MAC is probably one of the most, if not 'the' most important event in the Yeti calender. We came hold with the Gold trophy last year so were determined to return with another piece of slate this year! We got told shortly before the event that the Gold+ Catagory we'd enterered wasen't being run due to us being the only ones to apply! Instead we were bumped down into the Gold catagory which is aimed at Network members.

We drove up in convoy on the saturday morning, getting to Rydal hall on time but with no sign of any of the usual crew... soon realised that all the people around us we thought were doing MAC were coincidently just another scout group going walking in the Lakes.... spread out and eventually found our lot a few hundred metres up the road in another field. Registered, did the route and had our kit checked with no hitches. Then team Extreme (Me, Johnny, Caleb and Tom), fully physced left with one thing on our mind... winning!

Made good progress in the detierating weather, up by the side of Rydal water and then onto the long broad rising ridge that goes up to High Raise. Hit the first 2 checkpoints on time and then made the final ascent up to High Raise in the snow, in places it was a foot deep!

As we got to the summit plateau it began to hail with a bitterly cold wind, and visibility dropped to 50 or so meters, this only stirred us on more and we hit the summit bang on time. Dropped down into Mickledore and followed the valley to the campsite, all in all quite an easy first day.

Set up tents and cooked tea. Discoverd Tom's wayfahrers were self-heating, the only downside was the fumes the heating chemicals gave off that attempted to gas us as we were eating inside the tent due to torrential rain! Disscusses the pros/cons of the superlight tents we were using with Phil Ack... decided to make judgement the next morning depending on how wet we were! Pity'd John who was having to share a tent with the item that is Hannah and Rob, then left him in the rain and went to bed.

All of our team amanged to sleep through all 3 of our alarms! Soa fter our slightely belated started took down tents at mach 10, packed kit, worte safety question aswer and then to John to set off. Spoke to Phil on the way out with my verdict on the superlight voyagers.... super-superlight, and not for british weather as we were rather moist! Think its worth carrying the extra few hundred greams of a proper mountain tent...

Headed south first towards Wetherlam, passing two silver checkpoints before we reached our first. Met Julie at the base of Wetherlam and lernt that Wayne's team (our competition in the Gold catagory) were only a few hundred metres ahead of us. Adreniline kicked in and we took a uber-direct route straight up, eventually catching Wayne's team and then over taking them. Johnny was starting to struggle with the steep ascent so we did a few shuttle runs with his abck to speed up our pace... its quite obvious that doing these events together for the last 4/5 years has meant we really work well as a close knit-team now. Eventually topped out on Wetherlam in glorious weather amongest the few reamaining patches of snow. Set off down to the Tilberthwaite valley, underestimated this time slightely and ended up having to run the last kilometer or so and were a few minutes late. Fromt there we continued through the lowland north towards Rydal. At the last checkpoint we met up with Waynes team again, unfortuntely one of their members had had to drop out which meant they were out of the competition. Still up for some competition, and challeged by Julie to see how fast we could get back to the finish we ran from the Loughrigg checkpoint back, our route card said 50mins and we did it in 20!


Arrived at the finish on fire and pretty out of breath after our run! Helped dismantle the marquee and then to the awards presentation. Helen made it just in time with some last minute directions over the phone. Out team in silver managed a superb 2nd in the silver which was a great result for their first time. Phil awarded us the Gold + trophy since we had applyied for that catagory, giving Wayne's team the Gold as runners up.

Lift back home with Helen, everybody in the back was asleep within minutes to disscussed all manner of things with mother. Great weekend.