Fellsman

[dmd]

Once the dust (hail? snow?) has settled, it'll be interesting to hear the discussions about the date of the event. I know the date change was forced on the organisers by access issues, but one would think that the new April slot increases the chances of poor weather as well as extending the night length.
They evaluate the event meticulously, and I would imagine that we haven't heard the last of this.

The access issues won't go away. It's doubtful that we'll ever be able to hold the event again in May.

[castlehill]

well my first fellsman, and a great experience! Can't praise the organisation and marshalls enough, it was a brilliant event to be part of.
Grouping worked really well for us gt whernside was definitely not a place to be by yourself this morning!

[dmd]

Dmd, don't worry she was very complimentary about the organisation of the event and I have to say I was mightily impressed by what I saw and I only saw Ingleton, Hill Inn and Threshfield, amazing, heroes one and all!

There were indeed some heroes. I was at Cray with one of my friends, an event helper who is a trained first responder. An entrant there was suffering from possible hypothermia, and my friend sprang into action to give her the immediate treatment she needed, a very impressive spectacle. We didn't wait for a minibus, we got her back by car, and she was doing OK by the time we arrived back at Threshfield. This same friend of mine was also in a group that in the early hours went by foot to Capplestone Gate to treat another entrant who had been discovered, alone, virtually blind, and walking in the opposite direction. Many people never made it to bed last night, and I felt a little guilty about retiring to my comfy caravan for a sleep, possibly in excess of three hours.

[protodoc]

Nice write up here:

http://blogs.sandomenico.org.uk/2012...nothing-fatal/

[Stolly]

Brilliant, brilliant event in incredible weather. That wind was just brutal all day long. Unfortunately I had to retire at Cray after 45 miles because I had what I thought was probably the beginnings of hypothermia; at the Hell Gap CP just before Cray my vision was completely blurred and I had trouble speaking anything but dribble to the tally hole puncher. When I'd trotted down to the tent in Cray I was completely starving and had (no kidding) two saucepans full of rice pudding mixed with fruit cocktail but I just couldn't get warm and became very sleepy and groggy. Dropping out seemed a sensible move. Even if I had recovered (what with the wide open wind battered tops of Buckden Pike of Great Whernside to come) I'd have been a real liability to any team I grouped with and I was wary of me having to then drop out and kill their race in the process. The guys at Cray were brilliant by the way - they made a right fuss of me wrapping me in blankets and foil survival blankets and even gave me a hot water bottle. The race doctor happened to be there too and he gave me a good once over.

As for my race I think it died from self inflicted wounds to be honest. I started brilliantly and fairly whizzed to Dent (the 20 mile point) in 3 hours 55 minutes. Unfortunately though I lost my camera dropping down to Flinter's Gill and got side tracked reporting that to the Dent marshals and didn't take any proper food on board, just a couple of chocolate biscuits which I ate trotting off down the road (they were like trying to eat dust biscuits and I kept choking on them). All the same I was feeling strong all the way up the side of Whernside but this feeling died on me completely by the top of Blea Moor where my blood sugar seemed to fall through the floor. After dropping down through the woods (to get out of the fricking wind as best I could) I ate the best part of a snickers and felt much better and stopped properly to eat pasta and two slices of fruit cake in Stonehouse. After that I still only managed a trudge to the top of Great Knoutberry but, by the time I got there, I was feeling good again and ran in good nick all the way to Redshaw.

At Redshaw though I made another food error and just walked out with a hot dog and, although the hot dog itself was okay, I couldn't chew the bread down into anything swallowable and had to spit it out. I was still running strong though and got to the top of Dodd Fell in good order............ only for the cold to really get to me for the first time. I'd been running in two long sleeve tops but my bottom layer, one of those tight paunch hugging thermals, was probably to become the bane of my run. At this point I'd been out a long time exposed to the elements and I was feeling chilled to the bone - I should have put my wind proof on there and then but I delayed doing this until I'd dropped off the hill. I then put on my wooly hat, changed into my seal skin gloves and put on my wind proof. By the time I reached Fleet Moss I was warm but starting to feel another bonk coming on. At this point though I'd reached Fleet Moss (say 38 miles in) after 8.5 hours and a 15 to 16 hour finish was still on the cards.

I ate a delicious jam roll at Fleet Moss and had a mug of soup too and felt much better again. Here though I made another mistake. Wary of getting cold again I added another layer, my waterproof on top of my wind proof on top of my running top, on top of my thermal. I ran the stretch to Deepdale really well and was very warm to boot. Then the guy I'd hooked up with at that point unfortunately made a 'slight' detour to his cunning plan to get on the quad bike tracks to the Middle Tongue checkpoint but we found them after a bit of wading through the tussocks and again were able to run quickly to the CP. After that though it became the beginning of the end for me - my pal vamoosed and I was left on my tod just taking an eastward line, mainly walking, through tussocks head on into the wind and I started to chill very very fast. My energy levels also starting dropping quickly too and I was very, very hungry. Ironically adding the extra layer had made me sweat and the thermal kept that clammy sweat close to my body and while walking I just went from hot to fricking frozen in no time. The 2 or 3 miles to Hell Gap were absolute hell and I knew I would be struggling to be able to continue at Cray as I'd used up all my layers.

In hind sight wearing the thermal next to my skin was a massive mistake as I know that I'm an easy sweating type of person and sweat gone cold is something I've suffered from many times before. Having another replacement layer in my rucksack would have been perfect but I didn't have one. Nor had I been able to pair up with anybody else to that point which, if nothing else, would have helped on the morale point of view. So having reached Cray and wolfed down my first saucepan full of rice pudding and found myself getting colder and colder I pulled the plug on my race. And almost certainly avoided what could have been a very sticky end in the hills.

Fantastic day out though.......

EDIT: Oh and well done Hes for completing her first (of many ) Fellsman. Not just a normal Fellsman either but a Fellsman with nobs and a half on!

[GeeeM]

Thanks - that's me!

Nice write up here:

http://blogs.sandomenico.org.uk/2012...nothing-fatal/

[protodoc]

Brilliant, brilliant event in incredible weather. That wind was just brutal all day long. Unfortunately I had to retire at Cray after 45 miles because I had what I thought was probably the beginnings of hypothermia; at the Hell Gap CP just before Cray my vision was completely blurred and I had trouble speaking anything but dribble to the tally hole puncher. When I'd trotted down to the tent in Cray I was completely starving and had (no kidding) two saucepans full of rice pudding mixed with fruit cocktail but I just couldn't get warm and became very sleepy and groggy. Dropping out seemed a sensible move. Even if I had recovered (what with the wide open wind battered tops of Buckden Pike of Great Whernside to come) I'd have been a real liability to any team I grouped with and I was wary of me having to then drop out and kill their race in the process. The guys at Cray were brilliant by the way - they made a right fuss of me wrapping me in blankets and foil survival blankets and even gave me a hot water bottle. The race doctor happened to be there too and he gave me a good once over.

As for my race I think it died from self inflicted wounds to be honest. I started brilliantly and fairly whizzed to Dent (the 20 mile point) in 3 hours 55 minutes. Unfortunately though I lost my camera dropping down to Flinter's Gill and got side tracked reporting that to the Dent marshals and didn't take any proper food on board, just a couple of chocolate biscuits which I ate trotting off down the road (they were like trying to eat dust biscuits and I kept choking on them). All the same I was feeling strong all the way up the side of Whernside but this feeling died on me completely by the top of Blea Moor where my blood sugar seemed to fall through the floor. After dropping down through the woods (to get out of the fricking wind as best I could) I ate the best part of a snickers and felt much better and stopped properly to eat pasta and two slices of fruit cake in Stonehouse. After that I still only managed a trudge to the top of Great Knoutberry but, by the time I got there, I was feeling good again and ran in good nick all the way to Redshaw.

At Redshaw though I made another food error and just walked out with a hot dog and, although the hot dog itself was okay, I couldn't chew the bread down into anything swallowable and had to spit it out. I was still running strong though and got to the top of Dodd Fell in good order............ only for the cold to really get to me for the first time. I'd been running in two long sleeve tops but my bottom layer, one of those tight paunch hugging thermals, was probably to become the bane of my run. At this point I'd been out a long time exposed to the elements and I was feeling chilled to the bone - I should have put my wind proof on there and then but I delayed doing this until I'd dropped off the hill. I then put on my wooly hat, changed into my seal skin gloves and put on my wind proof. By the time I reached Fleet Moss I was warm but starting to feel another bonk coming on. At this point though I'd reached Fleet Moss (say 38 miles in) after 8.5 hours and a 15 to 16 hour finish was still on the cards.

I ate a delicious jam roll at Fleet Moss and had a mug of soup too and felt much better again. Here though I made another mistake. Wary of getting cold again I added another layer, my waterproof on top of my wind proof on top of my running top, on top of my thermal. I ran the stretch to Deepdale really well and was very warm to boot. Then the guy I'd hooked up with at that point unfortunately made a 'slight' detour to his cunning plan to get on the quad bike tracks to the Middle Tongue checkpoint but we found them after a bit of wading through the tussocks and again were able to run quickly to the CP. After that though it became the beginning of the end for me - my pal vamoosed and I was left on my tod just taking an eastward line, mainly walking, through tussocks head on into the wind and I started to chill very very fast. My energy levels also starting dropping quickly too and I was very, very hungry. Ironically adding the extra layer had made me sweat and the thermal kept that clammy sweat close to my body and while walking I just went from hot to fricking frozen in no time. The 2 or 3 miles to Hell Gap were absolute hell and I knew I would be struggling to be able to continue at Cray as I'd used up all my layers.

In hind sight wearing the thermal next to my skin was a massive mistake as I know that I'm an easy sweating type of person and sweat gone cold is something I've suffered from many times before. Having another replacement layer in my rucksack would have been perfect but I didn't have one. Nor had I been able to pair up with anybody else to that point which, if nothing else, would have helped on the morale point of view. So having reached Cray and wolfed down my first saucepan full of rice pudding and found myself getting colder and colder I pulled the plug on my race. And almost certainly avoided what could have been a very sticky end in the hills.

Fantastic day out though.......

EDIT: Oh and well done Hes for completing her first (of many ) Fellsman. Not just a normal Fellsman either but a Fellsman with nobs and a half on!

Bad luck Stolly, sensible decision though. Hopefully we can all learn from your report.

[AlanB]

Of the 18 Fellsmans I've now completed, that has to be by far the coldest. I've had some pretty rough ones over the years, but I don't think I have ever been so cold. I couldn't warm up at all. Even a determined walk up Great Whernside did not generate any heat. I can understand why people got hypothermia, and was probably not far off myself. I know grouping is for safety reasons, but everyone still has to take personal responsibilty and in conditions such as those experienced you get into survival mode. One guy with us had a Petzl Tikka for his torch, which may be OK round the camp site, but up there when you NEED to see where you were going, it was useless. Consequently, we had a lot of standing around in the freezing conditions waiting for him. There weren't too many groups behind as we got through Park Rash before it was abondonned. But the worst point was that 900 metres before Capplestone CP, we waited for him at the stile, and then continued to the CP. We were only walking and he should have been with us but wasn't, and we had to wait 30+ minutes in the freezing conditions before he materialised. We were all getting varying degrees of shudders while we were waiting. The CP staff just told him to get in their tent and sent us on our way. I eventually finished in 19:43 and was my slowest time for many years. I've just about thawed out, but blimey that was a cold one.

Just picking up on this point from P161 of this thread - like AndyA I'm quite shocked about this comment. Do we not think that point 6c in the rules is there for a reason ??

"Failing to maintain compact groups ... will result in disqualification of the WHOLE group"

Yes, the conditions on Gt Whernside and Buckden Pike were desperate and yes, we all felt way too cold but that's no need to leave one member of the team 30+ minutes behind. Like AndyA I ran with a Petzl Tikka (mine was probably the brightest in our group !) and it was perfectly adequate.

I don't understand why they inforce the kit checks so rigorously when something like this is overlooked. Compact groups should be mandatory, sorry - it's for the safety of ALL competitors and not just those who have got some life in their legs.

[Twinkletoes]

Not sure about some of the times on the Felltrack link as it is showing me not getting to Fleetmoss until nearly 8pm, Igot there at 6.50 and got away before the grouping thing started...

[matthew]

Well done all, it sounds like a truly grim day on the hill.

Good write up Stolly. It's a good reminded about the importance of athletically eating on ultras. Food food food. Well done for having the sense to pull the plug, it's always a hard decision.