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As part of my ongoing quest to get fit and get in training for a charity climb of Ben Nevis in July I'm slowly ticking off the "Easier" Munros. This week it was Ben Chonzie.
Regretting still being at a party when the third bottle of wine got opened, we set out at 9:30am. Just me and Craig this time. Cathy wanted a day off after I set the pace a little too high when we did Tinto on Saturday.
Ben Chonzie is one of the closest Munro's to Glasgow because of the M8- to Stirling, so you can quite quickly be at the very picturesque bottom of Glen Lednock.
From here it's a continuous thigh burning walk up a good track. There's several other walkers out today and it's just a case of head down and get the miles behind you.
As you get further on the views start to develop behind you and you can see Ben Vorlich and Stuc a Chroin:
You can't actually see Ben Chonzie for most of the walk. I always think this makes it slightly harder. No matter how much you refer to the OS map. When you can see where you need to go, there is a sense of knowing what's coming.
After a few hours walking, the path levels out onto a flat moorland and the thighs get a rest. This slowly swings round and you can see a line of wooden posts giving way to metal posts which leal you to the summit. This wide ridge has a slow climb on it and eventually the wind is quite biting.
By the time you can see the summit, you are spurred on with the wish to get out the wind. Ben Chonzie is one of those Munro's where the wind doesn't merit the view. It's pretty, but nothing compared to some of the views I've seen in the past. The walk to the summit gives reasonable views of what I think is the lawers range
Once on the summit - it;s a quick photo and then into the weather trap for a bite to eat.
On the way back down. we took a detour over the sheep tracks to come down and meet the path. Long road for a short cut, but it postponed the monotony of the path for a wee while.
It's not the most exciting Munro in the world, or even in Scotland, but it has a good path all of the way and other than the thigh burn isn't too challenging mentally, which is a good job given my hangover.
