Lythgoes Adrenalin Rush

The Leaders on the Ropes

Rob / 28.05.2002

Per Vestling of ‘Maybe Xdin’ stood among the granite rocks and squelching bog at the top of the rope ascent and looked out across the hills he’d spent the last 6 hours crossing . “The Irish mountains are very beautiful�, he said, “a bit like our mountains in Sweden – but wetter! The weather hasn’t been so bad though, it has stopped raining some of the time.�

After so much arduous climbing and strength sapping bog trotting it was an optimistic outlook, but without that positive frame of mind and enjoyment of their surroundings none of the racers would be here. The ropework was strenuous but everyone was enjoying the challenge. Asa Eklund came up next and said the ascending was particularly tough. Alex Stewart of third placed Team UK had said exactly the same thing in the same spot half an hour before her.

She had never abseiled more than 50m and with the wet ropes hard to use had descended carefully but enjoyed the adrenaline rush. From the top it was a sudden drop off from a rocky outcrop, the lake far below giving an added sense of exposure, and once onto the descent it was a long, long way to look down. The length of the rope and the fact the sudden heavy showers made the rope so wet meant it was hard work pushing it through the descender but footing was good - there was plenty of ‘bite’on the rough granite. This was true of the whole area, footing anywhere off the rocks was incredibly slippy – all slippy heather and moss and shoe sucking bog, but grip on the rock was good even when wet.

While Pete James waited for her to come up he said he was happy with their 3rd position. “We’ve not pushed too hard and are looking after ourselves OK. Everything is taking longer than expected though and our plan to get on the sea kayak stage tonight isn’t going to work out� he said. “We’d hoped to get a tidal push into the bay before nightfall, and catch the outgoing tide the next morning, but it won’t happen. I doubt anyone will get on the water now, but no one is taking any rest as we all know we’ll have an enforced sleep on the dark zone. We are all racing for that.�

Where to sleep had concerned Noel Hanna of leaders ‘Omniglow Lythgoe’. “We’re not sure if we should stop at the Red Bull station, where we have the gear boxes and sleeping bags, or push on to the start of the kayak,� he said as he waited to go down the abseil in some of the heaviest rain of the day. “We took a very direct line across the mountains, no contouring, just up and over and it seems to have worked as we didn’t see Xdin at all on the hills.�

By the time they worked their way around to the traverse they still had a good 30 minute lead on the chasing Swedes. Jim Davies was the first to cross and was very unsure about walking, face outwards, over the edge and the instruction not to hold onto the ropes or cable. It’s not natural to lean out into the void and even more unnatural not to hang on as the pulley whisks you across open space towards the rocks either side!

Once over he helped his team unhitch after they had landed on the heather and as they all waited for the last across, Gary Robertson, they kept their buffs wrapped around theirs heads to try and keep out the midges. Whenever the rain stopped and the sun came out, swarms of these fierce, tiny, biting insects plagued everyone, and no one was being optimistic about that part of the experience!