Please find below some pictures from my Mountain Leader Training programme in Llanberis in North Wales. I am very grateful for your contribution, and this qualification will allow me to take young people from all over the country into the mountains.

The Mountain Leader Summer Qualification takes place over 6 days, and covers all aspect of summer mountaineering from navigation to scrambling, camp craft and simple rope-work. It is designed to train competent mountaineers in the skills necessary to take groups of all abilities into the mountains of the UK in summer conditions. We had fantastic weather in North Wales which was a welcome change from usual.

I am very grateful for the generous contribution of the Jack Bloor Fund.

Thank you

Sam Lee

Click to read the article (pdf)

 

Fully Vertical KM

Brad Traviss

Unfortunately after my 6 ^th place finish at the world mountain running championships in Krynica-Zdorj Poland, my preparation and training for the vertical kilometre in Switzerland didn’t go quite to plan! After starting university, I first came down with the dreaded “Freshers Flu” Even though I was probably just about the only fresher that didn’t go out and drink myself stupid, as I was trying to train for the home internationals on the 21 ^st of September.

Unfortunately after clearing the freshers flu, I came down with Gastroenteritis, which hospitalized me and stopped me for competing for England. After 3 weeks of very little movement, never mind training, it’s fair to say I wasn’t going to Switzerland in the shape I was hoping to be in! However I had already booked the hostel and flights and didn’t really want to pass up the opportunity to add to the fast growing list of countries which running has taken me to.

On arrival In Switzerland, I and my friend Joe were absolutely amazed at the fact trains actually ran on time! We were also pretty shocked at the price of food, which even know we had been told was expensive neither of us anticipated a McDonalds “happy meal” to be around £11! (Good job we are athletes and don’t eat McDonalds)

After a lovely scenic train journey from Geneva to Sion, we arrived at the hostel. After a quick nap we laced up our shoes for a quick evening run. However as we ran up through the vineyards of Mont-d’Orge, the scenery was so beautiful that the concept of time became none existent to us. As we descended the steps of the Chậteau de Terbillon we realised we had been out for over 2 hours!

The next day, we got up early, had our breakfast and set off again, this time with the intention of staying out for a fair while. We climbed and climbed up the mountain directly behind our hostel, we weaved our way up through stunning villages, ski resort chalets, orchards and farmland were the cows cheered us up the climb by the ringing of the big bells around their necks. We finally reached a point where the gondola ended and we would have struggled to go any further in the snow with the little gear we had. We descended back through the orchards and back to the town of Sion, where we treat ourselves to an Ice cream from a parlour in the town. (I got an amazing combo of pistachio and caramel)

The day after our 5 and a half hour mountain run, we went for a pleasant walk through the vineyards on the other side of Sion from where Mont-d’Ogre was. We found a map at a café that showed the surrounding mountains names and there heights which showed the one we had climbed (the name escapes me) was around 3500ft to the summit! After climbing through the vineyards to the top, our plan was to go get another ice cream down in Sion, but when we arrived; we found that there was a giant Friday market. All different kinds of Olives, fruits, nuts, cheeses and meats were on display, so instead of ice cream, we filled ourselves on all of the free tasters from the stalls and got a burrito from one of the stands.

Saturday morning we got up early to get the train from Sion to La Fully for the vertical Kilometre. Although we had seen pictures and video footage of the course, we were gob smacked when we saw the course of 1.9km in length with 1km of vertical accent rise up above us.

After the very little training and preparation I had had, I wasn’t expecting wonders, however did feel quite good on my warm up and hoped to produce a solid performance. Unfortunately after around 100m of vertical ascent into the race, my foot slipped off the old track that went up the course and I felt a pull in my calf. I continued fairly strong for the next 50m, but then the calf began throbbing getting worse every step. I have never pulled out of a race and would like to keep it that way! So I pushed through the pain and hobbled home.

After the race I had to limp all the way back down the mountain, which took nearly 2 hours! At the presentation after, there were as much roast chestnuts and Swiss cheese as you could eat! I had never had roast chestnuts before, but thought they were absolutely delicious! And have since had them at home of several occasions. I and Joe also managed to get a picture with Urban Zemmer who won the race and is the world record holder for the vertical Kilometre.

Although the race had gone worst than expected, I absolutely loved the trip to Switzerland! It gave me a taste of competing out in Europe In a different kind of race to one I’ve ever done before and of course roast chestnuts! Hopefully I will be able to compete in many more races in some of the most beautiful places the world has to offer and when I’m fit, I will hopefully show what I am Capable of!

Thank-you very much to the Jack Bloor fund for the money I received towards the trip! I am very grateful and could not have done it without the support!

Lagganlia 2013    Laura King  

Lagganlia is an annual, weeklong orienteering training camp for up to twenty-four 2nd year M/W14s. It is based in the Cairngorms National Park at Lagganlia Centre for Outdoor Learning in Glen Feshie near Aviemore.

I first found out I had been selected for Lagganlia by a letter through the post. To be eligible you had to have gained at least one Championship standard of which I now had four. My friend, Lucy Haines, had also been selected so that meant we could travel on the train together.

I met Lucy at Ilkley train station ready to get on the 0910 to Leeds. After we had said bye to our parents we set off on our journey. We changed trains at Leeds and then at Edinburgh. Here we joined other junior orienteers, some heading to the Deeside camp for M/W15s and others to Lagganlia.

At Aviemore station there was a minibus waiting to take us to the activity centre where we were staying. The centre was made up of a collection of chalets of which the girls and boys had one each. The girls were in rooms of two and I was with Lucy. After tea we sat in a circle and played some getting-to-know-each-other games.

The following day was probably the most tiring of all. We started by travelling to an area called Uath Lochan. Here we worked out our personal pacing measures, first on a track and then on terrain. Afterwards, we walked to a different part of the wood to do some training exercises involving pacing.

It was nice getting to know your group members a bit better. In my group I had a Scottish girl and two boys, one English, one Scottish. Plus two coaches, one senior, one junior. The coaches would shadow you around the exercises and then help you improve before sending you out onto the next exercise.

In the afternoon we did a timed kilometre run along a path and then another on terrain. We then calculated our personal ratios and whether, during a competition for example, we would be faster taking a short cut through terrain or running round the paths.

Next we did some activities in a really confusing patch of woodland. See below. The coaches had to stand around the wood and try to distract us, however, we didn’t know what they were doing so thought they were helping! This made us realise that we had to concentrate and learn not to get distracted. In the evening we had an hour to sit down with our coaches and review the day. This involved talking about what we had learnt and completing race analysis sheets.

On the other days we travelled to areas such as Little Mill, Moor of Alvie and North Granish to practice lots of different orienteering skills and techniques. My favourite training exercise was the sketch map. The night before we went to North Granish we were given a map of the area with a course on. We then had to redraw the map picking out only the bits of information we needed. This exercise taught us how to simplify the map. We arrived at the area the next day and had to run the course only using our own sketch maps!

Halfway through the week we had a rest afternoon where we went to Loch Morlich for a swim and into Aviemore for ice creams – which was great!

I’ve made loads of new friends and had so much fun. I learnt many new skills and was surprised as to how much more detailed the sport of orienteering is.

I would like to thank the Jack Bloor Fund for the grant that helped me go on this tour.

Lagganlia 2013

Expedition to Climb Mt. Elbrus, July 2013

Michael Mason

Brief summary of project:
A mountaineering expedition traversing Mt. Elbrus (5642m), in the Western Caucuses, from north to south. July 2013.

Brief description of activities:
We flew into Moscow and transferred to Kislovodsk by train. A two hour off road drive took us to base camp on the north side of the mountain. We walked slightly higher up to establish our first camp (2900m). Over the first few days we walked up scree and snow patches to camp II (3800m) to acclimatise and leave some equipment, going up the next day taking the rest of our things and setting up camp. This was repeated, now on the glacier, to our camp III (4650m). The next day we waited for bad weather to pass, the day after we went to the west summit and back to camp III. The hardest day followed, carrying everything over the saddle between the east and west summits and descending the south side of the mountain to camp IV. From here we descended into the Baksan Valley and returned: by taxibus, coach and train, to Moscow.

Personal development statement:
From this trip I have learned a lot about planning and doing expedition mountaineering trips, combining previous experiences of expeditions or mountaineering. I have also started to think about how everybody in the team has a role within the group, and how in a small group [4] to all get along well in difficult situations.

Tents at camp III

Elbrus summit (5642m) from left to right:  Alex Mathie, Simon Smith, Pete Edwards, Michael Mason

Crossing a stream in the Baksan Valley

The trip started with a 4am wakeup call and before I’d woken up fully the entire England team consisting of 40 athletes and 8 coaches were airborne and headed for Portugal. Two years ago I went to the World Schools in Trentino Italy; it was one of the best trips of my life, I couldn’t help but anticipate another great week. As we approached Faro airport the excitement built. The golden sands of the Algarve stretched for miles into the horizon as we began our descent. On arrival the England team were greeted and bussed to our accommodation in Monte Gordo a small town close to the Spanish border. That afternoon we unpacked before heading to the beach which was just 50 metres from our hotel. In the evening we spoke to some of the other nations as everyone was staying in the same hotel.
The next day we went training in areas similar to the Long and Middle distance races. It was a great opportunity as both training areas bordered onto the actual race maps so provided an accurate idea of what we could expect. In the morning we trained on the Long model area. I ran a few of the controls, and then jogged around the map to view different sorts of features and vegetation in order to assess how things would be mapped. In the afternoon we moved to the middle training area. I went around the course getting a feel for the area.
Quarantine for the middle race was located just 250metres from the hotel. Once there I chilled out listening to music and chatting as I had over an hour until I ran. My warming up went well and I felt prepared on the start line. The first control went well. After that I threw away two minutes on number 2. My bearing was rushed and my distance judgement poor, I paid the price. After that I pushed hard but struggled to interpret the 2.5 metre contours in low visibility vegetation and lost a bit more time. At the finish I was bitterly disappointed. I hadn’t been in control and lost contact with the map several times. I was surprised to finish 14th, evidently others had come up against the same challenges. I was also second counter for the England M1 select boy’s team. It was great to watch Dane Blomquist a member of the England Team collect his gold medal. He had a great race and came joint first, with a top quality Swedish runner.

After a disappointing middle distance race I was looking forward to the long. I enjoyed the ‘Cultural’ rest day on which we visited a typical Portuguese town but couldn’t wait to race again.  The open hillside of Santa Rita wasn’t so dissimilar to some British areas and I knew it would play to my strengths. I wanted to have a clean run and stay in control. I started well and was pleased with my execution of the long leg. I lost a bit of time going to 8 but continued to attack the physical terrain and spiked the rest of the controls until 18, where I lost about 30 seconds as I thought I was in the southern re-entrant.  When I finished I was in first place. I knew this wouldn’t stand as I’d made some mistakes and the later start times would provide quicker runs as the vegetation continued to be trampled. I finished in fourth, I am really happy with my position, and satisfied with my run.
After the long distance race we had free afternoon, me and a few other senior boys and our coach went for a short recovery run along the sea front, stopping to cool off in the beach showers! After that we chilled out for a few hours in our room and by the hotels swimming pool.
The Last race was the friendship relay, after finding my team mates a Slovenian boy and a Spanish girl we collected our maps and worked out who would get which controls. The friendship relay is basically a fun team score event to round off the week. There are 3 compulsory controls that all team members must visit, at the same time.  The rest can be divided, with the best runner going for the most or all the further controls. Teams are decided, based on performance in the individual races, to create even teams. In order to do well good planning is essential, with everyone collecting enough controls to converge at the compulsory controls at the same time to reduce waiting times. I was blessed with team mates whose English was particularly good which helped… a lot. We finished in the top 40 out of over 150 teams an improvement on my place in World Schools 2011 Friendship Relay. Great Fun!
That evening team medals were presented at the closing ceremony. Many English Teams were on the podium with The Junior Boys Select claiming Gold. The senior boys myself included, had clinched 2nd place under a minute behind the leading Slovakian team. It was amazing going up as a group, and it felt great to earn our great coach Ben Chesters a medal, for all the hard work he had put in throughout the week. After the closing party, and saying good bye to our everyone, (this included sneaking out at three in the morning to send off our Latvian friends from the balcony below, who were getting an early flight) we headed to bed.
I thoroughly enjoyed the week and would like to thank all the English coaches, particularly Dave the head of delegation and also our team coach Ben. I would also like to thank the Jack Bloor fund who continue to support my orienteering endeavours, and also the British Orienteering Support Fund whose money allowed me to travel to, and train in some appropriate sand dunes areas prior to the competition.
Joe Woodley
(Airienteers)