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Ben Ledi: The 'Surviving 2021' Dividend

Ben Ledi: The 'Surviving 2021' Dividend


Postby Craiging619 » Sat Dec 04, 2021 11:09 am

Route description: Ben Ledi

Corbetts included on this walk: Ben Ledi

Date walked: 01/12/2021

Time taken: 4.35 hours

Distance: 7.4 km

Ascent: 760m

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A couple of friends asked to go hiking before one of them goes back to Indonesia, so I wasn't going to turn down the opportunity for one more climb in 2021 (I'd still only climbed six mountains all year, due to the lockdowns and a million other things... :( ). The original plan was Ben Ledi, but the forecast worsened in the days before the climb. The night before I checked MWIS, and every region except Southern Uplands was mentioning a slight chance of thunder. :shock: I was leaning towards Broad Law, even that morning when I woke up, but further weather checks suggested that the Moffat area was actually going to be hit by a load of showers, while Callander was going to have sunny intervals all day. Picking people up in the West End and Paisley, I finally made up my mind: Ben Ledi it is! :D

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The traffic was awful and I managed to get a bit lost in Milngavie, but eventually we made it there after 11:30am. We had just over four hours of daylight...it would be cutting it fine, but I knew the path was great.

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Dumyat and the Wallace Monument were already clear to the Southeast.

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This just reads like a challenge.

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Great mix of late-autumn / early-winter colours.

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Speaking of which, Ben Lawers is still covered in snow.

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Thankfully the path doesn't try and tackle these cliffs.

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Bingo! The path switched back onto the ridge at 600m to reveal Ben Lomond and the Arrochar Alps.

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This is a proper Ben Lomond-style path, so no chance of getting lost here (unless the snow is out of control...)

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At around 750-800m we started to see bits of frost...

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...followed by ice... :o

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...followed by snow!

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Thankfully we were nearly there, and it wasn't quite 2pm.

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The cross memorial, which had been visible from afar earlier, loomed back into view.

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A summit! In December! I'm not used to this at all.

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The wind (and wind chill) was horrendous by this point, so we found a slightly more sheltered bit to the West of the summit and had "ayam nasi goreng" (Indonesian chicken fried rice) for lunch. It felt like I was taking it out of a fridge rather than a rucksack. :lol:

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I briefly returned to the summit for some zoomed photos with the proper camera, but the wind was still awful and it was a task to just keep the camera still.

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No prizes for guessing that one!

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There were great views over to Arran, 50 miles away (with Conic Hill in front).

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Tarmachan and Lawers looking whiteish-reddish.

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Arran and Ben Lomond. I don't usually see these sorts of colours on a hillwalk, as I never go in winter. They came out better than I was expecting, not on the proper camera (which was often too windy to hold still) but on a simple iPhone camera.

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Merrick and Shalloch on Minnoch visible through the Strathblane Gap, a full 78 miles away.

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The hills right on the Highland Fault Line are great for the mixture of views.

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We made it back into the forest just before dusk: perfect (lucky?) timing...

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Yeah, I've had warmer hillwalks... :shock:

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We wanted to go into the coffee shop best themed for the day, but they had a sign up saying "back in 15 minutes". And 15 minutes later, they...closed. :? Costa it was then.

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Never needed a Hot Chocolate more.

It was a great day all in all. I love these bonus walks when I get one more hillwalk towards the end of a year. I had deliberately saved Ben Ledi for years in case there was a day with tricky weather or some other people wanted to tag along, and in the end it was the best day to go for it. Just hope I can climb more than seven mountains next year...please? 8)

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User avatar
Craiging619
Hill Bagger
 
Posts: 308
Munros:70   Corbetts:33
Fionas:40   Donalds:39+9
Sub 2000:22   
Islands:21
Joined: Jul 21, 2009
Location: Glasgow
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