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What an awesome day! Following years of
wanting and thinking, I finally got up the South Peak of The Cobbler. The day before
the climb, Steve enthusiastically suggested we climb The
Cobbler. We'd had this in mind for a while and reckoned
that now we had some rock climbing skills, we might get ourselves to the
summit of The Cobbler's South Peak. Being the only summit of the
triple-topped peak I hadn't done, I've been wanting to climb it for
years. More precisely, I'd wanted to climb the three peaks in a trip
- a kind of traverse across the skyline.
So we made plans - mum would drive us up and we'd get a train home.
Our rock climbing pal Graham would have come, but he was jetting off for
a week's sport climbing in Spain. Lucky b******!
We didn't arrive in Arrochar until late-morning and started after 12. We
got supplies from the Esso, the one I went to years ago when Arrochar
was almost home-turf. The same guy works there, and looked just as
unhappy as he did four years ago.
Ascent to the base of The Cobbler
But we got going, walking around the loch-head and onto the ascent
track. Thoughts were directed on the heat, the weight of the packs and
the thought of the climb ahead. We wanted to climb the South-east aręte,
but I was focused foremost on reaching the summit of South
Peak by any route.
We left the busy path at the dam and headed onto An t-Sron, the eastern
ridge of The Cobbler. A hot, heavy slog was the order of the day - with
ropes and rack, the bags weighed a lot. I'd never been on An t-Sron, not
on 10 previous visits to The Cobbler. So it was a refreshing change to
get onto the ridge and finally have some views to look at, most notably
down into Glen Croe, The Brack opposite and the Clyde Estuary in the
distance. The Cobbler dominated all. The 3-dimensional view from here
into the coire bowl is beautiful. In some way it's also threatening to
think what awaits you.
South Peak
The walk was hard work and we followed the ridge upward to the base of
the South Peak. We met two climbers here who were about to start
descending. Down at the base of the peak, I was pretty apprehensive of
the ground I'd have to meet to get to the summit. With regards to
climbing, I see myself as two things: A mountain guy who enjoys
multi-peak days and the long slog, and a rock climber of the fearful
variety. I do a lot of indoor climbing to a fair technical degree, but
the thought of outdoor trad still isn't my bag. Maybe it will be in the
future. Steve and I stood at the bottom of the south-east arete and
decided then not to climb it that way - maybe another time!
We walked up to the saddle between the south and central peak to see how
it would look from here. I'd been down to this saddle a few times, but
I'd never got very far. A boulder blocks the way first, and this leads
to a path traversing the side of the cliff. The boulder is sat atop a
small drop, so I did an awkward belly-slide on to the boulder. From here
we could walk around the path to the start of the real scrambling.
Prior to climbing the South Peak, the two things I knew about this route
was it was the easiest way to the top, and that an abseil anchor allowed
a rope-assisted descent back to the saddle. We climbed with this
information in mind. Steve went up first - with a harness, rock shoes
(which probably helped him climb), a rope on his back and a sling to set
up the abseil. I came up behind, but stopped quite quickly. The exposure
is pretty big, because the path where we'd started is a terrace half way
up a cliff. And although the climbing in technical terms was very easy,
holds were not completely positive and I found myself unable to go on.
Smooth boot soles did not help. Several minutes and several tries later,
I heard Steve from above - he'd been to the top of the peak and he had
good things to say about the abseil anchor.
Steve abseiled back to me. I thought, now he's up I really gotta get
up this - and so I started up the climbing again, secured by the
rope at first, but untying because it created more problems than it
solved. It may have helped overcome a couple of mental blocks though,
and Steve climbed up behind me to help with handholds and footholds. The
good news was that the first bit of climbing was the hardest and most
exposed. Just do not slip. and trust your hands more than your fear.
The 'path' curved up to a small chimney, where the exposure is lessened
by a ledge directly below. Then as I was starting to enjoy myself, and
the moves, the abseil anchor came into view. It might be the most
'bomber', secure anchor I've ever seen. There were a few other slings
are around it's upturned horn, and unless the whole thing moves (which
seems unlikely) the abseil would be easy.
The anchor is only a few metres beneath the summit. Above the anchor,
small face rears upward with a crack running it's length. The exposure
isn't life-threatening here, but it's better not to fall. I shimmied up
on my belly, getting the right handholds and footholds, got out the top
and then I was on the summit area of the South Peak. An easy walk led to
the top - a surprisingly big summit, a large angled slab with one corner
the highest.
With a great deal of relief, I was finally on the top. Well, we still
had to get down but with the abseil already in place, that shouldn't be
a problem. I'd finally climbed the South Peak, and felt an incredible
elation as a result. The last time I felt this way was climbing Nijinski
at Auchinstarry Quarry. I don't remember the last time I felt that way
about climbing a mountain, although I understand that the motivations
between 'mountain walking' and rock climbing
are different.
The Cobbler South Peak by it's easiest route is a
sheer, exposed scramble, but it felt the same as a technical, short rock
climb. I took a while to savour the summit, to admire the Central Peak
from this unusual view, then headed down the awkward crackline to the
abseil. Steve went first and I followed on.
Since we had all the time of the day, Steve climbed a direct route to
the abseil anchor on top rope - we could afford the time. When we were
done, we packed up and headed off the terrace ledge to the awkward boulder. I found it easier to return than
it had been to get across - I just jumped
back onto the path.
Annotated view of our ascent and descent
of the South Peak
Central Peak
The central peak was up next, and if I could reach the top of it's
pinnacle then the three peaks would be in the bag. With the south peak
behind me, something like this should be an easy goal but I had it in
the back of my head that of ten visits to the Cobbler, I'd left out the
pinnacle nine times.
The walk up was quick, and the whole place seemed smaller than I
remembered. I got there just before Steve and scrambled into the "eye of
the needle", moved out onto the ledge, and had a look at the awkward
climb upward - it had often evaded me in the past. One handhold there, a
handhold there, foot up, move up, and so on. Amazingly, it was
incredibly easy and my experience was so unlike any other in the past.
On the awkward first ledge, footholds on the right-hand side helped
enormously. I pulled up on big holds to emerge on the top of the summit
pinnacle. Climbing on the south peak had helped undoubtedly.
It's a superb feeling to feel your confidence sky-rocket like that.
Every time it happens I feel myself able to interpret the rock, find the
moves and work over exposure. After all, why worry about falling if you
know your not going to fall?
I took a 360°
panorama from the top and went down again to safer ground, reversing all
my moves without issue. Steve and I rigged an abseil through the eye of
the needle and down the cliff on the other side - we both abseiled
twice, just for the hell of it. It's interesting to go down the cliff
you always feared in the past. And the abseil was no worry, we put
slings around the enormous boulders and created a bombproof anchor.
North Peak and Descent
The irony of the Cobbler North Peak is that the easiest summit is also
the most impressive. Although I was tired, I was going up. Steve came
with me. I took some time to sightsee down the Cobbler's precipices and
sat on the summit relishing the goal achieved. Well all we had to do was
get back to Arrochar. That would be no problem, only a delight and as
late-afternoon cloud scraped by the summit, we jumped down the path from
the saddle and back to the Narnain boulders, did a bit of bouldering
there (and got a bit stuck at points!) before doing the slog back
to Arrochar.
Post-walk
In Arrochar, we went to the Ben Arthur Bothy, unlike the name
suggests and pub and restaurant with great views across Loch Long to The
Cobbler. This was another haunt
of mine in 2007. I usually ended up sitting cold and wet from a soaking
day on The Cobbler. They'd done it up a bit since I was last in. Steve
and I got drink and burgers but forgot to pay. We walked to Arrochar and
Tarbet train station, only realising the mistake half way along. Feeling guilty and wanting to show my face there again, I paid the
following day by card over the phone.
We sat waiting for the train, with darkness coming and a full moon
rising by Ben Reoch. I was knackered, as was Steve (he slept, I
didn't). It was so worth it for the day we'd had. It was amazing to
think I'd been up the South Peak and I'm immensely proud.
360° panorama from The Cobbler
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