This summer a new event will for the first time bring mountaineering into UK hill racing. The Glen Coe Skyline includes serious scrambles on Aonach Eagach and Curved Ridge. Is this a risk too far for a managed event? We asked race organiser Shane Ohly to explain his thinking.
It would have been interesting to find out more about the "robust plans and processes" to mitigate the impact on other walkers and climbers. Short of closing the route to all bar the competitors, I'm not sure what can be done to cover this. Having a race where competitors are potentially held up because someone's taking a wee while on Curved Ridge or on the Pinnacles on the AE ridge seems a strange kind of race to me.
I wonder what measures were taken when the AR world championship used Curved Ridge? There's also been a race that went up Pinnacle Ridge on St Sunday Crag, where similar issues apply.
I don't understand all the negativity raised about this event. Sounds great to me. There's plenty of space for 100 or so people to race around Glen Coe, even on the scrambling terrain. I'm not based in the UK so won't be doing it, but certainly would be if I was a bit closer.
The main thing that puts me off is the waymarking - the only way I can avoid humiliation in this sort of event is when the navigation gets hard and the decent runners get lost!
The other thing that puts me off is the 12 hour time limit
Hi Simon, Gary Tompsett was also the planner for the 2007 AR world championships. He says that on Curved Ridge they used fixed lines and jumars, or some equivalent ascenders (for safety, obv, not ascending the ropes). This year there are to be no fixed ropes, which I guess is quite a different thing both for competitors and in terms of managing it.
Given the good organisation that Shane and team put in place on the Dark Mountains MM this year I would expect this to be a well run and thoughtfully considered event.
the lakes one looks interesting but i think a mountain trial style format would be more interesting on this kind of thing just checkpoints no marked route but set in such a way that the hard options are fastest. like in the mountain trial this year where the shortest route on one section was over striding edge. more fell running style where your navigation and a bit of local knowledge can put out some surprises as far as who can do well.
Press Release Alpkit and Outside Bank Holiday Hathersage Tent Show 4-5th May
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...