Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

EVENT REPORTBRECON 10 PEAKSchallenge of the mountain navigator.Awake at 4am, fuelled on granola and tea, failure toconsider long toilet queues accounted for mytardiness. A shorter course would be starting anhour later and with 200 people taking part, all told,patience was called for. Fortunately there was nomass start and race organiser, Mark, was calling outfor any errant long course competitors as I made myway to the start control. It was time for a very longday in the mountains!The Warm Up: Just to elucidate, the format of theCliff Bar 10 Peaks is simple. The ten highest peaks ofthe Brecon Beacons National Park must be visited inthe specified order, along with several additionalcheckpoints. The route is of the competitorschoosing. A map is provided at registration with asuggested path covering 90km and 4800m ascent.There is no signage on the mountains. Cut-offs arefairly loose but the time limit is 24 hours. Anycompetitor failing to reach the second check-pointby midday would be redirected onto the shortcourse. To allow these competitors to still get anofficial finish we had two additional mandatorycheckpoints, being the first two peaks of the shortcourse race. So yes, we would be doing twelvepeaks!The first of these being the Hill, as the foot pathsign so pleasantly pronounced, only half a milefrom the start. This would be one of the longerclimbs of the day, but undertaken by spotlight andwith eyes still bleary in the early hours it passedquickly. Too quickly perhaps as I scored the twelfthfastest time of the day to Carn Pica.My one memory of the climb was the incessantheat. Despite pre-dawn, the air was warm and thick.I was dressed, and packed, almost identically to thecombination I donned at the RAT (other than onesmall technological advancement I will discusslater). This meant just a mesh vest on my upper. Yetstill I was sweating!The field was stretched once on Craig Pwllfa’s peatbogs. I knew this section well, albeit in reverse, fromthe spring event yet still I nearly cut left straightinto the worst of the bogs, only deciding at the lastto follow the flashlights ahead of me on a path thatcircumvented the tough terrain. Then the routetook us south along Graig Fan Las.The shadows of the mountains majestically tookshape around us as the light of dawn graduallyfilled the sky. Not a time for sightseeing as the firstnavigational challenge of the day called for focus.We were to take a south-west bearing across opencountry to the Filter House south of NeuaddReservoir. The provided map gave little clue otherthan a direct line drawn from the point we wouldcross the Beacons Way to the reservoir. I chose tocut left at a pile of stones and find a path thatfollowed the large gully cut into the hillside by Nanty Gloesydd. As I hit the stones I was dumbfoundedto see all the runners ahead of me following theBeacons Way north-west. Perhaps people weremore focussed on jockeying for position thanwatching their compass? Although the lie was toolevel to give any indication of where the reservoirwas, and despite the path looking very untrodden, Istuck to my plan. Soon the path became steep, andI was hugging the gully, moving at quite somespeed.Looking back no runners appeared to have followedme. As I approached the reservoir I saw runnerscoming in from the north. I had jumped aconsiderable number of places, gathered hugeconfidence in my navigational ability and openedup the doors for further off-piste explorationthroughout the day. I couldn’t help but grin at thisminor accomplishment so early in the race.The next compulsory checkpoint was trig point 642,followed by Rhiw yr Ysgyfarnog ridge. Familiarterritory, although, unlike my previous excursion,visibility was more than ten metres and I welcomedthe view across Pen-y-Fan. It was another toughclimb from reservoir to ridge, with some uneventerrain and rock scrambling near the top.A female competitor, Michelle Bowen, stormed paston the climb. I was on her tail to the col at BwlchDuwynt with intent to reel her back in on the fastdescent to the first checkpoint south of StoreyArms. However she moved exceptionally fast on thedownhill showing adroit control of the terrain and175 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://