Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club - Newsletter Vol. 6 No. 5 - October 1969
4th. October
- Troutbeck
English Lakes.
All set ready for much talked about Mountain Marathon, Jam and
I with 35 other pairs
were ready for two days of easy walking, or so we thought. The main
rival, namely our President had conveniently arranged for a birth
in the family - we haf no excuse. ' Not to worry Jim we can do it can’t we?' 'Packs ready?’ Well we had
spent several hours planning the contents and we darn sure we had cut the weight down to the
absolute minimum, all 46lbs,
over 20lbs. each. That was our first mistake for most of our fellow
competitors were carrying well under 15lbs. each and some were as low as
9lbs, We insisted they had forgotten something but the race officials said not and
that was that.
‘Ah, the whistle Jim we're off”
‘Grab that route sheet and we’ll be well in front soon’
What with our budding map
reader and Jim’s compass work. Where‘s everybody gone?’ I said, as I eventually placed the first
checkpoint on the map. Nobody told us we had to be
able to place the checkpoints on the map by means
of six figure references -
Mistake No.2.
We eventually placed the first checkpoint as
mentioned and picked our route - the easy one, we thought, and promptly set
off. Everybody went the
other way but I remembered Tom's advice for orienteering and ignored them - Mistake No 3.
1045, we arrive at checkpoint 1 via High Street and a 2359' climb over Froswick. 'Nobody
in sight Jim, we must be
well up'. I050. card
punched and in 27th
position, off we set
for. No.2. Not that way Jim its too steep, round to the right and over the col, we’ll
hit the stream then - easy.,
Up we went for 2000' once more then calamity - Rain. Not to worry
waterproofs on - that makes the
packs lighter. Then - the
wind gets vp. Never mind still going good until - ‘Mist’ ‘damn
Compass, rule No.1, — rule no 1. - Mistake No. 4. 'There's
the stream Jim and
there's the bend going due south, here it is on the map ‘Or is it this
bend - or this one?'
Never mind downstream we go, we must hit the checkpoint sometime. Three cheers bang
on it a change of luck? Time
for dinner Jim? 'What ,we haven't time’ Rucksacks lighter we press on. ‘Bearing Jim? 'South east' - Okay' South east’ 0kayt0
Start climbing again - 21090'
this tame and an hour later
we were on top of Tarn Crag - position 27th.
and 2 hours behind the leaders. 'Never mind our compass work will be better than
theirs' 'A fence good' 'Its marked on the map' ‘Rubbish that's a parish boundary’ ‘Who cares its going the right way' ‘Better tell OS. about
that’, -1400' lost. Well
nearly, the mist cleared for a split second and we managed to
put ourselves back on course. High House Fell ahead, - Lords seats 'Take a rest’ 'What, no press on the Beacon ahead and checkpoint No. 3, position 28th, so much for the
compass, time 14.45 the leaders went
through 3 hours ago. ‘Here's checkpoint No. 4' - Hasketh Tarn, due
north. Four miles in
2 hours’ It took us 3
1/2 hours for the last one and were fit then. 'Ah well, where
did you. say that Land Rover would pick us up
at’
'We’ll do it next year though, what with our ultra lightweight
packs, we’ll have them won't we
Jim?
Mel Wilkinson