Day 2Bessyboot

Lakes5 Day2, Updated Information as at May 13th.

Day2 is brought to you by WCOC on a brand new mountain area for orienteering, high in the central Lake District, above the southern end of the beautiful Borrowdale Valley. 

Parking is planned in fields at Rosthwaite Village in Borrowdale about 10km south of Keswick on the B5289.  From here it will be about an 800m walk to Assembly at the foot of the mountain.  Starts and Finish are remote from Assembly.  

There are three Starts, distances from Assembly:

Red (High) Start 2.2km and 300m climb for courses 1-12 - allow up to 60mins from Assembly.

Blue (Low) Start 1.7km and 150m climb for courses 13-18 - allow up to 40mins from Assembly.

Finish for all courses from Red & Blue Starts is 1.2km back down the hill to Assembly.

White (Near) Start 300m and 0m climb for courses 18 & 19, white and yellow.

The Finish for courses 18 & 19 (white and yellow) is near the White start.

We have tried to make this as family friendly as possible for competitors within the constraints of accessing a high fell and parking availability. The Near Start is on the route to the other starts and the courses will also finish here. Parents/shadowers of White & Yellow course competitors can proceed on to the main starts from here.

The route to the High and Low starts follows a rough path for 1km up to the fell wall, where the routes diverge. The route to the High start then climbs steeply up the fellside passing close to the Finish, where clothing/food/water may be left. The route to the Low start drops from the fell wall to cross a stream and along a track to the start.

Parents/carers of competitors using the low start who want to accompany them to the start, can then retrace 200m back to join the route to the High start for their own course.

The Finish is the same for all courses except white. The walk back down to Assembly is along the same path as you came up to the starts.

Courses and Terrain

The Red (High) start courses uses the high undulating plateau around Bessyboot summit (one of Wainwright’s 214 fells) and Tarn at Leaves. It is mainly runnable sheep cropped grass with varying areas of rocky ground. Plenty of intricate contour detail, numerous crags, boulders, marshes and ponds. There is virtually no bracken but significant patches are mapped. There is significant climb on all courses at or above 5% of length. The area rises to over 600m. 

All courses from the high start have a steep descent to the finish over their last few controls. In practice this is around 200m descent within final 600m.

Anyone not enthusiastic about the description of this wonderful challenge may wish to consider entering one of the courses at the Low start, which venture onto slightly tamer and lower terrain.

The Blue (Low) start courses use a long flat bottomed valley, surrounded by towering cliffs, known as The Combe. The valley floor contains many grassy knolls of varying size (glacial moraines), marshes, numerous watercourses and intermittent rock features.  The lower slopes of the valley are mainly grassy with varying amounts of stony ground and detailed rock features. There is virtually no bracken. The major cliffs around the upper rim of the valley have been marked to aid navigation but courses do not venture anywhere near these cliffs. NOTE the upper slopes under the major cliffs have not been mapped in detail. 

It has now been decided to move the Yellow course down to the White start.

The absence of many paths in The Combe means that course 17 (Orange) makes use of streams, ditches and some marsh edges as your line features and handrails. Where routes are not clear sections of taped route will be used. 

NOTE The Coombe, whilst a distinct enclosed valley, is a real mountain experience and juniors unused to, or unsure of the challenge outlined above may wish to be accompanied.

The White (Near) start now hosts both the White & Yellow courses. These course follows paths and walls in an area of rough open and around grazed fields. A small section of the course will be along the path being taken by competitors going to the High and Low starts. 

The String course is adjacent to Assembly in the grounds of Borrowdale Primary School, who are kindly allowing us to use this area.

Provisional course lengths and start location are given in the attached table:

Map

New map created for this event. Likely to be at a scale of 1:7500 for all courses. 5m contours. Intention is to use white as rough open to aid clarity rather than the ISOM yellow shade. Printing likely to be A4 portrait for all courses.

Safety

This is a mountain event on high exposed fell. It will be a wonderful experience in good weather with great views all around.  In inclement weather it will be a real challenge and minimum clothing requirements will be mandated and checked. A whistle will be mandatory regardless of the weather. In the event of extreme weather being forecast (a named Storm) we are developing plans to be able to postpone Day2 to the Rest Day.

Officials