A day of pain on Ben Vane

[Stuart Angus]

The starting grid!

This is my first report on here so bare with me! I've heard a lot about Ben Vane from walkers whilst oot and aboot so I had a degree of trepidation doing this one but as you'll see from the pics, we couldn't have asked for a better day which didn't only make it enjoyable, has made it one of my favourite walks so far! Ben Vane has everything.

The real start at the edge of Inveruglas

Anyway, we parked at Inveruglas car park on the Bonnie banks and I soon realised I had no idea where I was going!!! Got the map out and we soon realised we should cross the road towards the power station and walk south back towards the edge of Inveruglas
Having followed the walkers path for about 1km to the edge of the village you'll come across a tarmac road on the right which has a gate (see pic) which is essentially the start of things. Head up here and keep going for about another 1.5km staying on the tarmac and resisting any temptation to deviate from this path. A'Chrois (Corbett) is the first hill you'll see. You'll eventually come to a sub station on the left hand side...............with a road heading off to the right. Keep left here and continue the march!

Keep left here and keep going. Ben Vanes the big one in front of you, A'Chrois the one on the left! (I didn't know this at the time!!!..............Ime's the big one in the background (I did know that at the time!!!)

You'll shortly (after about 1km) come across another junction leading off the tarmac to the left with a bridge leading onto forestry commission track. Cross the bridge and follow the path up.

Follow the path over the bridge

Follow the forrestry commission track for about 400 mtrs till you come across a small bridge type crossing with a path off to the right. This is the track leading you onto the hill itself.

My map reader and tour guide for the day posing with his seniorita! That's the path you take on their right hand side.

From now on it's pretty straight forward but also pretty steep.

Fag break at about 500mtrs. If I stop.........I smoke! View down Loch Lomond was spectacular today and check out the sky, it really is blue not grey afterall!

Getting to fair height now but you can see the path winding and weaving it's way through the rocks.

The path takes you between all the rocky out-crops with no real problems to about 750mtrs.............I know this because I met a dude on his way down who told me I'd done the hardest part but there was a wee cliff I'd half to negotiate to get to the summit! (Wait a minute, I don't like heights so whats this cliff thing all about? He said I wouldn't miss it and indeed he was correct but it's not a cliff, it's a wee slab you need to cross but there's no problems with it, if you fall you'll only fall about 10ft not the 3000 I was now bricking myself about!!! Once over this little obstacle you're pretty much there (don't worry about this in the rain either by the way it really is no problem............remember I'm scared of heights, so if I can do it anyone can!) It's about 20mtrs to the top, where, as you'll see from the pics, the views were tremendous.

That's me on the left. Hi!

Lunch on top!............we stayed up here for 2 hours becuase the views were so good.

Ben Lomond on the left, A'Chrois on the right.

Ben Narnain and The Cobbler

Me........being a knob!

Ben Vorlich & Loch Sloy

After dicking about for a couple of hours up there, we decided we did have homes to go too and it may be a good idea to head back down. Incidentally I've found a pic of the rocky bit I was talking about earlier which you can have a look at below but honestly it's a piece of cake.

The aforementioned rocky bit!

I don't know how to attach a map of our route, maybe one will appear automatically as it's the standard route from Inveruglas otherwise some kind soul may tell me how to attach one!
PS - Here's a wee bonus picture of Lock Lomond from Inveruglas I took when we got back to the car. Hope you enjoy Ben Vane as much as I did, although i think the weather had much to do with it!

Ben/Loch Lomond

[MG1976]

Hi Stuart,

Congratulations on your first report. Nicely put together with some good pictures.
I've sent you a private message with a few pointers on adding your route file, but it's pretty straightforward.
I'm sure you'd be able to work out on your own. Anyway, I how the pointers help.

MG

[Stuart Angus]

Hi Stuart,

Congratulations on your first report. Nicely put together with some good pictures.
I've sent you a private message with a few pointers on adding your route file, but it's pretty straightforward.
I'm sure you'd be able to work out on your own. Anyway, I how the pointers help.

MG

Ah, I see.....got it! Thanks for the help MG1976 it was pretty straight forward but couldn't have done it without you. Cheers again.

[skuk007]

Nice first report Stuart, and a good selection of pics. Glad you liked this one, like you said it's got everything, well mostly!

[Stuart Angus]

Cheers skuk007, glad you liked it.............hopefully my next ones will take a little less time now I've figured it all oot!!!!

[stevos82]

Nice report Stu. However, I can't believe you didn't include the 'Reservoir Vane' pic!

On the other hand, I'm glad you included photographic evidence showing who's responsible for destroying cairns at the top of Munros!

Stephen

[lomondwalkers]

Good first report Stuart. Great wee hill is Ben Vane, nice wee scrambles once you're past the mudbath

[Paul_Antonia]

Good report mate. Love the pics, they show what a great time you had. Wish we'd had that weather when we did it although we got some great atmospherics with the clouds swirling around the neighbouring peaks, just couldn't see anything from the top. Now I know what we missed.

[Rossco]

Yeah same here, looks a decent view as well so good to see what I missed.

Nice one.

[JTweedie]

Good report and I'm glad you showed the photo of the path off the A82 to get you started, I always wondered where the starting point was, I'm hoping to do Ben Vane this week if the weather doesn't turn bad - I read reports of heavy rain for today, but none to speak of in Glasgow - damn you weather reports!