The early morning alarm, jogged me gently out of sleep, but with darkness still sitting behind the blinds and the heating not yet on I took a bit of persuading from the bed. But a need to pee gave me the incentive I needed to move, it was about quarter to seven before I left the house, but the sky with the moon and a single star set me on my way smiling. It was 0c and so I knew that this mountain was going to be a chilly one. Arrived at Rowardennan, around 8.15a.m, not been a bad run, although a little slippy in places. A few other cars signalled to me that others were already up the hill, and so I organised my stuff and off I went. I was trialing my new freet hiking boots, the Merrells unfortunately had not had enough room for my toes so I really wanted to get on with these. The track was easy to find as I left the car park, and it started in a similar way to Ben A’an, with some large bouldering steps that introduced me to Ben Lomond very rapidly. It was slippy under foot in places,with significant ice patches clinging to the rocks, waiting for the sun to hopefully warm and melt for the return descent. The sky was clear with a cloud inversion hovering over the loch behind me. It was simply stunning.
The walk took my breath away, figuratively and physically speaking, the ginger covered hill looked stunning against the cloudless blue sky and a slight dusting of snow could just be seen far off in the distance. As I set off a few people passed me on their way up and a couple of groups passed on their descent, obviously made it up the top for the sunrise; and whilst I was a bit jealous of this the thought of walking up the hill in the dark with ice under foot did not fill me with confidence. Maybe it’s a summer walk I could do, although that would be a significant early start!!! The going was good, steps and shale but the ice did make me cautious and so it just plodded my way up slowly. The sun was quite warm until just over half way up when the wind picked up and blew right through me. It was slow going but I just kept setting myself small targets and would walk to them and stop to catch my breath. The feet were doing great in the new boots, but I was struggling with my breathing, it had been a while since I’d been up a hill. Eventually I started to zig zag towards the top, the sky still as blue but the wind increasingly lazy. A group had perched at the back of a hillock on their way down, a reprieve from the cold to eat their lunch, that would be one to remember. They offered a welcome offering that I only had another five minutes to go. The snow and ice, stuck to the grasses at the side of the track and I saw the trig point come into view, the views were absolutely to die for, the wind was cold. The ground was hard and icy and with great care I touched the trig point on the top of Ben Lomond, yeah I had done it. It was quiet today at the top, a Friday in November, not everyone’s cup of tea! A few quick photos and then I needed to head back to get warmer and get some lunch. The same place five minutes back down the path was now vacated and so I perched for my lunch, I was joined by a very friendly, beautiful coal black raven, clearly used to passers by stopping here to eat. So I shared my lunch with him and off I headed back down. Luckily the warming sun had melted some of the trickier ice patches that I had been worrying me in the way up. My fee still in good shape, but due to the way they change the foot strike my calves started complying, my poles came into their own helping me down the larger steps. It took me three and a half hours up and two and a half hours on the return.
This was a beautiful day out, the scenery was stunning all day, it was hard but so enjoyable, I’m slow but I need to get over that, I need to reconcile with myself that I’m not out here trying to be fast, it’s enough that I’m out on the hill, soaking up the wonders that nature has to offer.