The Cobbler, also known as Ben Arthur, is one of our favorite mountains. We’ve visited it a few times now; once during “regular” walking hours, and twice in the very early hours of the morning prior to sunrise (here, and here) but until yesterday we’d never seen a sunset from either of its two walker-accessible peaks.

After days of grotty weather the forecasts had been consistently promising a sunny, relatively cloudless and wind-free late Sunday afternoon. Needless to say I hadn’t bothered to check on the details of the “grotty” stuff and consequently I was rather surprised to see top of The Cobbler itself and several other mountains coated in snow when we arrived at the Succoth car park. Nevertheless, the sun was out and there was very little wind as promised, so how bad could it be? Well, quite bad as it turned out. A few people we met on the way up had been turned back by a blizzard, one poor fellow had been airlifted off mountain after a heart attack, and a rescue team was apparently still looking for someone else who’d fallen. Still, you don’t let little things like that hold you back when you’ve got a pair of enthusiastic Beagles on your team!

Out of the trees and getting closer to the Cobbler. No problems so far!

As we got closer we started seeing more and more snow, first bordering the path, and then eventually on the path itself. It slowed us down somewhat, but at least that “blizzard” we’d heard about had clearly departed, so we pressed on.

As we passed the great Narnain boulders we encountered another obstacle: a deer carcass. Beanie & Biggles knew about it a good minute before I did; they hauled me towards it like a crazed team of Huskies, and then abruptly stopped. As experienced Beagles I figured they’d be falling over themselves either to eat it or roll in it, but this deer had them completely stumped. They just stood there rooted to the spot, staring and sniffing. They didn’t want to leave it, but they didn’t know what to do with it. After nearly a minute, it was Biggles who finally came up with a course of action for handling this strange dead beast. It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that his solution involved woofing. I don’t know whether he hoped to accomplish anything by his woofing, or whether he’d just gone for the most applicable of the four internationally approved Biggly-boy reactions to an unidentified object, which are:

• eat it
• roll in it
• pee on it
• woof at it

Either way, when I finally dragged him and Beanie away from the carcass he seemed quite satisfied that he’d done the right thing, and who was I to argue?

By the time we’d reached the base of the Cobbler extra layers and gloves had been put on and we now faced the toughest part of the walk: a winding rocky “staircase” that would take us up to the central area between the north and central peaks. On the best of days the staircase is a solid workout; the path zig-zags like a drunken snake and the spacing of the steps make it hard to establish a good rhythm. And it’s steep. Very steep. This time however the steps were almost entirely submerged in snow; the only trace of a path was the sunken footprints of the last people to have come down. Rather than trying to zig-zag up the slope, we pretty much slogged it straight up. It was hard going, requiring arms as well as legs, but to be honest I actually preferred it to the normal route.

Almost at the top of the snow-covered staircase. Beanie warms her bum on my camera bag, while Biggles shouts encouragement at his Mum

Sunset was already approaching as we reached the ridge between the two peaks. It was pretty obvious we wouldn’t make it up to the central peak in time, but the north peak was much closer and easier, so that’s what we headed for.

That’s it Mum! Keep going!

As we neared the summit I was finally able to hand my two furry companions over to Susan. I love them more than I can say, but after several hours of tugging them past deer carcasses and remnants of other walker’s sandwiches while constantly having to extract myself from their tangled leads, I was ready for a break!

Made it! Beagles and their Mum on top of the world!

See what I mean about the tangling? Nice one Beanie!

Usually I feel that the central peak offers the best views, but at sunset and with a blanket of snow over The Cobbler and the surrounding mountains, I’d like to think that the north peak was probably the best. Certainly I have no complaints about the visual feast we got to enjoy.

Of course the setting sun meant the clock was running out for natural light; we both wanted to be back at the base of The Cobbler before headtorches were needed. The trudge back to the top of the staircase went easily enough, but the steep slope down from there looked long, slow and not a little dangerous. After a difficult first few meters, a solution presented itself; we fell back on the time honored technique that many hillwalkers secretly employ when no-one else is there to see them. Yep, we slid down on our arses. If you’ve never tried going down a snow covered mountain on your bum while being dragged by a couple of crazy Beagles, I’m telling you, you NEED to try it. It’s the most terrific fun, until that is you hit a patch of ice and start picking up a little too much speed. Fortunately a couple of well-positioned rocks provided a breaking mechanism and we made it down to the base in record time with no injuries other than frostbitten bum-cheeks.

Safely off the mountain, we had time for a pitstop or two on the long trudge back to the car.