Just had a look at the final information. 11,000 feet of climbing on the classic!!! Assume we must be heading north over to the Scafells. Going to be a long day
Just had a look at the final information. 11,000 feet of climbing on the classic!!! Assume we must be heading north over to the Scafells. Going to be a long day
Mike Quinn
Esk Valley Fell Club
Another year of low level (run) training so doing the short course again this year. 17k/1200m and assuming the reality is usually 30% more, still a decent day out.
Upper Eskdale and Wasdale head probably beckon. Maybe a nod to Brackenclose on the way past?
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
Well there's nothing like an approaching thunderstorm to focus the mind on the job in hand!
My pre-race optimistic liberal application of sun cream was washed off on the crossing of Great Moss as the torrential downpour that followed the thunder and lightning hit. I'm not sure how much the weather affected the classic - only 4 finished but it was a tough one this year regardless. Eskdale, Cold Pike, Stake Pass, Glaramara, Green Gable, Kirk Fell, head of Eskdale, Great How, Goat Crag. Ouch!
I managed 13th on the short course which given my current fitness and the rate of attrition on this year's trial, I'm reasonably pleased with. Route choice seemed to be my downfall - other than from CP2 to CP3 (Hard Knott to head of Eskdale) where I did manage to put in a couple of kilometres of running, the rest was very much a fast walk interspersed with the odd jog - bracken, tussocks and boulders throughout.
Route gadget will be interesting to see where I lost time. I suspect a lot of time was spent finding Goat Crag - many wandering around and plenty of head scratching when I approached. Thankfully visibility was not a problem by then as the sun had come out again.
Last edited by PeteS; 11-09-2023 at 12:33 PM.
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
I've just been looking at the Classic results... i assumed an error on the results.... only 4 completed and wildly varying times....
What happened?
Well done on your time and position Pete....
Thanks.Originally Posted by Travs
Not sure on the classic. None had finished by the time I left. The storms seemed to be rolling in from the SW so probably would have affected the Wrynose/Langdale/Borrowdale section. Looking at the splits most retired at CP4 (Glaramara) or 6 (Kirk Fell). Possibly timed out or at least from there a reasonably easy run back to Eskdale.
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
The reality was 20.5km/1330m
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
I've just had a look at the Classic Course on Routegadget..... Jesus!!
Looks incredibly tough, some massive legs... and the final section round Cow Cove/Cat Cove is really difficult ground.
The Cat Cove area was a nightmare. Just thankful we had good visibility otherwise I might have still been up there now!
I've just uploaded my GPX to route gadget. Not too dissimilar from the winner. (Other than an hour's difference in time of course!)
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
4 completed the route, but only 2 of those finishers actually came in before the 5pm cut off! I headed home at 4ish (I did the medium but retired halfway round due to injury - a good day out nonetheless), but I assume the usual 5pm course closure time was waived this year?
I don't think the conditions were what caused the issues with the Classic - I was up on Crinkle Crags when the thunderstorm hit and it made conditions slippy, but not too bad. The cloud mostly remained high/intermittent, so nav wasn't as challenging as it could have been. (Admittedly a lot of this will depend on your exact location when the weather hits.)
The retirement rate was quite a bit higher than normal for all three courses this year, but the Classic was particularly striking.
I think the route for the Classic was probably just too big for most of the field to have had a chance of completing it in time. It was a fair bit more distance and more ascent than usual, and the terrain in that area is really tough. My husband usually does the classic and he retired when he realised that he had no chance of making the cutoffs - he only went to CP3/4 and back to base, but still covered 35km. In a lot of years, 35km would cover the whole classic course.
I think that's the first LDMT I've been to (either as a competitor or just along for the craic) where they haven't had enough finishers back to hold the full Classic prize-giving at the usual time of 4:30pm!
I normally hang around for the prize-giving, but by the time I left it was obvious they were barely going to be able to award first place.
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