free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
Well...
first Munro and loved it!
Work up early, ready for being picked up by a friend at 6:30, then off to meet more friends at hearthill on the M8 before going to Ben Lomond.
Arrived around 8:30...well some of us did...waited around for the others to arrive just before 9am.
Weather could not have really been better, a sharp 7degrees but little wind and dry
Started the walk and 6 of the 8 started to make very quick progress(they are in training for the 3 peaks this year)and the other 2, me included took a more sedate pace to enjoy the views.
Couple of tricky parts to start of with, mainly due to a couple of fallen trees, but once past them it was fine until the snow started to cover the track and we decided to go straight up and miss the path for a bit, was heavy going!
around 2000 feet the snow was getting really deep in places and took a fair bit of energy to get through.
Progress was good and made the sumit in just under 3 hours.
Views were spectacular, although every changing! one min, 10foot visibility, next min100miles in all directions
Felt pretty good making it to the top of my first munro and made good progress down, brief downpour of snow and then started to see a lot of interesting sights!
mountinbiker at around 2500 feet, topless man at around 2000 feet, family all with wellies on at around 1500feet and a chatty bunch of foreign students at 500 feet who asked "will this path take us to the top of that hill" & "how long is it going to take" hope they all made it back safe, a though i don't think skateboarding trainers or knee high boots were a good idea for them
Got down and went for a well deserved lunch
Slept rather a lot that afternoon!!
here is a link to my GPS download
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/70227681