Lakes 5 Days 201829 July - 6 August
A couple of dozen ESOC members enjoyed varied orienteering (and weather conditions) at this year’s multi-day event in the Lake District, with some great results.
The Lakes 5 Days event takes place every 4 years, and offers fine orienteering in good terrain throughout the Lake District.
Day 1: Silver How, Sunday 29 July
Silver How is W of Grasmere, in the heart of the Lakes. The terrain is open fell at around 400m, mostly tussock with areas of bracken, plenty of rock, some marshes and lots of contours. There was a long walk up to the start, and unfortunately it was very wet.
Day 2: Angle Tarn Pikes, Monday 30 July
Angle Tarn Pikes is SE of Patterdale, at the southern end of Ullswater, and there was another long walk up to the start. It’s a high, exposed fell area of rough grass moorland, with many ridges, small hills and crags. The weather was showery, and it was very wet underfoot after the previous rain.
Day 3: Whinlatter, Tuesday 31 July
Whinlatter is a Forestry Commission area, NW of Keswick. The main car park was in Cockermouth, with buses taking competitors to the assembly area. The terrain was varied, including steep working forest, and surrounding areas of open fell with some complex contour detail. The weather was windy, but dry.
Rest Day: Wednesday 1 August
On the rest day, there was an Urban event in Ulverston in the early evening, organised by Lakeland Orienteers. A few of the ESOC contingent competed – the best ESOC results were Janice Nisbet, 3rd out of 38 on Short Green; Calum Robertson, 6th out of 25 on Yellow; Hanne Robertson, 11th out of 36 on Blue Women.
Day 4: Askham Fell, Thursday 2 August
Askham Fell is S of Penrith, near the northern end of Ullswater. It’s a large open area on limestone, with lots of large sink holes, pits and depressions, many paths, and vegetation varying from smooth grass to runnable tussock and short heather, plus some tricky gorse patches at the end. The weather was warm and sunny.
Day 5: Dale Park, Friday 3 August
Dale Park is part of Graythwaite Forest, in the Southern Lakes, and the terrain is mainly steep oak woodland, with lots of intricate contour and rock detail, and bracken. This was a Middle Distance event, and the start was close by. Once again it was a wet day.
ESOC’s best overall results came from Roger Garnett, 1st in M65S; Kerry Wood, 1st in W18S; and Janice Nisbet, 1st in W65L. Others who finished in the top half of their classes were:
M50S (36 competitors) – Mark Wood 5th, Finlay Ross 13th
M60L (80) – Andy McLeod 39th
M60S (40) – Richard Oxlade 2nd
M70L (76) – Roger Scrutton 20th, Alastair Lessells 26th
W12A (25) – Maja Robertson 7th
W55L (56) – Chris McLeod 7th
W65L (33) – Margaret Dalgleish 8th
For all classes, points were awarded for each day’s result, using a formula based on the mean time for the top 90% of runners on the course, the runner’s actual time, and the standard deviation of times for the course. A competitor’s 4 best scores of the week were totalled to give their overall score.
The Lakes 5 Days 2018 website gives further description of the competition areas, comments and results for each day, including Routegadget, and links to photos.
Day 1 (Silver How) and Day 5 (Dale Park) were the 17th and 18th events in the 2018 UK Orienteering League. There are more details about the UKOL, including the updated league tables, on the UK Orienteering League page of the British Orienteering website. ESOC is now lying 17th in the club league. The score for each club is calculated automatically from the 15 best club members' scores (across various age class groups) - so the club members whose scores are included change as the year goes on.
Other entries categorised under: Event Reports