Wensleydale paid host to this years Open 12 event, based from the idyllic dales village of West Burton where nothing much happens. It is however famed for its village green & coyts ground together with a fiercely competitive local team, so when the Open Adventure team arrived it added a whole bunch more of competitive teams! The weather for the weekend was to be sunny and hot all the way! The format of the event was kept in suspense until the briefings, all we knew was that it was going to involve an overnight camp somewhere, getting wet (possibly more than once!) and either a climb or abseil.
The event on day 1 was 7 hours and it kicked off with a run stage, which was located on the beautiful Wild Boar Fell, the team decided to operate as a foursome in preparation for the Terrex, because we had not competed together as group before it would be good practice. We where well matched and completed the run stage in efficient style in about 2:20hr collecting all bar two check-points. This led us into the first special stage – Hell Gill… with water levels low, the gill was all but a trickle, and this is Yorkshires answer to the Verdon! We dispatched this little teaser in a little over 20 minutes, collecting two 50 pointers, this brought us into the transition ready for the cycle. The nav options on the cycle where numerous, but we knew that a couple of checkpoints would have to be dropped. We worked out a good circuit that took us to all the big hitters, taking in some of North Yorkshires best trails, with views to admire [if only we had the time!] After a short but heavy shower we soon found that we had only 5 to get, with 2 1/2 hours to spare it did seem possible, but like all things done against the clock - time speeds up! and we knew we had to leave 30min for the final special stage, so this meant dropping a couple which as it happened where well out of reach. The finale to the day was the dive down to the bottom of Hardraw Force, 10ft under we had to dib the last checkpoint, this was refreshing and was a great way to clean the muck and sweat off. The day ended as good as it started, with a picturesque camp in the wooded glade below the force. We had our day 2 briefing as well, where I was sickened to be told that a 600m open water swim had to be done! This was my worst nightmare - swimming is not my thing! This was now on my mind...
Day 2 - we where greeted with a 100ft abseil, despite a long queue we eventually got our turn, it was a tandem abseil and was all very safe! After an hour and half of waiting we whizzed down the rope, unhooked ourselves and launched into a 16k run, collecting a bunch of checkpoints along the way which meander west then east then up and over to Semer Water. The day was hot and as the run progressed the water started to become appealing, 2 hours later we where on the shore, I had worked out the swimming rucksac would be good (it had air in it). I paddle as far as I could, but the inevitable came and I had to leave the comfy mud bottom and swim, I did crawl, breast-stroke and some in-between stroke that I invented, it suit and it worked! and yes I was passed by a few people, but my goal was just getting across the comfort of the land! It only took 20min, so I was pleased, something I would never have chosen to do! Getting back on the bike felt great, the route home was straightforward, although one checkpoint was just beyond us. We crossed the finish in good style, with both teams finishing 5th in their respective category. This was a credible result despite Karen still having 'BG' in her legs and Paul coughing and wheezing all the way round. As usual the event was superbly organised with full credit to all those helping!
Alex Pilkington
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