Training Log Archive: andyd

SOW, day 6. H35, 5.4 km/260m. Downhill and technical. Today's map spanned around 3000 ft vertically, and we started near the top! Felt surprisingly full of energy after 10 days of orienteering, tearing through the first half of the course, through a complicated boulder field area, a grassy hillside, and down into the forest. Was lying 4th at no 8, but then completely blew it with big errors on the next two. Ah well. The finish was perhaps the most scenic yet, the adjoining lake was wonderfully warm, and we even got a Swiss army knife for finishing, so it was hard to dwell too much on mistakes. Ended up 15th (again). Overall position - 15th! SOW was the O-experience of a lifetime!

C • Zermatt is on the list! 1

SOW, day 5. H35, 3.6km/180m. In the streets and surrounding farmland of Zermatt. Very tricky to find routes through the maze of alleyways and out-of-bounds areas. And surprisingly confusing when you came unstuck. Hilly too! A far from clean run today, jogging the last part. Ran through an OOB area, that was marked with puple screen on top of yellow. I read it as brown, and couldn't understand why it was grass and not paved. Ooops. 20th place.

Hiking pretty hard up the the Hornli Hut (foot of the face of the Matterhorn).

SOW, day 4. H35, 6.9km/350m. Open, grassy terrain beneath that of day 3. The course started with a long, tough traverse, then plunged into a loop in a very fun area of bumps, then some more straightforward terrain, and a brutal climb to the finish. A few little mistakes, and came in 14th.

Rest day - a hike with Ben, via a scenic swim in Grunsee to the Blauherd cable car, which had already closed for the day. Had to descend all the way to Zermatt. [Just logging time for the main climb].

SOW, day 3. H35, 6.1 km/290m. Absolutely spectacular terrain at the foot of the Matterhorn, with barely a plant to be seen. The early part of the course crossed areas recently exposed by the melting glacier, a mostly straightforward terrain of melt-water pools and gravel. Some courses went higher to the flank of the glacier itself, but not ours. That was probably a good thing, as the remainder of the course was on an extremely complex area of almost entirely bare rock. It was wonderfully fun, and actually nice to run on, though not fast, involving scrambling around a maze of cliffs. The map was 1:7500, which I didn't realise until after fiishing. Was hesitant on the long leg (started navigating to 12 mid-way), and missed in the control circle, but otherwise a good run, and an incredible orienteering experience! 15th again.

SOW, day 2. H35, 4.8 km/350m. The area was directly downslope from yesterday, and much more physical - both in terms of hills and ground cover. The course was roughly half below the treeline, in very scenic pine woods. A 35 contour climb mid-course was brutal! Again, mostly pretty easy technically, though had a few little mistakes and came in 15th.