The Cobbler and other things

Some dismissed it instantly, others rolled their eyes in disbelief - but it happened, Danny and I spent a night in a cave below the North Peak of the Cobbler. In April. It can snow in April. I wouldn't have been surprised if did snow. It was bloody cold.

I'm not quite sure why we thought it would be a good idea... but it was along the same thinking that sent us up there at the beginning of March (in a storm) looking to do the same thing... Thinking about that now, it was a pretty stupid thing to do, and I'm sure in a month, looking back on this trip, I'll be thinking 'how daft can you get?!' but the thing about these trips is - they don't feel daft at the time.

So, up you go. This was my fourth attempt to top out on the Cobbler, previous attempts being shut down by gales, sleet, snow, rain and myself getting upset about bad weather... This time, however, blue skies overhead made us optimistic about our chances as we set off on the well rehearsed strenuous moves up the path. Before long we were up the gully/path below the North peak and all of a sudden the enclosed feeling was replaced with an open aspect and spectacular scenery. From here the awesome triple peak formation of the mountain can be taken in. Danny commented "Right now, we are in one of the most beautiful places in the world." I fully agreed.

We found an excellent looking place to sleep under a big boulder. It came fully fitted with old candles and other litter debris which gave the place an authentic feel. The rubbish reminded be of the boulders at Dumbarton - a home from home. I wasn't too impressed.

We dumped our stuff and headed up to take advantage of the last of the light and climb Recess Route. A Classic going deep into a chimney on the North peak. The climbing style was fast with Danny setting the pace on the on pitch one placing a total of zero pieces of gear. I bettered him by managing to place a thread on the second. Danny equalled my record by clipping a piece of tat on a combination of the last two pitches.

We made our way down to the cave and settling in for what was anticipated to be a sterling nights sleep. Not the case. I spent the night cowering in my bivi bag, throwing on as many clothes as I had (including my towel) to keep warm. At times I heard Danny snoring and the jealousy made me think 'what a complete bastard'.

After this superb nights sleep we 'dragged' ourselves out of the cave ("thank fuck we're out of that shit hole" - "I'm looking forward to sleeping there tonight... I don't think!"). We headed for Punster's Crack, another classic - which went really well apart from Danny getting stuck at the '6b' bridging move, and myself getting shivery cold with the wait ("Are you up for winter climbing next season, Mike?" - "Argrgrghghhhghhhh noooooooo!!!!"). After this we topped out on the Middle peak - completing my headpoint ascent of the mountain. Yes! We then descended to the south peak where we cruised up Argantian Arete I think it was called.

I couldn't help wanting to climb the awesome looking steep slab of Osiris. It's E4 and that's harder than I've ever onsighted before but, you know, I was climbing well... That week I'd managed to send one of my Dumby projects Totality which has 6c moves on it and the slab had, by the looks of it, one 6a move low down over an overlap and then maybe 5c or 5b moves to the top. And there were pegs, albeit rusty looking ones... So I thought I'd give it a go. Within 5 seconds, I'd fallen off. Put that down to the move off the ground being harder than I thought.

"That bit's VS!" Danny helpfully pointed out.

After that I manged to get over the overlap in a on-er but my foot slipped clipping the peg which lead to a swinging (but not too violent) fall. I pulled up on the rope and manged to get establish on the slab and make a series of ever more scary moves higher and higher above the good thread... After careful consideration I decided I would not be going any higher and I probably could down climb to the gear.

"I'm not up for it, Danny"

I hastily started reversing finger tip mantles. Before long my foot stepped on the rope and down I came with an eyes-closed fall. Danny lowered me to the ground where I lay with my face in the grass trying to regain the mental composure to be at head height was more.

After a recuperation session involving some good banter and a cereal bar, Danny lead off on the classic E1 - Gladiator's Groove. It says in the guide 'a confident approach is needed' so I was really quite relieved when Danny took pitch one. After some 15m of climbing he yelled down "Yes, some gear!" He then tussled with the traverse, some 10m to the right of his gear before finding a neat cam placement which gave him the confidence to complete the pitch. I was enjoying the climbing on the second pitch until a large flat ledge appeared and require a fair amount of groping and grunting to surmount!

Once we'd topped out we lay on the rocks above the crag in the sun. This provided welcome relief from the son-of-a-bitch wind and a chance to rest weary heads (surprising after such a great nights sleep!)

Here, we decided that sleeping in the cave would not be a good idea for the night so left the peak early to eat the remains of our food ratios and pack up our stuff. I've never been so glad to leave a mountain. Nor have I been so glad of a comfy and warm bed to sleep in. I now have a great respect to the shipbuilders of the Clyde who stayed on the mountain before Thermarests!

The other things are basically that I went to Dumby on Tuesday. It was really nice and sunny which is always good for bringing the local youths out to play. I'm starting to be able to classify them as follows:

Idiots: older neds with bottles of Buckfast an a keen interest in climbing. Will always ask if you've climbed that [pointing to Requiem] and will look at you as if they're trying to decide if your a circus freak or top end sports person. Will also ask questions like 'Uni, eh?'.

Crazies: NITs (Neds In Training) wearing Celtic tops, who run around playing a violent version of hide and seek. you'll recognise one from E11. They climb up the back of the Eagle Boulder in Nike trainers with alarming boldness. They need to invest in a pair of 5.10's in my opinion.

Fire-starters: To be avoided/dreaded.

I managed to get a project which I first tried in September on my first visit to Dumbarton - the super sweet Consolidated. Yasss!! Also got a 7b sport route - Half Breed on my 4th go or something which was a bit of a disappointment.

Anyway, I need to start studying for Uni exams so the blog might get sidelined for a while :( but hopefully the climbing won't - trip to the peak next weekend!

Cheerio, Mike