Climbing Ben Nevis (aka The Cobbler)

Ben Arthur, also known as The Cobbler, is a mountain located in the Loch Lomond region. According to Wikipedia, it has one of the most distinctive mountain outlines in the country, and an altitude of 884 meters. However, in true Scottish fashion, when I arrived there yesterday morning (along with the whole Mountaineering society), it was blanketed in fog. According to the Scot’s I climbed with, the weather was “dreich” (similar to when I visited The Isle of Skye for the first time), which means it was wet, dull, gloomy, dismal, dreary or any combination of these.

For those who know me, I enjoy a good hike. However this has to be one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. (Probably also because I was already extremely sore from Field Hockey and rugby tryouts the day before and running on 4 hours of sleep because I went to the field hockey social the night before).

Despite the rain, cold, and quite frankly a lack of any view from the top of the mountain (see the movie at the bottom), I had a great time and made friends with a Romanian (Alex) and Slovakian (Katy). We froze to death, plucked blackberries from the plants as we hiked, and went to a local pub afterwards to have warm soup to defrost our bodies.

Here is a link to a website which shows photos of what climbing The Cobbler would have looked like on a clear day.