A sneaky midweeker on the Cobbler and Narnain.

[budvarone]

These two peaks have loads of reports on WH so I'll try to keep this brief, and let the pics do most of the talking.Neil and I had the same midweek day off, and as the weather was still favourable, we nipped up to Succoth to have a wee walk up The Cobbler, and to have another (our second!) attempt at Beinn Narnain. We arrived at the car park quite late, it was already pretty warm, boots on and sun screen applied, we set off up the zigzags to the dam, I can't say I enjoyed this first part of the walk, I just don't like that path, and I was glad when we eventually walked out of the trees into the open.

Arrochar across the loch, from that path!

Looking down Loch Long from that path!

The Cobbler in cloud

...that's better!

We took the scrambly path up the south east side of The Cobbler, this involves a bit of minor scrambling, quite an enjoyable climb, more interesting than the "steppy" path from the north.

Neil making his way up the scrambly path.

The North Peak

The North Peak from the path up to the summit.

The final stretch up to the summit.

The Needle

Neil showing me where I need to stand!

Last year when we climbed The Cobbler, the weather was awful...wet and windy, we convinced ourselves that it was too dangerous to attempt The Needle, so we didn't, this time however, the weather was fantastic, bright sun and no wind, would we go for it....???

Me, sitting in The Needle.

I thought "Yeah...just do it!" and crawled through The Needle only to see the drop on the other side...then changed my mind! Not a chance!! "The price of failure is too high" as one of our fellow walkers told us!

Rather you than me mate!

So we then headed down and across to Narnain, which looked quite easy from the top of The Cobbler, looks can be decieving tho!

Narnain from The Cobbler.

Neil on the steep, boggy/rocky path up Narnain.

Getting there!

Have we strayed onto Schiehallion??

Yay! At last!

Narnain summit shot.

We tried Narnain last year by the Cruach nam Miseag route, but we were spooked by The Spearhead, our inexperience and nerves got the better of us so we headed back down the way we came, it was interesting to see The Spearhead from the summit, still looks daunting!

The Spearhead

The Cobbler from Narnain.

We had a bite to eat, and headed back down to the lochan, and made our way back to the car..that zigzag path isn't any better going down hill, but it'll be long time before I'm back on it! The hot weather and multiple juice breaks meant we'd run out of water AGAIN, so a quick stop at the garage in Arrochar for an ice cold Lilt....and home!

[skuk007]

Looks like you had perfect conditions for attempting the needle - says me who's yet to do this!

As you say the price of failure is too high and would probably hurt. I'm still wondering how I'll feel when I get my chance.