Popularity Contest

Sunday's trip had been on the cards for a while. The intention was to get Ben Lomond out of the way. As the most climbed mountain in Scotland, we wanted to add it's summit to our "conquered" list quite early on.

So, with a few other bodies on board, Sunday the 25th Arpil had arrived and it was time to go. After the mistake of last time, I ensured I was up early with breakfast consumed. So after getting ready and scoffing the bacon bagels, it was time to depart.

The trip to Rowardennan took about 1 hr and 20 minutes. When we arrived we parked in the car park at the pier and the trail started just behind the public toilets/information kiosk. After getting ready we set off about 09:05 in an upwards direction.

Being the most climbed, Ben Lomond has a distinct path the whole way up. The overall ascent was pretty good. There was a good balance of steep bits, steady shallow bits and flat bits.

There wasn't many folk on the hill on the way up so we just assumed the wweather had driven people away. We only really met a handful of people on the way up but one of the encounters propmpted us to stop. They had just came down from the summit and they said the visibility just dips and the wind picks right up so we stopped where we were for a bite and put on an extra layer in preparation for the final leg. At this point we reckoned we were no more than ²⁄₃ of the way up. However, we got a pleasant surprise when we checked the GPS on the iPhone and it told us we were at 850m with only the final approach to the summit ahead of us.

So, after the food and more clothes, it was time to go for the finish. We got there just about 12:00, but you couldn't see a thing so we didn't hang about long.



A couple of photos later and it was departure just before 12:10. As with all hills, getting to the top is only half the battle and you have to navigate the descent. This one was not bad, but the rocky paths and stairs required extra care for your footing.

On the way down, we finally agreed thast it was th emost popular. There was bus loads of folk heading up as we were going down. We must have passed an average of 4 folk every couple of minutes.

We got to the car park about 14:10 and after a quite freshen up it was time for lunch. A short drive later and we found ourselves in the Winnock Hotel in Drymen for some refreshments and lunch.



So all in all, it was a good day. Weather wasn't ideal but not so bad that it hindered the experience and the bite to eat at the end was beautiful. Thanks for all that took part and see you next time.

2010-04-25 - Ben Lomond

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