Ben Lomond

We got up at 07.00 to have breakfast at 08.00. I had scrambled eggs with two sausages; a feast although very fat and I promised myself as soon as we are back home I will only have fruit again in the morning and no fatty things. We left the Abbotsford Lodge at 09.00 to go in town and buy some food to take with us on our trip to Loch Lomond where we were about to climb Ben Lomond, a 974 metres high munro. One of 300 munros in Scotland.

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Meaning: Beacon hill
Altitude: 974 metres
Grid Ref.: NN367028

Mountain Description, Ben Lomond is a solitary and distinctive peak to the east of Loch Lomond. From the west the summit appears conical, but in fact the north face is corried and craggy. The normal approaches lead from the south and do not encounter the crags until near the summit. Ben Lomond has two parallel south-south-east ridges, to the west is the Ptarmigan Ridge and to the east the Sron Aonaich ridge. The "tourist" path cuts a broad swathe from Sron Aonaich to the summit. The ascent path by the burn that cascades between Tom Fitich and Tom Eas at the south end of the Ptarmigan ridge is steeper and much more attractive. Following the Ptarmigan ridge east leads to the west face of Ben Lomond from where a minor scramble through rocky outcrops leads to the summit.
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We had to drive from Callander to Ben Lomond which took us about an hour. When we started the trail it was 10.55. The weather conditions were perfect, a blue sky, sunny and some clouds. It would probably rain every now and then but that wouldn't be too bad. At exactly 14.00 we reached the top after two severe showers and several breaks. It was quite difficult and hard at times and when we finally reached the top we were happy and exhausted. What an amazing views everywhere! I took a lot of pictures of all the beautiful nature.

After a while we started to descend the mountain. The first bit was terribly steep and rocky. Very tricky because it had been raining and the track was muddy and slippery. At times I had to sit down and let myself slide of a rock onto the next bit. I didn't like this part because it was dangerous. Lucky me I'm not afraid of heights so the abyss and depths didn't bother me, even though I'm not really scared it was freaky still. I was afraid because I was wearing the wrong type of shoes, I forgot to bring my proper hiking boots and my doc Martins don't have the right tread so each step I had to take could be a slippery one.

We made it though and had a quick lunch sitting between the rocks. The wind was terrible and strong and the temperature must have dropped by at least 10 degrees because it was freezing cold up there. I was wearing two layers of fleece and two layers underneath, a raincoat on top of that was wind proof and I was still cold. I didn't feel hungry though. I guess because we bought some Snickers bars this time and eating those [halves every now and then] would provide the right amount of sugar [energy] to keep going. So no dizziness this time and no lack of energy. What started to bother me though was going down the mountain.

I damaged my right kneecap when I was 16 years old and worn out the cartilage basically. It could only be improved by surgery but that was really out of the question back then. Thing is, I forgot about the condition of my kneecap and didn't think it would still be that bad. In hindsight a pretty stupid assumption. Guess I was just to eager to climb this mountain. After half an hour, the kneecap started to act up and became painful. After 45 minutes I was in agony and each step I had to take was horror to me. After an hour I was crying my eyes out and needed to rest every 10 minutes. I was slowing down the others so I told J. and S. to continue and go back to the car. From the top of the mountain to the bottom would probably take another three hours, two if you were in a good condition.

A. was so sweet, he offered to carry me back but that was impossible because of the track, ferns everywhere and it was quite steep and slippery because of the mud. We could see now why some people decided to take the same trail back to the bottom instead of doing the round trip. This part was much steeper although it was written in the documents that it would also take less time to reach the top. I doubt that to be honest, maybe if you've done several mountains... We still did well because it took us six hours to do the round trip and all the breaks added up: about another hour so in total it was seven hours. It was mentioned in the guide; five to six hours... I've been in agony though for two hours and my leg didn't want to cooperate anymore. I needed to lean on A. all the way down and each step was plain torture. I promised myself to buy a walking stick next time to give me the support I'm going to need or have the surgery done...

I'm happy that we did this trail although I was suffering. It was quite an achievement for all of us and a day to remember, especially for A. since it is his birthday and for J., for personal reasons that I won't mention here. I'm proud of all of us! I took so many pictures that I will try to organise an online photo album somewhere, I will have to look into that and see if I can find some software or PHP stuff that I can upload onto my own domain and maintain from there. For now I will put a few in here to give a slight impression of our adventure today and continue the story further on, just scroll down a bit...

Back at the Lodge we were so tired, all we wanted to do is take a hot bath and relax the muscles for a while. I really had to because my clothes were completely soaked because of sweat. I was shivering and really cold so a bath was very much in need! After that we got ready for dinner because we were going to celebrate A.'s birthday at the Indian restaurant in town. We all got together in the lounge to have a drink there and give presents to A.. I promised myself I could have a few drinks tonight and forget about the diet for just one day so I had a nice glass of white wine. About half an hour later we were ready to go into town and have dinner at the Indian restaurant. The food was excellent and we had a great time celebrating. Unfortunately some asshole waiter thought he could touch me and get away with it. He did it twice and I became really pissed off with him and was about to smack him hard in the face.

The owner of the restaurant was there as well having a party with some local people, so A. had a word with him and explained the situation. It seemed that the waiter had only be working there for two weeks and the owner was shocked to hear what happened. He said he would definitely have a word with the guy. I think he will probably be fired since these local restaurants need to keep a good reputation in order to keep their guests. I hope he will be sacked because he deserves worse than that. Sneaky little twat. Anyway I didn't let it ruin the evening. We went back to the Abbotsford Lodge and had a last drink there before going to bed. Back in our room I was just too pissed to do anything and I totally crashed once I sat down on the bed. I fell asleep immediately without taking my pills nor did I write my blogger, I was just too tired. It has been a wonderful day though!