Crunchie
Warren Veteran
Yesterday I had a fun time climbing one of the Corbetts in Arrochar which is part of a group of mountains known as the Arrochar alps. These are scattered around Loch Lomond and include a few munros too.
The hill we'd set our sights on was the impressive looking Cobbler (or Ben Arthur to give him his proper name). The true summit of this hill can only be reached by climbing through a small window in the rock, walking up a narrow ledge and climbing onto some boulders in order to get to the top. As the weather was still and dry we decided to go for this instead of the two munros we had originally set out to do.
Here's the scenic pics first...
The mist clears over Loch Long and Arrochar
The Cobbler itself (told you it was impressive)
Ben Ime and Ben Narnain, the two munros next to it
Looking back to Loch Long
From the top
Now getting onto the true summit was fun. Here's me sitting in the window known both as "The needle" and "Argyll's eyeglass"
From there it was onto the narrow ledge (this was taken on a previous trip)
After walking up the ledge I came to three boulders that for the life of me I couldn't work out how to get up. The holds I could see were no use for someone as short as me but I was determined to get up there. I had a scary moment when I slipped off of one boulder and couldn't stop myself running when I hit the ledge. There is at least a 15 foot drop on all sides so as you can imagine I was a bit nervous. Thankfully there one of the boulders lay to my right so I more of less threw myself into that and away from the edge. All this time my friend was shouting at me to come back through so I did though I was damn sure someone would come along that knew what they were doing sometime soon.
Sure enough a couple that looked well equiped (they had proper hillwalking clothes and everything) turned up and made it to the top. I saw my chance and dived through the eye, back up to the ledge and asked them how they got up. The lady was very helpful and told me where to put my feet and hands, my problem was I was trying to go up the boulders the wrong way and really had to wiggle up them on my **** using my feet to stop myself sliding back down. When she told me to stand up on the second boulder and walk over to the third I was a bit nervous but managed it OK and from there it was an easy crawl to the summit.
So here is me on the summit finally...
This photo makes it look seriously unimpressive but I took another of someone else that managed it so you can see where I was...
Here's a last picture of The Cobbler and the Narnain boulders to the right of the shot! What a fun day yesterday was and i was quite proud of myself for reaching the Cobblers true lofty summit after failing to do so on a previous occassion!
The hill we'd set our sights on was the impressive looking Cobbler (or Ben Arthur to give him his proper name). The true summit of this hill can only be reached by climbing through a small window in the rock, walking up a narrow ledge and climbing onto some boulders in order to get to the top. As the weather was still and dry we decided to go for this instead of the two munros we had originally set out to do.
Here's the scenic pics first...
The mist clears over Loch Long and Arrochar
The Cobbler itself (told you it was impressive)
Ben Ime and Ben Narnain, the two munros next to it
Looking back to Loch Long
From the top
Now getting onto the true summit was fun. Here's me sitting in the window known both as "The needle" and "Argyll's eyeglass"
From there it was onto the narrow ledge (this was taken on a previous trip)
After walking up the ledge I came to three boulders that for the life of me I couldn't work out how to get up. The holds I could see were no use for someone as short as me but I was determined to get up there. I had a scary moment when I slipped off of one boulder and couldn't stop myself running when I hit the ledge. There is at least a 15 foot drop on all sides so as you can imagine I was a bit nervous. Thankfully there one of the boulders lay to my right so I more of less threw myself into that and away from the edge. All this time my friend was shouting at me to come back through so I did though I was damn sure someone would come along that knew what they were doing sometime soon.
Sure enough a couple that looked well equiped (they had proper hillwalking clothes and everything) turned up and made it to the top. I saw my chance and dived through the eye, back up to the ledge and asked them how they got up. The lady was very helpful and told me where to put my feet and hands, my problem was I was trying to go up the boulders the wrong way and really had to wiggle up them on my **** using my feet to stop myself sliding back down. When she told me to stand up on the second boulder and walk over to the third I was a bit nervous but managed it OK and from there it was an easy crawl to the summit.
So here is me on the summit finally...
This photo makes it look seriously unimpressive but I took another of someone else that managed it so you can see where I was...
Here's a last picture of The Cobbler and the Narnain boulders to the right of the shot! What a fun day yesterday was and i was quite proud of myself for reaching the Cobblers true lofty summit after failing to do so on a previous occassion!
I love Scotland.
