planetFear Open24
Open24 in the Lake District
Team Berghaus Adventure / 08.08.2011
Battling once against uncharacteristically hot conditions, the first ten hours felt more about survival than a pleasant trip out. Fortunately, by 9pm the sun was setting and the team took a dive (literally in Jack’s case) into the deep pools at Rydal Gorge for a cool off and some head-spinning waterfall jumps.
After this, things picked up, and although it was not possible to claw back lost points from the earlier half of the race, Emma and Jack pushed on for a strong finish that gave them third place overall in the race series.
The race began with a mass start on the shores of Ullswater near Pooley Bridge.
Teams took in as many checkpoints as they could along both shores of the lake before landing at Howtown. From here, there was a brief subterranean shuffle through a series of tight tunnels before emerging into the sunshine and heading over Martindale and Boredale to Patterdale on the bikes.
A navigation error and small bike mishap cost the team time at this point, and they arrived feeling hot and bothered into the next transition before heading out for the first of two long trekking sections. The route took teams over the steep but beautiful Harrison crag before dropping down beneath St Sunday crag for a scramble up Pinnacle Ridge.
From here, it was up onto Fairfield and round the eastern half of the horseshoe next with a little detour down to Priest’s Hole cave. By now the sun was starting to set in beautiful oranges and gold’s but the heat of the sun was still fierce and with no water to be found, it was onwards and downwards to the Rydal beck gorge scramble and an opportunity to take on more food and water.
As twilight descended, the pair headed out for a circuit of Loughrigg fell on the bikes where more caves were to be found. A short torch lit paddle on Windermere followed, and whilst it was disappointing that the cloud had covered over the carpet of stars, it was as ever still a special experience paddling in the dark with the glinting lights reflecting on the water.
SleepMonsters
