Orienteering in the Snow?

[mike g]

MV's website says that their Sheepleas & Effingham event next Sunday is going ahead - good on them! I went for a long run on the North Downs yesterday and conditions are fantastic - still lots of snow on the ground, especially in the woods.

[SeanC]

A fine picture of Becks running up the snowy banks of Redburn Beck on Saturday in today's Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Unable to find it in the online version yet.

That's great publicity. Still time to send the picture into the BBC to get on their website?

If there's any snow left this weekend I'll see if we can try the same trick by sending pictures of snowy orienteering into our local papers (if our local event isn't cancelled of course). The people in my office think I'm crazy for going for a 30 minute run in the snow, even when I point out it's Kent not Antartica, so there's definately potential to get pictures in your local paper in the "look at these nutters/more snow pictures" section.

[Neil M40]

there's definately potential to get pictures in your local paper in the "look at these nutters/more snow pictures" section.

A long time ago (late 80s/early 90s) a snowy National Event down south (Ash Ranges?) appeared on the national televeision news, very much in the "look at these nutters" section and definitely not the sports section. As a young M21 I wasn't very impressed.

[SeanC]

Well yes, but they say that no publicity is bad publicity (so long as you don't get in the absolute nutters section maybe ). We have such a low profile

There's some great Orienteering photographers out there, so there's potential for some great pictures of orienteering in the snow, must be postive even if the journalists spin things less favourably than we would like.

Out of interested, were the numbers of entries to the OMM up last year (after the unexpected "publicity" of 2008) (genuine question, not trying to prove a point)?

[Adventure Racer]

It may be a little milder outside but we've had another 3 ins over night in Malvern. The school is only open for A level modules and another big dump forecast tomorrow night. It's also foggy now

A bit further down the hill than you there's definitely a bit of a thaw going on - though I'd presume it's still all frozen up there given it's only just sneaked above 0. Roads which had been snow covered for a week now have bare tarmac wheel tracks. Certainly the only reason I can see for the Chase being shut is the travel chaos this morning due to everybody being silly rather than anything inherently difficult about driving.

Not exactly a big thaw though, and as you say more forecast for tomorrow.

[Becks]

Thanks for the heads up Seabird, just got your post in time to nip down to the shop and get the last copy!

[graeme]

A long time ago (late 80s/early 90s) a snowy National Event down south (Ash Ranges?)

Ah, my first ever run on elite.

Using that never to be repeated technique - "follow the small track in the snow for M21E and don't get dragged off line by the massive M21A track"

[Roger]

A long time ago (late 80s/early 90s) a snowy National Event down south (Ash Ranges?)

Yes, January 1987 at Ash Ranges. From the couple of blissful legs that M21E (16km 320m) shared with it, I recall like Graeme that the M21A course was carved into the snow like a toboggan run.

The BBC camera-men who were covering the World Darts just down the road at Frimley Green were probably less than delighted at being sent out into the snow for the morning to film a bunch of nutters. In fact, they were probably as dischuffed as the club-mate who managed to get left behind by both minibuses...

[EddieH]

I have just driven the length of the country over the past 3 days via a business meeting that was "threatened". I saw no significant snow south of the Scottish border (no more than an inch at my meeting. The roads were clear all the way except for a few very minor roads where I stayed overnight. Once past Aviemore there really was significant snow and the ploughed route was a little narrower than usual. Parking would be impossible almost anywhere around here but I find the news quite mystifying. It was similar on my way south before Christmas - no problems whatsoever with more than half the journey lacking snow anywhere.

To amke nationwaide announcements about the inadvisability of travel is simply absurd.

The one good thing has been the lack of traffic

[madmike]

Out of interested, were the numbers of entries to the OMM up last year (after the unexpected "publicity" of 2008) (genuine question, not trying to prove a point)?

seemed to be about the same looking at start lists and waiting lists for shorter courses

[Scott]

But saying that, I got the impression that the OMM (and other MMs) were scrutinizing the "experience" bit of the entry form a bit more carefully than they may have in the past - I have no idea how many entries (if any) were turned down on the grounds of insufficient experience, or how that would compare to previous years.

[seabird]

The one good thing has been the lack of traffic

Absolutely. Did Bradford - Eastbourne - Bristol - Bradford in record time this weekend, wondering all the time what all the fuss was about - even when we had 10 hours of snow at Eastbourne on Saturday. (Mind you if we had been in a fold of the Downs it would have been a different matter.)

[Adventure Racer]

The one good thing has been the lack of traffic

On the contrary - the only big problem has been the roads being completely bunged up. Certainly round here there's been no sign of people heeding advice to stay at home - instead heading out despite seemingly being unable to cope with the conditions.

Last Tuesday one of our neighbours took 2 hours to do what should normally be a 10 minute journey home - due to traffic, not problems with driving on the roads. I left the same place 10 or 15 minutes later yet managed to get very near home (would only have taken me another 5 minutes given traffic was flowing at that point) in half an hour by travelling on the back roads which people seemed to be avoiding, but were perfectly safe to drive on. Unfortunately I was then travelling on to a doctor's appointment, so got stuck in more traffic and ended up driving twice as far as usual round more back roads to avoid it!

What do you call significant? Plenty enough here still.

[EddieH]

One point I was attempting to make is that whilst there are really bad conditions in places, it was clear to me that these were not anywhere I was (in Engand at least). News stories are fine, but implying that the whole country is difficult is ludicrous.

Incidentally it took me an hour to dig my car out of the garden this morning.

[paul]

The roads may be fine - but I doubt that any fields used for event parking will be usable yet... nor the minor roads often used to get to them