Ben Lui Central Gully

Lindy and I had headed to Scotland to take in some Scottish mountains. Pippa and Cloggy came too.

We walked in from Dalrigh just south of Tyndrum. The track goes past Cononish goldmine and beyond to the foot of Ben Lui. We bumped into Slug from Cave Rescue in Clapham and he joined us for the remainder of the day. At the snow-line, the wind picked up and created a few small blizzards.

Entering the snow line and blizzards

The dogs loved it.

Kitting up at the bottom of Central Gully, we opted for a right hand variant. The conditions were not perfect, but were ok. This was my first winter climb for a few years and I was looking forward to it. Pippa on the other hand had never climbed with me and I don’t think she knew what was expected of her.

The approach to the gully with Slug on his way up.

The gully was quite steep and as the snow gave way to compacted snow and ice, Pippa didn’t enjoy it so much. She decided to sit on my axes and hold herself in position. After a few minutes I managed to persuade her to continue up and progress up the right hand side and stay close to the rocks. We summitted to find Lindy and Slug ‘basking’ in some of the sunny intervals. It was extremely windy and this made progress up the ridge to the summit very interesting.

A quick bite to eat at the summit allowed us to soak in the experience before carrying on. Our plan was to take in two or three other Munroes, but the wind was so bad that we nearly had to crawl, and it was blowing the dogs off their feet.

Keep an eye on Lindy and Slug and also on the dogs!

Lindy and Slug take a break from battling with the wind.

We headed down back to the track and ended up back at the car feeling like we had a good day and had earned a good meal and wine back at the tent.

Series - Easter Scotland

1. Ben Lui Central Gully
2. Beinn Mhanach
3. Ben Lawer National Nature Reserve