Seathwaite, before the flood
Mountain rescue teams in the Lake District have been involved in a major exercise to rescue competitors in the Original Mountain Marathon event.
The race was abandoned at about midday as torrential rain and storm-force winds lashed the fells on which the marathon was taking place. The event’s headquarters at Seathwaite in Borrowdale were flooded and hundreds of walkers and runners taking part in the OMM were stranded.
Honister Slate Mine manager Mark Weir said he had 300 entrants sheltering at his buildings at the head of the Honister Pass, between Borrowdale and Buttermere.
Another makeshift shelter had also been set up at Gatesgarth in Buttermere and at the Lakeland Sheep and Wool Visitors’ Centre in Cockermouth. Both Wasdale and Borrowdale were flooded as torrential rain caused becks and rivers to burst their banks.
grough spoke to Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team leader Julian Carradice shortly after he got back from the rescue mission this evening. He said his team got back to base about 6.30pm on Saturday.
He said: “It has been a bit chaotic. There have been teams out all over the fells.
“Seven people, including two of our team members were winched up from an ‘island’ in a swollen beck below Sty Head, at the confluence where Spouthead Gill meets another beck.”
A helicopter from 122 Squadron at RAF Valley winched the seven to safety. One woman was then taken to hospital in Whitehaven.
Mr Carradice said: “I know two others have been taken to accident and emergency.
“In over 40 years of living here in Wasdale, I have seen nothing like this. Borrowdale and Wasdale are both flooded. The water is up to the bonnet of the Land Rover at Wasdale.”
Team members used their vehicles to ferry people through floods to where road ambulances could meet them.
Radio communication had been very difficult, Mr Carradice said, “It has been so wet that electronic equipment has just died.”
North West Ambulance Service said about a dozen marathon participants had been taken to hospital, some suffering hypothermia.
Mr Weir criticised the decision to go ahead with the mountain marathon. He said the race should never have been staged in such conditions. At one stage, he appealed to anyone with vans and minibuses to contact him at the slate mine to help transport stranded competitors to safety.
Mr Carradice said of the decision to run the OMM: “I think the forecast was pretty dire. With the benefit of hindsight, it doesn’t look like the best decision to go ahead with the event.”
On Wednesday, previewing the event, grough reported: “Weather predictions, however, are not good, with Saturday likely to have high winds and heavy rain before this abates to showers on Sunday, all of which should provide a true challenge to the field.”
Today’s curtailment of the OMM was the first in its history, both in its present form and as its previous incarnation the Karrimor International Mountain Marathon.
The event has been run for 40 years.
Abandoning the race was not easy, with entrants scattered across a wide area of the fells around the base at Seathwaite. Marshals were alerted and an announcement was made at the cafe at Honister, where many competitors had taken shelter.
Roads in the valleys were closed as floodwater made them impassable.
More than 2,000 competitors were on the starting lists published before the race. An early portent of the troubles to come was the flood on Thursday which temporarily cut off the Seathwaite base, before waters receded. The decision to go ahead with the race was made by organisers Jen Longbottom and Mike Parsons late on Thursday.
On Friday, the decision was made to use designated bad weather courses and to advise competitors to avoid high ridges, where 90mph winds were forecast.
Despite today’s events, many competitors were adamant that the right decision was made to continue the event this morning, with many posts on the OMM forums pointing out that entrants take part with their eyes wide open to the difficulties and knowing the marathon will be a challenge.
Others expressed their disappointment that the event had had to be abandoned.
For the views and hair-raising accounts of many of the participants, most of whom fully back the organisers’s decision to stage the event, read the OMM forums.
Duncan
25 October 2008Silly Buggers!!
B. A. White
25 October 2008The best news account I have seen: detailed and well balanced; succinct.
eBothy Blog » Weather makes history on the OMM
26 October 2008[...] forty years, the OMM has never been cancelled, until yesterday, when the weather was just too much. Grough and the BBC have reports about the chaos. The weather here at sea level was wild enough so I can [...]
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26 October 2008[...] grough [...]
Val H.
26 October 2008Interesting to follow how this has been reported. When I first heard the event was a "fell race", I was concerned knowing how little kit fell runners carry. Then when it transpired it was the ex-Karrimor mountain marathon, I became far less worried.
A couple of radio news reports this morning (Sunday) show the contrasting coverage - Radio Two said 1700 people were missing, Absolute (nee Virgin) said there were 25.
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26 October 2008[...] is more here and here too but this video gives an idea of what the conditions were [...]
D. Gerrard
27 October 2008Usually a well organised competition, please remember that these competitors are experienced and required to carry the correct equipment (which is checked beforehand)
Bad weather is always a posibility an an element that is found frequently in mountains I feel no critisim should be leveled at the organisers.
Too frequently 'the public' are quick to critise with statements like access to mountains, rock climbing, should be banned after any mountain tradgedy or incident.
Mountain rescue members seldom critise they are mountainers and one day it may be them.
Simon W
27 October 2008It is good to see a more balanced view than I've seen in the media BUT having been there on the day (but not as a competitor) it was a very questionable decision to let the event start. I am glad they did call it off.
I was in Wasdale to walk, and had seen the weather forecast - it was pretty clear that the weather was going to be extreme - and made my decision to not take to the hills, instead going to the slate mine in Honister.
It is evident from the OMM website's organiser's comments that they too knew the weather was coming, and were attempting to reorganise the event to lower the impact of the weather.
While some competitors obviously had the levels of fitness and preparation to say the event should have gone ahead, I came across far too many on that day who were not suitably kitted for the weather nor physically up to the challenge, and had driven themselves to exhaustion; it's this factor that makes me say the event should have been postponed.
It's ok to say they entered at their own risk - but the organisers were responsible for putting a huge strain on MRTs, the RAF and other services who had to pick up the pieces.
This situation was entirely predictable - it should not have happened.
Martin Rye
28 October 2008All have limits and so does equipment. Those tents checked as carried did not have a hope in 90mph for an emergency bivi on the hills. The water was obviously going to go down hill and why no one considered the impact on the valley floor to the control centre etc beggar’s belief. What annoys me is many are saying it was a media frenzy over hyped. The reality is many need help and rescue. Spare clothing issued to them as there’s was soaking and shelter for the night. The competitors did not go on the hill to wildcmp as there camp site was flooded. Yet we have been they had all the kit they needed. I am sure they had to that day and found a limit to what it could do for them. If the OMM where to stop and talk with the Police and Mountain Rescue teams. They may learn some useful things from it and reduce the risk of this happening again.
Phil England
29 October 2008Martin...I was one of those competitors who went to the aid of a fellow competitor who lost her footing and was washed some distance down a swollen beck. She was injured and washed onto a small and very rocky island mid-stream. Four competitors went to her assistance. We successfully erected two small specialist mountain marathon tents in exceptionally diffcult circumstances on a tiny rocky island. We got dryish clothes on and produced a hot drink for the casualty. A potentially nasty situation was turned into a managable one and we were ready to assist the fine members of Wasdale MRT when they arrived to evacuate the injured competitor. Our superb equipment (plus some experience too)really played a part.