Vegan Welsh 3000s

[Adnan Khan]

Sorry, I was referring to the classic 3000s challenge route. It's been said on another thread, but concept of beginning on a peak rather than in the valley does seem odd - although the quirks of these things are part of the charm. I think I will head from South-North, thanks for the tip.

Still looking for a GPS track if anyone has one.

Just seen this. Here is a link of the Vegan 3000 I did a week before the actual race on 21 June. The weather was much nicer and I started at the bottom of Snowdonia near Nant Gwynant and finished near Abergwyngeregyn. I met a Welsh guy at the top of Drum who was very nice and gave me a lift back to Ogwen . The weather has to be nice to enjoy Crib Goch and Tryfan. Hope you get lucky with the nice weather too

[Splatcher]

I think you'll find that the waymarking was at the insistence of Skyrunning, not the idea of the RO. Last year there was no waymarking, & no Skyrunning, & no-one could have called the event "corporate". As I understand it, the WFRA still wouldn't support it though. Personally I don't think waymarking is appropriate for any long races, but I can accept that others have different opinions. I'd rather the countryside had fewer signs altogether, whether permanent or temporary.

[V3K]

Not good.. there will be resistance to sky running.. and this won't help.

As posted on the uk climbing forum...

We've been following the thread, maybe should have added our input earlier...

It's true that we didnt have any experience in organising a Skyrunning event or even witnessing one, they approached us and we were honoured by this. In hindsight taking an existing "grass routes" race that has so much character and a very small budget into a more corporate style event was clearly going to be difficult. It's true we had expected and asked for guidance especially in course marking as we have no experience. Initially my concern was that people would feel overly confident in going onto the hill with no proper navigation skills and therefore put themselves in danger. Hence insisting that people had excellent nav skills. Last year we provided nav skills training and we will do that again next year. This year we organised 2 free training weekends so people had the opportunity to understand that this race should not be taken lightly.

Our strategy for course marking was to set the course on the Friday or early Saturday before the race, then have all signage collected by the sweepers, with a backup collection by marshals and a further sweep by me (RO). Unfortunately weather conditions were particularly grim on the Friday and the Saturday with very poor visibility. This hampered both the deployment and the collection of posts. Hence posts not being exactly where they should be and sweepers missing them. I have swept the course twice since the race, last time was 13th July (I would have been out since then but Ive been ill, I'll be out again over the weekend hopefully if I am fully recovered).

We have asked if people see markers to report them to us, photograph them, send us exact details where they are and I will personally go out and collect them. We have also told people that we will "reward" them for notifying us by sending a goody bag to their address.

We do not, at all want markers left on the hills nor do we want any litter, unlike other organisations we put our initials onto our markers so we were accountable, because we do believe in being responsible for our actions. There are many markers on the hills with no names on them and we didnt want that. We are all volunteers who organise V3K and most of us also volunteer for litter clean ups too.

This was our third year organising the route, first year it was just ten friends, last year we had approx 30 runners. This year 75. The race was started because we love the route and has continued because we want others to love the route too. I can't express enough just how important these hills are to us, and how very sorry we are for this situation to have occurred.

Let me reiterate, we are really sorry to have caused everyone so much upset, this was not our intention at all. If you want to talk to me about any of this in private or have seen a marker please contact me on [email protected]

Kirsch

[MickTor]

Lack of empathy over on the climbing forums.
If I ever see anyone purposefully collecting markers the night before any race they cqan either put them back or request assistance to get off the hill with broken legs :P
Sounds like the RO's genuinely ballsed up collecting the markers. Things happen. It's folk who deliberately don't give a crap and litter the hills that are the real nuisance.
Love to all

[Toreador]

Lack of empathy over on the climbing forums.

They're all just peeved at the fixed gear that's regularly left at Broad Stand ;-)

In my opinion, way markers have no place in fell races, apart from in valleys to steer you through fields and around private land etc. On the hills, finding your own way is all part of the challenge, otherwise you may as well just do a trail race instead.

I'm hoping to do the V3K next year, but only if they rethink their association with the sky running folk.