Marmot Dark Mountains™ venue announced
The venue for the inaugural Marmot Dark Mountains™ – the event which takes the classic two-day mountain marathon format and gives it a new, darker twist – has just been announced as the spectacular Muncaster Castle in the southwest Lake District…
This historic ‘haunted’ castle has been the residence of the Pennington Family since 1208 and they have kindly given permission for the event to use this fantastic venue, which is otherwise closed to the public during January.
The event area has been carefully selected for its remote and mountainous moorland nature but is generally below 500m, and should avoid the worst of the winter weather that can be experienced on the higher Lakeland fells. Although the area is low in elevation, it more than compensates for this with some technical terrain with complex contours, crags and areas of featureless moorland.
Indeed, the 2012 British Orienteering Champs used some of this area to test the best navigators in the country! Excellent navigation, careful use of the terrain features and a cautious approach are likely to be a rewarding strategy for competitors in this challenging new event.
Planning the courses has proved a tricky task for the organisers. Race Director, Shane Ohly explains:
“We work to a set winning time, rather than a set distance for each course. However, compensating for the added difficulty of running and navigating at night has proven difficult, as the differences between people’s ability to navigate accurately and run with confidence seem to be magnified by the darkness. The organising team have carried out a significant amount of testing themselves and had experienced mountain marathon competitors who are independent of the planning team run the courses to check our assumptions”.
Despite the careful planning process, differences in the weather conditions have resulted in very different experiences for the test team. Ohly continues:
“Obviously, it is also impossible to account for the variations in the weather; a clear moonlit night produces a completely different winning time to a foggy wet night. As such, we have erred on the side of caution when determining the length and climb for each course…it is meant to be fun after all!”
The planner’s optimum distance and height gain for each course have been confirmed as:
C Course: 30.7km / 1,400m
B Course: 35.3km / 1,600m
A Course: 41.1km / 1,900m
Elite Course: 51.4km / 2,200m
There is also a score class with a time limit of 8 hours.
There are still a few entries available on all the courses and despite the lure of a £500 cash prize for the elite winners, the competition remains wide open with just two entries so far. Find out more here.
