Weather/Conditions: Warm, blue skies and sun with little to no wind.
Distance/Ascent/Time: 10km / 880m / 6h
Accompanying: Dad, Steve, Darius

On this walk I went with Steve Dad and Steve's friend Darius. It was a hot day, sunny with clear blue skies. At points it was a bit too hot but a great day nevertheless and first time up an awesome mountain - it wouldn't be the last time I visited this one! I knew of the Cobbler and had seen plenty of pics, but the first time I saw it from the dam, I sat and just stared I was so taken by it. Subsequent trips didn't affect me so much but maybe you "get used" to such things?

Ascent

When we set off at quarter past 11, we took the old tram path as the lower parts to the new one were still being built. We got to the flat road, about 300-400 feet up and went up the zigzagging path which had just been constructed. We reached the dam at 12.40pm and 2000 feet by 2pm.

I believe it was after the dam that I began to walk ahead of everyone else. I certainly remember being at about 2300ft and looking down to see everyone sitting eating. Nevertheless, I slogged up the last section of the mountain with dad following, on average, 500-600 vertical feet behind me. I climbed onto the col and went up to the summit.



I hadn't spent more than thirty seconds at the summit (not the pinnacle though) before deciding it might be a good idea to find out where everyone else was. I descended again, and met dad 400ft below the summit, as he walked up. Going back up again, we walked onto the bealach together, and sat for something to eat.

But Darius was nowhere to be found, and it turned out that he had waited at 2000 feet for us, apparently too tired to go on. Fair enough ...

We spent the last five minutes getting to the summit and it wasn't long before we were at the top, but this last push was the most tiring. I went "through the needle" and stepped out onto the small ledge. I cautiously climbed up the rocks onto the top of the pinnacle while Steve almost ran past me. I couldn't work out whether it was brave or irresponsible, but now to think that he literally ran up, and pushed past - sounds a bit irresponsible.



We reached the pinnacle at 3.20pm, which means we took 4 hours and 10 minutes to get to the summit. And somehow, we established contact with Darius, several hundred feet below. We couldn't see him but we began started shouting to each other, our voices echoing around the bowl of the mountain. It turned out he was on his way up the Cobbler to the summit, but it would turn out he went up to the very small bealach between the south peak and the pinnacle. Wrong way...

Descent

Coming off the pinnacle was the oddest section. Steve did it quickly enough but my legs weren't long enough to reach the ledge. Dad was telling me to hurry up but maybe he didn't realise that I was in an awkward situation. I calculated how I'd fall downwards in my head before holding onto the rocks and very carefully sliding myself down onto the ledge. From there it was simple enough, I just didn't like that last unexpected descent. It was because of that horrid small hop down to the ledge that I wouldn't climb the pinnacle during the next eight visits to the Cobbler.

After a while at the summit, we descended, and Darius, who was at the wrong bealach saw us descending. He was a mere 2 minutes from the summit but turned back, descending to meet up with us. (This is what he told us) When we reached 2000 feet we spent several minutes wondering where on earth he was, but 5-10 minutes later he came walking along the moorland having walked off the hill.

We descended down the obvious enough path to the car where we all, in excellent spirits drove back to Glasgow.