Winter walking in Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park
December 3, 2007 on 4:57 pm | In Hillwalking |
Saturday did not look very promising when we set off from Edinburgh. But Simo, Robin and I were determined to get some hillwalking (Munro bagging) done! We planned either Ben Lawers and Beinn Ghlas or Meall nan Tarmachan (hill of the Ptarmigan) in Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park. Upon arrival we decided to go for the slightly more scrambly and challenging Ptarmigan. No snow when we started off, but we could see some white peaks behind the clouds;
The walk starts at about 500m, which makes a big difference and especially in winter when you always need to be aware of the short days and potential white-outs. The ascent to reach the ridge was fine, not very steep or long. The ground was near enough frozen so nice to walk on, rain turned into slight snow showers and soon we were in knee-deep snow! After walking for about 1.5 hours Robin bagged his first Munro - we were so happy to share this experience with him! Just 283 more to go, Robin ;-).
The route is about 13k, 744m in ascent and after summiting Ptarmigan the ridge circles around and takes you back to the car which means no need for additional transport! Beacuse there was quite a lot of snow and ice a couple of the scrambly ascents were a bit tricky, and the vision was poor at times.
The route took 4.5 hours and it was a cracking day out - although about 40mph winds at time! Route info found here; http://walking.visitscotland.com/walks/lomondtrossachs/213707 and http://www.walkingworld.com/results/walksummary.asp?id=3078&method=eRes&direction=position.
Jenny Glumoff
http://www.visitscotland.com/adventure
Main activity sport climbing but love all types of climbing, surfing, mountain biking and hill walking!
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Wow that looks impressive. I can’t believe there’s so much snow around!
December 4th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Thanks for a fantastic day in the hills Jenny. It was a great way to bag my first Munro and I’m definitely going to get some more!
December 11th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Hi there!
I found your site whilst looking for travel/outdoors stuff.
I did the ridge in July 2005 and although it is nothing like the CMD for instance, it’s still an enjoyable day out. I also figure it would be a good introduction to winter walking and the use of crampons? So hopefully I will get there in the next couple of weeks.
I’ve also just started a very infrequently updated blog on my hillwalking and scrambling activities of the past few years (not chronologically though?).
I figured the advice/posts may be of some use to someone. My waffle can be found at, notquitetouchingthevoid I have also tried my hand at website design with,bestgpsreview
As for future trips; well we are off to Soll in Austria in January for a weeks skiing; can’t recommend Austria and soll enough, although i should keep the hotel a secret as they don’t freely advertise to Brits as we have a bad reputation!
Then a week in Skye in June doing the Cuillins, followed by a weeks Via Feratta in Itlay! Plus as I mentioned earlier, I’m looking forward to trying out my new crampons when time and weather permits.
So when I get off my backside I’ll post the details.
Cheers
Tim (in Edinburgh)