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A wee walk was planned through work , where we would take a group of novice walkers up a mountain. Some were dissenters, some were just curious, some pulled out. It was meant to be in May but because of the **** weather we kept putting it back till this weekend. We had ten men willing to go. There was one condition to this walk. NO ONE was to thread the Eye of the Needle. I was (cowardly) happy with that. Imagine some guy from work who`d never been up a hill climbing through the hole and climbing on top and I shat it?? ? I would never live it down. So, the ban was in place. One wife even contacted Jim to say that under no circumstance was her husband and new father to even consider that !
The weather was perfect. Nice sunny day as we approached Arrochar. Eight of us travelled from Paisley and met up with two others at the car park, We started up on the zig zag path, you know the one, it gets longer every time you go up it,and stopped for a breather at every zig and zag.
- Kevin, Jim and James
It was quite busy as you would expect , but I didnt expect old grannies with zimmers to pass by us !
This was quite a slow bunch we had brought with us.
Our first sight of the Cobbler didn`t look too good, it was covered in cloud, but the time we would be up there it would hopefully be.....October !
- Cobbler in cloud
We carried on to the dam and had another rest. Some people were hungry.....well Kevin was anyway.
- guess who was first to get into his pieces
While we waited for Autumn to pass, and Steff to catch up we took in the surroundings, and i think the rookies quite liked what they saw around us, but not the fact that the mountain still looked miles away and they were already knackered. The auld goat Tam Mac was his usual respectful self , when he said that we should let the youngest guy catch his breath, "He`s nearly 23 you know", he said, trying to defend him . Once he was in sight we moved on, the next pit stop was to be at the Narnain boulders, where we would hold tight till winter.
- cloud starting to lift
- Narnain gathering
I took point for a week on top of a rock until the stragglers caught up and we all met up again at the boulders, some people thought that this WAS the mountain.
- looking through the binoculars
- don`t look Lindsey
We gathered our supplies and calculated if we could get up and down before New Year, there was a chance but it was a chance worth taking. We headed off towards the path up the front of the Cobbler, not the namby pamby route up the back, oh no , these guys had shown enough on this long trip of about an hour and a half that they where real Mountain Men ! Now I can be a bit slow on the uptake at times and this was obviously evident to that sly old fox Tam, who preceded to take point on the walk. Bear in mind this was the guy we had to drag out of retirement because we walk too quick for him! He headed off at pace taking any eager beavers with him and left me behind to drag Steff up the hill two weeks later.
- the Cobbler in all it`s glory
I wouldn`t see the rest of the group for quite a while and I wished them all the best in their quest to be the first Dingbrocians to set foot on alien ground.
Steff took a lot of pictures and drank a lot of water. He ran out pretty soon. He was also sunburned. I gave him some suncream, but he wasn`t getting any water, he wasn`t sucking on my tube!
- Steff and the Mountain
I encouraged him to just take it one step at a time and we carried on, as busloads of tourists passed us on the way up. When we reached the Bealach we had a decision to make, call mountain rescue or just lay down and die !
- Bealach cairn
The plan was that we all met up here to carry on to the summit together, but I think some of the older guys were thinking about the afterlife and had moved on before rigor mortis had set in. So I left Steff at the cairn and headed up to the North Peak, leaving my pack. Up here I met up with Jim,Ian and Malky. The others had obviously set off for the highest peak first. I hung around for a bit taking in all the views and looking down the steep drops.
I was now beginning to think of The Needle. I zoomed in to see a guy climbing up on top of it. Now, it was quite windy where I stood and I was hoping to use that as an excuse not to do it, as it was always on my mind despite the NO ONE does the needle rule. And then his girlfriend joined him for summit selfies, sigh.....
- looking at the needle
- FFS, no need to show off
Eventually i dropped back down to find that Steff and my rucksack were gone. I sprinted up towards the south peak to find Ian, "The Machine" carrying my bag. Oh yeah, Ian , who turned up in DENIMS and TRAINERS and with not a bite to eat or a drop to drink carrying MY bag with all the munchies and liquid to feed the 5 thousand ! I quickly relieved him of it, tut !
As we climbed up we passed the couple who were waltzing on the needle, "Easy Peasy" they laughed. That was it, I had to do it. I even had visions of the rest of the guys having a picnic up there , wondering what all the fuss was about. But , they where nowhere to be seen when we got there. They had carried on and dipped down out of the wind. We joined them at a rather cosy lunch spot out of the wind with one of the best views in the world. All were happy. Content with themselves that they had reached the top and where indeed enjoying some great views that they would never otherwise see. Although, one did drop a banana skin....
- lunch break
- Jim`s had enough
After a nice relaxing break it was time to head back down , well for most of us.
As we headed back towards the needle, knowing Jim was still flaffing about behind us, I let the others drift away , leaving me and The Needle. I just went for it , ditched my bag, scurried across the rocks, through the mishaped hole in the rock through to the other side. Plenty of room out here. I carried on up onto the first rock, wary not to bang my head on any overhang. Sheltered from the wind I placed myself in a gap between to rocks and hoisted myself up. The summit was just there. Another wee scramble and I was on top. Yes ! Easy Peasy ! But , man it was windy . I always remember Jim telling me how his legs went to jelly when he got up there, but mine were fine. I straightened up to catch him pointing his camera at me, and whipped off my hat (before the wind blew it off) and rejoiced.
It felt great. I looked about for a bit then decided to get back down. ****..How..Do..I ..Get..Back..Down...?
it looked simple yet very difficult. I`ll just place my left foot there then leap over to that rock there and kinda fall back to that rock there.. No. Eh, ****. I could here Jim shouting " Go down on your belly" But then I wouldn`t be able to see where I was going. Right Tommy, don`t hang this out. I got down on my bum and just shuffled down, clinging on to the rock to my right and not looking down to that sheer drop to my left, I swung myself round and back into the gap in the rocks and down, Yes, safe. And back out through the eye
- The Needle
- what`s he doing ?
- Yeeha !
Met up with Jim and Steff and I was elated. We dropped back down to meet the rest of the guys and got a pic all together.
- all the guys
We managed to get back down with no problems and I have to say everybody did great and enjoed themselves so, Jim,Tam,Kevin, James,Steff,Gerry,Malky,Ian and Garry well done , here`s to next time !