175. Ben Lomond (184) (P600 31). 17/08/2015
With the previous day having gone well for Hamish in the pack for 4 and a half hours, I thought we would try another one today with Grandma. Ben Lomond involves a little more climbing, but is all along an excellent path. The weather was set to be excellent.
We were off around 10.30, before the crowds and some of the trickiest terrain was actually near the start through the forest. Fortunately the ground was dry so it was no problem and at 200m we were out of the trees and from there it was a steady climb up the side of the hill to about 600m. Then there is a mile of plateau before the final climb to the summit. It took us 3 hours to get to the top and mum only needed a small amount of encouragement. Hamish was happy and even had a couple of naps. At the top we had hoped for a chance to relax, but unfortunately the air was warm and still enough that there were quite a few midgies, so our time was limited. Hamish got a chance to crawl around and get some food and we took in the spectacular views of Loch Lomond.
There is the option of descending to the west, but it is a little steep at first, so we opted for retracing our steps given I had the backpack. Hamish was much chattier on the descent, partly because of the hundreds of walkers we passed, some of whom had dogs with them (which Hamish found particularly exciting!). Mum's legs always find the descent taxing, so we had to go steadily, but we got down fine after a round trip of 5 and a half hours. I was expecting this to be a bit too long for Hamish, but he seemed fine with it. More munros for him then!
We were off around 10.30, before the crowds and some of the trickiest terrain was actually near the start through the forest. Fortunately the ground was dry so it was no problem and at 200m we were out of the trees and from there it was a steady climb up the side of the hill to about 600m. Then there is a mile of plateau before the final climb to the summit. It took us 3 hours to get to the top and mum only needed a small amount of encouragement. Hamish was happy and even had a couple of naps. At the top we had hoped for a chance to relax, but unfortunately the air was warm and still enough that there were quite a few midgies, so our time was limited. Hamish got a chance to crawl around and get some food and we took in the spectacular views of Loch Lomond.
There is the option of descending to the west, but it is a little steep at first, so we opted for retracing our steps given I had the backpack. Hamish was much chattier on the descent, partly because of the hundreds of walkers we passed, some of whom had dogs with them (which Hamish found particularly exciting!). Mum's legs always find the descent taxing, so we had to go steadily, but we got down fine after a round trip of 5 and a half hours. I was expecting this to be a bit too long for Hamish, but he seemed fine with it. More munros for him then!
The summit ridge and Loch Lomond in the background
Eat/crawl multitasking
Looking north
The three generations at the top
posted by graham at 1:03 AM
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