#west linton

For some crazy reason, I had agreed to sign up for my Summer Mountain Leader Award assessment. A colleaugue at work, James, had signed up for an assessment that was one member short, so I stepped up. The only thing was; the assessment was less than 2 weeks away! I wasn't sure if I was ready for it, as I had only just done the SML training in April this year, but I was certainly going to give it my best shot. I had been out in the hills a fair amount recently but it had been a long time since I had done any night navigation so I thought it was best to brush up on this again. I wanted to wait until the weather was bad before going out to practice; my thinking was that if I could cope with it in the worst conditions, then I should be able to cope with any conditions when it came to the real thing. It just so happened that Saturday was a real dog of a day and the wind and rain worsened as the evening drew in - perfect. I wanted to go somewhere that was completely unfamiliar to me but I didn't want to drive too far either. I decided to head towards West Linton and up the road towards Baddinsgill. I parked just before the entrance to the farm and geared up in the comfort of the car. The wind was now howling and the rain was lashing down - I must be mad; going out in this on a Saturday night. But it would be worth it, I told myself. After layering up I pulled on my hat and turned on my head-torch, then I opened the door and stepped out into the night. I headed back along the road before turning West into Dipper Wood and got a bit of shelter from the wind and the rain. It really was an awful night, but that seemed to simply spur me on. I had soon exited Glen Ely and was clear of the last of the trees and out onto the open hillside. It was pitch black and I only had the strong beam of my trusty Petzl Myo RXP for company. By now, I was already quite wet, so I wasn't hanging around: trying to move as quickly as possible up the grassy slope without loosing count of my paces. I wanted to practice my pacing and timings, as well as my general navigation - I knew that all of these would come under scrutiny on the assessment. I was soon at the top of Byrehope Mount where there was absolutely no shelter from the elements! Not wishing to hang around here, I headed on, into the wind, and followed the features and the fence to the summit of Craigengar. Now damp and quite chilly, I decided that was enough for tonight so I made my way back down to the farm, using the features of the land to find my way. I have to say, I was rather pleased to get home and to get warm and dry again. But I was very pleased with how the evening had gone. I hadn't forgotten how to navigate in the dark and my pacing and timing were pretty much bang on so this gave me confidence, for sure.