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.

There are few things that can break my concentration when I’m up on a hill with my camera at sunrise, but Beanie is one of them, especially when she’s determined to liberate a little bundle of chicken from my pocket. Ordinarily Susan’s there to take charge of our pesky little Hobbits when the camera’s out, but this time she was back in the car at the bottom of the hill catching some extra sleep. It may have been the 3:30am departure that left her so tired, or it may have been the fact that she’d been doing a crazy amount of pullups all week (seriously, enough to impress some online ex-marine drill instructors !) but regardless, when it came to climb versus sleep, sleep won. Consequently at a time when most normal folk are still in bed, I found myself just below the summit of Ben Dubh with a big white Beagle bum stuck in my face (Biggles) and a very active Beagle snout stuck in my pocket (Beanie).

To be fair the two of them had been extraordinarily well behaved while we’d been climbing and scouting about the best shooting location (discounting the rather noisy moment that occurred when a parade of sheep and deer crossed our path). And when the sun actually started to pop up over the distant mountains, they were almost as mesmerized by it as I was.

However once the first two minutes of sunrise had passed, a bit of impatience started to creep in. Biggles decided that if he was going to be stuck up here in the cold, he’d have to make a bed for himself, which is unfortunate because he’s the world’s worst bed maker. He found a rough patch of grass, went round and round on it a couple of times and tried it out. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t comfy, so he drew back on his rear legs (shoving his bottom in my face) and pounced on it, thinking that would somehow make it more agreeable. It didn’t of course, but he persevered for a good minute longer, knocking into me and the camera tripod repeatedly until eventually he gave up and flopped on the grass making a disgruntled “harummfff”. Just when I thought I was finally clear to take a few more shots, I felt a tugging at my coat. Looking round to the source of the new disturbance, I discovered that my left pocket had apparently grown a pair of big floppy ginger ears. I had to extract Beanie and her ears from my pocket several times before I finally came up with the idea of tying her and Biggles to the fence a safe distance from me. While this enabled me to get a couple more shots, it wasn’t a popular decision and I received a number of verbal protests.

Yeah it’s nice

But we’ve seen it already and we’re bored!!!

Inevitably I gave in and broke out the chicken. This was scoffed in under 10 seconds, at which point I hooked the pups back up to my waist and we walked a little way round the side of the hill for a different view.

We hung around there for a few minutes during which time Biggles munched some snow and gave himself an ice-cream headache, and then we started on the long trudge back down. Quite near the bottom I saw another opportunity for some shots; the sun had been working on Loch Lomond for a while now and there was a layer of mist running over it.

Just as I was about to get moving again, Beanie suddenly spotted something on the path ahead of us. She became very animated, then broke into her welcoming dance. It was Susan, fresh from her nap and coming to meet us!

Beanie on the right performing her welcoming dance, which very closely resembles her biscuit dance, breakfast dance, tea dance etc.

Hi Mum! I’ve missed you so much!

But what’s in your pocketses??