Climbing a Mountain

Goatfell is the Isle of Arran's highest peak. It's just under 3000 feet, making it a corbett. I prefer to think of it as 874m, but either way, it's quite a hike. On Friday my son Hamish and I climbed to the top with our two dogs, Clover the Basset and Poppy the Akita. We'd been trying to get up for the past three Fridays, but they all had rain or low cloud. This week we had moving cloud so we decided to go and just see what the weather would bring.

Category	landscapephotography
Settings	1/500 @ f/5, ISO 100, 28mm
Camera	Sony ILCE-7M3
Lens	Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD
Location	Isle of Arran, Scotland

Hamish has never really been the outdoorsy type, but that began to change a bit earlier in the summer when we made a trip to the blue pools in Glen Rosa. He really enjoyed that walk and, when I suggested that we climb Goatfell before the summer holidays were over, he seemed really keen. It was five years since I last climbed it, when I took Freya up for her first time at the age of 9.

^{In the carpark at Cladach, just setting off}

We parked at the Wineport just outside Brodick and off we went. At first I was going to carry everything in my Peak Design 30L Everyday Backpack, but it was a little heavy and a little overpacked, so I asked Hamish if he would mind carrying his own water, lunch and jacket. I think it's fair that he gets an authentic hike so he'd know whether he'd like to do more. He agreed.

As soon as we parked I realised that I was wearing the wrong shoes. I like to hike in my Asolo boots, but I'd put on shoes earlier on to nip down to the Co-op for sausages and forgotten to change them. D'oh! Luckily I'd put on walking shoes and not my Nikes! They're good shoes, so I didn't bother going back home to change them, mainly because the usually 15-minute drive would have taken around 40 because it's high tourist season so there are cyclists everywhere, queues blocking the road to board the ferry and roadworks. So off I went in my Zamberlan 300 Ultra Lite GTX shoes.

I had my 2L water bladder in my backpack and H had a 1L bottle in his. I also had a flask of coffee. It was my first hike with a water bladder and it's ridiculously convenient. Ideally we would have had a little more water as the climb really is thirsty work, but it was just enough.

It was also my first hike with walking poles, and OMG - how did I hike for so long without poles? I'm not the most nimble, given my leg injuries from 1989 when I almost lost my leg in a climbing accident, so it's rather bewildering that I'd never really considered walking poles before. I took one and H took the other.

The first part of the walk is through the woods in Brodick Castle Country Park, probably for the first hour or so. The conditions were perfect: not too hot, not too sunny and not raining. By the time you get beyond the treeline, you're already pretty high up and you get a real taste of the views you'll get higher up. Hamish asked when we would start climbing Goatfell, to which my response was: 'we already have!'.

You reach the wooden bridge not long after the break in the treeline and this is where the views both up and down really start to open up. You'll see the peak of the mountain and down towards Brodick Bay.

It's a popular walk and so I shouldn't have been surprised by how many people there were, but somehow I always am. Lots of families too, including many young kids. That could give you the false impression that it's an easy walk, but it's really not, especially the last bit once you get onto the ridge looking down into Glen Sannox.

^{Yup, we climbed up that!}

We took it easy the whole way up and so it took more time than it's taken me before, but I was prepared for that. What I wasn't quite prepared for and really should have been was Clover's struggling at the top. I remembered that I'd had to help her up some of the big rocks on her last trip to the summit, but that was 5 years ago when she was a younger girl.

So that and the low cloud had me almost turning back about 15 minutes from the summit. In fact I actually told Hamish that that's what we were going to do, but he persuaded me just to take it easy and crack on and, in hindsight, it was the right decision.

^{Hamish's first summit!}

It was a real emotional moment at the top and neither of us could contain our tears. The summit was almost completely deserted; visibility was about two metres and the wind was blasting us pretty hard. We had a tearful hug, a few photos and a failed video due to the wind, then set off on the descent.

I'm not sure how many times I've been there - maybe six or seven? It was my first time with no visibility though and that was a real shame for Hamish.

The views from the summit really need to be experienced in person as photos just don't quite cover it. Plus the feeling of achievement of having reached the summit make it an incredible experience. Remarkably though Hamish was so overwhelmed with his achievement that he really didn't have the capacity to feel let down at all. It was really quite something for me to witness. I was disappointed for him, but he wasn't at all.

Descent

We hadn't gone down very far when the wind whipped the cloud off to the east and the majesty and scale of the scenery opened up right in front of us, so we did get to enjoy it after all! It wasn't quite the same as the views from the summit, but that awe-inspiring sense of rock and nature and joy was still there in spades.

We stopped quite soon for another food break before getting into the proper descent.

By now we were both starting to feel the grind, but the clouds moving let the late afternoon sunlight through and the light was incredible. I got Hamish to tell me about Terraria, one of his favourite computer games and he talked non-stop for a good 90 minutes. That really took his mind off the grind and helped the time to pass as I stopped here and there for photos and water breaks.

Each time we stopped for longer than 30 seconds, Clover lay straight down to rest. It was rather a foolish decision to have asked that journey of her and that's my only regret of the day. Lesson learned.

^{Clover, our 9-year-old Basset}

We got back to the car 8 hours after we started, tired, sore, but with that feeling that only comes after having climbed a mountain.

Final Thoughts

As I write this two days later, I'm still a bit sore, as is Clover, but Hamish is absolutely fine. He said something on the way down that will stay with me I think, something like he'll never have to go another day without having climbed Goatfell. I think he's harboured a desire to climb it since his sister did and I know he's incredibly proud to have done it. I know it's something he'll always remember, his first mountain, so for me to have been with him is so special for me.

And guess what we did yesterday? Yep, spent a couple of hours playing Terraria!

Hope you like the photos. Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks to @juliank and @photocontests for running this!

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