Highlander next weekend

Björn and Aaron are off to the highlander mountain marathon which takes place on Saturday and Sunday next weekend. It’s in the same area near Fort Willaim where we competed in the adventure racing world championship in 2008, only this time we’re on the same team.

Aaron also convinced two of his neighbors, Per Fagring and Anders Ådahl, to come along and compete. It’s the first time they have done an event of this type, so it will be exciting to follow their progress. They have been frantically buying lightweight gear for the last 3 months in preparation, trying to get their packs down to 4kg each, which is the weight we aim for including gas stove, tent, clothes, food and sleeping bags.

Rounding off the Swedish contingent are Fredrik Hedin and Magnus Andersson, two regular competitors who are also experts in mountain marathon trivia and whisky tasting, and somehow always manage to have fun, no matter how crap the weather is in the British isles.

Mountain Marathon= 2-day long distance orienteering event, raced in pairs. Winners take about 5-6 hours each day, and there is an overnight camp where everyone camps using gear they have carried in their backpack (tent, food, sleeping bags, stove etc). Highlander has, different from other mountain marathons, a marquee tent at the mid camp, with hot food, pub and Scottish dance. These events are popular in the UK, the largest event, OMM, has 1500 teams!