Wednesday 30 June 2010

Ben Lomond

The road is long, with many a win . . you get the picture
Gaelic meaning : Beacon Mountain
Height : 3,196 feet
Walk distance : 7.5 miles
OS Map : Loch Lomond
Difficulty rating : 2.5
Scotlands most southerly Munro sits on the east shore of Loch Lomond and lies within the Trossachs and Lomond national park.

At 3,196 feet it's not the tallest but it is none the less a challenging walk.

You starting point is from the car park just along from Rowardennen Lodge, an easily identifiable path leads you from the car park to the foot of the mountain. Follow the path through the rising wooded section until you reach the clearing where you are afforded your first full view of the mountain.



From here you can see the straight forward Sron Aonaich ridge. Follow the path over the ridge until you get to the steeper and rockier summit section.



Ben Lomond Summit from the Sron Aonaich ridge.
Once over the ridge you get your first views of the land to the north.

Stoating
The Summit is relatively steep so care should be taken, mainly in avoiding the (literally) hundreds of other hillwalkers on the path.


but once there you can't help but admire the stunning scenery including the Corries at the summit which were an unexpected surprise.


The summit was at times like standing in a bus stop on Princes Street without the fag butts and smell of Friday night pish and puke, people everywhere.


                                          Who knew the number 11 stopped at 3,000 feet!



 I found the path difficult in places with lots of loose rocks and large drop steps, I managed to go over on my ankle a couple of times on the descent so be careful on your way down. The walk was not one I enjoyed all that much, it was very busy and a lot more demanding than I expected taking the best part of 5 hours, so take plenty of supplies. But the views are quite something

The Arrochar Alps
Here's the profile of the route :


And the route itself :



.

No comments:

Post a Comment