Ben Vorlich - A Final Munro
1 July 2007
After over 4 years of guiding Laila to the summit of more than one
hundred Munros, in all weather conditions, Ben Vorlich was to be her
final Munro. Latterly, due to her age, it had been a bit of a
struggle as she had left the harder and remoter Munros to last.
However she was a determined lady who had set her mind on finishing
albeit a year or so later than planned. Unfortunately the enjoyment
of climbing the Munros had got a bit lost in the struggle to finish.
Laila, Shona, Fraser and I met at Inveruglas on the west shore of Loch
Lomond where there was a large car park beside the Visitor Centre.
We walked south on a path along the west side of the A82 to the start
of the private road to Loch Sloy dam and followed this tarred road to
just south of the dam. The tops of the mountains were mostly cloud
covered but it was fairly humid in the glen.
A small cairn marked the start of a walker's path into the corrie
below the south ridge of Ben Vorlich. The path was wet in places and
disappeared on occasions in the newly grown grass, although it
appeared later that lower down there was more than a single path
towards the corrie. Higher up the path was more evident. Laila was
a bit reserved and didn't want to consider her success until she had
reached the summit of Ben Vorlich. En-route onto the ridge it started
to rain which meant donning the rain gear but the shower was short
lived.
Eventually we reached the south ridge and followed it north towards
the summit with a couple of breaks in the cloud to give us some brief
views. It was a fairly gentle stroll, in the low cloud, towards the
summit trig point and a short distance further on to the cairn marking
the highest point on Ben Vorlich.
Shona and Fraser set up a 'guard of honour' with their walking poles
as Laila approached the summit cairn and then it was congratulations
to Laila on her achievement. A few photographs were taken assisted
by another walker. Shona and Fraser produced the champagne and cake
for the summit party and a few more walkers appeared at the cairn and
one joined in the celebrations.
The weather improved during the summit party and eventually we had
views of some of the Arrochar Alps and of Loch Sloy. However the
summit photos had already been taken so they couldn't be reinacted.
After some time at the summit we commenced the descent by the upward
route and from the south ridge of Ben Vorlich we had views over the
south end of Loch Lomond.
On returning to our vehicles we were invited by Laila to tea and cake
nearby where Laila presented me with a framed certificate for guiding
her during the past four years. A copy of the certificate is now on
the Testimonial Page of my web site.
Laila intends to keep walking but at a lower level and without setting
herself any targets. She later notified me that she had registered
her completion with the Scottish Mountaineering Club (www.smc.org.uk)
and was Munroist number 3843.
Time taken - 6 hours.
Distance - 14 kilometres.
Height climbed - 940 metres.
Photographs from the walk can be seen at:
http://www.caledoniahilltreks.com/gallery07/ben_vorlich_july07/index.htm
Lindsay
www.caledoniahilltreks.com