloud.

When I reached the starting point near Ardvorlich House it was about 8:15am and thus there was plenty of parking space, later in the day it tends to get really busy and I have struggled to find a space in the past, particularly if there is a fishing competition. The drive only took about 1 hour 20 minutes from Edinburgh which left plenty of time for a good walk without having to rush.

As I set out it was dry but very grey and overcast, the bulk of the cloud was up at around 4000feet judging from the coverage of the top of Ben Lawers but not many other hills. There were some smaller clouds scudding across the top of Ben Vorlich though and it was immediately obvious that they were moving at quite some speed, it was clearly going to be very windy on top. The weather forecast was predicting rain some time during the afternoon so this was definitely a day for a medium length walk getting back to the car early afternoon. As it was I eventually managed to get all the way back to Edinburgh before the skies opened up.

The walk up to Ben Vorlich is very simple just following a very broad well walked path. This is a fairly popular Sunday afternoon type of walk and as such it's normal to pass people wearing sandals and not carrying any gear. With my early start I barely saw anyone on the first ascent, I spotted a couple of guys ahead of me but that was about all. Once over 2000 feet the wind became very strong and by the time I got above the height of Ben Our (2400 feet) I had to put away my walking poles as they were being blown sideways and had become more of a trip hazard rather than a useful walking aid. By this point I also had on my thick fleece, gloves and hat - typical Scottish summer weather! The two guys ahead of me made a very quick turnaround at the top and headed rapidly down as I reached the final couple of hundred feet of ascent. They clearly hadn't come for prepared for such wild weather, my aim was to follow on to Stuc a'Chroin and I hoped I would get some shelter along the way. The time to the summit was just 1hr 30 minutes which just proves the shortness of the route. As I reached the summit a bank of cloud was swept in and for a few minutes I thought I would end up with a replay of my previous visit. Thankfully, just as I started heading along the ridge to find the way down to the bealach the cloud lifted once more and I was given an excellent view of the end of Stuc a'Chroin which I planned to scramble up.

Stuc a'Chroin has a much greater feeling of remoteness than Ben Vorlich even though the distance and height descent/ascent required to move from one to the other is not huge. It was obvious that very few people were planning to follow my route and it was a couple of hours before I spotted anyone heading that way. My aim was to climb up the end of Stuc a'Chroin by the classic scramble route, I have done this once before about 4 years ago but that time I had the advantage of following a guy who knew it well. This time I was on my own and route finding is not always my greatest skill on scrambles, I tend to look for signs that others have been up the same way. This got me started well and it fitted with my memories but somewhere along the way the route became a lot more "direct" and I ended up following what must be a winter route judging by all the crampon scratch marks. There was rather a lot of damp grass to be dealt with which is very different from my previous experience of the route being nearly all on good rock. Having said that there were some entertaining sections and they showed up my lack of strength. There's no doubt that a decade of mostly sitting on my arse watching telly has left me quite weak!

After the scramble the summit of Stuc a'Chroin was reached very quickly but given the strong wind I wasn't hanging around. I think I was on my second summit after about 3 hours. I headed back to Bealach an Dubh Choirein, contouring around the side of Ben Vorlich to reach the col and descend in Coire Buidhe. A few routes I've seen suggest going over Ben Our but that seemed to be longer so I took the decision to head back to the main path and retrace my route. After that it was a quick march with a lunch stop along the way. I was treated to the delightful sight of two ravens flying over the coire as I descended, they were croaking away to each other and seemed to be genuinely enjoying the windy day. Ravens always strike me as a sign of true wilderness, I regularly see them on the higher slopes of Scottish hills and I never get bored of watching their amazing flying skills.

All told the route over the two hills took me 5 hours which left plenty of time to get back and freshen up before the concert. Although a fairly easy couple of hills the scramble really adds some interest and the area is very attractive with good views over towards the Lawers range. I suspect these are a couple of hills to which I will keep returning.