The first two....
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 8:47 pmI finally did it - my first two Munros (having so far limited my novice and largely untrained 45 year old legs to the lovely Pentlands and surrounding area). I arrived in the NT car-park at about 8am and found that there was only one other car there - a good sign in terms of crowds, but a little unnerving with this being my first go at scaling a big one... Unfortunately the clouds were, as predicted by the MWS, still very much present when I set out armed with map, compass and Viewranger on my HTC phone (just in case). But I decided to press on in any event as I had been looking forward to this trip so much. I knew that I wasn't going to get the views, but I surmised that the sheer joy of the walk would mean that I did not go away disappointed. I was right on both counts - I didn't get the legendary views (though Loch Tay looked stunning as I approached the top of Beinn Ghlas - the last real view I got on the way up), but the whole walk was brilliant! 
I don't think I can add anything useful to the many more interesting and accomplished posts already made by more experienced walkers (and gratefully used by me to plan my trip). Just this, as I was huffing my way up the final stretch of Ben Lawers I could hear voices coming across and through the cloud from the bealach towards Beinn Ghlas (eerie!). Anyway, they reached the summit just after me and turned out to be a very nice couple who were both experienced walkers - she with 30 odd under her belt and he with more than 160 as I recall. They kindly took a photo for me (though they were sadly unable to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear) and the chap - a fire fighter - told me how, several years ago, he and big bunch of other fire fighting colleagues decided to try and make Ben lawers a 4000-footer by (get this) carting two fire ladders all the way up to the summit 
placing the tops together and collectively holding on to them while one brave colleague climbed to the top and stuck his hand in the air to pip the 4000 foot mark. Utterly insane, but all in a good cause. Respect! 
I don't think I can add anything useful to the many more interesting and accomplished posts already made by more experienced walkers (and gratefully used by me to plan my trip). Just this, as I was huffing my way up the final stretch of Ben Lawers I could hear voices coming across and through the cloud from the bealach towards Beinn Ghlas (eerie!). Anyway, they reached the summit just after me and turned out to be a very nice couple who were both experienced walkers - she with 30 odd under her belt and he with more than 160 as I recall. They kindly took a photo for me (though they were sadly unable to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear) and the chap - a fire fighter - told me how, several years ago, he and big bunch of other fire fighting colleagues decided to try and make Ben lawers a 4000-footer by (get this) carting two fire ladders all the way up to the summit placing the tops together and collectively holding on to them while one brave colleague climbed to the top and stuck his hand in the air to pip the 4000 foot mark. Utterly insane, but all in a good cause. Respect! 