Ben Lomond plateau

[GD4Up]

Thanks for that - will watch the forecasts and decide on the day

[slparker]

I'm going back up in late December/early jan if anyone wants to go... Might try Mensa moor as well.

[slparker]

I'm in tas next 3 weeks anyone interested in a walk up BL. Contact me on this forum or Sean.parker@y7mail.com. Will probably go up next week overnight or 2 nights camp at lake youl.

[GD4Up]

After a couple of false starts (i.e. fitting the gear in amongst work stuff but either being too busy or the weather going to pot) I finally got up there and glad I didn't attempt it with strong winds. Amazing to have such a great spot with virtually no one else there. Definitely no pad once you're out of sight of the ski village. Makes for a long haul out by winding back and forth and I've discovered what scoparia is - I might have enjoyed those encounters a bit more if they'd been in flower.

[whynotwalk]

Glad you got there GD4Up - definitely great in the right conditions. Did you do an out and back trip? And camp @ Lk Youl? The through trip & descent of Stacks Bluff is well worth considering ... Maybe next time you're down

And now you also have a good friend in scoparia

cheers

Peter

[Chris]

Looking for info on Ossian's Throne I found this proposal for trackwork:
http://forums.ski.com.au/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=691939&page=2
Having enjoyed walks up there a few times recently I think it looks quite an appealing idea; certainly a much neglected area, judging by the number of locals on this site who haven't visited it yet

[slparker]

was up there last friday trying to bash my way to mensa moor. I notice that the link above goes back to 2009 so i don't know if anything is going to happen with trackwork. I agree that it's a great place to walk and a couple of tracks would make it more accessible and safer as a walking destination. Certainly the village to lake youl and onto stacks bluff would be a great start

[slparker]

@jamesp
HI thanks for the info. We went there last weekend and had a great time, here are some photos. The cairns we followed last time are somewhat misleading, certainly they are not marking the way to Lake Youl. However I also realised that on the 1:100 000 map the cross-country skiing track is either marked wrong or there are two tracks. Here is part of the map

DSC_0571_01.JPG

The red line roughly shows the track up to little hell marked with poles as the cc-sking track the blue line ar the cairns we followed last time leading somewhere, I don't know. The track coming of the ccsking circuit is not marked at all. I find it a little confusing not that I do mind finding my own way but the map and the cairns are rather confusing than of any help.

Was up there last week and my new 1;100000 map showed these non-existent tracks as well. From my recall from last week there are cairns that show the naturally quickest route up the creek-line in Long valley and a few showing the same up the Little Hell gully. There are reasonable cairns and a track up to stacks Bluff from the moor below. Other than that there is no real evidence of tracks up there. A pity, the traverse around the plateau from asgard crags to the Nile (Speke) Gorge is really nice and there are a couple of saddles that are awfully scrub bound and a couple that are quick easy going so a track would be nice for the walker new to the ben Lomond plateau.
For example, The saddle directly south-west from the south eastern extremity of Youl's Tarn is best avoided due to scrub, but the route around the spur (as if walking to stacks Bluff) is quite easy and is the best entrance to the southern plateau and the western cliffline traverse.