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Good old Ben Vane. My 3rd attempt to climb this bad boy. This is the first time the weather had been decent so I was looking forward to reaching the summit after being foiled twice before. As I marched up the long winding road bored with its familiarity I was thinking that this would be an easy hike as its one of the smallest Munros and doesn’t look that big from the road in. I was also keen to experience the views over Beinn Narnain and Bienn Ime, which I had recently conquered!
The other reason for choosing this short and small Munro was the fact that I climbed Ben Cruachan and Stob Diamh yesterday and was knackered with very sore knee’s. I thought this would be a bit more manageable distance wise than An Caisteal which I had originally planned to climb.
After ascending over half way I was quite chuffed at my progress and seemed to be smoothly marching up without any problems. Yet the route I chose was quite steep so I was confused over how well I was handling it especially the state my legs were in from yesterday.
After quite a few false summits but some great climbing up the steep slopes and gully’s I stopped for some lunch. There was little sun today due to the hazy blanket of cloud but all summits were fog free so the views were fab. One thing that struck me was how high I was. For a small Munro I think it’s probably one of the steepest I’ve climbed so the view and distance back down to the road really surprised me.
I reached the fresh and icy cold summit after 2.5hrs with a big smile on my face as I really enjoyed this ascent. Considering the steepness it seemed to suit my walking pace. During ascent, as soon as I felt tired, it opened up to give me a small plateau in which to catch my breath, then when I recovered the hill kept presenting me with some good snow and ice to challenge the ice axe and crampons and some twisty gully paths with fun scrambling. I am glad I gave Ben Vane a 3rd shot as it’s a tough, steep, deceptively high entertaining Munro which I’d be happy to do again!!
