Golden day on beautiful Ben Ledi

Ben Ledi is one of Scotland's most popular mountains, and last week it was arguably at its most beautiful. I've climbed it twice before – two and a half times, if you count the time we were forced back in a blizzard.

But last week I experienced Ben Ledi at its best, on a beautiful winter's day with lots of clear views and unusual cloud formations.

We didn't set out to climb Ben Ledi. The original plan was to climb two mountains in the Ben Lawers range, further north, but the remote access road was icier than expected and we had quite a scary experience when I unwittingly drove onto on a patch of black ice (pictured), and the car started to slip backwards towards a grass verge with a 45-degree slope of about six feet.

Eventually we all had to jump out of the car while it was slowly moving. With the assistance of a friendly ski tourer who was passing by, we managed to get the car free of the ice and safely back onto the dry road.

The photo below shows my car being gently steered off the ice, with me at the wheel. The photo was taken by my friend, who was still in shock and had shaky hands!

We realised that by this time there was not enough daylight left to complete the walk we had originally planned before dark, and there was a chance that the small road might ice up again before we returned, so we decided to climb an easier mountain, with easier access instead: Ben Ledi.

Ben Ledi is a very popular mountain, 879m high and accessible from a main road, the A84.

No mountain should be described as "easy", as poor weather can make any mountain potentially treacherous. The only reason I describe this one as "easier" is because it has a good, well-trodden path, few bogs and no jaggy crags or narrow ridges to walk over.

In fact, the first time I tried to climb Ben Ledi, two years ago, I was very unfit. Hypothyroidism had made me overweight and prone to exhaustion. I huffed and puffed my way up the path, which at that time I found incredibly steep. The other people in the group kindly waited for me. However the weather was worse than forecast, and about a third of the way up we had to turn back as we were hit by a blizzard.

I'm on the left in the first picture.

I've climbed the mountain twice more since then, and I have to admit I was thinking, "not Ben Ledi again…".

But it turned out to be a magical walk. The photo below shows the view over Loch Lubnaig.

Although there had been a thaw to about 500m, above the snowline the snow had turned to ice on the path, so we had to put on our crampons.

The low cloud and bright sunshine gave the views to the west a golden glow.

This photo was taken into the sun, giving a silhouette effect.

There were some beautiful cloud inversions. This photo zooms in on the Campsie hills just north of Glasgow, with the volcanic plug of Dumgoyne at the centre, looming out of the mist.

The beautiful isle of Arran was clearly visible in the south west. This photo shows Arran way out in the distance:

Zooming in on Arran:

Arran at close-range:

To the west we could see Ben Lomond and the Arrochar Alps.

The mountain at the centre is known as The Cobbler, due to the unusual anvil shape of its summit.

A closer view of The Cobbler:

As you reach the top of Ben Ledi there are a series of false summits. This is the first one.

You have to go down and up again, but it's really not too difficult.

As we climbed higher, great views opened up to the east towards Stirling, Grangemouth and the Ochills range. The prominent hill just to the left of centre is Dumyat, one of the Ochills.

One of the great things about Ben Ledi is the way that the path snakes around the mountain, giving you views from all sides. This was the view north, giving a close-up of the Lawers range, with the mountains we had originally intended to climb that day, Meall Corranaich and Meall a'Choire Leith, at the left of the shot, in full sunlight.

The final summit bump of Ben Ledi leads up to a monument just before the trig point.

The monument commemorates Sgt Harry Lawrie, a member of the Killin Mountain Rescue team who was tragically killed in a helicopter accident on Ben More in 1987, while carrying out a rescue. I thought the ice formations on the rocks surrounding the monument made them look like angel wings.

The ice on the summit trig point showed the direction the wind had been blowing in – yet the temperature was surprisingly mild, and I didn't even have my coat on.

We did start to feel the cold a bit, after 10 minutes or so at the 879m (2883 ft) summit. My friend took this beautiful photo of me looking at the view.

This is the view looking back to eastwards, with the Harry Lawrie monument in the foreground, and views out to Stirling, Grangemouth and the Ochills.

We did a circuit, walking along the wide ridge to head down the mountain and back through the Stank Glen. As we walked along the ridge, there were lovely views over the Trossachs, Glen Finglas reservoir and Loch Katrine.

The isle of Arran was still visible, surrounded with a shimmering golden glow.

The dark grey strip at the top looks like a ragged piece of roofing, but it was actually the effect of a steep bank of cloud which produced a really unusual "sandwich" effect on the horizon.

Other islands in the Firth of Clyde were also shimmering in the golden sea – possibly Millport or Bute.

By the time we headed down from the ridge, it was almost 2pm.

We sat at the bealach and had a late lunch before heading back through the verdant Stank Glen to the car park.