The start of the walk is from car park at Rowardenan at the end of the road, acessible via Drymen and Balmaha (try to avoid on busy summer weekends as the road gets very congested)
Another way of reaching Rowardenan is via the ferry from Inverbeg on the West banks of Loch Lomond (pictured below) but make sure you check return times as it is a very very long walk around the loch to get back to Inverbeg.
The memorial at Rowardenan
The Ben is 975m/3200ft and is a steady climb for most of the way and the path is very clearly visible as it is one of the most popular walks in Scotland. Initiallly you climb out of the forestation across some muddy gullys and across tree roots. Once further up the path it becomes a well defined path with well formed rock sections to climb for most of the way. As you climb behind you you start to get some great views of the Southern end of Loch Lomond and the many small islands
As you climb the views get more and more impressive (depending on the weather of course)
The ascent is generally a pleasant one although some people find the ascent a little tedious and streneuos. Once you climb nearer the sumit the views open up across to the East and the path becomes a little more spread out before you reach the ridge and the summit
The views Northwards up Loch Lomond and across to the Northwest
On the day I went up Ben Lomond it was cold and there was still a reasonable amount of snow on the summit with a few small flurry's of snow. I think I will give it a miss for a while now as there are plenty of more challenging Munro's out there to be climbed, all the same one of my favourites and of course closest to Glasgow.....................see you next time
