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BAMM 10

Aug 26, 2010

Bjorkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon (BAMM): 20-21 August 2010

I have recently returned from a two day mountain orienteering race 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle. This was my second mountain marathon and I competed in the BAMM 50 (approximately 50km as the crow flies) category with Rob McKenzie.

Pre Race:
The journey to the start line was an adventure in itself with approximately 30 hours of travel to reach the north of Sweden which included a flight to Stockholm, a 14 hour ‘sleeper’ train to Boden and then a six hour train to Bjorkliden, plus hours of waiting in stations and wandering the streets.
However, the journey was well worth it when we were greeted with incredible scenery; cliffs, streams, glaciers, lakes and snowfields.

The night before the race was spent in a cabin on the edge of a lake where we indulged in a Swedish sauna, which was an ‘enjoyable yet stressful’ experience followed by a pasta buffet and race meeting with all the other competitors. With a predominantly Swedish field of entrants we didn’t understand much of the race brief which apparently included important points about cliffs often not being marked on the map and that there was an incredibly steep, tough and potentially dangerous climb to negotiate.

Race Pictures
Day 1:
We woke early and stocked up on Malt Loaf and Arctic Survival Formula before heading to the race office to collect our day 1 map. It soon became apparent that the map was a lot less detailed than the traditional maps we are used to in the UK.

A thirty minute coach ride took us across the border in to Norway to the race start. It was a mass start with a prize for the first hill climb to the first checkpoint. This was a mad scramble up a steep climb over a variety of rock formations for about 20 minutes. After this initial burst we continued at a relatively quick pace descending towards the next two checkpoints. On our way we encountered the first (of many) unmarked cliffs, which we managed to slide/jump down and continued to progress well before running into the sea to collect a checkpoint located in the Atlantic Ocean.

This was followed by a fast 1km run to the beginning of the ‘climb’. We climbed and scrambled using hands, knees & elbows to make our way through the dense trees and loose ground for 50 minutes and 600m of intense ascent. The views from the top were incredible!

After this our progress slowed as we took a direct route to the next checkpoint which meant navigating around many lakes and boggy areas, before descending through a steep wooded area which ate up a lot of time.

At this stage we were still on track for a seven and a half hour finish which would have placed us in the top 20 on day one, a position we would have been delighted with given the quality of the competition.

However, this was where we had our biggest lesson in navigation.

Lessons:
The approximate distance as the crow flies between the next two checkpoints was 7km. Given the terrain and climbs we anticipated this taking 70 minutes. It took 263 minutes! We made a huge ‘school boy’ error thinking we were at one particular lake when we were in fact at another. We were 500m away from the checkpoint at that stage at didn’t realise. After following the ‘wrong’ river from the ‘wrong’ lake Rob thankfully realised that we were going the wrong way. With fatigued bodies we recovered well, finally making it to the checkpoint and crossing back in to Sweden before making our way to the final checkpoints of the day and then on to the campsite.

End of Day 1:
We completed day one in 10 hours 23 minutes. Our error had cost us dearly, dropping us from top 20 to 44th out of 58. More importantly as we were outside the ten hour cut off we had to compete in the BAMM 30 Motion category on Day 2.

The camp site was a beautifully wild location in Katterjakk located right on the river. We were treated to cinnamon rolls before setting up camp, eating, collecting water from the river and then heading to sleep.

Day 2:
A 5.30am wake up call from a man with a very big drum was novel and woke me from a very deep sleep despite the mosquitos and lack of darkness.

The second morning began well with us leading the way in the 30 category before beginning a long climb to 1500m. Unfortunately Rob’s knee (recurring issue from Dartmoor Mountain Marathon) started to play up and slowed progress. After two hours we made it to checkpoint one, an amazing feeling surrounded by snow and ice.

The next few checkpoints were relatively easy to navigate to and despite Rob’s injury we progressed well. The scenery and climbs on day two were spectacular and we saw reindeer which added to the magic of the place.
We increased our pace through the last few checkpoints and in to the finish. We finished third in the BAMM 30 Motion category and as we crossed the finish line we were greeted by fellow competitors, spectators, reindeer meat and the famous BAMM burger.

Overall:
It was a brilliant race and I have taken a great deal away from it. I continue to learn and develop my skills and have a lot of confidence for future races.
It is frustrating that we didn’t finish as high in the rankings as we could have but the signs are there that we can compete well!

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