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Thread: Lakes 10 Peaks

  1. #21
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Thanks Mark... it's undoubtedly a massively tough event, the lack of sleep just ups it even further.

    I'm still learning, I think that was my 5th ultra, and now I've rested and can look at it objectively, there's lots I can take from it, and improve on for next time.

    Well done on your Buttermere race, I was pretty gutted to miss it this year...

  2. #22
    Senior Member Alan Lucker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MarkClayton View Post
    Pete, well done indeed. That’s a great effort, especially with the challenging conditions. Sounds like you were right on the limit near the end!

    Congratulations Alan with your short course victory and new course record. Fantastic stuff!
    Thanks

  3. #23
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    I'm not doing it this year, but noticed a route change has been announced... Broad and Ill Crags have been omitted, and replaced with Green Gable and High Spy.

    I have no reason, or any wish, to criticise any race event. In fact I have to say that this event was absolutely superb last year. But it does in my eyes take a little something away. The 10 Peaks being supposedly the 10 highest Peaks in the lakes.

    On the other hand I can see exactly why it was done. The report I saw suggested that it would make the race more "enjoyable and logical". In my eyes it is probably to allow a higher percentage to complete, given that the Bowfell-Scafell section in last year's appalling weather, was a bit of a disaster zone for many people, and only 50% completed the long course. Certainly from Esk Pike until Mickledore I didn't manage a step of running, and it was an incredibly tricky (and some would say dangerous) section. People going all over the place on Great End, Broad Crag and Ill Crag. But that's the challenge of the race to me.

    From Windy Gap I took the Borrowdale race route back towards Honister, so passed fairly close to Green Gable anyway. The High Spy addition probably improves the course for those who want ridge running, although I personally enjoyed the valley run down Newlands last year.

    Doesn't detract much from the magnitude of the challenge though.

  4. #24
    I think the new route looks better. I don't think Ill Crag and Broad Crag added much to the route - they're both short, easy little detours. High Spy and Green Gable are at least proper hills, and the addition of High Spy livens up the Newlands Valley trudge. I'm quite tempted by the new route but I think I need more time to forget the midgey bog grimness of Wythburn...

  5. #25
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    Fair points... although it would appear that a lot of people found them to be very difficult detours...

    Even Wainwright couldn't seem to decide if Ill and Broad Crags were mountains, not giving them their own chapter.

    Green Gable is barely off the current route, and a very small ascent, although undoubtedly a 'proper peak'.

    Maybe I took a good line, but the only real issue I had in Wythburn was the two minute stop at the CP when I got bitten to buggery by the midges, and the half a mile straight afterwards into the valley proper was a bit of a boggy nightmare, but didn't find the section up to High Raise half as bad as I was fearing (although it certainly wasn't easy).

    The worst section for me was Black Sail to Honister. After stopping for a coke at Wasdale Head Inn, I was flying, and got tempted by the shortcut up onto the Pillar ridge, this ruined me and plummeted me into a 'bad spell' which lasted for several hours. Should I do this race again in the future, i'll definitely be taking the normal route up Black Sail...!

  6. #26
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    An idea would have been to just include High Raise and Esk Pike as the two additional peaks.

    On the long course they were not compulsory, but pretty much on route, and I don't think anyone could doubt they are major peaks, without any real changes to the course, and then avoiding Ill and Broad Crags.

    But i'm not the orgsniser, and they did a fantastic job last year. I personally witnessed the organiser deal with a potentially very difficult situation with a participant on the early hours of the Saturday morning last year, and was full of admiration.

  7. #27
    True, the conditions definitely made them feel tougher last year. I'd recce'd that section two or three times in perfect conditions before the race and they'd felt totally trivial. But with slippery rocks and poor visibility they felt a lot trickier, even though I knew where I was going and what terrain to expect. I still found them a bit pointless though, and I didn't really even count them as peaks when I was mentally going through the day.

    I don't know why I found Wythburn so bad. I think it was partly because I hadn't recce'd the section between Steel End and Greenup Edge and it just seemed to go on forever! Also, I was on the short so maybe there were more midges an hour later? Plus I got loads of gravel in my shoes from the bog/mud and had to stop and empty them twice on my way up to Bowfell.

    Including High Raise and Esk Pike on the long would definitely make sense, more so than High Spy. The short still needs the extra peaks though. I guess it's a balance between the purity of concept of getting people to run up the 10 highest peaks in the Lakes versus sending people round a nice loop which is more runnable. Maybe because I did the short (which is already watered down) I'd rather they prioritised a great course and I think the changes will make it a better route.

  8. #28
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    Yes it's strange the way the 10 'peaks' fall in different parts of the race. Helvellyn all on it's own at the start, then a few hours before you hit the 2nd Peak, then about 5 in the next hour over the plateau to Scafell. And the climb up Skiddaw all on it's own at the end is an absolute horror-show! I've never really felt such collective togetherness with the half dozen people who were around me as we hauled ourselves up Carlside, with barely a word being spoken. We all knew we were suffering, it didn't need saying.

    Mind you all that was forgotten on the top of Skiddaw when I sprinted off ahead to never see them again!

  9. #29
    Ha yes, I can imagine. Skiddaw is the main thing that puts me off ever doing the long - I remember looking up at it pretty much all the way back along the Newlands Valley, thinking how glad I was that I didn't have to climb it!

  10. #30
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    Skiddaw is an hour of additional hard work, followed by however long it takes you to get down (which may also be quite hard work!)

    It's a stiff climb up Carlside, but it's the other circumstances which make it so daunting... coming after 12/16/20/22 hours, depending on your speed. Plus coming after a long flattish section from Newlands. Plus knowing you're so near yet so far from the finish!

    I saw people last year doing the long course, diverting into Keswick and taking the tourist route up Skiddaw, which is certainly an easier climb, but in my view just prolonging the agony, and must add on another half hour. In my view (and it's easy for me to sit here saying it having done it), if at that point you're still capable of climbing Skiddaw then you might as well dig in and take the route up Carl Side...

    Personally the worst section of the race for me was round the side of Kirk Fell and that horrible climb up onto Great Gable. Large sections spent in the depths of despair on this section.

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