Day 1 - Silver How, Day 2 - Angle Tarn, Day 3 - Whinlatter, Urban - Ulverston,
Day 4 - Askham Fell, Day 5 - Dale Park
Fourteen WIMs took part in the Lakes 5 Days. Coming in the top three of their age class were:
Andrew Howard - 3rd in M40S including 3rd on Day 1
Kevin Pickering - 2nd in M65S including 1st on Day 1 and 2nd on Day 3
Keith Henderson - 3rd in M75L including 1st on Day 3 and 3rd on Day 4
Hilary Pickering - 2nd in W60S including 2nd on Day 2 & 3 and 3rd on Days 1 & 4
Sue Hands - 2nd in W70L including 1st on Day 4 and 2nd on Days 1, 2 & 3
Click to view Day 1 course 10 on Silver How - Kevin Pickering was 1st
The Lakes Five Days takes place every four years and together with the Welsh Five Days alternates with the Scottish Five Days. This is the seventh organized by South Ribble, Deeside, Border Liners, West Cumberland and Lakeland Orienteering Clubs, who deserve a special mention for their efficient program providing challenging courses for two thousand participants throughout the week. They even persuaded the rain gods to act sometimes gently and at others with considerable force. The previous two months had been unusually dry with United Utilities threatening a hose pipe ban in Cumbria! This year John Walmsley and I had both experienced the joy of two dry mountain marathons in The Lakes.
We should have been more careful what we wished for because day one on Silver How was as wet as it comes. Car park and Assembly were at the extensive flat field you see as you turn off the A590 to enter the picturesque village of Grasmere. This is but a stone’s throw from Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage. Here you are truly in the heart of the Lakes and from the south will have enjoyed the drive around the lakes, Rydal Water and Grasmere. The walk to the start you are warned is 240 metres of climb but commences with a pleasant stroll through the village not surprisingly quiet compared with the tourist melee of a few days ago. However over the course of the morning nearly 2000 of us file up the flank of Silver How to the position designated by the red triangle. I can assure you that it was well worth the effort with runnable moorland and considerable challenging rock and contour detail. It is twenty years since John Warren assisted me off Silver How with a severe ankle injury. I’m glad to say there was no such problem today but the descent did cross a stream in full spate, a sight not seen for months.
Day 2 at Patterdale on Angle Tarn Pikes was approached via the Kirkstone Pass and Brother’s Water, Becca’s encampment abode for the week. We have been here before and there is no getting away from a long file of orienteers making their way seemingly forever upward warm up over a 280 metre ascent. There is no alternative short of hitching a lift by helicopter in a black bag. This is used for placing stones and boulders for the “fell fixers” to renew the path. Once you are there again it’s worth it with complex boulder and contour detail on the course. Marshes were beginning to appear again and could be used to navigate or at least their edges could!
Keith Henderson
The Start on Silver How - photos by Steve Rush
‘Wandering the fells’ - Impressions of the Lakes 5 Days 2018
Weeks of blistering heat had not prepared us for the shock of Lake District ‘normality’ as WIMS headed for the hills in late July. Arriving at the Saturday ‘Event Centre’ near the S Lakes M6 junction the first thing to greet me was a sudden downpour sending everyone scuttling for cover. OK, on with the regulation dress code for much of the week – Waterproofs! and regular notices at most events that cagoules were either to be worn or carried by all.
Day 1 was a baptism, not of fire, but of continuous torrential rain. The route to the start began with a walk through a soggy Grasmere village and crossing a bridge over a steadily rising river. I don’t think that many people felt very touristy as they climbed a long 300m plus climb to the start through woods, open fell and steep slopes. The only plus was that visibility was quite good and once you are up top on Silver Howe it's a series of humps and bumps on a mostly trackless spur. Despite the multiple challenges there were some very good WIM results with Kevin winning M65S and Hilary, Sue and Andrew gaining 3rd place in their classes.
After some worries about the state of the car park we all headed for Patterdale for Day 2 in pleasant sunny weather (until the afternoon!). The event was on another long high ridge centred on Angle Tarn Pikes which look west across the south end of Ullswater to the huge bulk of Helvellyn. We had been warned about the climb of over 300m to the start, but not that the path was under repair and that huge bags of boulders had been dumped by helicopter onto the path making for a nightmare exhausting climb. Unfortunately the way back from the finish was mostly on the same route and it was in many cases worse going down through the boulders than up. The competition are was an undulating mountain ridge linking two higher peaks with vertiginous views if you looked over the edge! However, Angle Tarn is tucked into the ridge but had a secret trap in the form of a well camouflaged very deep marsh which unfortunately Kevin decided to sample! For the rest of us it was a case of flogging up over ridges and down steep grassy re-entrants with a spectacular background of the NE Lakeland fells. Despite his marsh episode Kevin was placed 6th in M65S with Sue and Hilary 2nd on their respective courses.
A day away on Tuesday, when the event moved to Whinlatter Forest Park NW of Keswick. We all drove to the Cockermouth Cattle market and were then bussed up to Whinlatter. The coaches were normally school buses with seating designed for somewhat smaller people than most orienteers with all their gear. This time assembly was only a 5 minute walk along gravel paths through familiar but fairly open coniferous woodland. It was good to see that the Finish and download were only 30m apart today, the Start was rather further and of course uphill! The terrain was for once quite familiar! A coniferous forest, mostly runnable, quite steep but with a good network of paths. We had been given strict orders that cycle tracks could not be used to run on but could be crossed at 90degs. This seemed to work out better than it sounded and for Keith it was a 1st place in M75, with Sue, Hilary and Kevin all gaining 2nd places. It was good to see Monty achieve 4/21 on his junior course.
Wednesday was the ‘Rest’ day. In most multi-day events this is a total misnomer with many people being even more energetic. I can remember on Scottish 6 days meeting an almost continuous line of orienteers climbing Ben Lawers, and Barbara and I climbed Lochnagar on Deeside, finding it a really sociable day out! This time I confined myself to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway on a very circuitous route round west Cumbria to Ulverston for the evening Urban Event. With the afternoons rain stopping, it was a pleasure to discover parts of this ancient market town on foot and the apres O in a cafe adjacent to download made for a very pleasant event, resulting in an almost traffic free journey back to Ambleside at 8.30pm.
Thursday was back to business at Askham Moor just to the SW of Penrith, a complete contrast to the other days with gently undulating mostly grassy moors land and some limestone sink holes. The whole area sloped east towards the Eden Valley and times were generally fast and furious. It certainly suited Sue who won the W70 class with Hilary and Kevin both having good positions in their respective classes. This was a real ‘garden party’ day. Most WIMs were parked close together and we could sit and chat in the warm sun with the spectacular background of the Eden Valley to the east rising to the cloud capped summit of Cross Fell in the North Pennines. A really great day.
Finally came Friday, Dale Park and the so called Middle distance sprint. For many of us this just didn’t happen. Parking was in a reasonably flat, accessible field with all the event functions close at hand and it was about 1k walk to the start. For many of us it was the heavy rain that caused problems. Dale Park is a steep slippery wooded hillside with many streams, gullies and crags. The streams were in spate so crossing them for less those less than bionic was a problem. Frustratingly for Kevin despite a storming run he was placed 4th in M65S by 49secs and this proved to the discard day for Sue.
Unfortunately, the weather did not make for the relaxed and enjoyable prizegiving that was hoped for with most people heading back to their accommodation with priorities such as baths and washing, and the prospect of a good meal before the long trek home.
The Lake District is a remarkable place. It can challenge to the highest level whilst revealing a sense of beauty that draws you back time after time. Its weather actually adds to its attraction and needless to say I personally am heading back there in Autumn for a bit more exploration at rather less than race speed!
John Warren
Harry's GPS route at Angle Tarn on Day 2 - he came 3rd in M12A on course 15
Background photo taken on Silver How by Steve Rush