Two years, two Triggers, entered again for the 2014 running. I
was reasonably happy with last year's Trigger run but I knew that lots of
small errors/lack of knowlege of optimum lines would have cost me time
contributing to only gaining 2 of my target 10 minute reduction in the
previous years time. This race is pretty much a set route from Marsden
to Crowden. It is therefore the Bleaklow and Kinder Crossing that time
can be gained/lost on this race. There was a bit of banter on the forum a
couple of years ago between IanDarkPeak and myself following a farcical
attempt to reccie from Crowden to Higher Shelf Stones. Ian commented he
did not see our footsteps in the snow on the "Racing Line" to Bleaklow
head. After the climb up from Crowden it is pretty rough ground over to
Wild Boar Clough. In Last year's Trigger I was doing it when I saw a
grough over to my left so I veered over to it to see if it made for
easier going to find a nice trod that led me over to Wild Boar. I was
using Strava and by exporting my Strava plot into Bing Maps I could
view it on the OS 25,000 maps I was able to identify what grough it was.
I have another addition to my phone with the installation of Alpine
Trek and a selection of OS maps. With this I can see exactly where I am
as it uses Android's satellite technology to position the map at my
current position with a little pointer "you are here!". Using this I was
able to find the trod and got to Wild Boar Clough quite easy. That is
all well on good but I won't be doing that on race day so I need to know
the way without having to rely on the phone or map. There were lots of
back and forts to identify landmarks to guide my way on race day.
I had just intended on just going to Bleaklow head and back but it was a nice morning (dispite being a bit claggy) so I pushed onto Highter Shelf Stones before attempting to retrace my steps, which is easier said than done. The meanderings on the Strava plot below are are combination of the attempts to identify landmarks and going completly wrong a couple of times on the return leg.
