Race 21: New Dungeon Ghyll

Straight up and down Harrison Stickle from the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. The route follows the Dungeon Ghyll path from the start then from a checkpoint at the top of the ghyll it climbs to the right to the top of the mountain. From there it descends towards Stickle Tarn before contouring round, back to a final checkpoint on the Dungeon Ghyll path and returning from there.

The mist was quite low for the whole of the race but there is really no navigational difficulty in getting to the top. I have been up Harrison Stickle many times so I know that part quite well and the only difficulty was in climbing 2,100 feet in less than two miles, which is hard going for anybody. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would and I was looking forward to the descent but in the event, it didn't go well. After a bit of scrambling around on the top to find the path down I found myself in a group of four going through the second last checkpoint above Stickle Tarn. We were in thick mist but the terrain round to the last is not too difficult so it should have been simple enough to follow our compasses home. Two of the group didn't bother with the maps and just followed but two of us had been map reading and leading the others all the way from the top. It seems that we lost concentration and, both taking misplaced confidence from the other, we ran just a few degrees too far left and descended towards Stickle Ghyll, losing a couple of hundred feet of height before we realised what we had done. I headed up first and we got on to the right path but we had lost some time and a few places which count for a lot in such a small field.

I was still feeling fresh and I beat the others in my group down so I don't feel too bad even though the result looks terrible. We made a navigational error but at least we realised what we had done and had the ability to get ourselves back on course. The lesson is that I need to concentrate on my own map and compass, believe what it is telling me and stick with that. If somebody else is heading off into the mist, let them go unless you are absolutely sure in your own mind that it is the right direction. Anyway, nobody to blame but myself so I should just be happy that I got up and down such a steep race and still managed to finish quite strongly. There is hope for a decent run on Jura yet.

Steep climb from the start of the race

The same section on the return. The last checkpoint
is on the knoll behind and to the right,.

Provisional Result: 29th/39
Distance: 5.6km/3.5 miles  Climb: 640m/2100ft