Ben Vuirich!

I've always thought I'll climb Ben Vuirich in passing, at some point. No need to force it. Ben Vuirich is the giant lump of mud at the top of Glen Loch. If I walk in from Straloch, I have to circumnavigate the west, and then the north side of the mountain. It is a pretty big fucking mountain, and still a few metres short of being able to call itself a Munro. With my campsite being right opposite Ben Vuirich, it was pretty obvious that I had to find some time to do this, finally. I don't know why I think I have to do anything.

The northern and eastern slopes, visible from my tent, are smooth and steep, with rocks and hard snow. The easy way up is from the south. That means, I'll walk around it, again, along its east flank, then up to the southern ridge. Nobody should blame me for not being thorough with this hill. As it is custom for Corbetts, Ben Vuirich doesn't have paths or anything really. It's just thick heather, moor, swamp from bottom to top. Exhausting, cold, windy, but with a beautiful view at the end. In the video of the summit, the wind is louder than my voice. A bunch of things with antlers on the top, a dozen maybe, reluctantly making way for me.

I learned that I can climb mountains in a T-shirt, even in December, if I just try to work hard. I learned that fourhundred metres gain in altitude can indeed be very hard work. That two miles through trackless moor is brutal. Okay, I already knew that, kind of. And I learned that mountain tops are, by and large, hostile places, although they might look sunny and friendly in pictures.