19th - 20th February - Progress

SARAH:

This weekend has been a busy couple of days for DecAid as a whole. Taking time away from their studies, the whole team spent the weekend focusing on marketing and media plans for their events for the next four months.

For the Munro Mission team this enabled us to work out how best to try and utilise the media to promote the challenge. Lucy Taylor and Sophie Archibald, our new media coordinators, will be solely focused on Munro Mission press, media contact collaboration, social networking sights and this blog. Hopefully this will mean we keep this blog fully up to date with our progress as we get closer to the start of the actual challenge.

We also took the opportunity to create our team program for the next couple of months, up until our next training trip to Scotland in April. Highlights of the coming months included; a team weekend running and cycling across Dartmoor, training with ultra-marathon national champion Vicky Skelton, as well as the weekly group training sessions.

As for the actual event, the route is being finalised which will allow us to identify potential places to stay during the seven weeks in Scotland. Support Team roles are being finalised and recruitment will soon begin. If you are a physiotherapist who would like to join the team for a weekend, please get in touch!

Meanwhile the search for corporate funding, sponsorship and our “Sponsor a Munro” campaign continues in our aim to raise £80,000 for the DecAid appeal.

Munro Mission Route Finished!! ...... nearly....

TOM:
After months and months of planning the first (or rather the 1,001st) draft of the route we are going to be taking this summer has now been completed! You can see it here: http://www.decaid.co.uk/munro-mission-route-maps

We are still finalising it and it will no doubt change but the rough outline is now complete. We're now in the process of nailing it down a bit more and confirming where we are going to be staying each night. If you think you can offer any advice or somewhere to stay then please get in touch!!

We'll be confirming soon who we will be dedicating each Munro to so keep an eye on the website for news on that.

Munro Mission Training gets Underway

From August 2010....

On August 2^nd 2010, after about two months of planning and hours pouring over maps the Munro Mission team set off to begin their first two weeks of training together. The aim of this training was three fold. Firstly, the team wanted to climb as many Munros as possible and cover as much off the route as they could before the main event next August. Secondly, it was their first time together and they would use this time to bond as a team. Thirdly, it was a great opportunity to experiment with a support team and to try and figure out how it could work best for them.

The team were roughly following the route that Stephen Pyke, the world record holder for a continuous self-propelled round, had made. Naturally, they were not going to complete the entire route in these two weeks but the goal was a minimum of 50 Munros in 10 days. The team started off with two days in the Cairn Gorms and it was here that the overworked and fantastically dedicated support team were given their first test when they had to walk more than 16km with all the team’s camping and cooking equipment, sleeping bags, food, water, change of clothes and medical kit to meet the main team at Corrour bothy where they spent their first night.  In just two days managed to climb an impressive 10 Munros whilst also covering more than 70km on foot. Day 1 also saw Becky Roby, the only girl on the team, climb her first ever Munro.

Day 3 arrived with some glorious weather and a fantastic day’s walking which saw the team summit no less than 8 Munros. This day was topped off with a night spent in the Inver Hotel. The entire team would like to thank Sue and Chris for their excellent hospitality, delicious food and overall enthusiasm for the event. The team had a slightly later start on day 4 which began with a steep 500m to the top of Creag Leacach in the Glen Shiel mountains. Becky set a fantastic pace and the rest of the day saw the team climb another 5 Munros under clear skies.

The team were well and truely warmed up by this point which was good because the weather on day 5 was nothing like what they had experienced so far. Low cloud, wind and rain made navigation difficult as the team took on the Ben Lawyers group of Munros. Despite the bad weather they managed the entire group in just 7 hours. Another 6 Munros under the belt.

The bad weather had cleared by the start of the next day but the team were starting to feel the strain of having climbed about 10,000m in total covered over 150km on foot in just 5 days and had a rather demoralising day in which they only managed 2 Munros. The rest day that followed was well appreciated.

Throughout the following week the team managed to keep the pace up and climbed another 26 Munros finishing up with the smallest of them all, Ben Vane. I think a highlight for the team was the day spent in the Glencoe mountains. They had been lucky with good views on a number of days prior to this but the scenery in these mountains really blew them away. They were joined by the DecAid media team for these two days who managed to get some brilliant footage of the team.

 A huge amount was learnt by everyone during these two weeks and many lessons were learnt which are going to add the team’s chances of a successful, continuous, self-propelled round starting on 1^st August 2011. The team would like to thank everyone involved in making these two weeks a success.