After a day spent working in the woods then expedition planning with a Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award team, I set off into the mountains after dark. As part of the assessment process to become a Mountain Leader in the UK, you have to be able to navigate in both poor weather and the dark. A friend of mine who has an assessment coming up soon asked if I’d head out with him and offer some tips and advice. It was raining hard and rather cold. Perfect conditions for a bit of practice!
I was quite happy to help and seeing how I have a Rab waterproof jacket that I’m currently testing, a double win was achieved. The jacket is made of ‘Proflex’ material which is very soft and flexible. I had my doubts about its waterproof-ness, but it passes the test! I remained bone dry! And with the Rab ‘Guide Gloves’ my hands stayed warm and dry - especially when the rain turned to hail!
There was plenty of pacing, walking on bearings and looking for contour features. It’s actually quite absorbing, navigating in the dark and the time flew by as we made a zig zagging route between tiny features on he hillside above Rachub. Time spent practicing this skill in such conditions is seldom wasted. It was a good refresher for me as well as good practice for the budding ‘ML’.
Arriving back at The Cottage at around 22:30, we were delighted to find a freshly baked loaf of bread and set about devouring it with mugs of hot tea, by the glowing embers of the fire. A full day!
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