Peak Raid 3 - Goyt Valley

Towards control 18

 Last year's PR3 at the Goyt Valley was cancelled due to tree disease. This year the organisers had the go-ahead, which meant a shorter journey for us. We'd arranged the Runfurther AGM to use the sailing club after the PR3, so a few RF members were around.

Our start time was 9:10. We set off from home around 7.30 after a quick cuppa and some toast. By the time we got to the sailing club I was getting painful stomach cramps - bread is always a bit hit and miss for me. Thankfully the cramps eased before the start, and we got going.

Last year we attempted to map out what we'd do in detail before setting off (I think I'd been reading the Kjellstrom orienteering book), and ended up with loads of time in hand. This time we decided to identify the first few controls and a rough route, then refine as we went.

The first control (5) was a doddle - on a fence between two arms of a wood, really easy to find. The second (16) gave us a bit more of a pause. It was at the foot of a crag as we climbed up the side of the wood. When the path started to flatten out I got a bit nervous about ending up at the top of an unclimbable crag, and took us a long way down hill. Almost as soon as we'd lost about 30m of height we spotted the crag, 30m above us directly on the path. So we had to slog back up through the bracken, losing a few minutes at the very beginning.

Control 3 of the day (15) was the other side of the plantation. The map suggested there was a clear firebreak all the way through that we could follow, but we struggled to find it. We ended up running round the top of the woods (as did lots of others), finding the control easily once we reached the right location. The firebreak was very visible on this side.

Next up was another control (12) at the top of the woods, on the same contour. We found a few trods as we went, but did a lot of tussock hopping. We arrived ahead of another team who'd climbed up to the path higher up.

Next was a crag the other side of Shining Tor (19). We debated a control (9) well down the other side, but it looked like a dead end, a lot of climb back up for a single control. Instead we headed down to the end of the res to pick up a control on a stream crossing (2), getting (13) on the way. I'd suggested (17) further up the same reentrant, which we later thought might have been ok, but we opted instead to head for the control in the ruin on the hill top (18).

From there we went cross country to the trig point, then down the hill to a quick side excursion for a control on a ruined wall(4) and one in a dip by the old railway (14). By this time we felt like we needed to be getting back, so just took in a last control overlooking the woods above the finish (3) and back in with 5 mins to spare.

The sailing club was busy and noisy, so we picked up our bags and headed back to the van to get changed, then returned for the Runfurther AGM.

Torches torches torches torches

 I'm a lifelong torch nerd. I don't collect them and keep them in glass cases, I just like torches and I'm always on the lookout for something that will work better for me. At last count I had something like twenty five torches around the house. Training in the winter pretty much requires a lot of night running, and through the night ultras add to that.

Silva, Petzl, ZL H53, Olight, ZL H600

My first running torch was a Petzl Myo XP in about 2009. On fresh batteries (3x AA, alkaline only - no rechargeables) the output on high was 85ln, and it tapered off over time until I started falling over things and put fresh batteries in.

Petzl Nao2 (575ln model)

In about 2014 I splashed out with christmas money on a Petzl Nao 575 - at the time the best thing going. It's still pretty good, it's the most comfortable light to wear that I own, with excellent light spread. I've replaced the battery (with a higher capacity one that because of the way the electronics works probably won't be that much of a benefit). The reactive lighting is nice for night map reading, and probably adds quite a bit to the battery life. The thing I dislike the most about it is simply the spare battery setup - Petzl charge a lot of money for a spare battery module, when in fact at it's heart it's just an 18650. If they'd designed it to take a simple 18650 and put the extra circuitry in the battery case instead of the battery module it would be near perfect. Even if they used consistent batteries between iterations it would help - newer batteries are plug incompatible with older lights. Newer models have never addressed this limitation, which seems driven by exploitative marketing on the part of Petzl. There are other design flaws in the battery handling, like the fact that replacing the original module with a higher capacity has, for design reasons, no impact.

Zebralight H600f

I've experimented with a few other torches more recently in the search for a 'one true light'. The Zebralight H600fw is my favourite general purpose light. Unfortunately the head strap is uncomfortable, and the user interface is so complex that I've often ended up struggling right through the night with low light levels only to discover I had loads of power in reserve.

Recently I've had an LED Lenser Neo10r. It's served me through a couple of night races, including the TP100. It's comfortable enough and has a reasonable light spread, although not a patch on the Petzl. The battery is unfortunately a customised 18650 a bit like the Petzl - a massive fail on the part of LED Lenser and one that would have been a deal breaker if I'd known up front. The strap fits OK on my big head, especially if I wear a hat under it. It comes loose when Claire wears it though. The focus ring doesn't seem that useful. It provides good light with a reasonable spread and a tint that's slightly cool for my taste, the UI is nice and simple (high, medium, low) and the battery life is excellent. I used it on the TP100 and it provided good strong light right through the night.

Silva Cross Trail 5R

My latest and current favourite is a Silva Cross Trail 5R. I bought it cheap on an OMM competitors discount. It has light quality and spread roughly equal to the Petzl, good spare battery support (including a whole range of [rather pricey] different capacity backup batteries). The battery it ships with is a fairly low capacity 2000mAh, which doesn't last as long as I'd need for a through the night race except at the height of summer. Interface is similar to the Lenser: H/M/L, and hold to switch off (a very useful feature, the Petzl annoys me that it has to be switched all the way off to get from low to high).

The latest sponsor for Runfurther.com is Moonlight. They make a range of high powered headlamps that look very tempting indeed. Lightweight, strongly built, powerful and powered by an off the shelf 21700 battery. Sadly I'm nowhere near a good enough runner to be in the running for one as a prize, but I might get chance to have a look at one and if it's as good as they look I might get tempted later in the year.

Reasonable quality running lights are not cheap - the market leaders are all round about 130 quid (although Petzl peaked at about 180 a year or two back). For a light to be comfortable it needs to be well balanced and light, which means separating the battery pack and emitter (introducing cables into the mix) and using lightweight materials (which can feel a bit flimsy). The Zebralight is famously bombproof, but not ideal as a running light.

Since I do a lot of solo training at night, I need a good running light. For safety I also carry a high quality but less comfortable general purpose light like the Zebralight (or it's single AA sibling the H53)
or a Skilhunt H04 mini as a backup. That way I have the bombproof light in case things go wrong, and the comfort of a running specific light.

I also often carry an Olight i3e as a backup. These are tiny lights that run off a single AAA (I use an eneloop) and provide an hours light - enough to get down off the moor at a pinch).

Zebralight H52 & Olight i3e

On the basis of what I've used so far my current recommendation would be the Silva Cross trail. It has good light spread, is good off the shelf value, and has extremely flexible battery and accessory options. It's also very comfortable. I've had some dealings with Silva UK and they're really quick and responsive to customers. On the negative side, the batteries are quite expensive and proprietary.  The Moonlight does look like it might be the best of all worlds, but until I can justify the expense of getting my hands on one it's difficult to say.

The market leader is of course Petzl, but I'd hesitate to recommend them. Mine has been a fantastic piece of kit but the spindly cable/cord designs Petzl favour are a pain to carry in a pocket. They seem to bring out a new model every five minutes, don't provide support for older models, and seem to favour obsolescence to drive sales.

Half(ish) the Harvey Howgill Tops

With Claire away doing the OMM, I had a weekend with no plans. Original plan was to do the Dales Top Ten, but it's a long arse way and something that long in late October with no backup probably wasn't going to be wise. Especially the OMM weekend, notoriously a weekend for piss poor weather.

In the end, I settled for a recce around as much of the HHT as I got done. I haven't been in the Howgills for over ten years, and don't know the area that well. I didn't want to be navigating on a completely unfamiliar route in the dark, so I set out with a fairly vague plan.

I'd printed the area out on 5 sheets of A4 and marked all the tops on (in order).

Leaving the Cross Keys at about 8.30am (After a poor night's sleep in the van I struggled to get moving) I headed in the general direction of Wandale. Obstacle number one is the river crossing before climbing to Narthwaite. It was only just over ankle deep and not that cold. Then up to Narthwaite, and the first wrong turn of the day. Instead of climbing up to the path above the wall I took the farm track that leads to Mountain View. I didn't realise this until Mountain View was coming into sight, and I realised Bern Spence and I had come that way off the hill 14 years ago in some particularly evil weather.

I passed through some gates and followed a bearing to the top of Wandale, finding a clear trod from the south as I neared the summit, which would probably have brought me up from Narthwaite if I'd gone the right way.

I came down Wandale to the east, to pick up the path to Adamthwaite. Reaching the farm it took me a few minutes to find the path - it's just beyond the first barn and not waymarked, although the gates across the field are. Then climbing through some slop and handrailing a series of walls out onto the fell.

Crossing onto access land I headed NE directly up Harter Fell. At this stage the weather was still fairly friendly and I was quite warm with 2 base layers and a light waterproof. From Harter I headed down the clear trod towards the road crossing and Knott. Crossing the road by a layby I cut across to reach a stream crossing, then followed a trod 50m to the right before cutting straight for the top. It was a short, fairly easy climb and I headed off towards Knoutberry. Climbing Knoutberry I encountered a group in their 20s who had been dropped off and were heading for Sedbergh. I bumped into them several times as they walked through the worsening weather and I scuttled off on strange errands to side summits.

On Green Bell I branched off to Grere Fell, joining the walkers again on the walk over Stockless. It was absolutely pissing down by this point and blowing a cold wind, so I stopped to eat and put on waterproof trousers. The walking group continued to the summit of Randy Gill while I branched off to Hooksey. I passed them again between Randy Gill and Kensgriff, then lost track of them. Yarlside was a steep climb with little in the way of visible path. Once I reached the top I was in thick clag. Thankfully the Howgills are easy nav, at least if you're looking for summits. If you've run out of climb, you're on the summit, no false summits here. As I started to climb I apologised to a passing walker for spoiling his photo with my nasty garish coat...

From Yarlside I dropped down into Bowderdale. Getting below the cloud I had a lovely view of the valley, much like Wainwrights pencil drawing in "Walks on the Howgill Fells". I crossed the river near a tent pitched at the join with Hazel Gill, refilled my water bottle from Hazel Gill itself then started up Hazel Gill Knott.

The top of Hazel Gill was windy, very wet and very very cold. I made sure I reached the summit then started down the ridge to West Fell. That took a while, and took it's toll on my sense of humour. My feet were cold and I was very wet.

At West Fell I struggled to see anywhere sensible to descend on very steep grass in the pouring rain. I'd taken advantage of a break in the rain to swap my maps and been startled by the extent of the north western leg. In this weather and on my own, I decided cowardice was the better part of valour and headed south again.

The weather eased a bit on the Calf, although it was still very cold. I rearranged maps again, and identified a candidate route: Bram Rigg; Calders; Arant Haw; Sickers; Knott; then back to the van. On this side of the range it was almost nice, although thick cloud and still quite cold it wasn't actually pissing down or unpleasantly windy. I didn't know what the run in from Knott would be like though, so stuck to the plan.

Bram Rigg is pretty non-descript. Calders is a cairn and a sharp turn in the path. Arant Haw was well away from the main path, and I just kept climbing in the clag. Eventually I found the cairn, took a bearing for Sickers Fell and headed downhill. As I reached about 500m I dropped out of the cloud, and followed a gill down for an easy climb up Sickers.

Sickers to Knott was a fairly clear trod, then the trod went off to the south. I wanted to head north to the Cross Keys, so I took a bearing to join the wall at the bottom of access land.

The descent to the wall was through thick bracken, and fairly tough going. Followed by another ascent in thick bracken**. After that I found a trod along the wall, which took me to the Pennine Journey LDP and all the way back to the Cross Keys.

If I'd known I was going to have 90 minutes plus of daylight left I might have picked up a few more of the southern tops. As it was I did 19? - about 35km and 2300m of ascent, and still felt like I could have comfortably continued. An excellent day out with some slightly grim weather periods, and a good reintroduction to the Howgills after a long time away.

**Claire says there are a couple of clear paths here for the Sedbergh fell race, so I need to recce a better route.

Langdale Horseshoe - Toddy Carnage in the Lakes

 Claire had the Langdale on her list this year because it was an English Champs race. Tod vet ladies usually do well in the FRA teams so champs races are often on the list. As for me, as an MV50 I'm up against some of fell running's best and fastest, so any race is just a day out. But I'm always up for a day out on the mountains, so we both signed up.

We drove up on the day - Langdale is easy to get to from the south although temporary lights near Ambleside were a potential issue. We set off extra early and as a result were..extra early. We had flasks of tea so just settled in to enjoy the light rain on the windscreen.

As the start time approached we walked across to the farm for the race briefing. ONE PIE EACH. Then we were off.

With 425 people all jostling for position down the narrow track it was a bit chaotic. Claire quickly disappeared ahead, bouncing in and out of the crowd. I lumbered along in the mid pack like a moose, all legs, arms and feet. Bob Halstead crashed to the ground in front of me and narrowly avoided getting trampled. A woman dropped her map and in trying to return it I almost caused a pile up.

Finally we got to the turning and headed uphill. It was a little less chaotic here but I was still hemmed in on all sides and unable to maintain a steady pace. I'd already figured out that the rocks were badly slippy.

Passing to the right of Stickle Tarn I dodged some slippy looking stepping stones by running into the mud to one side... except that it turned out to be a metre deep. I came down hard on my ribs and left ankle (which are still painful 3 weeks later), but just kept going. On up to Thunacar Knott, where I passed Rebecca & Mel.

All was going reasonably well at Esk Hause. I turned onto the return below Esk Pike which turned into a kilometre of complete frustration. One guy kept overtaking me then stopping dead right in front. The path was rammed with people and really hard work (described on the Harvey map as 'horrid' I believe).

Once past and onto Bowfell I climbed hard and made reasonable time. Coming back off Bowfell I was very slow and tentative. I didn't feel safe in the Inov8 x-talons and was starting to wish I'd worn Freet Feldoms after all.

At 3 Tarns (I think) there was a group of Tod Harriers including Phil & Jane L who were just along to cheer us on which gave me a boost.

Then on towards Crinkle Crags. At no time was the navigation a concern - there were people around all the time and clear visibility. The wind was cold and the odd rain squall made it colder, but generally it was pretty good.

Down off Crinkle Crags and I just took the obvious path. To the Bad Step. Arse. This must have lost me 5 minutes as the woman in front bailed out and backtracked onto the other path. Eventually I managed to get down and crack on.

Pike of Blisco came and went, and I still hadn't caught Claire. The further I got without catching her the more pleased I was - she was having a good run. On a good day she's quite a bit quicker than me on this sort of terrain so the fact that she'd never even been in sight was promising.

Finally I lolloped down past the cattle grid, passing Bob (again - he must have had a few good lines to get that far ahead of me without me noticing) and a few others in the last few hundred metres.

I arrived at the finish to find Mandy Goth just in front of me. She'd been timed out by just a couple of minutes. That was a real shame - Mandy isn't particularly quick but she's extremely consistent, she'd have finished way in front of some of the final finishers. But as a very frequent marshal I know the timeout rules are there for all of us - as a marshall I've been out on the hill before now searching for missing runners who were on track, just very slow.

On the finish line we stood and waited for Mel and Rebecca to come in. Claire had finished ten minutes ahead of me, then Dave Collins turned up heavily bandaged, having dropped out after headbutting Bowfell. It looked worse than it was, but it did look pretty grim. Mel and Rebecca showed up a bit later, having lost a bit of time when Dave fell.

So Tod Harriers managed to pick up quite a few bumps and scrapes. A lot of others did too - there was a lot of blood on the finish line, some of it coming from heads. It was a good race though, although I don't think I'd do it as a champs race again, the 400 person start was just too much.

Top pies. Really, really good pies.

Mourne 2 Day Mountain Marathon - NI and Eire trip 22

Moire O'Sullivan's book "Mud Sweat and Tears" was lent to me by a fell running friend about ten years ago. It's an excellent read, and it put the Mourne 2 Day on my wish list (along with the Rogaine 24 - maybe next year).

We decided a while ago during the worst of the post Brexit passport mayhem not to bother leaving the British Isles this year. Both of us have been wanting to go back to France or Germany for a while but this year has been a political car crash so we took the easier option and planned our summer (!) holiday to coincide with the Mourne.

We were on the mid afternoon Stena crossing from Holyhead to Dublin, to allow us to spend some time in Eire during the holiday and have a fairly easy journey back. That meant a couple of hours drive from Dublin up to Newcastle on the friday, which should have been easy. Leaving the ferry port there were big signs saying "M50 TOLL", which I hadn't anticipated. With no cash in euros in the van I veered off at the last minute following the signs "non-toll traffic". DO NOT DO THIS! It takes you into Dublin proper, then abandons you. Dublin is one of the worst sign-posted cities I've ever driven in. Add to that the hundreds of people in stetsons wandering around the streets on their way to a Garth Brooks concert, and we found ourselves stuck for about an hour.

Once the traffic started to move, we started trying to find our way out of the city. The lack of signage meant we had to work on the basis of heading north west (by the direction of the setting sun since all four of the compasses we were carrying were in the MM kit in the back of the van) until we hit the motorway. As it turns out, you can pay the toll online within 24 hours, which would have saved us about 45 minutes.

Once we got onto the motorway the journey up to Newcastle was a doddle. Irish motorways are quiet and smooth. Arriving at the event centre I popped into the registration building to get some advice on where to park, and we settled down with some dinner and wine.

Vital kit prep

A fairly civilised start in the morning with coffee and breakfast. Mick and Jack Cooper were parked on site as well, and we had a quick chat while we were sorting kit. We got registered, got on the bus and got out to our starting point at the car park near Spelga Dam.

We got going bang on our start time. Later starters weren't so lucky and ended up with a bit of a wait, which must have been cold - there was a chilly breeze up there. We grabbed a list of controls and settled down to mark up our maps. Claire and I marked up independently then compared, which helps us catch any mistakes. We were starting with a cluster of 5 in a rough circle around Pigeon Rock Mountain and Slievemoughanmore, and after deciding whether to go clockwise or anti, we set off up the slope to our first control. It was a nice simple one on a wall bend and we dibbed and took a bearing off towards our next in a stream junction about a km away between Cock Mountain and Wee Slievemoughan. That too was an easy find, and we took a line around the contour before dropping to the valley bottom and climbing up to the south summit of Tornamrock for our next control. Excellent visibility made things fairly simple, and we were moving at a reasonable pace. The terrain in the Mourne is tussocky and hard going though, so we weren't really able to run at any speed.

That control was marshalled. Only one team member has an SI card on the Mourne, but random controls are marshalled to ensure both team members are together and carrying their packs.

On up a stream to Windy Gap, where walkers and other competitors were criss crossing the hill. From here we pretty much followed a direct bearing across the valley and up to a crag, then down the other side onto the next control under a boulder at the bottom of Pigeon Rock Crags. It wasn't as easy to find as the previous ones, but a large reentrant confirmed we were on the right bearing and as we dropped down we could see other competitors dibbing and moving on. Another runner made a comment at this point about needing an altimeter, which reminded me to set mine up on my watch at mid camp that evening.

The next control was further along Pigeon Rock Crag towards the start point, drawing us back to a control at the car park before the start of the linear section at a pond on the plateau south of the summit of Slieve Muck. We climbed rather higher than we needed, with hindsight it would have been better to contour round once we reached 600m, but I didn't make as much use of my altimeter as I should have throughout the weekend.

Back north from Slieve Muck, our next control was a long long leg at the south corner of Ben Crom res. First job was to get through the Mourne Wall which stood between us and progress. We dropped sharply alongside the wall until we found a stile, then took a combination of bearing and contour round to the top of Silent Valley res. Had we known about the good path from Ben Crom river to the south west corner of the res that would have changed our route, but it's not marked on the current Harvey.

The nose at the north end of Silent Valley res is awful. Deep heather, enormous tussocks and hidden rocks. At one point I stepped in a hole and dropped up to my groin in gorse, which elicited a lot of swearing. Claire was faring even worse - at 12" shorter than me, she was having to climb up and over tussocks that I could just straddle. Finally we made it to the road and ran fairly briskly up the hill to the control.

A marshal was arriving at the control as we dibbed. He offered us the option of the gully direct to the top of Slieve Binnian north tor but we opted for the clear path to the col below Buzzards Roost. From there we followed a trod towards Binnian Loch, then on towards the Mourne Wall. We hit the wall rather lower than we intended and, after a few minutes of puzzling over the map and the configuration of walls, we climbed up to the stile just under the summit tor. The next control was visible almost from the top - the ruins of a quarry hut some way below, although we didn't identify it for sure until we were about 200m away. Once we'd dibbed that we planned our leg to the next control. This was to be the worst mistake of the weekend.

Contouring round the south slope of Binnian, then through the quarry remnants at the base we reached the stile at the base of Wee Binnian. Both of us had made the same mistake - marking the grid ref given instead of the feature we were looking for. The datum point of the grid ref was on the east side of the wall. The control list quite clearly stated that the control was on the west side of the wall. Nevertheless, we didn't look at the control list, contoured round the east side of Wee Binnian and ended up on the wrong side of the Mourne Wall after a much longer than needed diversion. Finding a good solid spot we hopped over the wall and climbed back up to dib the control, then ran down into mid camp.

Mid camp was at the base of Silent Valley reservoir dam. Facilities were more generous than we expected, Jack disappeared soon after we arrived and returned with a scone from a vending van. Apparently there were also showers somewhere around. We didn't bother and just pitched camp, then sat around chatting.

A substantial meal of Tentmeals Italian couscous, along with cheese, chocolate and a bottle of cab sav decanted into a titanium flask, and we slept pretty well (well, I did at least). The start in the morning was 'first come, first served', and we picked up our control list at about 8.30, when most competitors were already well away.

We had a difficult time marking up the maps. A couple of nearby teams were marking up theirs by one member reading out the gridrefs in a loud voice, while the other plotted them. This is extremely distracting and resulted in a couple of screwed up plottings on our maps. In future for linears we'll do something different, or at least get well out of the camp before plotting.

The first control was flagged from the camp, then the next was a simple on at a stile in the Mourne Wall. The next two were 'any order' - two ponds lost in reeds on the river bed. We found them both fairly easily, then set off up the side of Slieve Muck for the next, tucked up under the base of the crag. Below us we could see another team struggling to find the pond controls, and seeming to give up and walk off.

From the crag under the plateau we once again needed to cross the wall, this time slipping through a gap left by a crag near the summit of Muck. The next control was a boulder under a gulley, straightforward to access. The next, at the base of the summit of Doan, was a straightforward traverse to the path up Carn Mountain, then round the north of Loch Shannagh and up Doan. The (marshalled) control was straightforward, and we worked out our next leg.

If we'd thought carefully, we might have realised from seeing runners coming down to Ben Crom dam from the west the previous day, that we could access the path east of the res that way. We didn't make that connection though, and took a rough ground traverse to the west of Ben Crom. We made pretty good time nonetheless, maybe 5 minutes more than another team who took the smoother route. A steep climb to the col south of Slieve Beg, and we were nearing the end of the control list.

The next control was where the Brandy Pad crosses the wall at Bog of Donard. The route was obvious - up over Slieve Beg, under the Castles on the Brandy Pad and up to the stile. We passed others coming back towards us, and at the stile we realised (courtesy of Claire having done a few fell races here) that the ground through Bog of Donard to the forest was going to be much harder and slower than passing over the col between Donard and Commadargh. So back along the Brandy Pad we went.

Over the stile at the col, down the rocky tourist path to Newcastle forest, then some undulating paths through the forest to get the last 3 controls and back into the college grounds for the finish.

The Mourne 2 Day is a fantastic event, probably the toughest mountain marathon I've done just because of the difficult terrain. Really well organised though, very friendly and some beautiful scenery. We ended up returning to the Mourne for another couple of days later in our holiday.

Lessons learned

• If there is a fragmented path shown on the Harvey, it probably pretty much goes where it looks like. If not, at least a section of path speeds things up a bit compared with tussock
• That said, we can do 25km on tussock in a day quite comfortably, if slowly.
• My UD Fastpack 20 is not really big enough for a 2 day MM
• We should come back and do the Seven Sevens race
• Always look for faster terrain as well as direct routes and contour routes
• READ THE CONTROL DESCRIPTIONS!

Kit

On

• OMM Flash tights 1.0 (too warm, should have taken shorts or 3/4)
• Montane wind proof
• Awdis long sleeved base layer
• Drymax thin socks
• Freet Felden shoes
• Montane Coda cap

Carried (incl some shared/carried by Claire)

• UD Fastpack 20
• Terra Nova Laser Competition 2
• Alpkit ti stove
• 200gm gas cylinder
• 750ml ti pan
• 330ml ti mug
• Alpkit Numo mat
• Rab Neutrino down sleeping bag
• OMM Flash tights 1.0
• Isobaa merino long sleeved top
• Montane Primaloft Alpha top
• Primaloft buff
• Montane Prism hat 
• Buffalo mittens
• Ron Hill gloves
• Drymax thin socks
• 500ml soft bottle
• 500ml soft bottle with Salomon filter
• 2l platypus (rolled) with short tube and tap (for mid camp)
• Mourne map
• compass
• 2 * retractible chinagraph pencils
• Coros Apex Pro watch
• spare contact lenses
• phone
• OMM waterproof
• Evadict waterproof trousers
• 
  

Food

• 4 pitta pizzas
• Tentmeals
• malt loaf
• 100g cheese
• chocolate
• wine
• nuts

Bullock Smithy 2022

I originally said I wasn't sure I'd do the Bullock this year. I had a decent run last year, but I did find the terrain hard (I don't like tarmac much). Then Claire decided to do it as a qualifier for a potential hundred entry next year. Then I did this years hundred and learned how to use tarmac to my advantage. In the end I decided that the disadvantages (tarmac) were outweighed by the fun of a through the night event, and the wonderful atmosphere of the BS. Scouting events have a lot of the LDWA about them - although I mostly run, I enjoy the mixed walk/run events far more than the more competitive pure runs.

Looking back up the road to CP1

Unfortunately, on the way to/at the P39 we caught covid. We were both knocked on our backs for about ten days, followed by seven to ten days no-training interval. Claire was struggling with an apparent injury but I was able to ramp back up quickly, and she was worried about going to such a long distance without more time to prepare. In the end she decided to set out equipped to walk and see how it went. It went rather well, but we'll see about that later.

Saturday morning we were at registration with plenty of time to spare. We sat around drinking tea and wondering what it was going to be like. It was already getting pretty warm and humid, which was to be a problem later. Once the start arrived, we headed out of the field. We walked together for a hundred metres or so, then I got a move on.

Chatting with a big group from Poynton who were on the event for the first time, I worked my way through the crowd that had got ahead of me until I was settled into a pace towards Lymm. Everything was very familiar and I didn't need to check the route at all. CP1 came and went with just a water refill (although a full refill at the first CP meant I was drinking a lot more than normal). I caught Nick on the climb up to Chinley Churn and chatted briefly. At this point I was hoping to get close to Daz Graham's previous times and maybe get close to 12 hours.

Chinley Churn drinks point I filled up with water, grabbed a cheese pitta out of my bag, ate a few crisps and got going again. The food helped and I felt on top of things climbing up to Edale Cross, slowly gaining on a guy in blue just ahead. I made the mistake of eating a single jelly baby at the CP (and put the remainder in my pack zip pocket where they partially dissolved in sweat during the day...) and my mood started to drop as I descended to Edale. 

At Edale they informed me that I was 9th, resulting in some startled rude words and a rapid departure to maintain my position. Climbing up to Hollins Cross I encountered Dave Kelly, who I was to end up running with for much of the day.

Coming down the path from Hollins Cross I got my ankle caught in a knackered gate, giving me a bruise that niggled for the rest of the day. As usual I got into Castleton and was confused by the error in the GPX, but only lost a few seconds before remembering the route into the carpark. I sat down for a few minutes in the CP and drank a cup of tea, then took another with me as I chewed through a cheese and onion roll and climbed up the field from the Devil's Arse.

Dave was just ahead of me as I climbed, and I caught and passed him on the top, along with one or two others. I was making good time and kept a good pace up along the track towards Peak Forest.

At Peak Forest village the whole damn place had been plastered with signage for a completely different event, which lost me about 5 minutes of faffing about trying to work out where the Bullock CP was. I was quite irritable about that... Mick and Jack Cooper were on the Peveril 33 and completely nonplussed by me peering around corners and running back along the road. Dave came out of the CP just as I went in, and I filled up with water, ate some crisps and hopped it. The climb out of Peak Forest is fairly unpleasant - a busy road with no pavement, but most motorists were polite about it.

Over the crash barrier and up the hill, and the dubious stile that I've avoided in the past. I was certain of it this time, but took the familiar route along the track with Dave. We got chatting as we approached Wheston and followed the track down to Millers Dale. I decided to forgo the soup this time as it didn't agree with me last year, and ate another cheese pitta as I dropped down the path.

Out onto the main road, and a group on a Peak Running event (Peveril possibly) seemed quite concerned about my welfare. I think they thought I was going the wrong way. Dave caught me up as we reached the top of the track out of the valley, and we ran on together along the next section talking about food.

At Chelmorton I ate some more food and had a cup of tea. There was a runner not far ahead and another close behind and we got going quickly towards Earl Sterndale. The track after Chelmorton is a bit of a grind, but passed sooner than I remembered.

Entering Earl Sterndale CP we met Ian Crutchley, who was just in the process of retiring. I'd run with Ian last year (and it turned out Dave had been around some of the time too). The light was starting to fade but not badly. We guzzled down more tea and got going.

Coming down to the road after the moorland section I slipped on the wet grass. Again. Like last year. And 2019. No harm done though, and I kept going. We took the right route above the woods on the other side of the hill (Ian and I lost some time here last year) and headed down to Barking Dog farm. I worried a bit here that Claire might find this bit awkward in the dark, but as it turned out she found her way better than some others around her.

We stopped to put torches on and that gave me a boost, running quick over the rough ground to the beck then pushing the pace up to Brand Top. At Brand Top Dave had a hot dog while I drank a cup of tea and enquired about Claire. So much for 'walking the whole lot', she was probably less than an hour behind me at this point. This made me very happy - after a tough day at the P39 I was worried she'd hate the Bullock - she's an out and out fell runner and the Bullock is very trail. She was obviously making cracking progress.

The next bit of the route is still not very well stored in my mind. Down the tiny roads and then up a marked but largely untrodden path across some fields to a road crossing at a farm. Then across the road and up a track, meeting another road on the other side. Then more tiny roads climbing up and down,  then an uphill section past a well lit house, and left along a track to 3 Shires Head. Right at a bridge, then a stiff climb up a steep field to a set of steps and another road crossing. Finally, a short section of minor road then an awful rocky track down to the very enthusiastic and welcoming CP at Clough House Farm. Bells, cheers, lights, and a scout on a pogo stick met us here. I drank a cup of tea, had a short sit down then got on again along the road section towards Macc Forest.

Once we got off the lane to Macc Forest, we found the path under the edge of the trees all the way to the top. We missed it on the other side though and had to contend with the rocky path for a while. Then tarmac down to the main road, on past the old CP location at Walker Barn, and onto the lane down to Rainow. Lots of tarmac here, but that meant we were able to really crack on with some pace.

Night view from Macc Forest

A cup of tea at Rainow, and we discovered that there had been quite a few retirements and we were in 5th and 6th place. We were both a bit creaky leaving the hall, but got running OK once we were on the footpath to the next CP. At Whiteley Green we barely stopped, just a quick hello and on we went.

The last section of the Bullock is probably the least fun, at least if you follow the suggested route (which almost no one does). I flipped over my GPS from this years suggested route (to get me to Whiteley Green) to last years recorded route from my watch as we got onto the Middleway. Dave was visibly less tired than me at this point and had a good chance of getting under 13 hours, so I told him to get going and I settled in for the run-walk to the finish. At bridge 12 my GPS correctly took me down into Poynton, which was a great relief and speeded me right up. With nothing to look at but a cone of light and some overhanging branches the tiredness and aching becomes a bit too noticeable, getting off the Middleway really helps to distract the mind.

I wiggled successfully through Poynton. Most of it was pretty familiar from previous years, and I popped out onto the main road just before the big junction. From here it's less than a km and I pushed myself to keep the run going, arriving at the finish at 01:06. One minute quicker than last year. Dave had gained 8 minutes on me in the last few miles, arriving 2 minutes inside the 13 hour mark.

Once relieved of my tracker I sat on the hard wooden bench for a while until the shakes hit. They lasted about half an hour - longer than usual. After that I felt up to some food and wolfed down a veggie sausage and egg sandwich, then sat guzzling tea and flipping between the tracker and google location tracking to monitor Claire coming in. She was about 1.5 hours behind me in the end, and as I saw she was close by I walked out to meet her then we ran in together with Paul Bennett, who'd been running with her for several hours.

Claire fared slightly worse than me in the aftermath, with some severe nausea due to dehydration and lack of food. Eventually she managed some tea and toast, and we limped back to the van for some rest.

I enjoyed this years Bullock more than previous years, it just seemed to flow really well. The top ten finish helps of course. There were no really fast times this year, Rory Harris had dropped out of the Offas Dyke the previous weekend and wasn't running. The top few runners had very respectable times though. The number of retirees was huge. This was down to the heat, it was extremely hot and humid - conditions that don't bother me over much but really hammer a lot of people.

Kit

Plan A was to use the UD vest I bought on ebay recently. Unfortunately I couldn't fit all the mandatory kit plus the large amount of my own food I had to carry, so I fell back on my UD Fastpack 15. I nearly didn't buy that pack, and use it for almost everything I do now.

Worn

Awdis fluo green short sleeved base layer (maximising the hi viz!)

OMM Flash 0.5 shorts

drymax thin socks

Altra Superior shoes

Montane coda hat

Carried

UD Fastpack 15

Garmin 20x GPS.

Coros Apex Peak watch

LED Lenser Neo10r headlight

Zebralight H600fw backup light

UD 500ml body bottle + 2nd empty in pack

long sleeved Awdis fluo base layer

Columbia lightweight waterproof (the white one)

Buffs

Plastic bags (for crisps, litter etc)

Glasses (wore contact lenses, glasses for fall back)

Printed map

Compass

Evadict waterproof trousers 

Food

4 * cheese pittas (toasted pittas with mozzarella, oregano & Gouda

2 * cheese and onion pasties

1 * Seitan vegan chorizo (bit burpy)

1 * mini cheese (carried 4)

3 * mini malt loaf (didn't eat)

Pennine 39 2022 - a hot day for a 37 mile run

Another race I hadn't done before, although I'd done some running in the area a few years back. After work friday we packed up the van and headed up to Alston. We were staying at Hagg Bank caravan site. This turned out to be an interesting little site - 2 gravel parks. One by the road, one by the river. We opted for the river and got eaten alive every time we left the van. The shower block was absolutely outstanding though, and the parking was nice and level. Ideal for a transit stay.

We'd packed full kit earlier in the week apart from water and food. The mandatory kit for the P39 is rather... comprehensive. I'm pretty cautious but full length body cover plus full length waterproof cover, plus a primaloft, plus a survival bag seemed an awful lot in July with only one 900m top. Especially during an extreme heat weather event. A lot of people weren't carrying anything like full kit according to pre race discussion, and that was evident with some of the packs.

We carried everything anyway, because we both err on the side of caution. A surprise kit check with less than mandatory kit could result in a DQ.

Saturday morning we got up early. Another van was staying in the same area and was up early too. They were wearing running kit but headed off early enough for the 7am bus. I may have passed them later in the day. We had some breakfast and trundled off to Alston. Parking in the free car park on the Nenthead road we slathered ourselves in P20 sun cream. We spotted Andy Ellwood a couple of vehicles over and walked down to the start with him.

At this point my brain disengaged a bit and I didn't go register. Not sure why, I had it in my mind that we were supposed to register at Bowlees. The bus turned up and took us to Bowlees where I went and found Joe. Joe dealt with the problem placidly in spite of me being a bit argumentative for which I subsequently apologised, and recycled race numbers from a couple of no shows.

The start at Low Force was thoroughly low key, and off we went. I know this section from a couple of walking trips, and gradually overtook a large proportion of the pack between here and a farmhouse near Forest. Passing through a herd of extremely cute baby Galloways, chatting with Claire when she was nearby but gradually pulling ahead a little.

The rocky section below Cauldron Snout wasn't quite as gnarly as I remembered - possibly because the last time I ran here was in ice and snow. I got chatting with another runner who was nearby for almost the entire race, finishing just ahead of me. We chatted quite a bit during the course of the day.

Cauldron Snout was flowing pretty well and looked spectacular. I clambered up the side, took a few pictures and got onto the first of the two long tracks.

The gravel vehicle track from Cow Green skirts the edge of Warcop for most of the way to High Cup Nick. Red flags warned us not to stray from the path with the threat of flying ordnance rather than werewolves. Shame really, I'd almost rather deal with werewolves than run on that surface.

As I left the track with considerable relief I realised Karen was just ahead of me. I've been running a bit quicker this year while Karen has been doing an awful lot of sport climbing, and have caught her up more than once. Spoiler alert: I've still not beaten her to the finish.

I got ahead of Karen just at the top of High Cup Nick, took a couple of photos then absolutely caned it down into Dufton. At one point I was doing 5 minute kilometres, which was far too fast. I eased off on the way into the village, popped into the CP to fill my bottles and grab some crisps (saying hi to beardy Stu and another bearded chap from CVFR who was being appalled at the thought of being from Todmorden) and got going again.

This next section to the top of Knock Fell was really tough going. It's a long drawn out climb once you get past the foot of Dufton Pike and I took the opportunity to eat quite a bit. As I climbed I could feel myself getting too warm and slowed off a bit, then stopped at a stream to soak a buff and pour water on myself.

The top of Knock Fell was breezier, and the marshal there was probably getting a bit chilly. He informed me there was extra water next to his car on the radar road, and I got going across the top of the fell.

I half filled a bottle at the car - I had a full bottle and a filter anyway, so I could get by as long as I could find a stream (or even a bog if really necessary) whereas some of those behind me might be in more need. A very cheerful photographer was by the ATC beacon fence on Great Dun fell. It reminded me a bit of Snaefell summit, and of the time some friends cycled up from Dufton at easter in the snow. On to Little Dun Fell, then slowly up onto Cross Fell. I touched the trig then took a fast line down to the track to Greg's Hut. One of the volunteers at the hut filled my bottle and told me to crack on as I was currently 9th, which gave me something to chase. Unfortunately I didn't see the other volunteer, my former club mate and regular Craggrunner crew Louise.

The next six or seven miles were absolute purgatory.

I was feeling a bit wobbly so I ate some cheese pitta. Which sorted my mood, but made my stomach churn. The track to Garrigill off Cross Fell is an awful specimen - mile after mile of rocky vehicle path with nothing to relieve the monotony. Like running on the towpath only less interesting and with a worse surface.

At some point another runner passed me as if I was standing still. Then as I ran in to Garrigill Karen and my companion from earlier caught me up. I filled up with water, risked a couple of pieces of melon then we all got going.

Karen took a wrong turn at the bridge and we had to backtrack for 50m or so. But since I'd been following her 2021 track for the previous six hours I couldn't really grumble. We pushed each other along for the remaining miles on a very pretty riverside path, both trying to gain a little here and there and both struggling in the heat. Finally Karen got a sniff of the finish and took off like a scalded rabbit, finishing a minute or so ahead of me.

I sat still for about 20 minutes at the end. I was pretty dehydrated and wiped out, and also worried about Claire. Long sections of flat are not her thing and I wanted to find where she was. Unfortunately the location service we use hadn't updated in the mobile data weak area and I wasn't able to track her. I eventually moved inside for some soup, and Claire joined me exhausted and dehydrated about an hour later. That's a bigger lead than I'd normally have, but I'd had a particularly strong run (partly driven by rivalry with Karen) on terrain that I'm more used to. My final position was tenth in 7 hours 22 mins, which was a very nice surprise.

2 hours or so of tea drinking later I was rehydrated enough to limp back up to the van. Apart from some cramping on the Hartside road which meant a short stretching break, we had a reasonable journey back. Claire was struggling with dehydration well into the following day, which we spent loafing around in the sun, washing and drying kit and drinking tea and alcohol free lager.

Kit

• OMM shorts
• Raidlight t shirt
• UD Fastpack 15
• Altra Superior shoes
• Drymax thin socks
• Montane minimus waterproof
• Montane classic windproof
• Evadict waterproof trousers
• Yorkshireman 2018 long sleeve t shirt
• OMM full length tights
• Inov8 AT/C insulated jacket
• Garmin etrex 20x
• spare batteries
• Skilhunt RC04 mini
• UD body bottle
• Hydrapak crush bottle with salomon XA filter cap
• Montane cap
• buffs
• small first aid kit
• printed map

Food

• cheese and onion roll * 1
• cheese pizza pittas * 3

Stats:

23 ultra events since restarting in 2019
1 bagging round
1 ultra event pre 2019

Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon 2022 - Bracken, beer and bread bags

 I've done 2 mountain marathons before: the 2010 LAMM (linear) and the 2011 OMM (score). For various reasons I never did any more. Claire suggested the Saunders earlier this year to try and build up our orienteering experience and I enthusiastically agreed.

Last week was a busy one at work, so I had a couple of busy evenings getting a bit of training in and then sorting kit. Friday I managed to knock off an hour early and finish loading up the van so we were on the road to Eskdale by 6pm. Google maps took us a very direct route to Eskdale via Broughton that involved an eye wateringly steep ascent followed by a gentle descent close to Boot. On arrival it was raining, hard. We parked up in the camper parking field, far away from the loos unfortunately, and got ourselves sorted for the evening.

We'd booked a late start slot, partly to have an easy start to Saturday but also to reduce the amount of time sitting around mid camp. At 10:16 we dibbed, picked up our maps and started planning.

We'd prepared a piece of string with our estimated distance for the days, and we deployed it on the map to figure out our route.

I'd counted on about 15 minutes planning time, and that turned out about right. We were the last to leave the field and headed uphill straight away, making for a control on a ring feature on Boat Fell, followed by the top of the hill itself. Both were straightforward to find, and we happily yomped down a sheep trod towards the next control, on a bridge over Whillan Beck.

Stone circles on Boat Fell

The bridge was easy to find, and we dibbed and had a quick look at the map for the next control on 'Peelplace Noddle'. The best line seemed to be to follow a good path to a structure, then turn up a reentrant for a while then off on a bearing. We got almost to the building then decided to pick up the reentrant early and started climbing.

As we rose there was a lot of bracken. Reluctant to start bracken bashing too early we ended up climbing a bit higher than we needed. Once a large reentrant off to our left became really obvious we took a bearing and headed downhill towards the control. We drifted off to the left a bit but once the tarn was visible we were able to take another bearing and drop straight onto the control. This one took maybe 5 minutes longer than it might have, but we got it eventually.

Raven Crag from the north

The next one was easier, another tarn under the north edge of Raven Crag. A couple of women just ahead of us took a better line round some higher ground instead of over it. We had to budge them out of the way to be able to dib as they decided to plan their next leg actually on top of the control!

We took the control and moved on to the next. We took a bearing onto a mid point, a reentrant that sloped down steeply, to avoid losing too much height. Then straight across to what must be the biggest sheepfold in Lakeland, dib, and on to the next. The next was a boulder on the other side of some open moor. We opted to take the hit on climb for this one as it was only a couple of contours, while the two women from the previous control sensibly contoured round. However, as we came down on the control it was clearly visible, while they ended up well below it and had to climb (lesson from the weekend - climbing costs time, but you gain visibility of the terrain below and that can be crucial).

competitors coming down from Lingmell Col

It was at this point that we realised we were massively ahead of schedule. We'd set a very cautious target distance to account for control-hunting time, climb and rough terrain. In the event we were navigating better and climbing far better than we expected. Claire was feeling a bit off anyway, so we took it steady for a while. We climbed through a couple of big reentrants then dropped west above the crag on Green How to land on the long wall that goes along the south side of Lingmell Gill.

Wastwater from Lingmell Col

Once we reached the wall we turned east and climbed along it to reach the control on the corner. This was obviously on at least one linear route as there were lots of people coming and going.

Once we'd picked up this control, we'd completed our entire planned route for saturday in a little more than half our seven hours. We had 3 hours plus in hand, so decided to get a couple of high pointers with some hefty climb. We cut across to Lingmell Gill itself and got onto the motorway path to the top of Scafell Pike, then dropped over the col towards Great End.

This is a gnarly area with lots of outcroppings, difficult to see the lay of the land. We contoured to the right under Broad Crag to avoid losing too much height. There was an obvious feature with a cairn, but I was pretty sure our target was something smaller about 150m to the west that we couldn't quite see yet. We took some extra height over a little ridge and there it was - just where I expected. That made me very happy.

We traversed yet-another-bog to reach the feature and just as we dibbed Louise and Zoe appeared from somewhere. They were on the Harter Fell course and had 3 more controls after this one. We took a slightly lower line back towards the col and they trotted off ahead.

Once we got up to the col we handrailed a wall for a while. We were talking constantly about cheese, which was probably a sign of hunger. From the wall we set off on a bearing towards our last control of the day on a lump to the west of Lingmell Col. It took us a minute to find the control behind a wall, then we got on the path down the nose toward the lake and the mid camp.

A quick diversion with time in hand to get the ten pointer above the mid camp, then down steadily to dib at the finish where we were greeted by Dave & Helen who were volunteering on the event.  We finished up with a modest 240 points and had 20 minutes in hand. Mandy and Roz came bowling in with a minute to spare a couple of minutes after us, and after a chat we walked across to the camping field.

Control in front of Broad Crag

Mid camp was at the National Trust campsite on the north east of Wastwater. Most people seemed to have camped on the sloping field near the marquee, but we walked down to the lakeside and got a nice flat pitch in the other field. We soon got pitched, changed into warm clothes (there was a cold wind blowing from the west off the sea) and got a brew on the go.

Mid camp was fine. We had enough clothes in spite of the wind, it only rained a bit, and we were cosy and comfortable in down bags. My merino long sleeved layer was possibly excessive but I regulated my temperature by getting out of the sleeping bag. Midges weren't too bad. Saunders mid camp is a fairly gentle experience as MMs go - you can order beer and milk to collect, the water is generally drinking quality and doesn't need filtering (could have saved ourselves a bit of space there), and the camping space is fairly flat and bog free.

Claire had suggested bread bags as being big enough to accommodate my enormous feet (to keep my dry socks from getting soaked by wet shoes), which turned out to be a win.

Mid camp

Just before bed we walked up to the loos in the main field, and watched the head torches of National 3 Peak's walkers coming down Lingmell Gill.

Bread bags

Sunday morning we were awake from about six thirty. We'd talked to Mandy about our underestimation Saturday, and she'd made some suggestions for Sunday. In the end we did something slightly different, but the advice was useful. Heavy rain just as we were about to take the tent down delayed us a minute, but we eventually got out more or less on time.

Our plan was to cane it down the Wasdale Head road to Bowderdale, climb up along the edge of the OOB area to a control on a spur over the valley then contour round to the next at Scoat Tarn. We made OK time, although with much longer legs I was finding the big rocks and thick bracken easier than Claire. We had a nav blip at Scoat Tarn where I misread the map and was looking for the control on the wrong side of the beck for 2 minutes, then we found it and headed on to the control in the narrow valley between Red Pike and Yewbarrow. This was on a small spur overlooking the valley, and once we'd contoured round we were able to drop onto it easily.

All morning there were sudden heavy cloudbursts dropping rain on us, but it was fairly warm so it wasn't much of a problem.

Clag over Scoat Tarn

A fast run down alongside Over Beck, and we were back on the road. Claire wasn't feeling 100% and the run was uncomfortable so we slowed off a bit. At the top of Wastwater we took a minute or two to consider plans as we climbed up to the next control about 100m above the valley bottom, and decided with 2 hours to go we had enough time to take Illgill Head before heading for the finish.

The climb up Illgill head was stiff-ish. We opted to take the stile low down on the hill which meant a climb through the bracken but there were clear trods all the way up so if anything it probably saved us a few minutes. At the top we had a bit of trouble in the clag working out which ring feature we were looking for, but a couple of guys on a linear waved us over.

Climbing out of Wasdale

Another good run down to our last control on the ridge at the tarns, then we set off contouring round under Whin Rigg. We'd opted to skip a 10 point control on the Rigg rather than do the extra climb. We later thought that it would probably have been quicker to take the climb because the terrain down directly from the tarns was rough. I was counting on being funnelled by walls into the crossing through the OOB area, which sort of worked except that the slope down to the crossing was heavily covered in bracken and some stumpy gorse. We picked some reasonable lines through it, and dropped out onto the path being used on the linear route. A control on the end of the bridge (we missed the bridge and waded the river, then found it from the other side!) and we set off up Bleatarn hill for the final section.

Most people were heading for the 30 point control next to the tarn, but we were already into penalty time and we zig-zagged straight down the hill and onto the run-in along the miniature railway. Claire was outpacing me on the flat and I had to push to keep up. Finally we crossed the line 20 minutes over. We'd picked up 180 points in the day, and lost 80 of them in time penalties.

Running off Illgill

Dave was on the finishing line cheering competitors in (and reminding people to dib in the finish control!). Our overall score for the event was 340. We'd set out on saturday with the aim of finishing in the black and were much too cautious. Sunday we'd decided up front to take a punt on something risky, and if we finished in the red then at least we'd learned some useful lessons. Our planning wasn't a million miles out in the end. We'd finished with a much clearer idea of what we could do when put to it, although Sunday was a tougher day than we'd particularly want to do for fun.

We both had a great time on the event, and are now looking forward to doing more of them and improving. 

Kit

• UD Fastpack 20
• Montane Minimus waterproof smock
• Evadict waterproof trousers
• Montane Ember insulated layer
• OMM flash 0.5 tights (on)
• Raidlight performer t shirt (on)
• drymax socks (one pair on, one in the bag)
• Altra King MT 2.0 shoes
• OMM Flash 1.0 tights (in bag)
• Merino long sleeved base layer (in bag)
• Montane windproof shirt
• Terra Nova Lazer Comp 2 tent
• Rab Neutrino 200 sleeping bag
• Thermarest Prolite (small) mat
• Ron Hill gloves
• Montane Coda cap
• 2 buffs
• 2 chinagraph pencils
• Silva ranger compass
• Salomon water filter valve & 1/2l bottle
• Skilhunt H04 mini torch
• Leatherman micra multitool
• dry bag of loo roll
• 2 bread bags
• earplugs
• lip balm
• UD 0.5l water bottle
• Olight i3e emergency torch
• SOL emergency bivi
• MSR titanium mug
• Noakes long handled ti spoon
• small FAK

(Claire had the stove, a 650ml ti pot, 2 gas cylinders, a platypus & Sawyer mini filter and some of the food)

Food

• 2 * tent meals
• 3 * pitta-pizzas**
• 1 * malt loaf (could have done with another)
• assorted cheese, chocolate, nibbles
• 4 little cans of beer (ordered for collection at mid camp)
• 1/2l of milk (also ordered for collection)
• a bar of Romneys each for emergencies

**my latest favourite portable running food:

    

    take one wholemeal pitta

    cut in half across the shortest axis

    slice open, smear the inside with tomato paste

    insert a slice of mozzarella, and a slice of something else (goats cheese/cheddar/whatever)

    put in a toaster pocket and toast until the bread starts to brown and the cheese melts

    squish slightly, then refrigerate.

    

They freeze ok, so I can make up a few and take some out as I need them.