Ooooft. Alarm at 6am on a sunday. Just 5 minutes. Close eyes. Just another minute…. PANIC… need to make porridge, rolls and get out the house!

Taxi to the bus station and onto the 7am bus to Fort William, got to Inveruglas at 7 and was the first on the hill. i was expecting a hard day and for this hill to really kick my arse. For some reason i was really looking forward to the "unremittingly steep and tiring ascent"! So much so that i started off up the hill as soon as i go to the big power station thingy. This was a mistake, it was far too early to be going up the hill and i headed back down to the tarmac with my tail between my legs!
Carried on to the tiny wee cairn and stopped to look up the hill. Yep, its steep. Don't really fancy this. Had a ciggie and a paced about psyching myself up with a bit of Jay-Z. Right here we go…

This is ok, im getting higher, this is easy, this is steep… this is tiring…its gonna snow, i should go back, im knackered, need a red bull, ooh look there's the loch i must be about half way up the steep bit!

Yes, its steep. But it's fun though and once you start to bear off northwest up to the ridge it's really fun. lots of wee ups and downs, crags and cliffs and then you arrive at the top! Easy!


Loch Sloy by Christopher Swan, on Flickr

The snow which had been threatening me on the way up now decided to make an appearance, sweeping in from the north and pelting me with tiny pieces of polystyrene. Thats what it looked like anyway, felt more like wee stones! Walked back along the ridge and headed back down to the tarmac. Now the sun was out so i climbed up on a boulder to eat my lunch and watched people on the way up. Hung about here for about an hour letting my tshirt dry and watching the clouds swirl about on Ben Vane. If it wasn't for the powerlines it would be idyllic. Walked down to Inveruglas with another deluge chasing me, just as i got to the road it started to pish down, and unfortunately it wasn't snow this time it was big fat rain drops… soaked.

Dried out at the cafe and waited for a couple of hours for the bus. God knows why i didn't drive seeing as ive just passed my test! Next time - Ben Vane.