The Cobbler

The Cobbler is one of those hills that has something for everyone – unfortunately in our case it was rain !

Can’t remember exactly what age I would have been when I first gazed up the steepness of the pipe track path but it would have been in the company of my Dad, Uncle Jack and Alan for sure. Since then, there has been summer and winter climbing (including a few epics on Punsters, hilarity on Recess Route, ice axes and bad language from the Gnome to mention a few), day rambles and numerous hill running trips. The easy access from Glasgow also helps!

The original plan for the weekend had been a big backpack / camping shot with some Venture Scotland folks. Due to family illness and a new lass (for one of the other guys) the plan was scaled down to a single day gig. Just outside Paisley my mobile beeped to indicate that Gina had left her waterproofs in Edinburgh – brief glance through the windscreen indicated that was a bad move (which she remedied with a £12.99 top in Balloch).

After introductions in the car park, the team consisting of Rhidian, Mike, Raymond, Gina, Ailsa, Emma and myself (is it just me or are there more girls on the hill these days) made for the soon to be replaced path leading up towards Ben Narnain and the traverse round to towards the Allt a’ Bhalachain. Every combination of base layer and waterproofs was tried without much success. The cloud was ridiculously low with even the Narnain Boulder being covered! Quick bit of navigation tuition for Ailsa, before heading up into the Corrie where another two girls and a guy joined up with us. The rain got worse. Once at the bealach the decision was easy – “nae big traverse of the tops … simply got over the centre peak and get tae!” A couple of guys were roping up for threading the needle - one for another day.

Once down onto the grassy ridge that runs parallel (but above) the path we had come up and it was hands in pockets relaxed type stuff again. Possibly a little too relaxed as I managed to drop a little lower than ehhhh …… planned. This resulted in a battle with the forestry to regain the correct path – OPPS

Lesson for the day was concentrate on the nav rather than the sh!te patter.

Veggie burger, chips and some of Gina and Emma’s ice cream over at the Pit Stop (Ailsa had been wanting a skinny latte and a low fat muffin – typical Edinburgh lass) before heading up to Grandtully via Glasgow.

The weather wasn’t what we had hoped for but once again proof that the worst day on the hill is still better than the best day stuck inside !