These events are like the mini mountain marathons that go on all over the place these days. This one was up on Aitken Skyline above Winlatter Forest. TF had graced us with her presence taking part in the medium distance, which in straight line legs was advertised at 12km I did the Long at 16, which on completion turned out to be closer to 21km. Both of us i believe came last of the completes in our respective classes. The rough navigation was relatively easy with a good range of sheep trods and paths to choose from but my fine navigation let me down on 50% of my controls, which I blame entirely on the stunning clear views we had in all directions.
2. Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon, Deepdale 12 & 13 -07-14
For this event I teamed up with my more recent OMM partner, who having only done a few events is really taking to these two day events. The start had us trekking up Deepdale from Patterdale before meandering around the east side of the Helvellyn massive in hideously hot and humid weather. I think I drank close to 3 litres of local stream water that day. Any way the course took us over the spine on to the west side for a lot of contouring below Helvellyn working our way south to the overnight camp. For me the overnight camp is one of the highlights of these event weekends with stories of woe, navigational foul-ups and painful contouring supported by a ton of self effacing good humour amongst fellow competitors. The early evening rain didn't dampen the spirits at all as we eventually bedded down for a very warm night under canvas, well polyester.
Day 2 saw us all slogging up the west side of Helvellyn for the return journey. Our class saw a shortened return of the previous day, which was a little disappointing in its lack of imagination. It still proved to be enough of a physical challenge for me. We travelled some interesting areas I have never trod before as well as some very familiar ones as well. Our class had a 20km( straight-line route with 1600m of climb on day 1 which took us well over 7 hours but day 2 was much shorter at 13km and about 1100m of climb. Actual distance and climb was much higher as usual.
Still all in all a grand weekend out with some familiar faces.
3. Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon round 2 of 3, Blencathra massive 19-07-2014
These events are a series of 4 hour score events where the competitors are tasked with getting as many points in the limited time by visiting as many controls as they can choosing their own route. Lateness is penalised on a rising scale to encourage people to finish on time. As I have said many times before I feel this type of event is the purest form of orienteering in that you choose what route suits your own skill base best. In my case climbing and descending is to be kept to a minimum. So it was that I took a long circular route in an anticlockwise direction from the start. It was n't the best terrain but I was blessed with the odd sheep trod now and again to open my legs for a bit of a run. I did find it soul destroying watching long legged youthful types hover effortlessly over the heather whilst i stumbled and fell.
A momentary lapse of concentration with map and compass in pocket thinking I was heading for one particular hill only to find that I was heading in the opposite direction! I paid the penalty for this moment of cockiness by not having time to collect the control before the last hill and being 7 minutes late dropping me down the rankings by at least 15 places! On this occasion I bowed to TF's better route management who beat me by 2 points. The challenge is on for the Capricorn at the end of August - the gauntlet has been thrown down!
So far a brilliant summer of Long'O's with the Capricorn, RAB and OMM still to come - it doesn't get much better than that. Sorry this blog won't accept my map pdf's of the event maps.
KLM 22-07-14
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