In between writing Part 2 & starting Part 3 I’ve found my third tick, have removed it but not sure where’s it’s gone to, this could be an itchy blog! Our initial plan was to head for the Obvious Control BZ with it’s 30 points on offer, clearly most doing the Score courses felt the same although at least a couple of pairs set off in the opposite direction of my fantasy, of course they

We studied the map but in truth I let Barry make the initial decision for our first 3 targets (at this point I was still getting my head around the whole conception of it), controls AS (20 Points), CN (40) & AH (20) with further targets to be decided once we knew how our nav was coping with the terrain & the conditions. To begin with it was like follow the leader as there was

I’ve never taken part in an OMM (Original Mountain Marathon) before which is a bit odd for someone who likes to combine mountains & distance, my main excuse being that it clashes with the Snowdon Marathon where I have run in the last eight races. Having failed to enter the Snowdon Marathon earlier enough this year to guarantee a spot I was once again left dangling on the reserve list but was hopeful that the

A bit of a groggy wake-up & Breakfast but who cares we had an easy day ahead. Early on we looked at the forecast & could see that rain was due on Monday night & early Tuesday making (today was Sunday) an easy decision, we would leave a day earlier than planned & head to a campsite we’d used before near Troyes, roughly halfway between here & Calais. So this would be our last full

One thing I forgot to mention in the 2nd blog was that when we got down to the hut after climbing Gran Paradiso my right boot zip malfunctioned so I’d made a mental note that when we got back to the car I’d need to test it to see if it would work in Switzerland. It failed that test so our hectic turnaround later that evening would also mean a visit to Chamonix & more