Log 13 Dec 2009

BEN VANE 13 DECEMBER 2009

Kevin, Andy, Dave, Billy, Malcolm, and Laurence left a frozen Milngavie carpark and headed out thru' the mist, up to Loch Lomond.   By Luss it was almost clear and the forecast for a good day was coming true.

We left Inveruglas at 8.15 am to head up to Ben Vane.   
A good tarmac road allowed us to stretch our legs for the first half hour, before we took to a partially frozen grassy path.   The path became steeper and more frozen as we gained height.  
We stopped to admire the view across to Ben Lomond, and what would have been Glasgow beyond, lying below what looked like a bed of cotton wool, while we enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

We needed our ice axes for security, approaching the top, or many tops, with one false summit after another.   
An early lunch at 11.15 on the summit of Ben Vane allowed us the opportunity to enjoy a 360 degree panorama, including Ben Nevis, some 40 odd miles away.   
Malcolm had explored the back of Ben Vane and encouraged us to don crampons, to follow him down a frozen snow gulley.
Bradley had more sense and took Dave back down the path, while the rest of us put complete faith in our ice-arrest skills on this near vertical descent (well it seemed that way from the top)!

A further adventure thru' waist high grass tufts took us back to the stream below the dam, easily forded by this intrepid and fearless group. Half an hour took us back to the car park.  
A coffee in the open café was followed by a beer in the Inverbeg Inn, now demoted from 4 to 3 stars - ale was off, and no crisps!

Home by 4.30 pm, to the cold mist which enveloped Glasgow for the day; while we had enjoyed 6 hours of sunshine, on a beautiful hill.

Report by Laurence Archer