LAMM
We found out on Thursday that this year's LAMM (Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon) was to be in Sutherland - one of the most remote parts of Scotland in the North West region, about 1hr 45mins past Inverness...drove up on Friday night with Outi (from Finland) and her boyfriend Richard, and we met Robert, Kasia, Ed, Kate and Pete in Inverness.
After setting up camp at the Event Centre in Inchnadamph we registered and got our start time for the next day (8:40am for Ed & I, doing 'C' class). Waking up Saturday morning the weather didn't look too promising...we got taken by bus to the actual start (nobody knows until you get there where it will be!) and were given maps and 8 checkpoints - everybody finds a space and quickly plans their route and then it's all go!
The terrain was pretty rough and the weather a bit miserable - a real shame because the area was so beautiful. Poor visibility made navigating quite tough (what would I know, I let Ed do it all!). We didn't find Day 1 as 'runnable' as we would have liked - but plenty of scrambling up & down scree slopes, stumbling through heather, squelching in mud, and boulder hopping on wet slippy rocks, which gets more nerve-racking the more fatigued you become!
Here's us 'dibbing in' at a checkpoint on Saturday - a particularly nasty hike up, simply to dib before going straight back down, around the lochan and back up the other side! It cleared a little early afternoon, and the views from Stack of Glencoul were magnificent, including Britain's highest waterfall. From there was a steep downhill section and then an actual path (pure luxury) led us to the campsite :)
Ed & I; viewpoint; Britain's highest waterfall
The campsite was spectacular - right on the edge of Loch Glencoul, a great spot to clean up a little before setting up the tent and watching the remaining teams descending from all sides to the finish! We started below sea level (on the beach) early Sunday morning...the only way from there was UP!
Glencoul campsite; on the beach; cleaning up!
Day 2 we were in the chasing start behind the leaders, as 2nd mixed team and 15th overall. We started strongly and had made up good time over tha first half of the course, even overtaking the 1st mixed team up to checkpoint 4. Unfortunately we then messed about trying to find checkpoint 5 (I certainly wasn't climbing extra hills just for fun!) and wasted quite a bit of time. We ended up 18th overall, so still pretty pleased and more than anything just happy to be finished!
More pictures of the course and results are posted on the LAMM website.
After setting up camp at the Event Centre in Inchnadamph we registered and got our start time for the next day (8:40am for Ed & I, doing 'C' class). Waking up Saturday morning the weather didn't look too promising...we got taken by bus to the actual start (nobody knows until you get there where it will be!) and were given maps and 8 checkpoints - everybody finds a space and quickly plans their route and then it's all go!
The terrain was pretty rough and the weather a bit miserable - a real shame because the area was so beautiful. Poor visibility made navigating quite tough (what would I know, I let Ed do it all!). We didn't find Day 1 as 'runnable' as we would have liked - but plenty of scrambling up & down scree slopes, stumbling through heather, squelching in mud, and boulder hopping on wet slippy rocks, which gets more nerve-racking the more fatigued you become!Here's us 'dibbing in' at a checkpoint on Saturday - a particularly nasty hike up, simply to dib before going straight back down, around the lochan and back up the other side! It cleared a little early afternoon, and the views from Stack of Glencoul were magnificent, including Britain's highest waterfall. From there was a steep downhill section and then an actual path (pure luxury) led us to the campsite :)
Ed & I; viewpoint; Britain's highest waterfall
The campsite was spectacular - right on the edge of Loch Glencoul, a great spot to clean up a little before setting up the tent and watching the remaining teams descending from all sides to the finish! We started below sea level (on the beach) early Sunday morning...the only way from there was UP!
Glencoul campsite; on the beach; cleaning up!
Day 2 we were in the chasing start behind the leaders, as 2nd mixed team and 15th overall. We started strongly and had made up good time over tha first half of the course, even overtaking the 1st mixed team up to checkpoint 4. Unfortunately we then messed about trying to find checkpoint 5 (I certainly wasn't climbing extra hills just for fun!) and wasted quite a bit of time. We ended up 18th overall, so still pretty pleased and more than anything just happy to be finished!
More pictures of the course and results are posted on the LAMM website.
Labels: the great outdoors
posted by Mhairi
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home