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With a Christmas party lined up on Saturday night, I knew a Sunday walk would be out of the question, but there was nothing to stop me going on Saturday. My friend Lee had previously told me he was keen to get up Ben Vane as weather failed him on 2 previous attempts. As I never been up the mountain and it was a nice short one for winter the location was set and I told him I would get him up the mountain this time around.
We met at the car park just after 8:30 am and set off in lovely snow. I had printed out some maps and walk description and had my compass at hand …so nothing could go wrong. Well or so I thought
We walked along the path, crossed over the bridge and even though the description said to leave the path after 400m and follow the faint path up the hill, I ended up looking at the map and thought to myself…mmmm there is a forest we have to walk past first…
Being a bit confused if I should follow the description or the map I decided to follow the map. After all with all that snow we didn’t saw any path. We continued walking and with taking pictures of the winter wonderland and chatting away I didn’t really paid much more attention to the map…after all the forest was still there!
We continued along the path and looking ahead I saw that path continued through the forest??? By that time I thought that this cant be right anymore…but where did the forest stopped??? I was confused and we discussed what to do. Realizing the mountain was to our right, we could walk back the path and find the right way up the hill or….well my eyes looked up to my right and a grin spread across my face. The answer was easy…straight up.
When I told Lee he looked at me in slight horror. ‘Which way?’ He asked and studying the mountain I pointed out the ‘path’ I saw. He just looked at me with a blank expression and said I don’t see a path! Grinning I said ‘Trust me …it’s the way I go up mountains, see it as you advanced course in winter climbing.
- From here it was straight up to the first blind summit
Before we set off, I took a compass reading and made my way up the up the hill. We agreed that I would lead the way and he would follow my footsteps. The first part was pretty straight forward…deep snow, but nothing I haven’t done before…I started to enjoy the walk by that time!
After we reached the first blind summit (the easy part of the climb) the mountain really showed its craggy site…frozen ice and icicles covered the rock and cliffs of rock made it hard to find a way up. We continued and when more ice than snow covered the ground it was time to put my crampons on.
- Making my way up
Lee didn’t have any crampons, but an ice axe, so it was my task to kick in steps which he could follow. It was really hard work, especially as I had to break the frozen layer of ice and snow and together with sinking thigh deep into the snow, I was soon in my thin base layer top…so much for thinking it was a pretty easy mountain to climb
I think for the first time in my times of walking up a mountain in the snow I realized that an ice axe would have been a good thing to take….I was glad I had my poles, but looking down left a slight knot in my stomach, as I realized that a wrong step could send me down the mountain in no time.
- Ice and rock
- Its only when you turn back, you realize that the route was slightly on the steep side!
Concentrating hard I moved on further…step –kick-step –kick.
Quite a few times I had to go back, as the ground was too solid for Lee to follow me without crampons and at times I literally had him holding onto my pole and pull him over ice fields.
Luckily he enjoyed the experience and told me on a few different occasions how great it was to walk up a mountain that way. I just kept on praying that we would not hit more ice, as it would have been impossible for him to continue further (one reason why I still think crampons are more important than an ice axe if you have to choose)
- The top
We made it to the top after an exhausting 3.5h! Crazy how long it takes when you walk on ice and snow. The views were absolutely amazing and the low clouds mixed in with the snow made the whole countryside looking like a dream.
We only stopped for a few minutes before making our way down and by that time we met the first walker for the day. We had a chat and he told us there were some pretty tricky parts up the mountain. Thinking that it can’t be that bad we continued on, but when we got at the drop which we were told about I suddenly realized that it would be tricky. The walker we met caught up with us a short while after and together we looked for some alternative routes down. There were none! So in a combination of sliding and hanging onto the rock for dear life we made it down the rock face.
The remaining way was steep and with a long dislike for walking downhill I did the only thing worth doing… Sitting down, feet slightly lifted (crampons to be considered) I shot down the mountain.
Half we down the first bit we met some other walkers, some actually turned around when they saw the steep side of the snow covered mountain (I don’t blame them)
- Other walkers in front of the trick part!
- Ok ready steady go...who needs a sledge... :-)
Spending more time on my bum sliding than actually walking we reached the bottom of the walk in record time and continued through the bog. Not much fun and thinking about our route up I decided that it was definitely my favourite way up. We reached the cars again after a total of 6h…not bad considering the snow and ice and by that time it was time to have a quick coffee and say good bye as I had 3h left to drive home, get changed and head out for my Christmas night out
- Guess I need a new pair of walking poles ...