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Decisions at Transitions 3

Rob Howard / 23.08.2005

The first night of the race proved to be the last for some teams as torrential rain and high winds lashed the mountains of Glen Coe, while they struggled to cross them in darkness. It may be summer in the UK, but teams arriving at TA3 were cold and bordering hypothermic, dispirited by the severe weather and there were numerous withdrawals. Throughout Tuesday morning teams pulling out were ferried back to race HQ to warm up and recover.

The rain began around midnight, when most of the teams were climbing up onto Bidean nam Bian, the slower teams were still camped out at Transition 2, and the last team on the course, Alpinebikes (GGHNHS) were descending Aonach Eagach. They got down into Glen Coe at 01.25 in the morning, where Rob Sanderson withdrew and the 3 remaining team members joined up with Gill Watson and Eddie Winthorpe of ‘High 5 On Orange’ to form a joint team and continue unranked from Transition 3. North Downs Mountain Rescue had also been camping there and did set off to walk up to Transition 3, but were unable to continue and were bussed back to HQ.

Both Halo and Carpe Diem missed the wet sections of the canyon stage as they were late arriving there. Halo continued up the steep climb towards The Lost Valley but were so cold and wet they decided to stop on the face. “We found a patch of grass on a small terrace, but water was running into our emergency shelter and we didn’t get warmed up at all,� said Marina Steadman. “Nick was so cold one of the marshals gave him some tea but then advised us to go back down.�

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