Ventures

The Other Team

High Adventure 2002

The other team's account of the high adventure weekend!

I'll start from where we got separated from the other team. We had decided that we were all out to win this time, we had never all walked together and didn't know each other's capabilities so we set off at a pretty good pace.

We went through the forest to CP 1 then directly up a hill to CP2 and 3 then down to the valley base, from there we went up and up and up! Until we were between two very big mountains, both snow covered, we had sleet, snow and rain all day, but we were all warm due to our clothing and being the more experienced team we were taking regular sheltered breaks for food to keep our energy up in the cold weather!

The weather was so bad that we couldn't see much past 50 feet and the sleet and snow hurt our faces, we were all keeping an eye on each other for signs of exhaustion and hypothermia because we were afraid that due to the weather conditions we might suffer. At some of the manned CP's we went to we asked how everyone was, they told us of teams dropping out due to broken arms and hypothermia.

Between these mountains were CP dotted around but we couldn't find any of them for two hours, at that point we found out we were getting very close to the end of the day. So, we headed to the overnight camp, on the way we were asked by the mountain crew who we were and if we had seen the other team as they had been missing all day and have had no contact. We told them no but said that they would have probably kept to the low levels. We carried on and the sun eventually came out, the last 5 miles of the day were easy and when we arrived at the overnight camp the other team still hadn't checked in. Spud, Steve and myself started putting up our tents as Sandra and Claire started on dinner (as all good women should!) we looked 'round to see that everyone else was having lightweight re-hydrated food that tastes horrid and you can only just survive on, then it happened, our Beef hit the wok (that I had carried all day) and the smell filled the campsite, all the support came over and drawled as we sat there eating our beef stir fry, we had loads and filled the wok twice! The best idea we had ever had. Then we went to bed after the news came through saying that our other team was safe!

In the morning I cooked breakfast, again everyone was on this horrid re-hydrated food, and there we were with bacon butties!

We set off on a better day, not as much rain but still windy, most of the morning we climbed but we had had lots of food so we had plenty of energy unlike some of the teams that were struggling from the start.

This time we stayed off the mountains to gain the lower CPs, the whole second day went a lot better and when we finished it was such a relief!

We walked down to our support team and found our other team there waiting for us!

After some story swapping and finding out that the other team had walked about 12 miles off the map in the wrong direction we went for showers. Normally if you complete both days when you come to shower the water is cold but this time it was piping hot! We all stayed in the showers warming up and to people who had not done the event the moans of enjoyment would have been worrying.

After the showers we went to the shops and got some more food and drink, and waited for the close of day and award ceremony.

Not a bad weekend all in all. Again well done to all my team, Spud, Sandra, Claire and Steve and the other team Pete, Suzie, Mark, Zoe, Becca and Adam.

Due to the base camp tents blowing away everyone's base kit was put into any bag left, when I got home my mother emptied my bag (with a mask on due to the smell of clothes that had been worn for 3 days) and found a small black thong, at this point she looked worried. Also make-up and some other things from other people. If your missing anything I think I might have it.

David

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