Swiss 5 Days

[andy]

Hello
I've not orienteered much abroad, far less in Switzerland (never!), and am going to the first 3 days of the Swiss 5 days this year. I'm not sure what course to enter, usually I either punter round M21E or race M21S in the UK. For the Swiss 5 there are HE, HAL, HAM, HAK and HB.
Is HE likely to be totally crazy? i.e. I don't especially want to come last or be out too long on the 'normal distance' day 2
I'm thinking HAM (assuming this is m for medium/middle) but worried it might be too short
Any suggestions?

[Big Jon]

How about the Hard Black (HB option) or else the 4H - very hard - useful for working with drafting film when mapping.....

[King Penguin]

Does the website give course lengths yet ?
We went to Zermatt 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Fantastic areas. I was doing H45 so this may not be all that relevant, but my recollection is that the courses were in general a little shorter than I had been expecting.

[Spookster]

If you're not doing all five days (i.e. not going for an overall result) then you have the option to pick different classes on any particular day (so you could do HE for the Sprint but HAM for the Long, for example).

[andy]

If you're not doing all five days (i.e. not going for an overall result) then you have the option to pick different classes on any particular day (so you could do HE for the Sprint but HAM for the Long, for example).

That's what I would have done, but I didn't get that option. It's one drop down for class and 5 checkboxes for each day

[EddieH]

Andy you won't have a problem with HE insofar as stamina is concerned. Regarding your position at the end how much does that matter?

Courses will be shorter than equivalent multi days in the UK.

[andy]

Andy you won't have a problem with HE insofar as stamina is concerned. Regarding your position at the end how much does that matter?

It doesn't per se, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt...

went for HAL in the end, if anyone else is going and wants to race for a few days

[JK]

Andy: I have raced a fair bit in Switzerland having lived there for 4 years.

I raced H21E when I was M35 and came towards the bottom each day. This was all training for the Swiss Mountain Marathon of course. In fact typically the last 5 or 6 in 21E were "Karrimor Freaks" as they called us.

Another year I was asked to drop out of H21E for some Norwegian (my club coach was event director). Since they knew I was only doing 21E for endurance training they offered me the chance to do H21L AND H35, although I'd have to be non-comp in both. I went for H35 and did some extra miles in the evening instead.

There seems to be a pecking order amongst the real 21s though. There isn't much overlap between the courses so someone coming in the top 10 of 21L would still be towards the bottom of 21E and the same for 21M and 21S.

Skip HB - too easy for you! It's like a long Light Green.

Bottom line: you could well be well down in 21E (2/3 maybe?), but they probably won't care too much - at least not if you can then beat all the Swiss guys at the R'adys Mountain Marathon a few week's later

JK