KYQ4: Ben Ledi in the cold days of Covid

Covus Corax

Saturday, 23 January 2021

Ascent: 835 metres

Distance 12 kilometres

Time: 3 hours 50 minutes

c Ben Ledi 879 metres 1hr 37mins

It was one of those days that chills you to the core but inflames your sense of adventure. The mercury was languishing at -6°C, the air was still and the sky was so azure that there was only one outcome. Time to dig out my crampons and head for the nearest hill in prime winter conditions. I had not been up Ben Ledi since the week before the first lockdown and whilst not a Munro, it is almost one. The car park was full so I had to park at a lay-by further up the A84. The start of the steep but well-constructed path was an ice rink after quite a few days of freeze-thaw and hundreds of walkers. Once on the path, there was a cover of snow and it was possible to move at a reasonable pace. Even by the time I had reached the crossing of the forestry track at 250 metres, several walkers had passed me on their descent and it was not yet 10:00am.

I held off putting on crampons, although those descending suggested it was necessary for coming down. I kept going up the path until the start of the ridge at 600 metres and stepped aside to absorb the views to the north and west. Two climbers came past and for once I decided not to chase them, I am slowly adapting to my age disadvantage on the hills. A couple of tents were pitched in a basin below the summit and their intrepid occupants seemed to be happy sitting and topping up their vitamin D levels in the bright sunlight. The snow was a lot deeper and powdery so the final couple of hundred metres of ascent were hard work. As I reached the summit the cross erected as a memorial to the policeman, Sgt Harry Lawrie, was glistening like silver. He was in the Mountain Rescue team and killed when a helicopter crashed on Ben More. I had worked with his son for several years and knew several other members of the team, all of whom had found the accident a terrible traumatic experience.

I reached the summit and there were four skiers about to start their descent and the two climbers having a drink. I found some shelter from the bitter northerly breeze and enjoyed some coffee and a Marathon (Snicker) bar. Two ravens joined me and approached from either side, they had done this before. I finished eating and took some photos before leaving them a couple of morsels from the Marathon bar as a tip. One perched on the trig point and thanked me as I put on a pair of ice cleats that had spent a lot of time in my rucksack but never been used before. I decided to descend to the north towards Ben Vane and see if I could find a route down the Stank Glen.

The two climbers had decided to take the same route and I set off a few minutes behind them. The cleats seemed to be working well on a steepish slope where the wind had polished the hard snow. Reaching the softer snow, I relaxed and noticed that one of the ice cleats had come off, the other one had flipped off earlier and it was a 50-metre climb up the hill to retrieve it. They were confined back to the rucksack. There was not much evidence that the route had been used so I figured that it would be virgin snow for most of the descent. The top of the path was just discernible and I was able to follow the path down, there had been three or four others who had used the route in previous days. Progress was slowed by the depth of snow and further down it did not seem sensible to cross the burn which looked dangerous with rocks punctuating a hard icy surface with a foot or so freezing water gushing below. The alternative was a longer path at the south side of the burn that eventually emerged onto a forestry track.

The track zig-zagged down towards the holiday cabins and I found a more direct path at one point that brought me out by the Callander micro hydroelectric plant. There seemed to be no direct paths to the road leading back to the car park and bridge over the Leny so I headed down through the forest until I made the road. A 95-year-old man was hobbling along the road as part of his daily exercise, I stopped for a chat and asked had he had the vaccine. He had the day before and told me the full story as well as telling me other parts of his life's endeavours. It is the sort of conversation that is all too often in these days when people have few opportunities to meet with friends and family. We wished each other well and it was then an easy walk out for the last mile. I was home at 2pm.