Highlander Mountain Marathon
Snowfall in Torridon
The Highlander Team. Photos by Jon Brooke/www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk / 24.04.2008
The organisers and competitors were fully wound up and firing on all cylinders – only to be ambushed by the weather gods. The event took place on about the roughest terrain ever used by a mountain marathon – and probably in the most wintry conditions experienced in the course of this sort of event!
The only similar weather that readily springs to mind is that which accompanied the 1991 KIMM at Threlkeld, though that is hardly a good comparison as the hills there are relative pussycats. Here we had an abundance of deep heather, big sandstone boulders, quartzite sheets, slimy ground and potentially dodgy river crossings … and that was before the snow fell.
All credit goes to all the competitors who braved the arctic conditions. The rufty tufty’s of the mountain marathon world – not only the finishers, who excelled, but also those who decided to retire for various reasons. They deserve nothing but admiration for their drive and fortitude in getting as far as they did in those conditions.
The courses tried to get everyone out on to the superb central peaks of An Ruadh-stac, Maol Chean-dearg, Sgorr Ruadh, Fuar Tholl and Beinn Liath Mhor, without taking them too high. Good paths circumnavigate these hills, allowing breathers from the slow going traversing or climbing the hillsides. Despite the harsh weather, hopefully everyone did see the hills and has taken away some stunning memories of the landscape.
The A course should provide a few hours of pleasure for all cartographic stato-nerds. The format (visiting all controls in any order while omitting one of your choice) seemed to be generally well received. There seemed to be 4 sensible possibilities, and little time difference between them – when combined with the variable terrain, people’s personal strengths and the prevailing conditions, there was probably no single right answer, only the potential for getting it a bit wrong.
SleepMonsters
