Nettle and I were out on the Cobbler today. We did the classic traverse of up the South-East Ridge of the South Peak; downclimbing the start of Original Route then abseiling to the col; up The Arete to the summit of the Centre Peak and then descending by reversing Doorway Route. For good measure we also wandered up to the top of North Peak to complete the traverse. This provided a great day out although the second pitch of The Arete felt quite technical and pretty bold for the grade where you move up left across the slabby ground.
The Cobbler was in cloud for large parts of the day and there was snow, including graupel, for significant periods. There was a fresh easterly wind and although there isn’t a huge quantity of snow in this area there are pockets of hardish windslab sitting on top of older soft snow on lee slopes and small scale easy fractures and shears of this slab were observed.
The turf is very well frozen at crag height. The crags are well rimed and required a fair amount of clearing in places. Some ice is developing.
