A profile of
Brian Johnson

The orienteering resurrection of Brian Johnson

My first Orienteering event was in September 1976 on a black and white 1:10,000 map at Lyndhurst Hill. I’m not sure that I had even heard of orienteering at the time, but SOC combined with Wessex Mountaineering Club, of which I was a member, to organise a barbecue with orienteering. I took 90 minutes for a 6km course and was hooked!

I was teaching at Bishop Wordsworth School (BWS), Salisbury and I’d already been persuaded to enter the Karrimor Mountain Marathon in 1976 by one of my former pupils, in his first year at University, another member of Wessex Mountaineering Club. This was the infamous Dumfries and Galloway event where torrential rain over both days meant only about 20% of competitors completed the event. We were naïve enough to go equipped for mountain walking which meant that we were heavily laden, but suitably equipped for the conditions and we managed to finish, almost last on our course.

I joined Sarum Orienteers. There weren’t so many orienteering events in those days but I went to as many as possible. In March 1977 I took a minibus with 12 boys from BWS to their first event, I think in the Quantocks. I believe Simon Errington, Richard Sharp and Richard Cottle, all still orienteering today and introducing their children to the sport, were on that first trip. Soon after this I also took over the organisation and coaching of inactive South West Junior Orienteering Squad (SWJS).

BWS minibuses could be seen at most events in SWOA and SCOA areas as well as events such as the JK, Scottish 6-day and even one trip to the Swiss 6-day and there were regular training camps, usually combined between the school and the SWJS, sometimes also combining with the East Anglia JS. Finding suitable areas for technical training in the SW is difficult and our favourite areas were Penhale Sands in Cornwall and Merthyr Mawr in S Wales.

In the summer holidays I usually did a grand tour of Europe, often with carloads of kids, particularly to the Swedish O-Ringen and the Czech (Jicin or Novy-Bor) but also other European events.

Back at home I produced the first maps of Hamptworth Estate and Clarendon Estate as well as completely remapping Vernditch Chase. I regularly planned events for Sarum Orienteers, usually controlled by Wimborne member, Nigel Thompson. Bishop Wordsworth School also organised a couple of events a year; these were organised by the boys with me and Pam Errington (who assisted me with organising the school orienteering) overseeing.

I still went mountaineering and rock-climbing, again often taking pupils from BWS, but it orienteering was my priority. I managed to climb all the Munros (Scotland’s 3000+ft mountains) and done some backpacking as well as climbing a few big peaks including Mont Blanc.

I’d had occasional problems with an ankle injury since spraining the ankle at one of my early O-Ringens. By 1990 it was becoming a serious problem and I ran my last orienteering event in 1992 before having to retire from orienteering due to injury. Over the next couple of years I was still able to walk and in the school summer holidays I managed to hike the High-level route across the Pyrenees from Atlantic to Mediterranean and 6 weeks of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Sierra Nevada of California.

Then the foot gave way completely, I was having problems walking and at times I was unable to stand on the foot. I had to give up mountain walking and stared kayaking and canoeing to get some exercise and to get out into the wilderness. Over the next few years I spent my school holidays canoe-camping, mainly in Sweden but also in Spain, Portugal and France and I played a lot of chess, managing to win the inaugral World Amateur Chess Championships held at Hastings over the New Year 1996/7. The Doctors and surgeons had a go at sorting the problem out, but with no success, and by 1996 when the surgeons gave up, the problem was so bad that they recommended early retirement from teaching; I was teaching physics and sport so was spending all my time on my feet. I finally got very early retirement, with a small pension, at Christmas 1997.

Over the next few years I started playing bridge seriously and spent a lot of time canoeing in Sweden. The foot gradually improved and in 2000 I was able to start playing bowls and on the way back from a canoe trip to Spain I tried out the foot on a couple of short, easy mountain walks.  I then went back to the Sierra Nevada and walked gently for 6 weeks, only doing 8-10 miles/day. The foot survived and the following year I again hiked the High-level route through the Pyrenees from Atlantic to Mediterranean.

I was now gaining confidence in the foot and in 2002 I thru-hiked the 2700-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from the Mexican border to Canadian border through the mountains of California, Oregon and Washington. Over the next 14 years I hiked the PCT twice more, did a 2700-mile round Britain walk, climbed all the Munros in a single summer and all the Corbetts (Scottish 2500-3000ft mountains) and most of the Grahams (Scottish 2000-2500ft mountains) and did a number of walks from the Atlantic to Mediterranean through the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees along GR11 and GR10. Part of the reason for these walks was that I’d started writing walking guidebooks for Cicerone Press (more about this in a future article.)

Vignemale - the highest summit in the French Pyrenees (click to enlarge)

I’d been playing bridge with Sue Hands and I’d been to orienteering events en route for Sunday bridge tournaments and she tempted me to have another go. My first event was an army event in the New Forest in February 2015 and I walked every step of the way. Having not run for 23 years there was no way I was going to start running. Although much had changed with the technology since I had last run, the orienteering was still the same and I managed a near ‘perfect walk’. Despite still living in Salisbury, I joined Wimborne Orienteers and walked my next few events. Eventually I started running (stumbling) a little and then had my long summer back-packing break. When I got back I found I was able to run (anyway was passes for running for a 64 year-old) and I started getting more competitive again.

Now I’m orienteering 2-3 times/week during the winter and last summer I interrupted my walking, attending the French 5-day (Larzac) and the Welsh 5-day.

I’m going to have a go at night orienteering this autumn; my only real chance of winning anything since I’m a lot slower than the top M65s. Although I have run in a few Urban events (invented since I had to retire) I’m not fast enough for them and I’m not sure to what extent I want to risk injury on continuous running on hard surfaces.

Brian Johnson

 

Brian Johnson’s guidebooks

In his report on the Croeso 2016 in Waffle John Warren said of me “he is a near professional Mountaineer!” The near bit is about right; if I was a professional I’d expect to be making a profit, but I had no problem persuading the taxman that the royalties from my books will be less than the expenses!

In 2002, I walked the 2700-mile Pacific Crest Trail (Mexican border to Canadian border through the mountains of California, Oregon and Washington) and returned to walk it in 2006. During that walk I wrote a handbook on how to thru-hike the trail. There was an American handbook suggesting it was necessary to walk 25-30 miles/day carrying very little which seemed beyond the capabilities of the average walker, so I wrote a handbook on how to hike the trail at 15-20 miles/day in relative comfort, but with modern ideas. I emailed this handbook to a number of publishers of outdoor guides and the boss of Cicerone Press asked to see me.

Cicerone Press doesn’t publish handbooks, but they are the world’s premier guidebook publishers with over 300 walking guides in their booklist. They thought my handbook would make a good introduction to a guidebook, so I wrote the guidebook and then walked the trail again in 2009 before it was published in 2010.

I’d already climbed the Munros, Scotland’s 3000+ft peaks, twice, firstly over 20 years while I was teaching and then I climbed all 284 of them again in the non ‘summer’ of 2007. I’d started work on the 222 Corbetts, the 2500-3000ft peaks. Cicerone agreed to publish a 2-volume guide to the Corbetts and Volume 1 for the peaks S of the Great Glen was published in 2012 and the Volume 2, N of the Great Glen was published in 2013.

I’d walked the GR11, the long distance path from Atlantic to Mediterranean through the Spanish Pyrenees, in 2003, and I decided to walk it again in 2012. Paul Lucia, the author of the Cicerone guide, had died in 2007. I rang up the boss of Cicerone and told him I was going to hike the route and he asked me to take a few notes for an update of the guide. It was soon very obvious that a completely new guide was needed and Cicerone agreed that I should write it. I wrote the guide from the notes I had made in 2012 and walked the trail again in 2013 to check it before it was published in 2014.

Paul Lucia’s other Cicerone guide was to the GR10, Atlantic to Mediterranean through the French Pyrenees. This book was also becoming very dated and in need of a completely new edition. I walked this route in 2014, wrote the guide over the winter and walked it again in 2015. This guide was published on 13th October 2016.

Kev Reynolds has written comprehensive guidebooks to day walks and climbs of the big peaks in the Pyrenees and there are guides to the three main coast to coast routes across the Pyrenees, GR10, GR11 and high-level route (HRP), but there is no guide to one to two week trips, so I’ve now started a guide on 1-2 week circular routes in the Pyrenees which is to be published in 2019.

You can see details of the guides by going to my page on the Cicerone Website: http://www.cicerone.co.uk/author/detail.cfm/author/1373/name/brian-johnson

I can provide copies of the Corbetts guides, the GR10 and GR11 to Wimborne members for £10 (+p&p if you want them sent). This is less than the wholesale price! I’m out of PCT guides and won’t be able to get any more at this discounted price.

Background photograph: Pic du Midi d’Ossau, French Pyrenees