Healing our hills

Grass and bracken run steeply up to the dark crags of Ben Vane in the Arrochar Alps, the playground of Glasgow’s hillwalkers. The peak’s upper sections are rugged, offering proper mountaineering on this winter’s day. Views through the clouds to Loch Lomond show the impressive scale of this landscape.

There’s a streak of slush along the path. Higher up, drifts are still deep, gullies packed with old snow. Grey clouds threaten sleet. The wind rises to remind us that stopping to admire this austere beauty will be punished with a chill.

We are wrapped up well but coming over a rise at 300m, we see path-builders at work in shirt sleeves, moving rocks with crowbars, shovelling gravel, faces red with exertion. They’ve been here since first light, mending the mountain’s main ascent path because of the impact of hillwalkers like us.