The 2001 KIMM
The Karrimor International Mountain Marathon is an annual event organized in a remote corner of Britain to test navigation, endurance and survival skills. It could be described as a giant 2 day orienteering event where you have to camp overnight and be completely self sufficient. As regular readers will know, Derek and I are addicted to the event and have competed (fairly unsuccessfully, but heroically) for the last 4 years.
The KIMM always takes place on the autumn weekend when the clocks change. We were entered into the medium score category. This entails having 6 hours on the first day and 5 hours on the second day to collect as many points as possible by visiting as many controls as possible with a fixed start and end point. Each control is worth a different number of points, the ones furthest away from the direct line between the start and end point generally being worth the most. There are about 25 possible controls on each day and they are typically 2 or 3km apart. A sound choice of route is very important to getting a good score. There are other KIMM categories for people whose masochistic tendencies exhibit themselves in different forms.
This year the event was held at Clyde Muirshiel, just 35km south west of Glasgow city centre but offering 260sqkm of very sparsely populated, wild and hilly country. There were very few paths with the terrain predominantly being heather moorland and grass heath. In recent years the event has been to Kielder, the Howgills and Cowal. Ranulph Fiennes, the polar explorer, was a fellow competitor this year, although we didn't see him for dust once the event started.
As regular entrants we had gradually amassed a selection of lightweight gear and our rucksacks weighed about 7 ½ kg each including a tent, sleeping bag, waterproofs, cooking gear and food and drink. A certain level of kit is compulsory, with safety being a key factor. The main non-compulsory item we were each carrying was a ¾ length sleeping mat. Some hardy competitors were just carrying a roll of bubble wrap. The big pre-event debate for us this year was whether to take a GPS. Coincidentally we had both bought one and found it a comfort when munroing the previous week. We decided using a GPS would rather go against the spirit of the event, something that was more of a problem for Derek than for me. In the end we decided not to take a GPS.
The morning of Saturday October 27th saw us arriving at Muirshiel in plenty of time for the start. The start is just like an orienteering event start. Once given our map we quickly worked out the best route, or at least the best start. We used a string with knots for every hour. This way we could quickly check out different routes for distance and points. In the 2000 event we had a problem with this strategy, the string wouldn't even join the start and end points on the first day!
The visibility was good and we found we were covering the ground faster than we expected so after a few hours we extended our route. At one stage of the day Derek memorably commented that he was almost enjoying himself. The Muirshiel moors easily swallowed the competitors with the nature of the score category ensuring we were never part of a "crocodile". Indeed, for the majority of the day we could only see other competitors on the horizon, usually heading on different bearings to us. We ended the first day without any time penalties and lying 74th out of 240.
The night was very cold with a clear sky and lots of stars. Some of the ultra light teams with single season sleeping bags must have regretted their choice of gear, the extra hour from the clocks change adding to their discomfort.
The Sunday was again clear and we again made good progress, although tired limbs took a bit to warm up. Our route choice was OK but perhaps not as good as on Saturday. We ended the event 90th overall, a satisfactory result. We had qualified for a certificate for the first time in 4 years despite finishing in our lowest ever position. Now that we have a certificate, our original aim in taking part, it will be interesting to see if Derek tries to persuade me to take part in 2002.
Sandy