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| Looking up at the summit |
It was getting late on Sunday night and I had just noticed the weather forecast for the west on Monday. Simply too good not to take advantage of it. A quick email and I managed to get the day off work. A quick phonecall and we had a plan. As it was late, we didn't want to set off super early and we had still to pack. Ben Lomond was mentioned and I wasn't too keen at first, but after a quick glance at the OS map, I saw there was a non-tourist path and this quickly changed my opinion. I had also read that it was still very much winter in the West so it would certainly be more than a walk in the park.
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| I found some ice! |
We left Edinburgh at 8am and headed for Stirling and then across to the Trossachs. It was after 11am by the time we got walking from the car park at Meml Pier. The weather folk had come up trumps and, as predicted, it was indeed a glorious day. Little to no wind at all with only a handful of clouds in the sky. Not too cold either. We headed north passed Rowardennan, out of the wood and climbed up to Ptarmigan. The going was good and we got warm rather quickly going up the soft, steep slope. The snow-line was reached at around 600 metres and we continued on in winter conditions up to the small lochan on the Ptarmigan summit. Here we paused for a breather, had a bite and a brew, and inspected the frozen-solid water.
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| Approaching the top |
Refreshed, we pressed on through the Bealach Buidhe to gain the north west ridge leading up the Ben Lomond's top. The going was a little slower here, as the eroded switch-back path was heavily iced up. After a brief slog, we were soon had the summit trig all to ourselves; taking in the breathtaking views all around; certainly living up to it's name of 'Beacon Mountain'. It was a little hazy but we still had a magnificent panorama of Loch Lomond and the Arrochar Alps. There was no wind and quite mild so we had a long stop; had some more grub and took quite a few pictures. It was truly beautiful up there.
As the sun started to sink low in the sky, we headed back down the Sròn Aonaich ridge via the 'tourist path'. Our descent was quite slow, as the wide path was rather icy and we narrowly avoided a number of accidents as we skited back down to Rowardennan Forest. As we approached the car park in the dark, we reflected on a great day; beaming from ear to ear.
