Ben Vorlich Anti-Climax
Week 3&4
Hello and thanks for the nice comments on the new bike-less posts.
The past 2 weeks have been up and down really. Not bad up and down but just up and down. We decided to go climb Ben Vorlich, with the potential to carry on towards Stuc a’ Chroin if the weather and our fitness allowed. An early start again, leaving at 5:30am so as to get up and down the munro with time to spare for other daily faffing.
It was fairly mild with a wee wind on the morning of the climb and Blair warned that it was to be drizzly for an hour or so and then the weather would clear in time for our summit. So the usual pre-climb photo of us both, boots and gaitors on and we were off. Blair was wearing his Asolo Flame GTX’s for the first time today after getting them after our Beinn Ghlas climb. He had a bit of a boo-boo with the tongue but got it sorted at the start. He was amazed at the way the water beaded off the boot as we walked through some wee rivers that lead on to a raging white water rapid heading down to Loch Earn as the snow melted. We crossed the rapid over a new Hyrdo plant thing they were installing. Shame it wasn’t already going as it would be generating some power.
The difference between Beinn Ghlas and Ben Vorilich is with Ghlas, you start quite a bit above sea level. Vorlich on the other hand is a 0m start and is pretty steep for most of the climb. There’s no flat plateaus in which to gather yourself for the next climb, its just constantly uphill. Because of this I was finding it tough. Blair suggested I go in the lead, but the issue with that is, Blair walks faster than me and he was quickly pushing me up the hill mentally, causing me to tire really quickly. So I kept my own pace, let Blair ahead to go his own pace and eventually we reached the point before the last incline to the summit. The only problem was the wind had really picked up and the rain, which had started pretty much just after the hyrdo plant we crossed, was now horizontal. The closer we got to the start of the incline, the stronger the wind got. We couldnt even stand and so retreated slightly downhill to discuss the options. The main issue was the incline to the summit was a narrow ridge, flanked either side by snow. To the left the snow was the tip of a 2000ft snow slide. To the right was a 1500ft slide. The wind was whipping right to left and the decision was made to abort the summit. If the wind continued with that power, a slight stumble (which was inevitable especially as we couldn’t stand in the one place when talking about this) would send us on to the snow and down this long snow chute to oblivion. Better to get home disappointed than underground disappointed.
The trip down was quick, with help from the wind. We were the first up and on the way back down we met 2 groups, of 4 and 2 respectively. Both of which decided to attempt the summit, so we wished them luck and continued down. We had lunch behind some massive rock out of the wind, and made a deadline to get down in an hour. With quick step we made it down in 40 minutes which was a wee achievement…
It’s a shame as that’s the second failed summit attempt in 2 climbs, although the summit of Ghlas was achieved, the Lawers goal wasn’t. This will be our next munro, back up Ghlas and up again to Lawers. I hope the snow is away so we can make a go of it.
In other news.
The past 2 weeks have been weird. I’ve been really busy, which isn’t weird but it’s made me constantly tired, which makes the days short. It’s soon February already and I don’t feel as if I’ve done anything of note, besides munro walking. I’m commuting through to Glasgow at the minute, a 1hr 20min journey both ways depending on traffic. I’m driving my sister’s car, which she can’t drive at the minute due to not having passed her test. It’s a good first car for her, but one of the headlights have blown. The right hand indicator is blown too, making the right hand signal flash like a strobe which is hilarious. The right hand window doesn’t go back up once you have put it down, which I found out sitting in a queue. I managed to get it back up again my tapping the up button, but if you pushed it for too long the automatic up kicked in and would send it flying back down again…a bit counter intuitive but there you go. I managed to get it sealed just before the queue dissipated and we were moving again. The radio is broke due to the battery being flat, so it needs some code to activate it again. The temperature reading is duffed too, showing a nice -40°c every morning. The clutch pedal moved with the accelerator which is nice. And the rear view mirror has absolutely no friction left in it, so if you go to flip it to avoid being blinded by someone behind, it ends up at a stupid angle whilst you wrestle with it. It does the job though, so I can’t be too unhappy. I wish I was driving the Mini every day. Not only would it save fuel but the seat wouldn’t be like an ironing board. My back is really sore at the minute, partly through my work in Glasgow but the funny seats in the car don’t help matters.
A few bikers have zipped past me in queues making me pang for my motorcycle again, but for that split second only. I seem to get over it quick and remember why I stopped. It’s mostly wee 600′s and the odd 1200GS, nothing as earth poundingly immense as the MT. It’s funny as when these bikes pass the car vibrates with the exhast notes. I can’t help but imagine what it must have been like when I passed on the MT, especially when I learned how to make it backfire on demand, something I used to love doing down lanes of traffic. I always remember timing a backfire beautifully as I passed a guy hogging the center line. He has his window down and just as my exhaust tip got to his window I got a nice shotgun crack out the back. I then heard “WANKER” follow shortly after.
So yeah. Good times.
February is a strict no fly zone for spending. January took it out of us big style, not helped by Lloyds TSB taking the piss. I called them in September 2010 to cancel our home insurance as we were getting it for £40 cheaper with More Than. The woman I spoke to was a bit shirty but I was told it would be cancelled after the following months payment. Taking their word for it I never checked. But as with everything like that it inevitably results in 4 months of additional payments being taken out. When I called up there was a note of the botched cancellation and a refund was soon on the way, which is lucky. I was pretty annoyed with myself for not making sure that it was cancelled but I obviously have too much trust in people…
I also sold 2 things on ebay for 3x and the same cost as I paid for it, a wee masterplan that came to fruition, so it took a bit of the sting off the bite that was Christmas and the dreaded January wait.
Anyway,
We are still trying to sell our house but nobody is getting mortgages or selling, so the whole cycle of house moving has been brought to its knees. It’s a shame as I am desperate to get started on my new project.
Maybe I should win the lottery. That would solve so many problems.
Take it easy all, hope your January has been good. To February then, for now.
Gordon
