Mountain Marathons

Tonight we took a look at basic mountain navigation, specifically some route choices in recent Rab and OMM mountain marathons and using Anquet to analyse routes.

Also looked at different ways to navigate accurately using a compass.

Finally we re-lived OMM 2008 - see here. Could you cope with such severe weather?

Fitness Training and Exploring

Big welcome to Craig and Paddy tonight.  We did a group run/walk into the adjacent park and beside the lake using our observation skills to spot some of the permanent course control markers.  Afterwards we spent a short time on the outdoor gym equipment then explored the centre.

Mountain navigation challenge

Tonight's participants at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre Orienteering Club Night chose routes from day 2 of last year's Rab Mountain Marathon.  Information in the form of split times from the actual race, Anquet estimations plus an actual gps trace recorded during a recent training camp helped make the decision making more realistic. Here's the map if you want to give it a try.

Sunset at Crosby Lakeside after tonight's session

Active Geocaching

This was launched today at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre. Over 130 students from St Edmund's and St Thomas', St Luke's Halsall, Holy Family, Olsen House, St John's and St Michael's took on a 12 control, 12 minute orienteering challenge planned by Steve. Only 2 teams managed a maximum score of 120 but everyone had a great time.

As well as promoting orienteering, the purpose was to launch Active Sefton's Active Geocaching which starts next month - see here for details.

Fun in the hills

Six local athletes joined Steve for an excellent weekend of mountain marathon training in the South Lakes hills.

Checking route in hills above Coniston

After setting up camp in Hawkshead in a hail shower the intrepid adventurers learnt various navigation skills in the hills above Coniston. Fortunately the weather was much better up there. After a quick shower and change we spent the evening eating, drinking and socialising in the Sun Inn before settling down in our tents for the night. It was freezing!!




On Sunday, after breakfast and packing up, the group did a 3hr score course in pairs then went to the Ship Inn for some feedback over a drink before heading home. Everyone did very well and our next adventure is now being planned.

Happy group after finishing on Sunday

Winners

Steve McLean and clubmate Trace Peters of Southport Waterloo Athletic Club won the pairs competition in South Ribble Orienteering Club's Street League. Trace is a novice orienteer but navigated well and ran strongly in her 5 league races. Tonight's race in Leyland was a special extra and was followed by a presentation of various trophies and certificates.  A photo of Steve and Trace in action at the start of tonight's race is here. The map and their route is below with others here. Other Club Nighters Darren Baker and Elaine Sutton also ran well throughout the series.

Geocaching

This evening, club night regular and experienced geocacher Dave explained geocaching and led the group on a local search.  I was amazed at the hundreds of caches within a few miles of Crosby.  See www.geocaching.com for more info.

How fast can you run?

Monday club night sessions aren't just about maps and orienteering they can also include fitness and running training for those wanting to improve those aspects.  Lead coach Steve McLean is also Chairman of Southport Waterloo Athletic Club and frequently competes in road, cross country, track and fell races.  Today he was at a track meeting in Blackpool racing over 800m and 1500m.  His times of 2 minutes 20.1 seconds and 4:59.2 weren't bad given his age and without specific training but he'll hope to better these during the summer. Whether you can beat Steve or take minutes longer you can improve your fitness or show how fit you are by joining the fun 6-7.30pm each Monday evening at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre.

Challenge in the mist

Elaine spent a couple of hours or so wondering around Pendle Hill in the mist.  Navigation was exceptionally challenging in the conditions.  Well done Elaine for successfully completing the course,

Street orienteering in Lancaster

Crosby Lakeside lead coach Steve McLean accompanied Southport Waterloo AC athlete Trace Peters at this evening's race. Darren and Elaine, Monday club night regulars, also took part. Controls were lamp posts, telegraph poles, hydrant numbers and similar features. You have 40, 60 or 75 minutes to score as many points as possible.  Exceed the time limit and points were deducted at a race of 2 every 5 seconds. Control values were 10 times the first digit of the number, eg 56 worth 50 points, 27 worth 20, 14 worth 10 and so on.

Full results here

Map here

Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre

Map comparisons

So what type of map is best to use to navigate?  Tonight the group compared the two main outdoor maps (Ordnance Survey and Harveys) and looked at additional detail shown on an orienteering map of part of the area.

Kangaroo on the menu

Tonight's street orienteering took place from the Original Farmer's Arms in Eccleston which boasts an extensive menu.  To build up their appetite our club night regulars took on the challenging 60 or 75 minute course around the local area.

Results are here

Map showing all controls is here

Fog no deterrent

Fog descended at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre at sunset this evening but that wasn't enough to deter our adventurers.

Snakes and Ladders

Our club nighters were joined by British Orienteering's Hamish Willis this evening.  Hamish watched the group try an orienteering version of snakes and ladders which required participants to successfully find control points to determine how many moves to make. Great fun!!

Speke Hall - 2nd for Steve

Lead coach Steve McLean took 2nd place on the Green course in today's race at Speke Hall.

Results here

Map and route here

Happy New Year

CLAC regulars Darren and Elaine joined coach Steve and 30 or so others for the Southport Waterloo AC New Years' Day run from Crosby Coastguard Station to Birkdale.  Darren and Elaine detoured home at Ainsdale after a very wet run!!!