2 down, 280 to go - Ben Lomond
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 9:46 amFinally getting round to writing this report after being busy at work, anyway! Tuesday off work again and it was time to do a Munro, having only done the obvious Ben Nevis I thought it was time to start ticking more off my list so we headed for Ben Lomond having heard a lot of people do that as their first or second Munro. We left the house at 7am and headed for the motorway, having taken the wrong turn at the roundabout off the M9 and heading for Callander instead of Stirling the day wasnt off to a good start, 2 hours later we were finally pointed in the right direction by a lovely WHW walker and we made it to the Rowardennan car park. At this point the weather was clear and cool.
We opted for the Ptarmigan Ridge Route up as we thought it would have been more quiet as well as a little more exciting than the main route. It was lovely.
As we headed further up we began to walk under the mist where visibility was very poor and there was no view of anything around us. As we continued on up what seemed to be a zig zag path which matched the map, we came to an almost flat path which we were confused about, was it the summit or not? We could barely see two feet in front of us so we couldnt even see if there was a higher peak in front. We stopped to ask two walkers who had started off at the bottom with us "is this the top?" they replied "we were going to ask you's the same thing" I wasnt convinced it was the top as it certainly didnt match any images I had seen so we continued on where we then met a man with his dog and asked him the same question, he told us we were 40 minutes from the summit, I was glad to hear it. Finally after some climbing almost on hands and knees we made it to a very windy and very wet summit of Ben Lomond.
As we headed back down the main route the wind was almost picking me up off my feet, the only thing that was stopping me from getting blown back down to the Rowardennan car park was probably the weight of my bag. Only 15 minutes or so into the descent my knee started to go, this wasnt good. The way down was absolutely dire especially as the drops became higher and I was trying to balance more on one leg, safe to say I was going slower than I was on the way up.
As we were heading down within the space of about 10 seconds the mist disappeared and the view that I recognised from photos began to appear.
After a long limp down we made it back to the Car park roughly 5.5 hours after we had started. Things I have learned from this trip - 1) Never underestimate a Munro, when you think youre at the top youre probably nowhere near it. 2) Never underestimate the weather and 3) Dont use google maps. Also on list of things to do, get knee fixed.
- Rowardennan Car Park
We opted for the Ptarmigan Ridge Route up as we thought it would have been more quiet as well as a little more exciting than the main route. It was lovely.
- Ridge Route
- Making the way up look harder than it was so those at home think more of the climb..
As we headed further up we began to walk under the mist where visibility was very poor and there was no view of anything around us. As we continued on up what seemed to be a zig zag path which matched the map, we came to an almost flat path which we were confused about, was it the summit or not? We could barely see two feet in front of us so we couldnt even see if there was a higher peak in front. We stopped to ask two walkers who had started off at the bottom with us "is this the top?" they replied "we were going to ask you's the same thing" I wasnt convinced it was the top as it certainly didnt match any images I had seen so we continued on where we then met a man with his dog and asked him the same question, he told us we were 40 minutes from the summit, I was glad to hear it. Finally after some climbing almost on hands and knees we made it to a very windy and very wet summit of Ben Lomond.
As we headed back down the main route the wind was almost picking me up off my feet, the only thing that was stopping me from getting blown back down to the Rowardennan car park was probably the weight of my bag. Only 15 minutes or so into the descent my knee started to go, this wasnt good. The way down was absolutely dire especially as the drops became higher and I was trying to balance more on one leg, safe to say I was going slower than I was on the way up.
As we were heading down within the space of about 10 seconds the mist disappeared and the view that I recognised from photos began to appear.
- Underneath the mist
After a long limp down we made it back to the Car park roughly 5.5 hours after we had started. Things I have learned from this trip - 1) Never underestimate a Munro, when you think youre at the top youre probably nowhere near it. 2) Never underestimate the weather and 3) Dont use google maps. Also on list of things to do, get knee fixed.
see you on a hill sometime! 
