Many members have been following the recent weather events in Lakeland.  Of those OFC members who live in Cumbria from Jayne Hill in Cockermouth, the Hileys in Loweswater, Andrew Leaney from Bolton and Paul Harrison and Steven Procter who are both in Barrow-in-Furness an interesting picture has been drawn of the weekend's proceedings.

Many of us have noted the wet weather of late and with a water table already high any more rainfall crossing Lakeland was probably going to cause concern.  With a month's rainfall being recorded in central Lakeland on Saturday (>110mm) river discharge was soon high.  It is interesting to see Jayne Hill's photo blog from near Cockermouth showing the height of the River Derwent over the last few days.  Despite a short respite on Friday, the start of the Original Mountain Marathon (formally the KMM) was plagued from the start and even a geography field trip turned into a massive adventure for those young students involved.  Of equal importance was the inconvenience to local people who have been flooded out and the events surrounding the OMM spread already stretched emergency services.

Having looked at the photographs and notwithstanding the experience of the people involved, I too feel that common sense should have prevailed and the event not been allowed to start.  If things are anything like as bad as they seem the people stuck behind the floods could be in deep 'doo doo' as the weather gets colder.  David Leslie

The OMM - Setup

Thought the event was well run, well organised and all of the right decisions made.  Had heaps of fun out there, and the weather wasn't all THAT bad, especially when compared to my native New Zealand.  Just wait until you get 100mm of rain in an hour.... Brenno from NZ - from the OMM Forum

Many thanks to those members who have posted links to various images and multi-media websites and this article has attempted to knit them all together for anyone interested.  For those involved, the experience can only have been an intimidating one and at worst extremely traumatic.  For the rest of us who are looking in as passive observers we can only hope and pray that anybody experiencing difficulty whilst out on the fells has returned safely.  We all know how dangerous the fells can be, but it often needs a tragedy or serious event to make us all sit up and listen once more.

BBC News articles:

Whitehaven News:

We've just been down the lake again, walking the dogs. I would not want to be lightweight camping in this weather!  Roger Hiley

News and Star:

Andrew Leaney has provided the following link to the OMM News: 

Mark Wier at Honister mines was involved:   <see here>

The media coverage of this non-emergency (with fewer injuries and hospitalisations than in many years with better weather) by the media has been nothing short of disgraceful; and exhibits a total lack of understanding of individuals who have enough drive not to opt for a wholly sedentary lifestyle. 

Peter Thomas, London

For those interested the event website is:

Dave Brown contributes the good news from the North-West Evening mail:

I was meant to be leading a group to walk Blackcraig Hill in the SW yesterday but abandoned that from a walk in the Ochils. Walked along a path beside a reservoir then tried to climb up to the ridge. No way
we could get up due to the wind and rain, water pouring out of all parts of the hill. Retreated back to the path and home, cold & wet. Glad I was not taking part in a competion on the hills.  Frances Lawrie

The OMM - Day 1

The OMM - A Competitor's Story

 The OMM - Some Views from the Hill

 The OMM - The Final Comments from Mike Parsons

Times Online article, 'Just inches away from turning the mountain into a morgue' - Justified comment?

<Click Here>

and pertinent reflection at (Andrew Leaney):

<Click Here>

Like many people, I suspect, I've been pretty disgusted by the media feeding frenzy over this story. I hadn't heard of the OMM, but as a hill walker myself, fully and quickly understood that the news reports had, quite simply, got the wrong end of the stick.  Ciaconna

 .......The OMM will run again next year and all this publicity will result in many more entrants.  Sometimes even bad news is good news and all the media hype has certainly increased the profile of the OMM.

One final comment:-

We'd been at the finish with the tent up when we heard the event was off and headed back. We were at Honister about to continue to Seathwaite when Mark Weir screamed up in his Range Rover and starting shouting that we had to go back. We'd all drown if we went to Borrowdale, apparently. He was shouting at the Mountain Rescue, telling them to stop people walking over the Pass, and was telling us he was calling the police to close the road. With hindsight we should have ignored him and we'd have reached a dry van by midafternoon, rather than a drafty barn.  Ian J - From OMM Forum

---

Bookmark with:

What's this?