Severe Conditions Challenge OMM Competitors

Rob Howard / 28.10.2017

Day one of the historic 50th OMM offered up exactly what the event is renowned for – tough conditions and uncompromising courses that offered a true test of endurance, mountain craft and navigation.  By the end of the day many teams had retired or cut short courses after battling gale force winds, dense cloud and rain, and after navigating for hours in almost zero visibility. It was a very tough day.

Midweek forecasts seemed to offer the promise of a fine if cold weekend, but when teams walked to the start from the race HQ at Stool End Farm in Langdale the cloud was low over the tops, there were frequent rain squalls and they were heading into a strong win.  It was a 15 minute walk to the start point in Mickleden, and from there every course  lead uphill from the outset – very steeply up.

Pairs were soon climbing out of Langdale in several different directions as they tackled one of 7 different courses, 3 of them on fixed routes, 3 ‘score’ classes with free navigational choice and one combined course.

The courses took them out into the central fells of the Lake District, spread out as far North as Brandreth and south to the Coniston Fells.  The various routes took them all to a mid-camp at Cockley Beck in the Duddon Valley and all were defined and made difficult today by the harsh weather conditions.

One pair I spoke to who were retiring back to HQ said, “It was just too difficult to continue, and we had to come down.  At times we were blown off our feet and found it hard to run downhill against the wind. For most of the day you couldn’t see anything, so navigation was really hard.”

A reflection of the difficulty is that the leading Elite teams were on course for over 8 hours, and a look at the results will show many teams didn’t make the mid-camp. (They all have everything they need to camp at whatever point they reached when the course closed at 20.00 if they want to.)

Among those few who can both survive such harsh conditions and be competitive the most notable results on day one are that 2016 Elite winners Shane Ohly and Duncan Archer are leading again, while in the A class it is mixed pair Zoe & Quentin Harding who lead, and there is an international team heading the C class - Magnus Andersson & Daniel Ljungdahl.  Another mixed pair, Jonathan Davies and Nicola Mason, lead the Medium Score and in the Combined course it is a ‘local’ team leading the way - Tom Elliot and Chris Barton running as Windermere Boyz Club.

Those who made it round their courses are now camped out at Cockley Beck, midway between Wrynose and Hardknott passes, trying to recover and sleep on a night which remains stormy.  Fortunately the forecast is set to improve for Sunday, and day 2 of the competition.

You can see updates and the day one results on www.theomm.com

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