Ben Gulabin and Creag nan Gabhair

Icarus II

My first thoughts this morning were along the lines of "will you still need me, will you still feed me" but the birthday messages, raspberries and wine in the fridge and a new mountain jacket all helped convince me. As a birthday treat, there are few things that beat a day on the hills and after a perusal of the weather charts I was determined to seek out some blue skies. This meant going to the northeast and I only had Corbetts left to do in this part of Scotland so it was a chance to make it an easy day.

The drive north through Perthshire was full of incidents and a diversion at Stanley meant that I had to use some minor roads to cross the Tay and get to Blairgowrie. The route was heaving with pheasants and I was surprised to avoid causing any road kill as they skipped out of the hedgerows like cuckoo clocks. A stoat was hunting at the roadside and buzzards were wheeling above. On the road to the Spittal of Glenshee, there were some patches of blue in the sky although it was still predominantly grey. Meanwhile, I was still debating which hills to climb and seeking the most likely patch of blue sky to aim for.  I decided upon Ben Gulabin which would give me at least a couple of options for another hill later in the day.

Ben Gulabin

Glas Tulaichean from Ben Gulabin

Glenshee from Ben Gulabin

Ben Gulabin              806m      

Time:                          46mins  to summit ,  1hr 18mins total

Ascent:                      460metres

Distance:                    6km

Ben Gulabin was a good choice of hill and there was a well-made track leading through the gap between Ben Gulapin and Creagan Bheithe to the north. I met a couple of photographers in heavily camouflaged jackets descending the hill carrying lenses so long that they that could have been digital Hubble telescopes.  They had been looking for mountain hares but with no success, this could have been because of the disturbance made by the fully occupied land rover that followed them down the track. I was glad to escape the motorised intrusive crowds on the hills, they make me cantankerous.  The final ascent of 200 metres to the summit was on a steep trail that eventually petered out as it reached the undulating convex summit.

The patches of blue sky were in the ascendency and crisp views of familiar hills opened up. The Cairnwell, probably the most wrecked of all Scotland's summits, was visible with its array of masts but far more imposing was Glas Tulaichean to the west. I sat and enjoyed the splendid landscapes of Glenshee, an area that I have become increasingly fond of during a score of visits.  The descent was quick and easy and I was soon back at the car. 

As there was no hurry I decided to stop at Glenshee to have a closer look at the statues of a couple in deck chairs that I had long admired by the ski facilities.  To my surprise and delight, they were of Wainwright and Betty, his wife.  They had been moved across the road to the bottom of the Tiger run since they were originally placed on the east of the car park. I thought that they looked better in their original location but I fully understand that Wainwright would not have wanted to be facing the Cairnwell.

Wainwright, my huckleberry friend

 Beware the ides of March - snow evidence of climate change 

Ascent of Creag nan Gabhair

Creag nan Gabhair looking north towards Ben Avon

Ben Avon and Paraglider

Finding the thermals

Lochnagar from Creag nan Gabhair

Clouds over An Socach

Matt Church in flight over Creag nan Gabhair

Creag nan Gabhair     834m     

Time:                         50mins to summit,    1hr  25mins total

Ascent:                      435metres

Distance:                   6Km

I parked by the unnamed burn that runs down between Creag nan Gabhair and the hill to the south. A paraglider was beginning his descent and I watched as he zig-zagged down the hill and landed close to where I was parked.  We had a chat about paragliding and he told me that Matt Church, a world-class pilot from Aberdeen, was about to launch from the summit and that he was capable of staying up for hours on the thermals. I made a start and found a path up the south side of the glen before crossing the burn and grappling through the heather and scree direct to the summit where I could see that Matt Church had already begun to circle the hill. I managed to disturb a couple of dozen pairs of grouse on the ascent, they squawk with all the musicality of a punk band, before I arrived on the summit to enjoy a spectacular show of paragliding.  

I felt privileged to be in a ringside seat on the summit cairn for a sporting event at which I was the only spectator. He flew to the sun in his Icarus mode and then swooped across to An Socach, returned to give me some close-up shots as he toyed and turned in the thermals above the summit plateau before flying off towards Ben Avon. It was mid-afternoon and warm, it was shirtsleeves and perfect blue skies in March.  The descent was only 35 minutes long including a walkout to the east soaking in the skyline views of Lochnagar.  I was down by 3:30pm and home by 5:30pm where a box of Thwaites' Wainwright beer had been delivered as a birthday treat to continue one of the themes of the day. As it said on the bottle, the beer was exquisitely lovely and so had been the day; the jostle with Scotland's Corbetts had provided the verve to tackle whatever comes next. 

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