Patricia’s Report
T minus 14 days: “I’m not marathon-fit”
T minus 7 days: “I don’t own a tent”
T minus 1 day: “Phillipa and Karin made me do a 7 hills recce yesterday”
It turns out Willie doesn’t think any one of these is an adequate reason to avoid dipping a toe into mountain marathoning.
Edinample was a great introduction into what is involved for a novice like me. In actual fact, it isn’t 26.2miles and Willie has a selection of spare tents.
The location was great (see picture of view from camp site), the company was lovely, the hills were spectacular and the lack of washing facilities liberating!
I would definitely recommend any worried novices like me give an event like this a go.
Thank you to all who put so much into making it a success- from Andy from marking the course, to Willie patiently trying to teach me to navigate, to Helen for lending me warm blankets.
I admit my navigational skills leave a lot to be desired, my fitness level could be better, and my limited camping equipment has seen better days; but after a bath and an uninterrupted 10.5 hour recovery sleep last night, I feel quite positive that I could be back to try again….
Patricia McMaster
Willie’s Report
The routes taken by most people are below, uncharged watches aside, Ross Christie got most points both days with a fantastic 360 Day 1 and 270 Day 2. Alasdair Hood and Gordon Eadie won the oldies award with Alasdair celebrating his 59th birthday on Saturday with 220? points and 120 on a escape early day 2. Helen Wise was out on her own day 1 (230 Points) and with Fraser Day 2 (170 Points). Willie, Patricia and Tracey had a good Day 1 (120) and were joined by Jason Coombs for day 2 (110). Joel was out day 2 (180 points) , Cali and Bob got the OAP prize Day 2, and Jeff and Helen did Day 1 on Day 2. All in All a great weekend.
Ross Christie’s Report
With the LAMM fast approaching I needed to practice my navigating skills as well as spending a good amount of time on pathless, open hillside and carrying my pack. The Carnethy weekend at Edinample came along just at the right time, one month before the LAMM and on a rare free weekend. I set off at Midday on Saturday from the campsite with the intention of hitting as many controls as possible – in the end I think I hit all but 3 or 4 and totalled 360 points. The shorter navigational runs I’ve done over the past few weeks really helped! There were some great hidden spots on the route, particularly Lochan A Chroin below Stuc and Lochan Na Mna which I’ve often admired from the summit of Ben Vorlich.
A night around the campfire with plenty of beer and whisky was a great way recover but maybe not the best preparation for day 2!
The second day controls were dotted around to the west of Lochearnhead around Glen Kendrum and Glen Ogle. Again this was a great way of seeing some less visited hills and the ridge North West from Meall an t-Seallaidh was particularly dramatic. I managed to collect 270 points with some higher scoring controls tucked away in some farther flung locations.
I’d highly recommend a weekend like this for people looking to get a taster of mountain marathons as there are plenty of experienced people to show you the ropes but it’s also a great way for experienced mountain marathoners to sharpen navigational skills and explore new places.
Thanks to Willie for organising and Win for the excellent campsite.
We should do more of these!
Ross