I am not going to have much free time over the next few weeks due to the grand kitchen refurbishment so I decided to finish work early yesterday and tackle a quick jaunt up Ben Lomond and Ptarmigan.
Looking south back down the path towards Loch Lomond
I got to the car park at Rowardennan about 3:40pm and was on my way following the path up hill a few minutes later. There were signs warning about forestry operations but I was unprepared for the changes since my last ascent in August 2002, pretty much all of the trees from the lower slopes have been harvested. This has its good points – views over the loch and a breeze to keep the midges at bay, and its bad points – the barren waste land left by the harvesting is a bit of an eyesore.
On the lower slopes the weather was bright and sunny with a slight cooling breeze, once up on the hill proper the breeze stiffened and I had to put on my Gore-tex jacket to reduce the wind chill. The last 20 or 30 meters to the summit were in the clouds. Because of the poor visibility I didn’t hang around on the summit. I descended to the north and headed out along the ridge to Ptarmigan, stopping just before the summit next to a small tarn for some sustenance. As I was finishing my sandwiches a light drizzle was starting and the temperature dropped as the wind moved to be more northerly. I packed up and briskly climbed the summit of Ptarmigan and then descended to the loch side before following the track back to the car park.
Photos are available in the gallery.
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