Dumfries and Galloway isn't a terrible journey for us, so we just took the afternoon off to get up there. We left about 1300 and got to the event centre at about 6, to find a large swampy mud-pond just in front of the gate. We've had trouble getting out of fields before, but rarely getting in. Taking a run up and revving hard got us through the swamp and we were soon parked up.
We'd picked up some buffet food at Morrisons in Dumfries for dinner, so I picked up my bag and we went over to registration to get tracker/dibber. While we were there we did a bit of shopping in the event shop, and bumped into Mandy & Shirl.
After a chat we went back to the van to have some food & get some sleep. Our start time was 8.45, with a half hour walk to the start we needed to leave at 8.15.
In the morning we had a brew, finished putting a few last bits in the bags and set off walking to the start. The weather was OK so far, and the track was easy to walk on.
At the start we dibbed then started planning.
First of all we had to wade through a river, so our feet were nice and wet from the beginning. It was only about ankle deep on me though, so not too bad yet.
Then we started fighting our way through the tussocks. Deep, dense tussocks and a steady climb up to the first control. The control was the top of a reentrant and fairly easy to find. Then on to the next, which was at a lochan close to a wall corner. I drifted off to the right on the descent of the nose through many many bogs, until Claire pulled us back on the bearing and straight onto the control.
We set off to cross the hard boundary and, having looked down into the valley, decided to cut straight across what looked like an appalling bog on the map but was OK on the ground. The river crossing was easy enough, and we got to the wall crossing.
We weren't completely sure of our plan at this point. There was a 50 point on a hill to our north, and a clear path for a good part of the way, but I was second guessing whether we'd be over-committing. In the end I decided to just give it a go and we got moving down through a very very boggy path onto the forestry track. The track was really easy going and gave us chance to warm our feet up, until we cut off the path to start heading up to the control.
This was where we made an embarrassing but ultimately not serious mistake. To aging eyes with contact lenses in, AO and AQ look very similar. One was a boulder, the other a lochan. So off we went, in search of a lochan. Straight past a boulder. Eventually we reached a point where Claire thought we'd gone way too far. I checked and agreed, and resected where we were from some features in the valley below us. Sure enough we'd overshot, and were approaching our 2nd control on this leg, a 30 pointer. We followed a bearing up to the lochan that was actually our second target on this leg, dibbed and turned to return to the first target, the boulder 50 pointer below. Any further into the tussocks northwards was out of the question for the time we had, so it wasn't a big deal as this would have to be an out and back leg anyway.
This was when the weather, which had so far just been a bit poor, started to get worse. Claire was being severely buffeted and we were both being hit by horizontal sleet in 40-50mph gusts. Heavy waterproofs on over the Paramo smocks, gloves on, and on we battled. Dropping back the way we came, we soon found the boulder and the control under it.
On towards the track down into the valley and I was getting cold. My feet were numb and I was just above shivering level. I added a thick buff around my neck and another on my head, ate some food and kept on towards relative shelter on the track. Through a gate full of ankle deep cowshit - nice.
Once on the track, there was a constant stream of people heading toward the finish. We picked up a few controls along the way, but kept the pace up as we only just had enough time to get in, with ten minutes or so leeway.
The track (that clear run in I'd seen when planning) turned out to be very up and down. If we were slower on the climbs that might have properly caught us out, but climbing is our thing so we were fine and got in with 6 minutes in hand.
Mid camp - unaccustomed luxury, and the arrival of storm Boelo.
As we came into mid camp, there was an obvious area that was sheltered by trees on our left. We quickly got finished, picked up the splits printout and headed for the area we'd spotted.
The whole field was weirdly flat and sheltered, not like an OMM mid camp at all. This was great, I'd been worrying about a camp as exposed as Glen Arten 24 all day, given the forecast. We got the tent pitched, fetched water and got inside to warm up with a cupasoup and some dry clothes. Claire went over to talk to Mandy who was pitched nearby, then the weather turned and we took refuge. We had a couple of cups of tea, experimented with using survival bags to keep the foot ends of our sleeping bags warm and eventually used them to build a kind of windproof barrier around the bottom of the tent (inside) which cut the wind and warmed us up a lot.
After a couple of cups of wine and some chocolate, we settled in to go to sleep. The site was mostly quiet, although as the wind and torrential rain picked up you could have had the Black Dyke Band playing and we wouldn't have heard them.
I kept waking up through the night, worried about the wind and rain and whether it'd bring the tent down, scatter the stuff in the porch or just rain into the tent. In the event, apart from one peg needing redoing before we'd zipped up for the night, we were secure and stable all night. I'd pitched just slightly at an angle to the wind, so we didn't get it blowing straight through and it worked a treat.
Day 2 - a disappointing but understandable evacuation, a cold wet queue, and a lot of hardworking Scouts
The piper played at 6 and we dragged ourselves awake. I'd had maybe 4-5 hours, not bad for a mountain marathon. Claire about the same. We lay in our tent as the tannoy announcement came that day 2 was being rerouted onto the valley bottom bail-out route, then started to pack up. 2 guy lines came loose around this point - I think someone fell over them rather than them coming out, but that meant that the tent was a lot less stable.
Eventually we got the tent down, got everything packed and joined the huge queue to pick up day 2 maps/instructions.
We chatted with an OMM / mountain marathon veteran (Brian Layton) while we queued, then Ellie Salisbury passed by and joined in - she'd had a rough day with equipment failures the day before.
Finally after about an hour of queuing we reached the front, picked up maps and marked them up with the mandatory controls for the evacuation route. It was exactly what I thought - the path we'd used the day before, only more of it. Day 2 had some controls (and the outbound leg) in the plantation, which probably helped the organisers decision as the forest would not have been very safe in that wind.
We got going in a hurry, wanting to warm up but also to get back and get the van out of the muddy field. As usual in groups of runners they'd overtake us on the flat/downhill, then we'd overtake them on the climbs. Rinse (literally in that weather) and repeat.
Once we left the forestry area and started to climb the col, the ground got really wet underfoot. The wind and rain got harder as we climbed, then eased off as we dropped down into the valley beyond, and finally the sun came out.
The valley along the Pulnee Burn was pretty swampy, but we were keeping up a pace to keep our feet warm. A lot of people seemed to be struggling with the terrain and we overtook constantly.
Coming back onto the forestry track where we'd started the previous day meant the same river crossing in reverse. Only now it was a lot more than ankle deep. Just above my knee, which means a lot deeper on Claire. There was a rope on the crossing so it was fine, just cold and wet.
It took us 3:20 to do the 17km back, fairly good going and good training. We picked up some tea and food and listened to Wendy Dodds being interviewed on her 50 years of OMMs. Once done we headed back to the van to get changed and get the van clear of the mud. Just as we were about to leave a camper got wedged in front of us and had to be towed out. Once our turn came I once again gave the throttle some welly and we were straight through and out.
Looking at the day 2 map, it would have been a good day in better weather, and it's disappointing to miss out on that. I worry a lot about the way the climate is changing, and the inevitable impact that will have on our activities. Obviously the impact of climate change is a lot more serious than just what happens to our fun weekends, but it's a very visible example. And obviously Talnotry was a 400 mile round trip for a single weekend, which is pushing what I'm comfortable self-justifying a bit. It wasn't the best weekend of mountain marathoning we've had, but no one could have planned for such a major storm to hit just at the wrong time.
Talnotry 2026 will live on in OMM legend in the same way as '08 (although not quite as dramatic). As always the organisers did an amazing job - even more so than usual in the tough conditions. Bonus thanks to the Scouts who were amazing and cheerful throughout.
The controversy
It seems the OMM organisers have come in for some flak from Facebook keyboard warriors in the wake of the MRT call out.
A few facts:
- The linear courses were reduced in scope because of the weather.
- The score courses weren't, but that's because they're strictly limited to time anyway.
- At the time that the incident happened, Claire and I were a couple of km away near the top of Milfore. At that time the weather was very benign - a bit wet and foggy but we've seen far worse on bad summer days. The Saunders 2023 comes to mind.
- At the time the weather turned bad it still wasn't that bad on Saturday. It was gusting pretty high and there was hail and rain but just normal 'shit day up high in October' level. It wasn't anywhere near "weather warning" level. That was the weather when the rescue team went up Curleywee.
- The weather did indeed turn completely to shit, at which point it would have been dangerous on the summits. That was around 1am, by which time we were all back at mid camp.
- The terrain around there is, admittedly, awful. That's the point. It would still be awful on a sunny midsummer day. It's just tussocky hell. That will have made the extraction difficult, and the chopper could only have landed nearby in much better (i.e. "not October") weather. It was worth trying, but it was probably always going to be a non-starter.
- There were half a dozen people with the casualty. She was surrounded by people with warm clothes, tents, survival bags, food, torches, more warm clothes, did I mention warm clothes yet?
- The rescue team knew to within 10m exactly where the casualty was. Compare that with your average MRT call out.
Kit
- OMM flash tights * 2
- Brynje t-shirt
- Awdis long sleeve shirt * 2
- Hemy waterproof socks * 2
- Paramo Velez
- Thick waterproof trousers
- Columbia lightweight outdry waterproof
- Cycling hat
- OMM windproof gloves
- Buffalo mittens
- Primaloft buff plus other buffs
- Nordisk Halland tent & footprint, plus a couple of ti V pegs
- Rab down sleeping bag
- Alpkit mattress
- Ti pan & mug (didn't use the pan, don't bother next time)
- Ti long spoon
- Boil bags for tent meals
- Montane Primaloft Alpha windproof
- Patagonia primaloft gilet (got saturated, barely wore it)
- Rab fleece hoodie
- warm evening socks
- glasses in case
- first aid kit w/ contact lenses, watch cable
- compass
Claire had stove, water filter & platypus, tent meals etc
Food
- Tent meals (800kcal for me, 500 for Claire)
- Cheese (about 100g each)
- 1 malt loaf
- half a dozen food bars between us
- some nuts
- chocolate
- a peanut butter wrap
Lessons
My feet were annoyingly cold hanging off the end of the mattress. I need something additional, maybe a piece of foam pad or something
One pan is OK. We used to take both when we did two 800kcal tent meals
Spare lighter
Different wind shield? Or just a better way of packing it. Maybe rubber padding on all the edges. Maybe the foam pad I need to keep my feet warm!
Cross check on all decisions - we should both have checked what the feature was (it didn't matter as it turned out, but could have)
Windproof barrier around the bottom of the tent with survival bags (don't put them on the sleeping bags, they keep in condensation and get your down bag wet.
Plastic bags inside the dry bags - some of the dry bags leak a bit
Sleeping bag was in a bin bag, in a (slightly leaky) dry bag, and everything in the rucksack was in a bin bag. Maybe use the kayak bag and put everything for mid camp in thin bags inside that.
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