Ben Lomond

This was the walk that most nearly caused the mountain rescue to be called out.

We had set off from the car just as the sun was rising - around 9:00am. It should have been a strtaightforward ascent of Ben Lomond from Comer farm on the North. Unfortunately the Northern corrie was full of deep soft snow so that by the time we reached the final gully to the summit the surrounding hills were already tinged with pink. To compound matter the gully was frozen hard and we would need to cut steps to the top - about 300 feet. There clearly wasn't enought time and we had to retreat down the way we had come up. By the time we reached the road it was dark and we had 4 miles to go back to the car. We eventually made it home for 7:30pm and my family had started to panic. What would have made it worse was they would have sent the rescuers to the wrong mountain - I had ommitted to tell them where I was going!

I learned a lot of lessons that day! :-)

Distance covered: 13 miles
Height gained: 3000 feet
Time taken: 9 hours(walking)

Ben Lomond is the most Southerly Munro and one of the busiest. The route shown here is, by contrast, almost always quiet and has the added advantage of superb scenery along the way. Ironically I have done it 3 times and never quite reached the summit, I've always been turned back within 500 feet.