A lovely and easily accessible Munro. (Munros Completed : Ben Vorlich (34)).
A great day out on Ben Vorlich.
2010/Dec/27 : This Munro starts at Inveruglas and there is a path that follows the road for a short distance besides the magnificent power station opposite the car park. After 300m, the main track bears off into the hills and follows the power lines. I left the track slightly further on & was soon in deep soft snow making it tough going. It was at least knee deep in places making for an energy sapping hike. Visibility was poor & only at about 300m height the cloud was thick with vision at around 30m and sometimes down to 10m or even less. I caught up with two others I had seen earlier and followed in their footsteps for a while until they stopped for a break. I decided to carry on but it was tough now having to break trail through continual deep soft snow. At 13:20 I had reached the col with about 400m to go but thankfully the terrain was flatter & the snow slightly firmer & pressed on making good progress, eventually summitting at 13:40.
On returning to the col, rather than retrace my steps I headed W down the steeper slope to reach the track road by the Loch Sloy dam. The slope is fairly steep but not steep enough to be of concern. It’s well worth the return by this route to see the dam and also means an easier, although slightly longer walk back along the track.
Beinn Chabhair: The start of this Munro begins from Beinglas farm at Inverranan, though it’s possible to park at the Drovers Inn just down the road. The forecast was spot on again with no wind, but cloudy & drizzly to start, but this soon stopped. The first section of the walk above the farm was steep & again very icy and I slipped a couple of times on the verglas.
However, once on the plateau, it seemed to clear slightly & I could see the mountain tops around 700m with the occasional glimpse of blue sky as the wisps of cloud moved over the mountains. The track is well-defined & follows the burn for a long way up to the lochen. There was snow on the plateau but less than ankle deep.
There appeared to be cloud layers as just above the lochen the cloud thickened again & I ascended into the gloom to make the ridge that leads to the peak. To my surprise however, this was another cloud layer and once on top of the ridge the visibility improved dramatically. There were patches of blue sky and the sun looked like it was desperately trying to break through but it never did.
The ridge is not really a true ridge, but is very craggy & annoyingly undulates, so as soon as you gain height you lose some the other side. The craggy rocks mean also that you have to weave your way back and fore across the ridge to find the best line.
As an alternative to retracing your steps all the way back, there is an alternative though longer route from the plateau just before the steep section above the farm. This follows a ford track N, which then descends to meet with the West Highland Way by the river.
