The class of 2014

[alwaysinjured]

But leg 3 is the best one closely followed by Wasdale-Honister. I've done leg 3 in all weathers (and quite a bit of it at night) and have always liked it. I've never really liked the Helvellyn section in the dark, perhaps my judgement is clouded (sic) by losing loads of time on it on my first attempt.

Liked 3 in dark? But then one thing we fellrunners all have in common is a common sense bypass.

Joking aside, I like 3 and 4 too. And I will almost certainly do it at night again if only to work out how to make pace there at night for my own satisfaction. Can't help but feel we let stolly down a bit. But then I expressed reservations about the time, Stolly was less concerned than me. The trods just disappear in bog, hard to find restarting, and unlike mugnrisdale common (and leg 2 by and large) which is much of a muchness either side of the tracks, dead reckoning off paths is slow up to calf crag and beyond because of the terrain either side, and a great many rocks and holes and bumps. We all went over several times. Innocuous ground is made a lot harder. Take the trods from thunakar to harrison dodge around a lot of bumps, including one big one close to the pike, which are easy to follow in clag, but hard to follow in dark. Dead reckoning of the trods involves going over rather than round the bumps, and that alone can add several minutes to a split of only 10 or 15. So easy to lose an hour in four even if not straying far off route. So I guess I will have another go , to try to work out how. I can nav 1 and 2 in the dark now and have done them numerous times, and have done 5 anti and 4 anti (mostly) in dark. Done all of it in clag. First experience of 3 in dark.

[Martyn P]

........ and Mikekeswick I admire your resolve to just keep attempting it until you get there (which is sort of the way I did it) but good luck trying it each month. I mean just arranging the necessary support for that is a D Day landings logistical nightmare . More seriously, although my legs were pretty quick recovering from all of my attempts, from a sheer tiredness point of view it became increasingly hard. Maybe it was just getting over the lost sleep or maybe it was all in the mind but wearyness creeps in. Last year I tried and failed 3 times, once towards the end of June, once at the end of July and once again late August (or maybe early September I can't remember) - the first attempt was a magnificent a/c failure, the second a slightly more weary clockwise one and the third a very weary (and possibly ill?) clockwise one. Each time the weather was awful too which kind of gave me a first rate excuse for failure but getting really ready for the first attempt is probably the best way of getting it done.

That's a really good point. After just a month your legs might well be recovered from any given attempt, but unless you're superhuman your body will still be tired ..... and you wouldn't be doing yourself justice going into a BG attempt if you're anything less than well rested and fully recovered. You've got to give yourself the very best chance of success on the day.

[mikekeswick]

Stolly and Martyn - I agree about being completely ready and fully rested before any attempt. My statement about a 'go a month' was a bit tongue in cheek....what I really meant was i'm just planning on keeping on trying.
I think correct nutrition has the biggest part to play in recovery. Eating correctly has always been my biggest concern with the BG. In the past i'd never really given food much thought. However in the past few months i've been playing around with a few things and I seem to be getting there on that front now.
I also completely agree about getting the logistics sorted.....

[Knightrunner]

I'd like to keep my hand in with this thread too please. I went round in 24:04 this year and have, of course, moved on completely to other challenges with not a single thought as to unfinished business, oh no, not a bit, no sirree. Still, I like to keep my options open. I'm still mapping out 2014 and a certain long day out in July is the main target, but who knows. Thanks for the idea though, good thoughts

[alwaysinjured]

So here is the summary of where we seem to be, with the objectives of those who have so far stated one.
Just in order of posting to the thread.

Rounders

alwaysinjured BG16 May JNC15 later - or may do as a very early season last long one.
slacky BG april/may
tahr clubmate1 23 may and clubmate2 30 may
vespa BG
tomphillips 50@50BG JNC
davey BG
tinyman - BG
dave314 - BG
jansolo BG 1may or 1 june
slacky april/may
mikekeswick BG may
arkel BG
stolly re re re ACWBG
Knightrunner July Is that a BG date or the L100?

Recciers/ expressed interested/ helpers
Stef
Derby Tup
Tahr
Mark Smith
dan2todman

Of those, me tinyman and dave314 are the ones who seem to be able to do weekdays.

Are there others doing an ACW? - or anyone intending a lot faster than standard 23/4?

Presume bat runs over leg 1 (or out back part leg 2) starting at 7.30pm many more could do? -
so 5 hours leg1 keswick back to keswick by 12.30am?

[Stolly]

By the way AI I won't need help with running reccies a/c - I know the way now

[alwaysinjured]

By the way AI I won't need help with running reccies a/c - I know the way now

Should that be a , a or a ?

But the company might be nice, which is what the team reccies are about!
I am interested in learning more about A/C. The "right" way to go up, is not necessarily the best route down, so those with vast experience such as yourself can show the rest of us the way!

I did the descent of yewbarrow back in the mid nineties and it was dreadful then. Havent really done any A/C since the late nineties , and the thing is different now.

[Mark Smith]

It's true that one of the best ways to recce a route is to also do it the other way. I discovered the best way up broad crag on a c/w round by following my nose and the best ground towards ill crag when going a/c. I didn't find it (it's not at all obvious) despite dozens of trips over that route going c/w. There are many other examples where this helps, including the traverse around black crag near pillar, the precise line to steeple from red pike, a the he cofa pike route on Fairfield and the line up the back of blencathra. I modified all of these well after my own rounds having experimented with the a/c idea.

[Stolly]

Should that be a , a or a ?

But the company might be nice, which is what the team reccies are about!
I am interested in learning more about A/C. The "right" way to go up, is not necessarily the best route down, so those with vast experience such as yourself can show the rest of us the way!

I did the descent of yewbarrow back in the mid nineties and it was dreadful then. Havent really done any A/C since the late nineties , and the thing is different now.

The descent of Yewbarrow's pretty good, better than going down Seat Sandal c/w thats for sure. I think the climb out of Wasdale up Scafell is a 'ripper' (as they say in Oz) with, later on, the back to back climbs of Seat Sandal, Fairfield and Dollywaggon being a complete bast**d. Oh and climbing up through Martcrag Moor and over the Stickles is a bit of a bugger too. I've not yet got as far as actually doing Hall's Fell and Skiddaw on the last leg but I suspect they don't take many prisoners either

[alwaysinjured]

The descent of Yewbarrow's pretty good, better than going down Seat Sandal c/w thats for sure. I think the climb out of Wasdale up Scafell is a 'ripper' (as they say in Oz) with, later on, the back to back climbs of Seat Sandal, Fairfield and Dollywaggon being a complete bast**d. Oh and climbing up through Martcrag Moor and over the Stickles is a bit of a bugger too. I've not yet got as far as actually doing Hall's Fell and Skiddaw on the last leg but I suspect they don't take many prisoners either

Having done it all AC one time or another, I actually think it is 30mins slower than Clock.
There are other problems...like pillar to honister CW has a few good runnable downs, where the "ups" of kirk and gable are rough which is the right way to be. Going the other way ACW to gable and pillar , the climbs are long , shallow and relentless, but coming down such as Gable is a pain in the but (unless you know something I do not!). The only reasonable running descent is brandreth that way. Even the descent of red pike is not as nice as the equivalent of pillar, although well left on grass is better and the direct line to yewbarrow better than the rocks to dore head. Yewbarrow then finishes off a miserable outing for downhills.