BEINN DEARG 11th/12th June 2011
A
Two-Day Mountain Competition for Pairs with Overnight Campsite
Location is 4Hrs Drive North of Glasgow/Edinburgh,
1½Hrs Drive From Inverness!
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Competition
Map and Courses |
Control Descriptions | Weather
| Lost Property
Reports
- Blogs | Planner
| Controller | Friday
| Saturday am | Saturday
pm | Sunday | Overnight
Leaders | Winners
Photos
- Competition
Entries | Prize Giving
| Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday
Results
- Saturday
| Sunday
| Overall
| Outdoor Champs
| University Champs
2011
PHOTO & BLOG COMPETITION
- Photo Competition
|Blog Competition
Many
congratulations to Brian
Cook and John
Duff for their fabulous photos, also to Darren
Firth for his words, photos, maps, stats, graphs.
The
Elite winners were Duncan Archer and Jim Mann, who win an all
expenses paid trip to the Bjorkliden Arctic MM on 19-20th August
2011. The prize will include transport from a local airport
and accommodation/food at a hotel the night before and after the
event. The LAMM will share the cost of this this prize and we
will pay £500 towards flights from a UK airport.
Bjorkliden is located 200km (124 miles) north of the Arctic Circle
just north of Sweden's Abisko National Park, almost on the border
with Norway.
If
you were a competitor at this year's LAMM you may have been wondering
who the several competitors were with skull motifs on their tops.
They are all members of a loose affiliation of Swedish runners
called Team Rockrunners. I spoke with Tomas Albinsson and Peter
Juthberg who have been to the LAMM twice and three times before
respectively and who this year came in 5th on the B course. Back
in Sweden their team members do quite a lot of informal off-road
running, the BAMM, which is the Swedish equivalent of the LAMM,
and of course and fair bit of orienteering.In total we reckon
there were actually eight Swedish teams at the LAMM this year
and based on addresses from entries received we also believe there
were: one Danish, three German, one Dutch, two Spanish, and a
number of Irish teams at the event.
Sunday
The day started at 5 a.m. not with acapela turbo-folk,
but with Martin wandering around the campsite with his loudhailer
telling everyone what a fantastic sunrise they could experience
if they were to stick their heads out of their tents - and he
wasn't wrong. Although the day ended yesterday with a bit of refreshing
rain, today started in sunshine (that was only rarely interrupted
by the odd passing cloud all day) and it did a great job of lighting
up the eastern slope of Creag an Duine, a smaller sharply defined
summit off the northwest side of Seana Bhraigh, a hill which dominated
the view from the overnight camp.
Sunday
at the LAMM is a chasing start for the leaders of all the linear
courses and anyone who finished within an hour and a half of their
day one times. The tightest margin for any of the leaders was
on the elite course, where Duncan Archer and Jim Mann had only
a 2 minute lead over their closest rivals, Dan Gay and Al Anthony.
One might almost imagine that that could be down to the 100 gms
they saved by carrying one of the new ultra-light Terra Nova Photon
tents, which are so light they are almost transparent (I think
it was the inspiration for Lady Gaga's pod from the Grammy awards).
More >>
Saturday
morning couldn't have started better, fine and sunny, with a few
puffy white clouds and a slight breeze to stop everyone overheating.
D course competitors started from the event centre with everyone
else being bussed to one of three remote starts along the A835
south west of Ulapool, the furthest start being at the dam at
the far end of Loch Glascarnoch at the extreme southern edge of
the event area.
The
elite, C and score courses, all had an early stress test when
they had to make a stream crossing within a kilometre of their
joint start location. From a bystander's point of view it is very
clear that competitors fall into a few different categories when
it comes to stream crossing: Most common is the competitor who
arrives at the river bank, looks a few metres up and down stream
then selects the most likely line, with little concern for wet
socks. Less common are competitors who are prepared to spend anything
up to 5 minutes scouring the riverbank up and down stream for
a non-existent totally safe route that will allow them to keep
their socks dry before finally ending their self-delusion and
submerging their socks anyway. The third major subgroup are competitors
who simply jump in straight away and plow through the stream at
speed. More >>
For
some reason, last year’s initiative to give every competitor a
free bottle of specially brewed LAMM ale proved extremely popular
amongst competitors. And the donation of even more beer from the
Fyne Ales Brewery (given out at the event centre in return for
donations from competitors) raised over £2,000 towards the cost
of a new Landrover for the Arrochar Mountain Rescue Team, which
they have since bought, and are now using in their support of
this year’s event.
So
this year, another local micro-brewery, An Teallach Ales in Dundonell,
has been enlisted to help raise even more money for Mountain Rescue
(by donating 20% of the price of sales in the event centre), and
also to provide another commemorative ale for competitors. This
time it is not LAMM Ale though, as coincidentally the company
already produces a Beinn Dearg Ale, which shares the name of the
event. More >>
Friday
Night - Storm clouds gather?
Competitors
arriving at the LAMM at around 9p.m. tonight were greeted with
the sight of clouds around the summit of Beinn Dearg, the hill
that has given it’s name to the event this year and also
one of six Munros in the area.
In fact
the weather forecast for the event isn't too bad: A clear day
for Saturday with intermittent heavy showers and an even fairer
day for Sunday, although the forecast for Monday is for gales,
so hopefully those won’t be arriving any sooner than currently
expected.
Over the
course of the last week though, members of the event team have
already been battling high winds as they put out the controls,
and not without incident. Angela Mudge, a regular helper at
the event and also a world class hill and mountain runner, managed
to lose two of the kites (control markers) that she was carrying
as they were blown away whilst she was placing one on a summit,
which then necessitated a five hour return trip to the event
centre to collect a replacement. More
>>
LAMM
2011 LOCATION ANNOUNCED
The event will take place at Inverlael, 6 miles south east of
Ullapool on the A835 road from Inverness. As you approach the
head of Loch Broom, you'll see a yellow LAMM sign and you'll turn
right off the main road. Give plenty of warning as you slow down
because it is a fast road. Have a safe journey. We look forward
to seeing you from 3pm onwards and registration opens at
4pm. The Event Centre is at Inverlael Farm, IV23 2RG and
the arrow on this map
shows the Event Centre field. If the ground is firm enough,
most of the parking will be in the next field (south). Please
read and print the Final Details.
There is no accommodation available in the immediate vicinity
and the best place to try is Ullapool if you don't wish to enjoy
the convivial atmosphere on the Event Centre field.
Weather...?
OUR
PLANNER ANDY SPENCELEY WROTE
The guessing game is nearly over, soon the location will be revealed
and then the pain starts! I can't say too much about the area
as it's amazing how knowledgeable some of you are about the Scottish
hills and even saying how many munros there are on the map would
give it away to many off you. But you can be assured that there
are munros and other hills and many of you will have an opportunity
to tick off a summit (or two!). Terrain varies a lot over the
area. There are the usual more boggy areas, which unfortunately
are slower at the moment with the recent rain, but a lot of the
area is comparatively fast running, particularly high up on the
hills. The centre of the area has quite a few crags to beware
off, though courses do avoid them as much as possible. There are
a few stalkers paths and estate tracks which may or may not be
useful.
One
of the things a lot of people enjoy about the LAMM, and perhaps
different from other MMs, is the location and ambiance of the
mid camp as we try to get remote locations well away from roads
etc, so you really feel you are in the wilds. Again this year
the midcamp is another superb, remote location in the heart of
the hills and we’ve found a place that has some good views
(depending on the weather being clear!) and offers nice grassy
camping with plenty of space to relax, wash, lounge about and
chat with other teams. Only the real hard core hill baggers among
you would have been anywhere near this campsite before the LAMM.
All we’ve got to do now is keep our fingers crossed that
the bad weather we’ve had in Scotland for the past 2 or 3
weeks is away and we look forward to seeing you at the event.
THERE WILL BE BEER - RAISING MONEY AGAIN FOR
MOUNTAIN RESCUE
In 2010 Fyne Ales, a local microbrewery, provided barrels of beer
on Friday night and after the event on Sunday. More than £2,200
was raised for Arrochar MR Team. An additional £10,000
was raised by the colleagues of Martin Potter, who was rescued
by Arrochar MRT after a serious accident on LAMM Sunday last year.
The guys will be bringing the new
Land Rover that so many of you helped to fund, to the LAMM.
This year the AN TEALLACH BREWERY will provide a bar on
Friday evening and Sunday, serving a selection of their own beers.
Beer will be very reasonably priced at £2.50 a pint,
of which 50p will be donated to the Mountain Rescue.
On Sunday, all competitors will be presented with a commemorative
bottle of Beinn Dearg, the microbrewery's own brew, just
after you finish. Please take the bottle home as a memento of
the event and don't open it at the event as we must avoid glass
waste at the venue.
SPECIAL
ELITE PRIZE
Anders Morell who organises the BAMM - Bjorkliden Arctic MM has
for the third time very kindly offered a prize of a free entry
for the BAMM on 19-20th August 2011. The prize will include
transport from a local airport and accommodation/food at a hotel
the night before and after the event. The LAMM will share the
cost of this this prize and we will pay £500 towards
appropriate flights from a UK airport. Bjorkliden is located 200km
(124 miles) north of the Arctic Circle just north of Sweden's
Abisko National Park, almost on the border with Norway. It is
possible to travel to or from the venue to the UK in one day.
This is a great opportunity to take part in a Mountain Marathon
in another wonderful location far from home and we're very grateful
to Anders for his kind offer. However - here's the catch. This
prize will not necessarily be offered to the winning Elite team.
It will be offered to the best performing Elite team that remembers
to confirm at LAMM Registration Information Desk that (barring
exceptional circumstances) they will be able to take part in the
BAMM. We will use the information from registration and your results
to allocate this prize.
The
Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon is a 2-day mountain orienteering
event that takes place each year in the Scottish Highlands. The
emphasis is always on providing challenging routes in classic
high mountain country. The event has a tradition for transporting
teams to a number of undisclosed start locations on Saturday morning
to make best use of the terrain. Those who join us each year will
tell you that the LAMM is a very friendly and it is a compact
event with a limit of approx. 500 teams. Apart from providing
average travelling time, the LAMM creates a great sense of anticipation
by keeping the venue secret until 36 hours before the event. We
have courses for all abilities - 5 linear and one score. The LAMM
will take you to wonderful Scottish mountain areas that you may
otherwise never take the time to visit. The 2011 area is scattered
with Munros and Corbetts and we've worked hard to find a site
for the Midcamp that allows us to provide great courses for all.
The Midcamp will be a another wild mountain location .....
Once again Andy Spenceley will be our planner, Dave
Coustick, Brian Jackson and Angela Mudge our
controllers. Andrew Leaney will manage our website, provide
results and a live webcast during the weekend itself and Jon
Brooke will be writing reports for the website and taking
photographs that you can purchase online after the event. Twenty
or so friends of the event will help as marshals during the weekend.
Please enter without delay as the event fills very quickly. We
look forward to seeing you again on 11/12th June for the "Connoisseurs
Mountain Marathon"- Martin Stone (Event Organiser)
