Old County Tops

[Mr1470]

Hmmm another partial success. Did the above yesterday as planned but too many pies and not enough hills over the winter turned it in to a bit of an epic. We were late leaving Manchester and consequently managed to set off in a bit of a fluster from NDG taking totally inadequate clothing and sustenance. The weather didn't help - overheating in the valleys and freezing the nadgers off in the windchill on the tops but we were basically not up to the job and ended up totally knackered by less than half the race route . There's a lot of fell miles to be done between now and May if we're going to get round in one piece.

Descending Hevellyn we came down the spur N of Whelpside Gill and then crossed to the main path on a trod about 50m above the treeline - is this the best line? Going S of the gill looked good on the map but didn't look very promising on the ground.

cheers P

The weather was tough wasn't it Paulo? Luckily took a fleecy top with me because, despite being far too hot lower down, it was freezing on the tops!

Did a recce from ODG, up to Angle Tarn, Esk Hause, up to Scafell Pike, back down Little Narrowcove (where it looked like I was the FIRST person in days to have been there, no footprints at all in the snow!), down over Great Moss and down to the road, up the other side at Cockley Beck Bridge but then decided not to go all the way out to Coniston, headed down to Three Shire Stone instead.

Using Little Narrowcove, the route seems reasonably straightforward, although I suspect I should have stayed further left over Great Moss instead of heading across it!!


Will try the Helvellyn recce later in the month.

[Mr1470]

Time to ressurect this one...having now recce'd it in two halves.

So, a couple of questions and a few thoughts;

i) NDG to Grasmere

As GeoffB said earlier, guess I can follow the rest of the pack at this stage. Had a right game on Saturday, took what I thought was the right path and came up against an 8 foot stone wall with no way through!?! Where did I go wrong?!?

ii) Grisedale Tarn to Helvellyn

Interesting though about contouring around Dollywagon but I'd have thought the straight up to the left of the zig-zags route would take less out of you in the end?

iii) Helvellyn to Wythburn Church

I think I dropped into Whelpside Gill too early...do you stay on that northern spur and then only drop across the gill near the trees? I did pick up the sheep trod to contour across to the path though :-)

iv) The Bog

Aptly named!!!

v) Great Moss

So did I see some suggestion about crossing over straight away at the bottom of Little Narrowcove and keeping above on the left? Seemed like a good idea.

vi) Three Shires Stone onwards

How painful is that 2 miles down on the road!?!?

Had a good weekend, having done 41 miles and 15,000ft over two and a half days.....so feeling a bit more confident now.

Anyone else been out on the route? I met a lass coming down off Dollywagon who said that members of Achille Ratti were out recceing on Saturday as well.

Also met some Bob Graham recce folk nearly back into Langdale. Put my "long" run to shame!

[Zlod]

i) NDG to Grasmere

As GeoffB said earlier, guess I can follow the rest of the pack at this stage. Had a right game on Saturday, took what I thought was the right path and came up against an 8 foot stone wall with no way through!?! Where did I go wrong?!?

Last year on the start line, we were told that the new road in Langdale is strongly discouraged (i.e. out of bounds, but the Achille Ratti were too nice to say that), so there really isn't any choice but to go on the old road and traverse round into Grasmere (there shouldn't be any confrontations with 8 foot stone walls). We actually did the old road and then took a direct over the top (the only team to do so I think) and we spent the rest of the race trying to catch the time back.

[IanDarkpeak]

Also met some Bob Graham recce folk nearly back into Langdale. Put my "long" run to shame!

Hi Mr1470

I guess that was us, 6 men, 2 women, Included in the group myself plus Plumbum who you chatted to. We also bumped in to Batman on the top of Great End. A superb long day with fantastic weather we reckoned about 23-4 miles with 10,500-11,000 ft of ascent.

4 of us did leg two of the bg on Sunday in windy conditions and bumped in to some Totley runners. Clear but very cold.

Ian

[Mr1470]

Hi Mr1470

I guess that was us, 6 men, 2 women, Included in the group myself plus Plumbum who you chatted to. We also bumped in to Batman on the top of Great End. A superb long day with fantastic weather we reckoned about 23-4 miles with 10,500-11,000 ft of ascent.

4 of us did leg two of the bg on Sunday in windy conditions and bumped in to some Totley runners. Clear but very cold.

Ian

Yes, that was me Ian. Nice to meet you all. It was a cracking day wasn't it? Sounds like you had a great weekend.

We were up on the north side of the Helvellyn ridge on Sunday..Clough Head down to Lower Man and back. THat wind was certainly cold!

Good luck with your training and, of course, your BG attempt...when's it planned for?

[Batman]

Hi Mr1470

I guess that was us, 6 men, 2 women, Included in the group myself plus Plumbum who you chatted to. We also bumped in to Batman on the top of Great End. A superb long day with fantastic weather we reckoned about 23-4 miles with 10,500-11,000 ft of ascent.

4 of us did leg two of the bg on Sunday in windy conditions and bumped in to some Totley runners. Clear but very cold.

Ian

Yes, a great day out Ian. We managed to find the direct descent off Great End down to Styhead and had a pleasant sunny run from there round the Jos Naylor Challenge route to Greendale. It's going to be a tough last section on the day - hoping to go for real on April 28 weather permitting. (don't forget to send your form off if you want to go on the reserve list for Jura.)

Batman

[IanDarkpeak]

Yes, that was me Ian. Nice to meet you all. It was a cracking day wasn't it? Sounds like you had a great weekend.

We were up on the north side of the Helvellyn ridge on Sunday..Clough Head down to Lower Man and back. THat wind was certainly cold!

Good luck with your training and, of course, your BG attempt...when's it planned for?

You must have set off after us or we would have passed each other on the ridge. The wind seem to drop considerably after we'd passed Helvellyn trig heading south.

Our proposed BG date is the W/E 15-16 June.

[Mr1470]

We set off quite late Ian....but did notice that there were absolutely loads of fresh Walsh and Inov8 prints up there!! A real runners' paradise, one stiff climb followed by a great runnable "ridge" all the way.

Good luck for June. You never know, may bump into you again on the Lakes fells!!

[paulo]

We did a NDG - Angle tarn - race route recce on sat in the beautiful sunshine. Saw a party a few hundred metres ahead on Wrynose - must have been the AR doing their recce - nobody could be mad enough to run down there in fell shoes under any other circumstances could they?

Anyone know the time outs for the check points please - it's of more than academic interest to us I fear

cheers, P

[Mr1470]

Anyone know the time outs for the check points please - it's of more than academic interest to us I fear

cheers, P

Same here Paulo!! I believe there's a 5 hour cut-off to Angle Tarn checkpoint and I had a feeling there was a 7.5 hour cut-off at Cockley Beck Bridge.....but only pieced that together from accounts of previous races.

Probably most worried about an early cut-off - plan to take it very steady to the top of Helvellyn at least and see how I feel then and push on.