Training Log Archive: Bash

Birthday dinner in Stockholm

Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon

For a long time, Richard and I have wanted to try a mountain marathon - a 2-day navigation race where teams of two travel through a mountainous area on foot, locating a small number of controls spread out on a point-to-point course. Racers carry camping gear and spend the night with other competitors at a remote campsite after finishing Day 1. Different course lengths are offered with daily time limits. There are the usual challenges of navigating through mountainous terrain - route choice, snow/ice fields, cliffs, poor footing, stream crossings and changes in weather/visibility - combined with the challenge of keeping your pack light while carrying all mandatory gear and ensuring that you have enough stuff to stay warm and well-fed. Since Richard and I came to adventure sports from an outdoor tripping background rather than an athletic background, we liked this idea. It also provided an excuse to shop for even lighter weight gear, and that's always fun. :-)

Björkliden is a ski resort 250 km north of the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland. Because of the Gulf Stream, this part of Sweden is greener and warmer than the Canadian Arctic. There are forests at lower elevations, but most of the race took place above the tree line. Björkliden overlooks the huge Lake Torneträsk and lies a short distance north of the highest mountain in Sweden. It's a popular area for hiking trips.

There were 126 teams signed up for BAMM 2009 on three different courses. BAMM 70 is said to be the toughest mountain marathon in Sweden, with over 70 km of straight line distance between the controls over the two days. The BAMM 50 course goes over 50 km point-to-point in two days. BAMM 30 racers go 30 km and can have their tents and sleeping bags transported to the overnight camp.

My instinct was to sign up for BAMM 70 since we were travelling so far, but except for one elite mixed team, no women had signed up for it. I figured that if even *Swedish* women didn't want to do the 70, then we'd better stick with the BAMM 50. Teams finishing outside a 10-hr time limit on Day 1 would be moved to a recreational class, racing a shorter distance on Day 2. As the only North American team in the race, we didn't want to let the side down by getting "demoted"!

We noticed that racers were younger than at similar events in North America. Maybe the low $80/person entry fee helped. Being Swedes, they were also taller, blonder and more beautiful. ;-) The pre-race meeting lasted 30 minutes and was conducted entirely in Swedish with (apparently) some excellent jokes. We guessed at the meaning of the Powerpoint slides, then went up afterward for a 5-minute translation and hoped we hadn't missed anything other than the jokes. The other racers were friendly and happy to answer questions, so we weren't too worried.

Day 1

We picked up our Day 1 maps at 6:30 a.m., two hours before the start. That was more than enough time to plan our route, since there weren't many controls, and they weren't hidden under rocks. Route choice and execution are the most important elements in a mountain marathon. The map was 1:50,000 with 20 m contours, so controls had to be placed on obvious features, and there were no trees on most of the map. About half the controls were manned by volunteers with tents who called in our arrival times, which were subsequently posted live on the website.

There aren't as many trails as it appears... the dashed lines are "winter routes" that are marked with frequent signposts but aren't always visible on the ground. Also, they cross water that is frozen in winter. Even the summer trails might just be marked with red paint in a rock field, so we couldn't always count on moving faster if we took a longer trail route.


(Click to enlarge, then zoom with magnifying glass in Picasa.)

We gathered in the start area, looking nervously at everyone else (fitter than us) and their packs (smaller).



Phatty and Cheesesteak will be pleased to know that Salomon footwear was popular.



Richard and I had heavier packs than most, although they didn't bother us after our week of backpacking. Mine started at 7.5 kg, and Richard's was about 9 kg. One reason is that we carried water in bladders, whereas most other competitors just drank from streams. Given all the reindeer droppings in the area, we purified most of our water as we would do in Canada, but people thought this was silly. Top competitors had their packs down to 4-5 kg while carrying tent, sleeping bag, stove, fuel, 2 days of food, and extra clothing.



Here's how we carried the SI card. The wrist strap could not be removed until the race was over. Richard also carried an SI card, and we had to punch controls within 15 seconds of one another, or else time penalties would be added for each extra second. This was an awesome system to keep teams together and ensure that everyone went to the summit of every climb!



The race started with a 670 m climb straight up to the summit of Nuolja, a mountain with a cable car on the other side. We'd considered paying to go up earlier in the week, but I'm sure glad we saved our Kronors, since we were going to see the view for free.





Great view at the top, but didn't stay long to enjoy it.





From here, there were different route choices to get around one mountain, then get up to an even higher plateau where we would find a small lake. We didn't do much running today, although Richard would have loved to do more. I aimed for a brisk hiking pace - we were on vacation carrying our camping gear on our backs, and the other competitors were mostly Swedes on their home turf (daunting!) So I figured we were racing against the clock - not other racers.



A small percentage of teams used trekking poles, but by the second day, people were making envious comments. They were invaluable in protecting our knees on downhills and sharing the load with our upper body on uphills. They also helped with balance when there was bad footing. I need to think of better ways to deal with map and compass though, since I didn't have enough hands. Hammer will be happy to know that I refused to put the compass around my neck in Sweden.

When we finally got up to the high plateau, we and our closest competitors took photos of one another in front of the sea of snowy peaks to the southwest. We later learned that the overall winners of BAMM 70 carried a camera "because the scenery was too nice not to", but this was another extravagance that most teams didn't have.



Weather and scenery were stunning. This would have been a worthwhile hike, whether or not we were racing.







We liked travelling on snow fields since they were easier on our feet than the rocks. Trekking poles came in handy here too! Some racers were sliding downhill on their sleeping pads, but we just skied on our feet. Note the rainbow - it was around for a couple of hours!





Can you see the control?



The finish line was at the night camp, which was about 3 km from the ski resort by an easy hiking trail. Often these camps are near a road to make it easier to get volunteers, timing equipment and other gear in. This felt like a backcountry campsite - except that we were sharing it with 250 other people! I guess the BAMM 30 racers' gear must have arrived by helicopter.

For awhile in the middle of the day, I'd been worrying that we might not make it within the 10-hr time limit, but the climbing and footing improved in the second half of the day, and we ended up finishing in 7 hrs 43 min. Phew!!



Leave it to the Swedes - the map of the camping area was posted on the notice board upside down so that it would be oriented correctly! It was also in Swedish, which added to the challenge. There were instructions about where to take drinking water, where to wash yourself, where to wash dishes, where the toilet areas were, etc. (These shared temporary toilet facilities looked a little funky, so we tried our best not to need them!)



We were using the same lightweight tent that we'd used on our backpacking trip. It actually wasn't much heavier than the specialized mountain marathon tents that looked like little 2-man coffins. (We were told they were old technology anyway.)





We had a long time in camp - from 4:30 p.m. until the 8 a.m. start the next morning - so we were glad to have warm clothes and some good food. A good addition would have been shopping bags for our feet so we could have worn our dry socks in our wet shoes. Lots of people did this. Maps for Day 2 were handed out at 6 p.m. We would be travelling through the same area, but going to different places. Our knowledge from Day 1 would help with some decisions. Once again, we didn't need a lot of time to plan our route. Our orienteering Swedish had improved to the point that we didn't even write the English control descriptions on our map!


(Click to enlarge, then click magnifying glass in Picasa.)

Results were posted. Two of the 7 teams in our category were marked "disqualified", which seemed to be different from "did not start", although they didn't download, so it's hard to know. Perhaps they exceeded the 10 hr time limit. We met another team who missed the time cut-off and dropped out of the race rather than do the recreational course the next day. We were 4th, which was a pleasant surprise. We were 35 minutes behind 3rd place and 80 minutes ahead of 5th place, so we didn't expect much to change on Day 2. The leaders in our category travelled together most of the day and were tied to the second.

It was a chilly night, and I slept wearing almost everything in my pack. During our backpacking trip, it never really got dark because of the midnight sun, but the moon came out tonight. Richard was cold during the night in spite of wearing lots of warm clothes. He needs more body fat. :-)

Day 2

There wasn't much else to do in camp besides sleep since we didn't know many people, so we were raring to go at 6:15 a.m. All around, people were having hot drinks and cereal as they put their packs together again. I felt well-rested but my stomach was a little queasy for most of today - not sure what was up with that, but luckily it didn't get worse, and I didn't imitate our friend Tiny.



We started at 8 a.m., but there was a chasing start at 8:15 a.m. for the leaders of each category followed by teams who were within an hour of them, starting at the appropriate time difference. This meant that we saw more teams today, although we didn't always know if they were on our course or if they had started after us. Once again, we started with a stiff climb, although not as high as yesterday. I was grateful since my clothes were damp, and this warmed me up.

We had some nasty weather in the middle of the day, including a couple of hours where it alternated between chilly rain, hail and heavy snow. We talked to a team who summited the wrong mountain in the fog, then had to come down and summit the right mountain. We were a little chilly, but the top BAMM 70 runners blasted toward us in shorts in one section.



It's snowing on Richard here.



The lichen on the rocks got really slippery, and we had to be super-careful coming down cliffs.





For the first half of the day, we saw a lot of the 3rd and 5th place teams - speedy young Swedes! It was obvious that something bad had happened to the 5th place team on Day 1, since they were clearly good runners, and they were trying to stay ahead of us today. (We later learned that the guy had severe neck cramps the previous day.) Although we had more than an hour on them, anything can happen in a long day of racing, and seeing them got my competitive spirit going. We didn't expect to move ahead of the 3rd place team, but we didn't want to lose too much time either. So... we ran a lot today.

It seemed that climbing was one of our strengths relative to other teams (who then kicked our butt on running sections), and #4 was a long slog to a summit, so we pushed hard using a tow rope and trekking poles. We were able to pass a few teams, including our competitors, and we ran down the mountain, then pushed hard on the trail until we were sure that we'd put some distance between us. I thought that if we could stay out of sight, it would be to our advantage psychologically. We spent the rest of the day imagining that the other teams were hot on our heels, and this worked well.

Luckily, the weather improved.



And we saw a small herd of reindeer.



There was a long leg that took us halfway across the map to a control partway up a ski lift at the resort. There were many possible routes, and we didn't see anyone for quite awhile, which was unnerving. It turned out reasonably well, although we could have shaved a little time off by taking a more direct route, but our cross-country choice was faster than going around on trails, which some teams did. The final descent beside the ski lift was brutal on our knees. The trekking poles were helpful once again!





When we crossed the finish line, there were bananas, cold drinks and... smoked reindeer!



Before we could leave the finish chute, there was a very comprehensive gear check. Great idea.



There was a BBQ where they were serving BAMMburgers, so we hung out for a little while and chatted to other teams. Everyone speaks amazing English in Sweden - it's embarrassing that we can't say much in Swedish. The other teams were friendly, and we had some nice chats at the campsite and on the race course.

As we hung out at the finish, we didn't see any sign of the 3rd and 5th place teams in our category, which might mean they had finished earlier, since there was plenty of route choice. But we knew our 6:57 time today was good, so we kept our fingers crossed as we left for the showers!



Results were posted before the banquet, and we were thrilled to learn that we'd moved into 3rd place based on our two day total! Today we were less than 40 minutes behind the leaders in our category (who finished 1 second apart after two days), and we gained a lot of time on other teams, some of whom had problems with bodily wear and tear on Day 2. Several people asked us what happened since the difference in our performance between the two days was so apparent. And the answer was, "Barb finally decided to run after all." A highlight of the evening was when a guy (an actual Swede!!) introduced himself to consult me on a route choice he had made. So we were pretty happy. We still got crushed by most of the men's teams and a couple of the women's teams, but it was a lot better than we'd expected in our first mountain marathon and our first navigation race in Scandinavia. We even won a couple of Nathan running packs.



At the airport, we had a chance to chat with Jethro Lennox and Andy Symonds, Team Saab-Salomon / Inov-8. They were the winners of the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon in the U.K. (593 teams), and they also won BAMM 70. They seemed like super-nice guys who hadn't let their success go to their heads.



Bottom line... I'd recommend BAMM to anyone who wants to try a mountain marathon. Next year's race will start at a fjord (in Norway, I assume) and make its way to the mountains. I'd also recommend the mountain marathon format to racers who want a different challenge. Andy and Jethro had high praise for the LAMM in the U.K., which would be easier to get to, but Swedish Lapland is pretty nice, and there is plenty to do in the area before or after the race. Fun!

The British overall winners of BAMM 70 have posted their race report with pics.
http://www.saabsalomonoutdoorteam.com/

And here's a report from our closest competitors in BAMM. Perhaps some day Carbon or Sudden will tell me what it says! The race maps look much better in this blog - real scans instead of bad photos.
http://mittmarathon.blogspot.com/2009/08/bamm-09.h...

She also posted the photo that we took of them on the high plateau!
http://mittmarathon.blogspot.com/2009/08/team-off-...

Permanent orienteering course at Abisko Östra. A really fun concept! We only bought one map, so 'Bent and I took turns leading to each control. It was exciting to find our first-ever controls in Sweden!

I've logged our hours for the past couple of weeks, and details will follow when we get home and upload photos.

We spent a couple of hours getting our packs ready for the Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon, which starts on Friday morning. We're planning to take a day trip to Norway tomorrow, then the pre-race meeting (in Swedish) is tomorrow after dinner.

From what we've been hearing, I think we will still have large packs compared to the Swedes - oh well. The forecast for the 2-day race is poor - rain, only 11C at noon and a breeze. I suspect that the serious racers are planning to be cold at night, but we're on vacation, so we've got real sleeping bags, real food and dry clothes to change into.

If we don't complete Day 1 of BAMM within the time limit, we will be dropped to the recreational class on Day 2 - eek!! We are the only team representing North America in this race, and I don't want to let the side down. I'll keep you posted...

Hello from Kiruna, Lapland, 250 km north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden! 'Bent and I just finished a 1-week backpacking trip at the north end of the long-distance Kungsleden trail. Scenery was beautiful, weather was mostly excellent, and we spent a couple of days saying 'Hej hej' as participants in a hiking race came toward us. There were 2,000 racers who began the 105-km race over a 40-hr range of start times! They aimed to complete the event in anywhere from 12 hrs to 5 days. Phatty will be pleased to know that about 40% of the runners (as opposed to hikers) used Salomon shoes and/or pack.

Sweden has been great, and everyone has been friendly. We are slowly learning some important bits of Swedish. Although all the people speak English, the majority of written communication is in Swedish only, so if you want to know how to (say) set up the sleeping compartment in a train, it's best to have a dictionary nearby. Food continues to be excellent - I think Urthbuoy and FB must have had some very bad luck. We had an amazing meal tonight with reindeer, smoked salmon, wine and cloudberries. (On the other hand, we haven't had our race banquets yet, and I suspect the quality may be a wee bit lower there.)

After a week of carrying full packs, we're now in official tourist mode before our race on Friday/Saturday. Even so, we may have to try a permanent orienteering course near Abisko National Park, just because it is so cool to be able to buy an O map in a convenience store and go looking for 45 controls whenever we feel like it! It is raining really, REALLY hard right now, so it will be easy to taper.

Hope everyone is doing well - won't have enough Internet time to read all the AP logs until we get home, but I'm looking forward to catching up.

Kebnekaise to Nikkaluokta - took boat on Ladtojaure