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Today was the first Munro of my "Munro Bagpiping" challenge, but I hope it proves to be the worst of the lot. I aim to take my bagpipes with me, any time I climb one of Scotlands highest peaks, and today was the first!
It was a dull January morning when I woke up, but the forecast wasnt too bad, and I had made plans with my friend Derek to climb Ben Lomond. Having been up before, I thought it best doing what we were familiar with, as with the possibility of snow being around, I didnt want to get stuck on a hill with my bagpipes in a rucksack haha.
The climb turned out to be rather a tough slog, with all views disappearing about about 400m, but we kept on going, more to prove to ourselves we could do it after the festive season.
Once on the summit, the wind picked up, and temperature seemed to plummet. We met several people on the way back down and they said they could only stay on the top a few minutes. With my goal of getting a picture and video piping, however, I had to stay a bit longer. We found a bit of shelter, and managed to get a tune beside the cairn for about 1 minute!!
![Ben Lomond.jpg]()
- Piping in awful conditions at the peak
In the end, it was a bit of a failure, due to the views we could have had being clouded out, but I fully intend returning in the summer. Maybe there will be a few more people to listem too.
