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After a sluggish holiday period with exercise of any kind thwarted by weather, colds, hangovers and over indulgence in general we decided we needed to blow off the cobwebs and get a grip. Monday 2nd started out looking not too bad at all (from Glasgow anyway) so by 9am it was agreed to head up to Aberfoyle and take a wee jaunt up Ben A'an, just enough to get the legs going without being too much of a shock to the system. Packed up and almost heading out the door when the lesser-spotted teenage daughter suddenly appeared in the hallway and announced ' I'm coming too'. What seemed like three hours later, after kitting her out in a mix of our old cast offs, we headed up in the car. Quite snowy on the Dukes Pass meaning a careful drive down to Achray where we spotted a sign on opposite side saying the road was closed - no such sign at the Aberfoyle end -oops. Kitted up and off we went, bit boggy but otherwise fine:
Once into the forestry it started snowing lightly, the trees looked lovely dusted with snow and we were in good spirits. The path was very boggy in places but this being a popular walk there are plenty of old logs, stepping stones etc to help you over the worst bits. After around 30 mins we emerged from the forestry and the hill opened up in front of us. Just that 100m higher and we were into quite a thick blanket of snow:
The teenager surprised us by doing quite well thus far...she actually made various faces that suggested enjoyment, despite procalamations about the fashion crimes we were all committing. The hill climb proper started and we had to engage hands to rock to clamber up the steep embankment alongside the stream. We missed the (usually obvious) point where the path crosses the stream simply down to the snow covering the route, but we improvised by taking a higher route directly up the stream itself to a safe crossing point involving just a minor scramble. To be honest I made this a little more interesting just for the purposes of hearing teenage squeals and her mock terror at having to actually climb up through the stream...
By now the weather had closed in quite a bit, but with only a short walk to the summit ahead of us we pressed on:
It started snowing just as we reached the top, the normally excellent views replaced by a sheet of stone grey paper behind us, no hanging about here, a few pics, quickly got the teenager into full waterproofs and then we headed down via a bit of a blizzard:
Back at the car within two hours, no snow, no people and no moaning from the teenager, not convinced we have managed to fully convert her but it was certainly the most active I think she has been in a loooong while! A good wee day made all the better because we shared it with our daughter, hopefully the first of many?!!