Ben Vane, Scotland Winter 2004

The weather forecast was quite promising and when I left Glasgow it was mostly sunny. There was still a lot of blue sky when I parked the car at Inveruglas and started on the long walk in to reach the foot of Ben Vane (The track/road leading to Loch Sloy isn't a public road, you can only walk but not drive along it). Unfortunately there was quite a bit of cloud by the time I reached the foot of Ben Vane and started my ascent. Hoping it would clear up I decided to continue though.

There was some excitement as well with a helicopter approaching A'Choir on the other side of the glen and dropping off some people at Binnein na Circe. Initially we thought there was a mountain rescue going on, but then the helicopter dropped or picked up people at other places (another hiker who had binoculars said it even landed on the summit of A'Chrois) it became clear they were only exercising.

The clouds stayed on though, creating an interesting atmosphere. Occasionally the sun managed to break through, allowing nice colour to develop under the cover of the cloud. Most of my panoramas show wide views under a mostly clear sky, here is a different one: A QuickTime VR panorama of a cloud covered view from Ben Vane (1.3MB download). I'm not sure if it can capture the atmosphere, I hope it gives at least an idea...
	After about 2.5 hours I reached the summit. It was still quite cloudy, although the sun tried its best to break through. Looking west Loch Lomond was only just visible under the clouds, Ben Lomond completely hidden. As I had enough time I decided to wait for a while to see if there would be any breaks in the clouds. It wasn't for very long, but my patience was rewarded when the clouds over Beinn Ime (1011m) lifted briefly to give me a fairly good view of the highest Munro in the Arrochar Alps. Beinn Narnain (926m) remained hidden behind clouds the whole time though, as did Ben Arthur (The Cobbler).

	With no sign of the clouds lifting any more I started the descent from Ben Vane, a few short scrambles over more rocky areas included. When I was about half way down the clouds finally started to lift and it was a pleasant walk in the afternoon light through the glen back to Inveruglas. Back at the car park I had a nice view over to Ben Vane in the evening light before it got dark. A nice day with a good walk despite the clouds was approaching its end. I quickly drove back to Glasgow before relaxing with a nice hamburger and a pint of stout at the pub.
Glasgow Museums <- Scotland Winter 2004 -> Next: German Christmas Market