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Ten Tors Training Weekends

Training Weekend 27-28 February 2010

The students arrived Saturday evening; a casualty scenario was given which required them to put up their tents in quick time. The remainder of the evening was taken up with cooking the evening meal and then the all important route planning for the next day’s walk.

The campsite started to stir at about 06.30, this looked promising for our 08.00 departure but how wrong was I, we eventually got away at about 08.15.

The weather forecast, according to the Met Office, should have been strong winds, sleet and heavy rain showers. We had slight sleet and reduced visibility for a short period which cleared just before midday. It’s interesting that the Met Office also got the forecast for this weekend wrong last year! The squad had its first introduction to Craig y Fan Ddu, ominously renamed as “The Hill” by previous Ten Torers; a back breaking ascent even for the seasoned walker. Once on the summit we trudged our way through snow and mud, as we neared the war memorial the cloud base disappeared which gave the teams their fist view of how high we actually were.

The annual pilgrimage to the Canadian War Memorial was taken in followed by the long bum slide down a very steep escarpment; little did they know that the merriment would be short lived. Now in the valley bottom we headed to a washed out bridge for a brief on the all important river crossing drills. Last hurdle a 200m ascent up the other side of the valley so that we could get back to Dyffryn.

The total distance for the day was a comfortable 18.7km. Overall a good weekend, however some of the students let themselves down when it came to personal administration. First place in the Ten Tors getting-ready-to-go stakes goes to Victoria Kenny, Megan Brown and Will Hale; they could have set off walking at 7.30.

Selection Weekend 16–17 January 2010

The Ten Tors squad selection took place on Saturday and Sunday, 16–17 January at Dyffryn in the Brecon Beacons. The aim of the weekend was to select a squad of students from which 6 will eventually be picked to form the team for the Ten Tors 35 mile expedition.

At the end of last term a physical and navigation assessment morning was run for 18 potential Ten Tors candidates. On completion of the tests 15 were selected to attend the first weekend in Wales.

Having arrived early to do some admin, the weather at Dyffryn on Friday and Saturday was atrocious, gale force winds, driving rain and flooding.

The students arrived Saturday evening, after a cooking demo and a lecture on clothing and equipment they were put to bed. After a quiet night, the wind and rain had disappeared, dawn broke and the forecast was for a pleasant sunny day, damn! Breakfast was cooked and as it was not raining a 100% kit inspection ensued. Safety brief covered and a quick practice on applying bearings we were ready to, hopefully, set off in the right direction.

As in previous years, the route had a few surprises for those yet to master the art of interpreting what all those closely packed contour lines actually mean in real life, 5 false summits and a very steep ascent. We ascended Tor y Foel from the east side, a nice steep long climb from the bottom of the valley at 210 metres, to the summit at 551metres. After a long slog we arrived on top and hastily found a little bit of dead ground which gave a small amount of shelter from the chilling breeze. We admired the view as we devoured our Big School lunches and planned the next part of the journey.

The last leg of the day was somewhat interesting; the forestry commission had closed a couple of paths for 3 months while they cleared the dead fall. In true military fashion we improvised and overcame the problem!

The total distance for the day was a comfortable 10.2km which took just under 4 hours to complete.

Our squad is now 14 and they all go back in the melting pot on the next training weekend in 2 weeks time.

Major M Scaife

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