BEN VANE (3004')

Sunday 28th October 1979

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Log book entry from 70th R & I Expedition Log - Everest Challenge

Sunday 28th October                       Ben Vane (3004’)

Leaders: Glip, Chris Foster, Peter Bennett

Scouts: Graham Bolster (Rivet), Graeme Wright, Robert Wright, Kevin Byng, Andrew Davies, Robbie Mochrie, Colin Roach (Shrew).

Weather: Cloudy and hill fog above 2,500’. Light wind. Dry and very warm.

Report

We set off in Peter’s and Chris’s cars from headquarters at about 8 AM. Yawn!  It was a quiet journey and, again, we got across the Erskine bridge for free. The cars were parked at the entrance to the road up to Loch Sloy, the same place as when we climbed Ben Vorlich in June. It was quite gloomy and looked like rain, but as we walked along the road to the foot of Loch Sloy, the weather brightened and the rain stayed off. Shrew was navigating today and we decided to walk by compass building up the South East bluff of Ben Vane.

There was no great urgency in climbing, which rather niggled Chris who does not like to climb hills at snails pace. Graeme, Kevin and Glip made up an Everest poem with Rivet as the main character, but Rivet wasn’t amused. The top of the hill was covered with mist and so we had to use the compass extensively, Graeme had that fatal fascination for rocks and boulders and insisted on climbing them all, much to Glip’s ‘disapproval’.

It was very warm at the top, which we reached in approximately 2 ½ hours from the cars. Graeme produced a pomegranate or something like that.

We did not want to leave the top in the same direction as we had come because it was steep and so we went west and north-west toward a small lochain. At about 2700 feet, we broke below the cloud and could see where we were going. The cliffs marked round about grid reference 274103 were not very big and we easily cut through them to a plateau on the north side of the mountain. Kevin managed to jump into a bog up to his knees. He claimed that Robert had jumped into the same bog just before  without sinking at all. Obviously, Kevin had had a heavy lunch.

The descent to the Loch Sloy dam was very interesting since there were lots of rocks and little cliffs. Chris and Peter went on ahead while the Scouts admired the rocks and the dam.

There was a grand road race back to the cars from the dam. Robbie took an early lead, but was fooled into stopping by sneaky tactics from those following. Rivet fell into a ditch and claimed that he had been pushed by Glip. What a fib!

Graeme, Rivet and Robbie eventually broke away from the main group and Graeme won eventually. Kevin, Shrew and Andy arrived, singing the Sparrow song and the Tramp, just as John Hennessey and David Bolster passed by. They have been at Glencoe and stopped to say hello.

Important note:  Graham Wright passed Kilimanjaro on this climb, which represents quite an achievement since he did not start the Everest challenge until the Killin weekend in July.