The Lake District Mountain Trial Association

LDMT 2016 Course Planning Comments Sept 2016 The “Newfield” provided an excellent base for this years event, planning unfamiliar routes away and back to the pub was a challenge, the location of the map handout enabled the position of the 1st controls to provide good route choices, the run in was aptly described as an “adventure trail”. Early stages in the planning had the classic course returning via Hard Knott and Dunnerdale Forest/ Harter Fell but without making it too technical the route would have been rather dull, switching the route to return over Grey Friar then meant avoiding recently erected fences. Creating a loop to the north side Wrynose that gave good route choice without “dog legs” took quite a few attempts, Andy and I agreed that we didn’t want the north side of Blisco to be a favourable option but it was used, as was a route over Blisco’s summit! On the medium course I initially had control 5 in the vicinity of Hell Gill Pike, this would have given more weight to the option of a contouring route to the north of Wetherlam, limits on number of checkpoint officials and no obvious feature for a control resulted in the knoll to the south of Grey Friar being used and hence “dog legging” out of control 4 for some competitors. The short course is always problematic in that you are catering for novices and the elderly at the same time, the roughness of the terrain a particular problem for the elderly, the introduction of a “running assistant” takes away some of the worry but a separate course may have to come. Leg 1 to 2 gave options of over or round Dow Crag, some even used the climbers traverse, I think the high level contour which ended up approaching control 2 from the north was the quickest route, interesting to see on Routegadget that the medium runners mostly crossed over this route on their way to the same control. Some of the early finishers opted to minimise the trod through the bracken at Hollin House Tongue and missed the footpath from the cattle grid that myself and Andy had “machettied” the previous day, on reflection it should have been more obvious. Many thanks to Andy for his positive contributions and encouraging advice and for his 9 hour day checking nearly all the controls!! In my days as a competitor I always appreciated having route choice and that has been my main aim as a planner, it is a challenge, competitors do have different strengths and the weather can also be a deciding factor in route choice, it is gratifying to see the varieties of routes chosen. Derek Ratcliffe LDMT 2016 Mountain Trial Controller’s Report The Duddon Valley had not been the start point for the Mountain Trial for a number of years. This initially seemed like a real advantage as almost any leg that Derek set would feel like a new challenge to all except the most 'experienced' competitor. In reality it proved to be a difficult venue to set interesting courses. I feel Derek did a very good job in planning three first class courses. Each course was a bit of a compromise but still produced interesting route choice legs combined with the usual hard graft climbs. Our first problem was actually getting courses out of the Pub field and back into the field without having large amounts of dead running, apologies for the long run out. The second issue was to set legs that did not just mimic fell race routes - The Duddon, Coniston, 3 Shires and Langdale. Derek achieved this (except on leg 5-6 on the medium) although some route choices did offer the chance to run familiar ground. I was pleased to see the range of routes chosen on all three courses, it showed that the care taken in balancing the legs really worked. My apologies to those runners who did not find the 'highway' we had cut through the bracken, with hindsight I should have asked Malcolm to adjust the map to show the footpath going much further up the hill (in the Spring it does). I was also amazed at the amount of water flowing out of Seathwaite Tarn on the Saturday, crossing the outlet was impossible/dangerous. I decided to make the use of the dam bridge compulsory - on the day I believe the level had dropped considerably. Again apologies to any competitors who thought they should go down the far side of the Tarn, a much slower option. Many thanks to Derek for making controlling a relatively straight forward task. He was always prepared to listen to suggestions and could be relied on to find solutions to the many small problems (like new fences) that seemed to keep making finalising the courses difficult. I have to say that I never worry about the organisation side of the trial, once the car park and venue is secure I know the 'Trial' team will make it happen. Andy Lewsley .

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