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
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
No comments:
Post a Comment