Lakeland Spring WeekendEsthwaite/Graythwaite, 13/14 April 2013
A hardy handful of ESOC members travelled south for a very technical double-header weekend in the Lake District, with wins for Claire Ward on both days.
Lakeland Orienteering Club presented a double header weekend, in the hills west of Windermere in the Lake District, with a Middle Distance race on Saturday and a Classic race on Sunday. Parking and assembly for both events was in the same place, in a valley south of Hawkshead and north of Haverthwaite. Both areas were rough and tough, resulting in some very long times and many retirals. Claire Ward loves this kind of terrain and had excellent runs.
Saturday’s Middle Distance race was at Esthwaite Intake, to the north and west of the valley, and there was a long walk to the start (and back from the finish). It was a lovely spring day, but clouded over later with rain in the afternoon. The terrain is mainly mature coniferous plantation, sometimes quite thick, with open marshes and lots of intricate contours.
ESOC results in the top half of their course were:
Black (69 competitors) – Andrew Lindsay 15th, Craig Nolan 23rd, Ray Ward 33rd
Brown Women (40) – Claire Ward 1st
Green (130) – Sally Lindsay 43rd
Results are available in the British Orienteering results archive.
Sunday’s event was at Graythwaite Estate, on the east side of the valley, with a shorter walk to the start. The day dawned wet and windy, but brightened up later and the rain had stopped by the time of the last starts, though everywhere was very wet and muddy. The area is a mix of deciduous and coniferous forest, and has many rock features and contour detail. There had been some recent forestry work near the starts, with extraction lanes and brashings making for slow going, and later there were some controls in very dense forest. Longer courses visited the highest part of the area, which is open with many large crags. The last sections descended through pleasant deciduous woods which were quite steep and rough underfoot.
ESOC results in the top half of their course were:
Brown (22 competitors) – Claire Ward 1st
Short Brown 1 (40) – Andrew Lindsay 3rd, Craig Nolan 18th
Green (85) – Sally Lindsay 28th
Results are available in the British Orienteering results archive.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports