Wainwright Climbing: Unlucky on Lomond

Local travels restrictions in Scotland have meant that winter climbing venues are somewhat more limited than usual. Thankfully Stirlingshire is quite extensive and even includes some pretty high mountains like much of the eastern Trossachs as well as the hills around Glen Dochart.

With last season coming to such an abrupt end because of national lockdown, I was itching to get out and with the arrival of the first winter storms at the start of December, Seb and I rolled the dice and headed for Ben Lomond. This distinctive hill is often noted as one of the most frequented Munros in Scotland and was also once popular with climbers, but fell from favor in the 1900s when people realized it was more fun to climb in the sunshine on dry rock that wasn't covered in moss. As a winter venue, its low latitude and modest altitude means its not often in condition and because of that must only see a few visits a year. Given it was one of the highest venues in Stirlingshire and that it had been snowing in the glens in the days running up to our visit, it seemed like a logical choice of venue to kick off the winter climbing season.

Our objective was Lomond Corner, the classic IV,5 that dominates the northern end of the remote corrie which is situated on the north side of the mountain. The corrie is often glanced into by summit aspirants taking a break on their way to the top, or those continuing more leisurely during descent, but must be otherwise rarely visited (intentionally at least..). Our approach from the loch side car park on Loch Lomond wasn't too bad on the scale of Scottish winter climbing walk-ins, being a mere 10 km with around 900 m of elevation. As we ascended the muggy air and light rain was quickly replaced with freezing fog, iced up rock and even the occasional snow flurry. It all felt very promising in terms of the route being in condition for climbing and as we descended into the upper corrie from just short of Ben Lomond summit, we were delighted to find rocks covered in snow and ice, and turf which looked equally icy and wind blasted.

Looking up Lomond Corner. Promising from below but alas not to be.

Looking across the coire from just below the summit of Ben Lomond, just before we dropped down in search of climbing

To get to the corner itself required a descent into the corrie, then a traverse of a few hundred meters along the base of the cliff, past "A" and "B" Buttresses, to "C" Buttress. As we dropped into the shelter of the lower section of the corrie, favorable conditions quickly started to disappear, with the ground underfoot becoming boggy under the snow, and the rock dripping in the warmth of the morning light. In a fit of dismay, I went up the first pitch swimming through soft powder, cruddy ice and mud. A few crucial sections of steepness were overcome with little dignity as turf ripped and ice disintegrated. Whilst it looked passable from below, the route was definitely out of condition and so to avoid any more damage I lowered off and we retreated back up the corrie. Thankfully we managed to find a high section of cliff which was more exposed and was still frozen. With no topos or route descriptions we decided to make our own fun and climbed a 40 m line through some turfy grooves past a short and steep chimney crack in the headwall. We named the route "Break Dance" and graded in IV,5 with it being most III apart from the hard section through the chimney. After that we attempted another route, but with the temperatures rising and the turf thawing, it was impossible to commit to the gearless swing through a overhanging corner and thus an equally dodgy downclimb was proceeded by abandoning climbing altogether and heading for the summit. Whilst not ideal for climbing, the beautiful winter sunshine definitely made for stunning vistas from the summit of Ben Lomond.