ITERA Expedition Race

From The Ben to Oban

Rob Howard / 18.08.2022

As the race reaches its final stages, for the leaders anyway, teams are spread out across the course from Ben Nevis to the finish line at Oban. 

Racing Denmark still lead, closely followed by the Endurancelife teams, and they are now on the final stage, riding to the finish at Oban. That's because the final paddle stage had to be called off in the deteriorating weather, so they will stay on their bikes to the finish at Oban's North Pier now.

At the same time a couple of teams are still on Ben Nevis and Mamores trek, which the leaders passed through yesterday.  The trek began with one of the marquee stages, the ascent of Ledge Route from the CIC hut at the foot of the North Face of Ben Nevis, and once Racing Denmark had set off for this after sleeping, the waiting short course teams could follow them up the mountain.  

The towering cliffs, ridges and ramparts of the North Face surround the hut and it was amagnificent setting for the teams to climb up through.  After a steep and loose scramble up into the corrie the race guides directed them to Ledge Route. This was a ridge scramble up to the summit plateau with 4 points of contact in places and views of the corrie one side and dropping away to the coast the other. It a breathtaking place.

There was more climbing to reach the summit, where the checkpoint was on the top of the Trig point which is visited by thousands every day, all wanting to make it to the highest point in the UK.  However, for the racers Ben Nevis was just part of a big trekking stage, which took them down to the Carn Mor Dearg arrete, another airy scramble, to the summit of Carn Mor Dearg.

Then the teams went steeply down a loose and rocky descent into the head of Glen Nevis, where they waded the river before climbing up onto the Mamore range and containing via several more summits into the next TA at Kinlochleven. (One of the Mamore summit CP's was taken out of the course.) It was a stage full of iconic mountain locations, but visiting them required an energy sapping 35km trek with 3000m of climb.

Not surprisingly, most teams wanted to sleep when they got to the end at the hall in Kinlochleven.  There was ample space in the sports hall and good facilities (something ITERA takes great pains to provide.)  There were an abundance of midges too, even inside the hall, where most kept their head nets on! From here teams walked to the start of the via Ferrata stage at the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall.  This is a commercial operation and includes ladders, traverses and a high wire bridge. It was fun stage but you needed a good head for heights and teams were warned there was no passing possible, so it was unfortunate for Racing Denmark they got stuck behind a team where one racer was having problems, and this held them up.

Not all the teams slept in transition. Joe Faulkner of Team Nav 4 Adventure said, "We slept on the hill as we have a tarp and it soft nice level ground and high enough to have a breeze and keep the midges off."  His team mate Eddie Winthorpe just said, "It's been a bit a unpleasant out there in the wet and with all the midges."  It had rained all night and continued through the morning.

Also in the hall were the UK Adventurers and Helen Chapman had her legs raised up on a chair and was waiting for some medical attention. Both legs and ankles were swollen but her right knee even more so.  Once she was strapped and treated the team continued, aiming to make it to the finish and stay on the full course.  Many wouldn't have gone on ... and a footballer would have had a tantrum, a month off and been on Twitter about it in no time.

Strong Machine AR were in the hall around the same time. Cliff White had explained their strategy earlier in the race.  "We like to think we know our limitations and abilities and decided to act accordingly, so we went short course on the first trek on Mull. We missed two CP's there, with only a couple of hours penalty and that took the pressure off and meant we might not be forced into dropping more expensive options later on. We know ITERA and there is nothing given or easy, so you have to respect the course and play to your strengths. Hopefully, we can make the right choices and get to the end."

As they make their way through to the final stage, which is now a 150km ride, with a stop for a short orienteering stage, all the ITERA teams will have found out what their strengths (and weaknesses) are along the way, and will be hoping the same thing.