Charnley Way Relay - weekend of 13-15 June

[Brian J]

We've lost a few participants in the last couple of weeks and now have two teams -
an Over 60s and a Mixed Team.
I am emailing everyone in the teams. Please let me know if the emails are not
getting through.

It will have to be a dawn start if we are to abide by Tucker's rule of Lake District Challenges -
"Thou shalt finish in time for everybody to go to the pub".

Over 60s Team -
Leg1 (Langdale - Eskdale) – Barry Blyth & Trevor Longman
Leg2 (Eskdale - Borrowdale) - Daves Tucker & Walker
Leg 3 (Borrowdale - Langdale) – Colin Ardron & Brian Jackson

Mixed Team -
Leg1 (Langdale - Eskdale) - Angela Leonard & Julie Fletcher
Leg2 (Eskdale - Borrowdale) - Andy Skelhorn & Hazel Winder
Leg 3 (Borrowdale - Langdale) - Richard Ainley & Matt Lewis

I did a recce yesterday in miserable claggy conditions. Charnley Crag Cairn just below Esk Pike
is tricky to find in the clag. I hit it spot on but did not think it was the right one so attacked again
from another direction. This time I noticed the discreetly placed commemorative plate at the
base of the cairn.

The other thing I reccied (but did not sample) was one of the controls on Andy and Hazel's section -
the suitably deep and murky Black Moss Pot in the Langstrath Beck. I can't imagine Andy passing up
that opportunity, particularly as it is so near to the end of that section.

I think that most of us will be camping at the NT campsite near the ODG. All are welcome to join us.
We still need to sort out the shuttling to and from the changeover points. We can always use help on this.

If anybody else wants to run please let me know. We can always have a trio on a leg, and it would be good
to have reserves if anyone has to drop out.

[david tucker]

Dave Walker and I are planning to do a leg 2 recce from Eskdale to Borrowdale Sunday/Monday, particularly getting the route off Scarfell to Scarfell Pike right via The West Wall Traverse & Lords Rake.

We can talk about this tomorrow at the Boars Head, Wednesday, after the race. Anybody who isn't racing can join us for a reverse race route run leaving the Boars head at 7pm.



TUCKER

.

[Brian J]

A post race discussion in the pub last night and an expected change in the order -
In the mixed team Angela and Julie move to Leg 3 and Matt and Richard to Leg 1.

I off to the secret location of the LAMM now. Have a look at the website over the weekend.
I am supposed to be writing the race report so have a look at how it is going.

[Brian J]

Lets hope the weather stays kind to us. The two teams are still intact although Angela, Hazel and Julie are still at their high altitude warm weather training camp. They fly in tonight.

The first leg runners are off between 4 and 5am and hopefully the 3rd leg runners will be in before dark and the pub shuts.

A busy weekend. So best wishes to Julie G on her Paddy Buckley and Mandy on her Joss Naylor. We are all out on the same day. It would be great if we all get round, and then Simon next weekend.

[Julie Gardner]

All the very best to the Charnley Crew - enjoy and complete, it will be a great achievement. Good luck Mandy, bring it on home! It will be great to catch up next week. I will be thinking of you all. Julie

[Simon]

Good luck to all.

Sorry I can''t be there... sounds like a great day out.

Hope it goes well you relayers and Julie.... best of luck... be thinking of you all.

[Mandy]

Good Luck to the Charnley teams and to Julie on her Paddy.
Weather looking good for a long day out in the hills!

Looking forward to hearing about the weekend's adventures.

Mandy

[Nancy]

Good luck everyone! Hope all goes well - looking forward to hearing of your adventures.

[Brian J]

Sadly we failed to complete the Charnley Relay but had a great time trying. We did not have any reserves so it was amazing we still had 2 intact teams of 6 come the start.
We had great weather – sunny early on for Leg 1 (Barry/Trevor + MattLewis/RichardAinley), a bit of clag on the high summits for Leg 2 (DavesTucker&Walker + AndySkelhorn/Hazel) and rather humid and hazy for leg 3. We should have started earlier than 4.36am and it was obvious we were going to struggle to get in before dark, so we broke the relay connection and Leg 3 runners (Colin Ardron/BJ + Angela/Julie Fletch) set off from Borrowdale YH in advance of the arrival of the Leg 2 pairings and stayed together from then on.
The next problem was that I made the rash decision to try the traverse to Charnley Crag Cairn on the west side of Esk Pike rather than the over the top route I had reccied in clag. Big mistake, as we struggled along and up a steep boulderfield. Having lost a lot of time and enthusiasm we decided to carry on to Stake Pass and then cut off back to the ODG campsite – arriving about 8.25pm.
Everyone had a good run out and it made a great club weekend. It will prove a rich source of anecdotes for years to come. No doubt some of them will start to seep out on the forum from the various participants. Now we’ve had a go at it, it’s time for others to get a team or two together and do the Charnley Relay justice.
I will try to write it up in a little more detail soon.
Many thanks to everyone who took part and made it such an enjoyable weekend.

[BrianMac]

Sounds like a "fun time" was had by all, despite earlier missgivings in some quarters

[Colin Ardron]

Brian did a top job bringing this all to fruition and I for one and I suspect all the other team members thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I've never visited the Charnley Memorial Cairn before and doing so brought back many memories of my first Karrimor in 1981 which covered much of the relay area.

[Simon]

Sounds as though a good time was had by all...sorry I couldn't be there...looking forward to the anecdotes!

It'd be great to go and recce this route sometime.

I could use another water carrier on Leg 4, should anyone care to volunteer. Geoff Pet is navigating and Peter McNulty will be with me, but another friendly face would be great.

[Hazel]

Thank you Brian for organising a really great weekend. It really didn't matter to me that we didn't succeed, I just thoroughly enjoyed myself and anyway I think the cards were stacked against us - Richard twisting his ankle coming down the fells from the Charnley Stone, Skelley's shoe completely coming apart coming off the Scafells so he was unable to continue safely (meant he was able to "sample" every single pool he came to on the way down!) Brian's navigational "whoops a daisy". On top of that I forgot my sleeping bag, Dave Walker left his rucksac outside Borrowdale Youth Hostel and only realised the next morning, the midges were little !!!!!!!!!'s, and there must be more ........!!!! Coming off the Scafells we saw two separate BG'ers going well, and last but by no means least was the star of the day MANDY looking very fresh and lively - fantastic!!!!!! Well done.

[Colin Ardron]

Just met Richard in town returning from hospital - said he has a chipped ankle bone!

[Brian J]

Yes, Richard has a chipped ankle bone but says he can do some light running after 2-3 weeks. A&E don't seem to have believed how he said he chipped it, because they gave him an alcohol awareness questionnaire to complete. Admittedly, along with the other Leg 1 runners he did go straight to the Woolpack (at about 10.30am) but I don't recall that he was the one with a pint of beer in his hand. Hoping it heals quickly and that we will see you out on the fells again soon.