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Another weekend quickie. We planned for a walking party of three but lost a number to sundayitis. The sundayitis was predicted early on Saturday evening, so we could plan accordingly. The weather predictions were pretty keech so we had to opt for something reasonably straightforward and close enough to get back to Glasgow for work commitments during the rest of the day. The conclusion was Ben Donich.
It's a corbett beside the Rest and be Thankful, but you start from quite a height so it's a quickie which can be done in about 3-4 hours. It boast spectacular views of the arrochar alps. We drove up with the optimism that it would be clearer once we got further north - it wasn't - it was worse. Not actually raining just low cloud and overcast.
We parked up and legged it up the well laid out path which zig zags up the start of the hill. Apparently you can see the peak from here - presumably on a good day. As the path levels out after the leg burner bit some crevices in the ground start to appear. They are pretty deep - so this walk is pretty much a no-no in the snow. Deep enough to get stuck in and not die was our conclusion.
I would imagine the views of the rest and be thankful are beautiful on a nice day:
Once you're up near the top the scenery changes to include some big rocks which you have to make your way around. There's nothing particularly challenging and it turns a boring foggy walk into a bit of an adventure.
Not long after this the summit catches us by surprise, we had found it east enough that we thought it must have been a wee bit further. I hate when people write that kind of stuff on here, but this is seriously one of the easier ones we've done.
From the summit you can see spectacular views of the cobbler:
The walk down is quite good fun, we've got a new bounce in our step at the idea that we're finding these easier. If anything the fog has got worse, so things are a little "mordoresque"
We decide on our way down that this one is easy enough that we can bring a drum kit and some recording equipment next time because the reverberation within the clouds is almost non-existent.
I would imagine this would be on my top ten of easy mountains to climb in half a day from Glasgow if the views are as good as described.
