Ben Vorlich (Loch Lomond) | Climbing into the clouds
Climbing Ben Vorlich (Loch Lomond) into the swirling, menacing clouds was exhilarating. The anticipation builds with each step, the world below shrinking away below us. The cold air filled our lungs, the wind wrapping itself around us, and breathtaking views, albeit brief, stretched for miles in every direction. Today was an epic day to bag a Munro!
Ben Vorlich was one of a handful of Munros that Eve and I are keen to tick off. It isn’t the first time we have attempted to bag this Munro, having failed previously due to the all too familiar parking issues that plague the more popular Munros! Today we started early(ish)!
Ben Vorlich is located east of Loch Lomond, part of the Arrochar Alps. Translating to Hill of the Bay, it’s one of two Munros in Scotland with the same name. The other Ben Vorlich is located close to Loch Earn, and confusingly within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park too.
Our starting point was the car park at Inverglas on the shores of Loch Lomond. The car park cost £4 for the day.
The one thing that wasn’t going to prevent us from climbing the Munro today was the weather. Eve and I were excited and ready to go, packing shorts and suncream. We had expected (hoped) for a sunny day with expansive views over Loch Lomond and the surrounding summits. In typical mountain weather, the conditions on the lower sections were warm and pleasant, with the summit being cloaked in fog and a wind that made for unsteady walking. It was fun and exciting.
Leaving the car park at Inverglas, we followed the A82 past the Loch Sloy hydropower station, reminiscing about hiking the Three Lochs Way in 2023. The approach trail to the steep hill climb of Ben Vorlich shares the path with the Three Lochs Way, one of Scotland’s Great Trails.
The approach trail follows a gated road to Loch Sloy, allowing engineers access to the dam part of the Loch Sloy hydro power scheme. Our walking companions were the countless sheep and hundreds of baby lambs bleating and playing together without a care! Eve tried to stroke some of the more inquisitive lambs approaching us as we walked. All attempts failed!
It was about 8 am, we hadn’t had breakfast, and Eve was complaining of hunger. We stopped in a small area of dry grass for our first of many breaks. We ate our flapjacks, watching the clouds swirling aggressively around the peaks above us. It made us feel excited and exhilarated knowing we would soon be hiking into weather that looked so intimidating!
Eve spotted where we turned off the road and headed onto the hill path. In poor weather, this could have been missed easily. However, with the dam just a few hundred metres further on, it wouldn’t have been a hardship to retrace our steps to find the hill path, albeit slightly annoying!
The hill path starts steeply gaining height rapidly. In recent years, the path up Ben Vorlich has been upgraded substantially. This made the climb easy, or as easy as climbing 3000 ft into the clouds can be. We climbed slowly and methodically, aware of the dangers of this mountain.
The night before, I had read about several deployments of Scottish Mountain Rescue teams to save people stranded on Ben Vorlich. The last rescue was only a few weeks prior. I am not complacent about the dangers that climbing Munros (or any Scottish mountain) poses, especially when hiking with Eve. Reading about what can happen on the mountains does help maintain a respect for how fast a hike can descend into something more sinister.
Eve and I made slow progress. We are not speed demons and never will be. We are both content with going slow, preferring to enjoy the sense of freedom from being in Scotland's wild places.
That is the thing with hill walking, or long-distance hiking, that Eve and I both prefer; the feeling of freedom, being untied and unrestrained from the pressure of modern living. Being out of phone coverage and relying on each other is one of the best and most natural feelings in the world!
The weather was very interchangeable on the ascent, if not dramatically. Every few minutes, it would change from sunshine to cloud, to rain, to wind and back again. Our waterproofs and insulating layers were coming on and off so frequently that I lost count at around thirty. It was slowing our progress, but it did allow us plenty of additional breaks to enjoy the views and smell the fresh air!
As we climbed, we saw the fog looming above, getting closer and closer. The speed at which the clouds were swirling became ominous. The temperature was slowly decreasing, and our fingers were becoming cold. We stopped and topped up our water bottles. The following section would be harder, albeit slightly less physical.
After about an hour of climbing the hill, the trail levelled slightly. This was where it started to get exciting. Having completed the steepest section of Ben Vorlich, we were now entering the clouds.
As we entered the clouds, we spotted some ‘caves’ where, in the previous weeks, mountain rescue had helped a walker stranded in a storm. This area was fascinating. The trail led us through an area covered in fallen boulders, which had developed deep cracks and crevices.
On the mountain path, there was a small section that had collapsed into a void. We sidestepped it for fear of not knowing what could be underneath. Eve loved this area, and so did I. We briefly explored, not wanting to venture too far, concerned for what lurked beneath the grass and out of sight!
Climbing higher, the fog became thicker and visibility dropped to just tens of feet. Taking care not to walk off trail, aware that steep crags were just beside us, we studied the map closely, taking extra compass bearings to stay safe. The trail was easy to follow but provided an excellent opportunity to practice low-visibility navigation!
Ben Volich has a sneaky trick to deceive Munro baggers!
There is a substantial cairn and trig point close to the summit. Most people assume that this is the summit, as I would! But this is not the true summit. The summit of Ben Vorlich is a few hundred metres further along the ridge, located at a smaller cairn on the left, close to the top of a rocky crag. This cairn can easily be overlooked or missed altogether. The height difference is only a few metres, but to purists like Eve and me, these details matter!
We took a few photographs at the trig point and cairn before pushing on to the true summit for a congratulatory high five and hug! It always feels like such an accomplishment to reach the summit of any hill; Munros just have the little extra sense of accomplishment, being the highest of Scotland’s mountains. We had now submitted the mighty Ben Vorlich, and best of all, we had the summit all by ourselves. It's not surprising given the conditions at the summit would have beaten back all but the most dedicated hill walkers. I like to consider Eve and me as dedicated hill walkers and hikers.
But our work was not over yet! We only paused briefly on the summit before hiking through the fog to bag the southern top of Ben Vorlich. This for us was more exciting than the actual summit of Ben Vorlich, most hill walkers and munro baggers won’t think about this smaller subsidiary peak.
We loitered on the southern top of Ben Vorlich briefly to discuss the most essential part of the day. The options for lunch!
The agreement was to find a sheltered spot in the fog as close to the summit as possible. Failing that, we would get out our emergency survival shelter and use that for our lunch stop. We regularly use our survival shelter for lunch stops and breaks in adverse weather! It’s surprising how warm they can get in even the most challenging conditions if you can insulate your back. This is why we always carry two foam sit mats. One to sit on and one to put behind us! It’s these little details that can make a big difference, but nobody writes about them.
We found a boulder with a slight overhang on the opposite side to the prevailing wind. We sat close, snuggled up to eat lunch. Lunch today was our usual, Biscoff flapjack; sweet, flavoursome and full of energy, but most important of all, convenient! A complex lunch that needs to be heated ot created in these conditions would not be fun! Although a food flask, albeit heavy, would be a great addition. We might have to consider these for the future!
As we were eating our lunch, we were blessed with a very brief break in the fog. The views this gave us over Loch Lomond towards Beinn a’ Choin were breathtaking. We both paused chewing and just stared out over the expanse of hills before us. The break in the fog was short-lived but offered a snapshot of some of the views the clouds were obscuring.
We didn’t sit for as long as we had hoped, as we both felt the cold creep in. Packing our backpacks again, we headed off to start the descent of Ben Vorlich.
The descent simply involved retracing our footsteps. This is usually the most challenging and dangerous part of any hill walk, and today would be no exception. The rocks were wet and slippery, and with tired legs, extra care would need to be taken.
Our progress was slowed considerably by the intermittent breaks in the fog. The temperature remained stubbornly low, but the fog begged to lift, offering a brief window to the hills and mountains surrounding us.
Due in part to the time, as it was now approaching mid-afternoon, and the cold, relentless wind, we decided not to linger on the summit in hopes of a more significant break in the clouds. We did, however, linger long enough to get some better photographs close to the summit of Ben Vorlich before starting the slow descending.
Walking through the area with caves, we left the clouds behind and started to remove layers of clothes and waterproofs. Looking around us, we could see the summits were clearing of clouds. We debated whether we had been too hasty in retreating off the summit, but agreed it was the best decision at the time. Hindsight is not always wise to overthink. We can’t change the past, but we can change the future. Maybe next time we will sit tight, wrap up and wait for a break in the clouds that was slowly coming!
Once off the hill path and back onto the tarmac road that leads to Loch Sloy, Eve had an idea that would nearly break me!
It was now about 4.30 pm and we still had a couple of miles to walk back to the car. Sarah was still at work, so Eve decided to beat her home, ideally pop in to see Sarah at work!Eve decided to start running, and I was required to keep pace. For the sake of fitness and hoping this would help remove the layer of Eve and Sarah’s baking surrounding my torso, I agreed! It didn’t make any visible difference, but it did successfully remove any energy that was left in my already exhausted legs.In the fastest section of the day's hiking, we arrived back at the car in record time and not a moment too soon. I was exhausted. Eve was happy and very excited!
On the drive home, we received a text from Sarah to tell us she had already left work and would beat us home. Sarah was unaware of Eve’s motivation for her sudden spurt of speed. Eve took it in good heart, as I had already tried to manage her expectations of success. Sarah beat us home by 10 minutes!
Ben Vorlich was an exceptional day that we both thoroughly enjoyed. We both highly recommend Ben Vorlich if you are a keen hill walker. It isn’t a particularly challenging Munro by Munro standards, but care has to be taken with all hill walking, especially in poor weather like we had today.
I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this journal and looking at our photographs as much as I did writing this for you.
Ian & Eve
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