Ben Ledi - 05/10/13

[BigT]

Not sure what to expect with this one, but went more in hope than expectation of it being clear at summit. No such luck as everything about 600 was 20m visibility max. Today I had to fit in being 'on-call' with a hill, and that meant no early start, so just after 12.45 I managed to get away from Glasgow and head for Ben Ledi in the Trossochs. The weather was overcast, cloudy, and threatening wet. Whilst I intended to follow the enhanced route to come back down Stank Glen, that turned out to not be possible.

I set off after a late change of gear and delay getting parked. The hill was certainly busy with the early starters working their way back down. I struggled with the first 400m of this one - really low energy levels, skipping lunch was my likely problem, although my pack was also maybe a little heavier than usual. The steepest parts were killing me today, much harder than I anticipated.

To finally clear the tree line you have 3 sets of these steps to deal with



You then get your first close up of the crags



The path was good until through the stile, then it developed into a rocky\stream\boggy rough route along the crag face and turning right to clamber onto the ridge. I found this quite enjoyable. Looking around you see back down across the loch to Glen Ample and Ben Each.



Once on the ridge, visibility dropped and picture opportunities were scarce. The last clear one i took was looking south to Loch Venachar.



The ridge path was really in pieces right now, a wide scar about 10m across in places, part rock part bog. As for the false summits, as with Donich last week, Ledi did not disappoint and kept flinging them at me - thankfully they were short steep bumps on the ridge, must have been about 3 of them in total before the cross and cairn.

It was pretty white, so whacked on the sepia tone and grabbed a few snaps



Finally the cross, then cairn, peeked through the clouds - and the wind was up.



A quick check of the watch showed I had 1 hour 40 to get off the hill before sunset, which could be a tall order given i was 2.5 up and pretty inexperienced coming down. I decided to can the Stank Glen exit on the basis that my navigation needs work, and in this visibility I had no room for error given the time. So I decided to back out the way I came up.

A selfie at the cairn then late lunch then got moving


My main aim was to get off the ridge and below the stile before light faded, and hopefully back under the forest treeline. I had a head-lamp if needed but was keen to see how fast i could get down whilst staying safe.

By some minor miracle I made it and the sun set just as I got into the forest.

I guess I picked it as I am learning as I go and it seems to be lumped in with what experienced heads seem to consider as fairly simple. For me that was tough work, whilst not the relentless steepness of others, it was plenty steep enough for me in those 100m bursts, and I'd say 4 or 5 hundred m of the ascent (after the style onward) are on a wet boggy rocky surface. i think I am realizing 'simpler hills' means 'technically straight-forward', rather than 'physically easy'.

Also was first time with a hydration bladder today. Verdict is I liked it - bit of a time saver and hydrating more evenly throughout the day works for me (drink less but do that more frequently).

[riverlodge]

the only hills that mrs RL has ever done are morrone and ben ledi. both are good hills, but she really HATED the slog up ledi especially as i claimed it was fairly normal made up for it though with tea and cake in callander, which is to be recommended.

good report, like the sepia tone it almost makes clag look good.

[bigjimmy]

cheers for that bigT I fall into the inexperienced category too, and I did Ledi last autumn and at least got rewarded with great weather and visibility, which made all the effort worthwhile. Sounds also like some sensible decisions about routes and timings etc later in the day, Everyone will have differing views about what is tough and what isn't but it really doesn't matter a jot. My first munro was Bhein Glas and it wasn't even planned, I had stayed at a nearby hotel and was well hung over, basically just out for fresh air and kept going. I have found some smaller hills more physically challenging, but the views were great and thats the big thing for me.