Ben Ledi, 25th April 2010
After climbing Ben Lomond with CH in the evening after work a couple of years back, I decided it was time to have another summer evening hill jaunt. Being based in Stirling is very handy for these sort of things and there were a few of the guys in the office who are keen walkers and were up for the challenge of getting up and down a hill in the evening. So, the Friday before I put out a call to walkers when it seemed like the weather was going to be kind to us for the Tuesday night.
In the end there were only three of us, TD, CH and myself. We endured the slagging about the ridiculous gear we carry during the day at work then headed off just after 5. At 6.05 we started on our merry way skipping and hopping along the road until we started to ascend fairly quickly. The hopping and skipping stopped and was replaced with panting as the relentless ascent continued through the forest.
Once we had cleared the forest, we continued up the path, heading West. Needless to say the ascent was far easier than the winter attempt that Speccy and I had made in January. At one point we crossed a piddly stream which had been pretty much a full river crossing in Winter.
As we rounded onto the summit ridge, the views became astounding. We could point out Arran, Inverkip and everything in between with the Cobbler looking especially stunning.
There was barely a light breeze as we pushed towards the summit in glorious sunshine and not a sound at all. We hit the summit about 7.45 and had a break for food and photies before continuing the descent North then East towards the road which would lead us back to the cars at 9.30.
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