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We went up Wild Boar Fell on day 1, which was really good fast going in clear conditions. But opted to head straight for the Howgills on Sunday, as almost everything over there was going to be easy to find in the clag, whereas lots of the eastern controls were on vague features in large areas of identical terrain. For once it worked out well - 12th on the day, by far our best score :-)
I think the route choice at the end was largely determined by your route choice earlier. Head north east and it was straight back at the finish; head west and hoover up most or all of the controls near the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lardster
At least, that seemed to be the case outside the top of the field. Most people headed east, we didn't and shot up the rankings as a result :D
On Medium Score we spent all Saturday west of the road in the Howgills and most of Sunday east around Wild Boar Fell and Baugh Fell. I can confirm this was a mistake.Quote:
Originally Posted by Toreador
Its an amazing geographical boundary.. lakeland fells > yorkshire dales within a km...
I didn't realise that would be covered.. kind of hoped we'd just stay in what I think of as sedbergh hills.. but good to get up wild boar fell, Saturday was nice up there, there was just very few good runnable lines..
I was surprised how easy the CP's were to find up there on Sunday, I'd said on saturday thank god the weather was clear, but I think because you knew you needed to be on your game you were much more precise.. we made a few silly errors saturday, I think being blase in good weather..
We were on LS and found plenty of good going on Day 1 out to the east on Wild Boar Fell. We crossed the road with just under 2 hours 30 remaining and swept up all the controls to the east. A big part of our decision was the gentler contours out east especially when faced at the end of a tough day. Managed 380 points and were delighted to be in 9th place. At the camp we discovered we had inadvertently left our gas canister in the car back at the event centre. Gutted! We felt we had no option but to retire so walked back to the event centre - thankfully we hitched a lift very quickly.
On the score v line comparison I'm motivated by score because as a vet pair we are still improving and getting into competitive positions though I don't believe we are covering the ground quicker than we did (this was my 9th OMM). We are certainly picking much better routes and fully optimising the time we have. We usually can decide on our route very quickly but this year on LS there were sooo many options (well done Course Planner!). We took over 15 minutes to evaluate the various possibilities before making our choice. I love this about Score - then in the results seeing the options that others selected and trying to fairly assess their choices against ours. Brilliant!! But still gutted about the gas.
As a matter of interest, what would you have done in our predicament?
Tricky one. If you could cope without any hot food or drink, then I'd have been tempted to stick it out, do day 2 anyway, and then disqualify ourselves at the finish - that way at least you get to do both days! It's a shame that you can't retire on day 1 and still be allowed to do day 2 - all the other MMs allow this - but I guess it's not practical given the size of the OMM, and there are probably issues left over from Borrowdale.Quote:
Originally Posted by philbrynmaen
Soaked the noodles, soup etc in cold water & eaten it anyway. If indigestion didn't rule day 2 out, then we'd have hoped we didn't win the class (fat chance of that) so nobody did a kit check on us. Most of the dried stuff is cooked already, so I'm pretty sure we'd have got away with with it. We'd have been gutted though! My mate wanted to set off with a part-used 100g gas canister - he'd already used it on the RAB. I told him where to stick it & we took a new one - mind you we're pretty sure we've never used half a canister in a MM.Quote:
Originally Posted by philbrynmaen
AGREE about the gas Andy- we have about 20 part used ones but it is rare that i will risk one even though having weighed it I know it should be enough.
I'm always amazed how some people use so little gas. We normally take 125g, and use at least 2/3 of it. On the RAB we could only find 100, and only had enough left for a single brew when we got back. And we don't normally have more than about 4 pots of tea, plus 2 or 3 pots for our meals.
Sounds like the tea's the difference. We use the gas only to rehydrate noodles, soup, porridge &, god help us, Complan. I've no idea what Complan tastes like, & I've no intention of finding out. Loads of calories though, I am reliably informed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Toreador