The seven Macdonalds were attacking the house, with the woman inside. Until the menfolk returned and killed them. A memorial to this raid of 1620 began our route from Ardvorlich House by Loch Earn.
The sky turned glittering blue. After a month of downpours and floods, maybe even the weather was granting us an armistice. Steve Murray, Steve Green, Neil and I made our way steadily uphill towards Ben Vorlich as the autumn landscape glowed around us.... distant summits capped in white.
On the shoulder of the mountain, the clock reached the elenventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Up here, not being tied to any official events, this was our exact time to pause in short silence.
Further up, the track on the north face was difficult, a mixture of ice between the stones, and verglas across the top of them. Things eased a bit when we reached some light snow cover.
And next, to the summit of Ben Vorlich – a tremendous viewpoint. Standing on the south-east edge of the Highland Line, there are long views towards Stirling and even the Firth of Forth. The pivotal geography of Scotland. I saw my first brocken spectres from here some 30 years ago, which makes me fond of the place.
Our route lay onwatds to the sister Munro. Stuc a' Chroin is reached by a steep descent south to a rocky bealach. This runs to the base of a rock buttress about 100 metres high.
The summit ridge can be gained rightwards, but in fairly recent times, an originally faint line up the buttress has developed into a clear scramble line. As it faces north, the scramble would be liable to the same slippery verglas as Ben Vorlich. Our team decided to try a look-see. “Look well to each step..... “ runs the famous quotation from Edward Whymper.
So we did, and emerged careful and intact for lunch on Stuc a Chroin.
A steep, verglassed, and slippery descent from this mountain to the head of the separating coire soaked up time in the afternoon. With the sun getting lower, we finally gained the path leading down, down to Ardvorlich House. Roaming in the gloaming, and darkness fell at the lochside.
Steve Murray's choice for Sunday was Ben Chonzie, a rather shorter day on an isolated hill, and a good pick given the forecast for worsening weather after noon. As we had the luxury of camper vans on this trip, we got a great start by sleeping high up, at 340 metres by the dam of Loch Turret.reservoir.
Call me old-fashioned, but IMO a bulldozed track alongside a reservoir could easily be level (like the water eh ?) and thus good for MTB ride in. No such luck:- the 6.5 km or so to the head of the coire was a real contour-fest of steep ups and downs. A veil must be drawn over my cycling and my cheapo shopping trolley.
Dismounting at last, we saw a cleft in the headwall, and made our way up a steep rocky trod to the moorland at 750 metres.
Now it was only 1km to the summit via a gradually-rising path and some light snow cover. Pity about the mist, though.
A quick sip and nibble, then about turn. A cold wind rising as we got back to the wee cleft and took in the views down Glen Turret.
A change in the weather was coming, and we weren't too far down the A9 that afternoon before it began to pour down as Storm Debi began its approach. The brief truce offered by the weather this Armistice weekend was clearly over; but on Saturday in particular it had been great whilst it lasted...... one of the most glorious hill days for months.
ANDREW
