Open24 Report: Yorkshire Dales, July 2006

Russ Ladkin reports on the Open24 event held in the Yorkshire Dales on 29/30 July...

James Thurlow started the Open Adventure series last year firmly establishing adventure racing across the North of England. His flagship event is the Open24 and at the end of last year’s event on his home patch in the Lake District while competitors were still buzzing from 24 hours of canoeing, mountain biking, foot navigation, abseils in the middle of the night, jumping into canyons and swimming across lakes, James made a pledge that he could go one better. This year he delivered on that pledge!

For anyone who has done a Polaris MTB event or score orienteering, the concept is simple. Controls are scattered across an area, each being worth differing points and you choose which ones to visit in the time allotted. In the Open 24, pairs progress around the course in a series of score stages. At the end of each stage is a transition area where your kit box for spare clothes, food etc is transported for you.

The transition is the start for the next stage and at the end of 24 hours you hopefully find yourselves back where you started. This means that the event caters for a full range of abilities and aspirations. You can choose to take fairly straight forward, short routes between transitions or longer, higher scoring routes.

"Compared to normal orienteering
the controls can be quite hard to find"

However, unlike conventional events the exact time of each score section isn’t precisely fixed. Each transition opens for a window of a few hours during which you pass through from one stage to the next. In this way you can choose to spend longer on say a foot section and less time on your bike. Finally, each stage has a high scoring, optional challenge which are the highlights for most people.

Jeff Powell Davies and myself as Team Snowcard.co.uk had one of the later starts just after 1pm on the Saturday. A busy Bolton Abbey made a stunning backdrop in the warm sunshine but we were soon able to cool down as the first control led us straight across the river to a copse. Compared to normal orienteering the controls can be quite hard to find. There is no flag or tape, just an SI box but the control descriptions make up for this indicating exactly where the box is relative to the feature.

A few hundred yards into the course and we already couldn’t find this first control and there were soon a bunch of people looking. There were a lot of public around, so we figured it might have gone missing. It was only worth 10 points and we moved on. Back across the river to the next control then back again to an island where we were caught by Nick Gracie and Warren Bates bounding across the river in a style that made you see why they are UK Champs.

We settled down along the valley for the rest of the stage which was shortened due to fire risk on Barden Moor and in just over an hour were at the first transition near Appletreewick. Quickly on to bikes and heading up Wharfedale and Littondale towards the next transition at Buckden.

"The challenge on this stage
was an abseil from
Kilnsey Crag"

Controls were spread across the valleys giving a challenge to pick an optimum route between them with the limited number of bridges. Part way through we went for an extra control which threw our original plan. Once again we were passed by Gracie and Bates going well up a track, knowing that they had already visited controls we had yet to get.

The challenge on this stage was an abseil from Kilnsey Crag. But nothing on this event is quite that straightforward. Each pair are attached together through a sling and you go down together. I took the rope and we both got to admire the views as we gracefully descended below the overhang to the control at the bottom.

Back on the bikes and a fairly straight route to Buckden as time was passing. We were hoping to spend more time on the next run stage and clear the bulk of the controls. So, leaving bikes in Buckden and changing to running shoes we set out around Langstrothdale at 19:30.

James had very craftily allocated points to controls throughout the event such that the ones on the main route between transitions had high values and the outliers up the sides of the valleys were worth few points. This keeps the team scores close and makes the faster pairs work hard for a few extra points whilst running the risk of being late and losing them in penalties.

So, as we worked our way up over Buckden Pike for a few extra points I started to feel a lack of motivation and tiredness setting in. Concentrating on our route helped to take my mind off it and we were rewarded with a pleasant run down and across to a gill scramble in Strans Gill. It got dark as we kitted up with helmets, harnesses and jumars to clip into the safety lines. It was a pleasant change of pace and it always fills me with excitement when the torches come out and you know that they are going to stay on until dawn arrives.

One of the final controls was a tricky cave entrance followed by a valley route and short climb. I started to fade at the end of this and Jeff took over the navigation. Once I’d been sick though I started to feel better. We had no choice but to make a fairly quick transition before it closed at 1am. Team Compass Point (Phil Scarf/Jonathan Emberton) spent an extra hour on the first mountain bike for an extra 60 points but our 75 minutes extra on foot had earnt us 105 more points, so we were ahead as we left transition together.

Being stronger bikers than us they soon disappeared into the darkness on the gruelling climb out of Starbotton across the moor and a fast descent into Coverdale followed by a further climb out heading for a transition in Upper Nidderdale. Daylight returned as we descended to Scar House Reservoir but not before I’d been over the handlebars, luckily landing in peat rather than on rocks. The final challenge for this stage was a dip into Manchester hole for a caving section along the streamway, a short crawl and a climb out Bax Pot before reaching transition. Just about everyone had a go at this and emerged muddy, out of breath but smiling.

Back in the daylight, the penultimate stage was another biking leg down Nidderdale and across to Thruscross reservoir. Early on there were three controls to find in an exploration of How Stean Gorge before it is opened to the public. Some teams waded the whole gorge to get their money’s worth but we opted for the bridges and paths where possible. Our aim for this stage was to get the main points and get to the start of the final stage with enough time that we wouldn’t be late at the finish. This is hard to judge as we don’t know how much confidence to put in our kayaking abilities!

The transition at the dam on the river Washburn is a busy place with inflatable Sevylor kayaks stacked high. James has arranged a dam release for this grade 2 paddle down to Blubberhouses. A few people capsize and are rescued by the river marshals but the majority have a fantastic descent and agree it’s not what they thought they would be doing on this Sunday morning.

The final leg back to Bolton Abbey is limited to paths by the fire risk again but just finishing is top of most people’s priority by now. Some are running to try and make it in time but a lot are taking it a bit slower in a procession of orange bibs. James is there on the line to welcome everyone in, just a short stroll from a welcome ice cream van.

Only 7 of the 53 teams dropped out during the course, a recognition of how the event structure encourages teams to be able to finish. It was a great experience to achieve so much in 24 hours on a mini-tour of the Eastern Dales and race alongside the top UK teams.

Aberdeen Asset Management (Warren Bates/Nick Gracie) won the male pairs, Barclays/The North Face(Ali Northcott/Mark Chryssanthou) won the mixed pairs and Louise Allen with Nicola England were the only female pair to complete the course. We came in 5th in the male pairs, just 5 points behind Team Compass Point. Seems being able to find the first control was important after all, but that seems a long way in the past at the end of 24 hours.

Finally, James’ closing words – “I’m hoping to have a coast to coast race across the North of England” and “Yes, I think I can still surpass this Open 24, see you next year back in the Lake District”. On previous experience I think I’ll believe he will do just that.

Event website and results www.openadventure.com

All photos by Jean Sinclair