KYQ4: The Great Escape: Ben Lawers

Looking East from Ben Lawers summit to An Stuc and Meall Garbh

Monday, 6 July 2020

Ascent: 1288 metres
Distance: 10 kilometres
Time: 3 hours 40 minutes

Beinn Ghlas 1103m 1hr 22mins
Ben Lawers 1214m 1hr 58mins

After 15 weeks we were finally allowed to escape to the hills from 3 July. It was surprising that it has been delayed so long, more gregarious sports such as golf, tennis and fishing had been allowed for weeks. If ever there was an activity that guarantees social isolation it would be hill walking. I held off for a couple of days to avoid the heavy downpours and I was anxious not to aggravate my knee that I had twisted 4 weeks ago when running. I had rested as much as possible but still had pangs of pain when gardening. Gregor phoned and persuaded me to seize the day and we decided that the Ben Lawers ridge would meet both our needs. There are good but steep rocky paths and over 1000 metres of climbing. It would be a good test of my knee and allow me to begin recovering some fitness. I have normally climbed the main ridge, sometimes including the two outliers to the north. I would attempt just Beinn Ghlas and Ben Lawers, whilst Gregor would climb the five munros on the main ridge.

It was strange to be driving north of Balquidder for the first time this year, I have usually made about ten trips north by July. The visibility was excellent with most hills visible although Ben Lawers was capped by cloud. We reached the new car park on the steep road that snakes over to Glen Lyon and found the last parking place in the large car park. The ticket machine for parking only takes coins and I have not had any of those since March, all transactions have been by card. We were not going to let that ruin the day so we began our walk, or in Gregor's case, run in windy conditions at 10:15. We agreed that I would pick him up at 3pm, on the main road alongside Loch Tay, he would have to cover 22 kilometres and about 1500 metres of ascent

It is ten years since I last climbed these hills and I was pleasantly surprised by the impressive exit from the new car park through carved stones, notice boards and then a fenced section with a gravelled path for the first half a kilometre. I let Gregor off the leash and tried to settle into a steady pace. There were three people with two dogs behind me and I kept a constant distance ahead of them. This I managed for half an hour including a section after the gradient ratchets up after the gate above the old shielings. By 800 metres it was time to dig out hat and gloves as the strong northwesterly winds gave no inkling that this was summer. It gave me chance to speak to the walkers following me, two young women from Glasgow had a dog that must have been caged for the last 15 weeks given its hyperactive movements up and down the hill. They had both been furloughed and were to return to work in the next week, they were fairly positive about the lockdown, it had given them time to enjoy an unofficial sabbatical and they felt better for it.

Approaching the summit I was surprised to meet two mountain bikers, they were attempting to descend through the rock field below the summit, which they described as the crux. They had to abort, possibly to avoid taking me out, but they were happy to be on the hills again and admitted that their skills and nerves had been suppressed by the lockdown. I took five minutes at the summit to eat some food and recover from the climb. It is an easy drop down to the bealach below Ben Lawers. From here it was a lung-bursting 220-metre climb through rock bands to reach the summit, I was clearly not fit. A trig point is perched precariously on an unstable base, it competes with a stone cairn for bragging rights as the high point. There were about ten people and four dogs sheltering behind the rocks and having lunch. Social distancing was in force. Gregor texted me, he had already got over An Stuc and we brought forward our meeting time to 2:30pm.

I began the descent in the knowledge that my knee had been fine so far but it was jarring from the descent that would be the real test. The return to the bealach was taken carefully and then I took the path that contours below Beinn Ghlas, it was less steep and soft ground so it became possible to walk at a faster pace. I passed three Polish walkers who had left the summit shortly after I arrived, the man had two almost full bottles hanging from his rucksack with what looked like limes in the bottles, I asked if it was vodka and was told no its water and kiwi fruit and no I couldn't have any. I upped my pace again after Gregor sent me another text saying he had completed his last hill. I charged down to the car stopping only to explain the route to the summit to a man who was taking his ten-year-old on a walk. They were flagging and he asked how much further, I told him that he might make it in an hour and a quarter if he had regular fix of chocolate for the boy who was flaked out on the grass.

The car park had overflowed and there must have been twenty extra vehicles parked on the grass verges of the single track road. I changed shoes and drove to Craggantoul on the A827 where Gregor was waiting, he had run the last 7 kilometres from Meall Greig and we were 45 minutes ahead of our original schedule. The sun was out and we both felt reinvigorated by a day on the hills. Driving through Killin, we saw Kieran Jenkins of Channel 4 News filming by the bridge and then saw people drinking outside the Falls of Dochart Inn. We stopped and ordered a couple of pints of shandy on the first day of outdoor drinking, I had a friendly chat with the Channel 4 producer complimenting her on the fine coverage of the pandemic and the diversity of the news teams. We walked across the road and drank our beer on the rocks overlooking the falls, Gregor told me that he had been the house captain of Dochart House at school, something I had never known before. We enjoyed half an hour in the sun but still made it home by 3:30pm and my knee still feels fine.