Ben Vrackie. 27th October 2012

Ben Vrackie. 27/10/2012 (Photo: A J Thorley)

It was good to receive an e-mail from friends asking if I was able to for a walk and to help them practice newly learnt skills as both Senga & Caya have recently completed their Summer Mountain Leader training. I wasted no time in accepting their invitation and asked if it was ok to invite my friend Iain along. With all the arrangements made we met the following day.

Caya & Senga practising their movement on steep ground, Ben Vrackie. 27/10/2012 (Photo: A J Thorley)

Vicks kindly agreed to drop me off at Stirling services so that I could meet Iain and continue north from Stirling to Pitlochry (NN940583) where we met Senga & Caya. We all met in the car park of the Co-Op before making the short drive to the Moulin (NN944598) car park and the start of our walk for the day. It was a cold morning, we wasted no time getting ready and soon we were off.

Beinn a' Ghlo from the summit of Ben Vrackie. 27/10/2012 (Photo: A J Thorley)

The approach to Ben Vrackie is very straight forward from the Moulin car park follow the well made track onto a well made foot path and continue on this foot path in a northerly direction and Ben Vrackie will soon come into view. To our surprise on this visit to Ben Vrackie winter had arrived and the whole of the mountain was covered in a thin layer snow. We stopped on the way to measure the small man made reservoir (NN947625) by using a technique called pacing.

Iain, Caya, Senga & Jasper at the summit of Ben Vrackie. 27/12/2012 (Photo: A J Thorley)

From the small reservoir we then ignored the foot path and made our own route up the steep ground on the southern slopes of Ben Vrackie. 1st starting on steep grassy slopes and then onto a boulder field which was great fun. At the top of the large boulder field we then continued to ascend steep heathery ground until progress was blocked by a series of diagonal shelves that proved to be too difficult for Jasper to over come. Iain stepped in and traversed around the difficulties taking Jasper to safety and I continued up the awkward ramps with Senga & Caya. We soon over came the difficulties with out incident, reached the summit of Ben Vrackie (NN951632) where we joined Iain & Jasper for lunch and to admire the snowy views north.

Senga & Caya practising their summer ML rope work under the watchful eye of Iain, Bren Vrackie. 27/10/2012 

(Photo: A J Thorley)

On our descent we left the foot path again and practised micro navigation using small features in the contour lines of the map to navigate by. Again this proved to be great fun and soon we were all in the swing of navigating by contour lines again. Eventually we descended to a small knoll marked on the map as Meall na h-Aodainn Moire (NN942622) where Senga & Caya practised their security on steep ground rope work with Iain and myself demonstrating some new techniques to them both to practise the next time they get the chance.

Jasper, Ben Vrackie. 27/10/2012 (Photo: A J Thorley)

As always when out having fun on the hills time had run away from us all and it was getting late. So we decided to return to the cars having had a thoroughly great day on the hill practising new skills and learning more skills to practice in the future. Thanks Senga, Caya & Iain, it was great day out.