Ten Tors 2014 - The Event

On the weekend of the 9th, 10th and 11th May 2014 the Ten Tors Challenge took place on Dartmoor
- in theory to be my last as a 'challenger'. Having taken a break from Ten Tors in 2013 due to a very busy exam schedule this weekend I would be going for the gold, 55 mile, route.

On the Friday we met at Bearflat shortly after 7am, departing via Norton Hill and Exeter services, to Okehampton Camp. We arrived mid morning and followed Mr Brewer to our site which was as always marked by the tallest, and widest selection of flags. At the site I met up with Tom and Rob who had gone down the day before, along with most of the staff to set up the site.

The routes had been released while we were on the coach so when we arrived we discovered we had been allocated route 'X'. All the routes were different this year as part of the army responding to budget cuts, so rather than taking us to Trowlesworthy Tor at the bottom of the South Moor, our route's most southerly point was 'Peat Cot', the new most southerly point of all routes, and as such there would be far more zigzagging across the moor. Nobody knew how much easier or harder the routes would be as a result of this, and how this would affect our timings.

We then went to our tent, and had our kit checked before going up to the scrutineering. We went up to with the 35 and 45 teams and made fun of Rob who wasn't very happy he'd been asked to be the 6th member of one of the 35 teams (he did get a Rab soft-shell out of it though so couldn't complain in the end). Scrutineering took place without any problems, as did the briefing which followed. Once we'd had both of these stamped on our route card, we went back to the site for lunch and to plan our route. After this, there was just time to cram in some revision before dinner and an early-ish night.

The next morning we awoke to the classic 'chariots of fire' over the camp tannoy as quickly packed up our things. Once we'd had our breakfast we were lined up for a series of photos in front of our display of flags, and then quickly made our way to the start point at Anthony Stile.
We took our place next to the big 'X' sign and waited for the guns to go off to start the challenge.

Our first tor was Great Kneeset however because of the new routes, we first had to go via Nodden Gate on the west edge of the moor. This involved us crossing the West Okement River and curving passed Sourton Tor and then joining the discussed railway line to the gate.
After checking in, we quickly turned around and headed east, passed Great Links Tor and Green Tor before reaching Great Kneeset. After a brief stop, we continued on, joining the track below Okement Hill and then cutting across east to Watern Tor.

Following Watern Tor we then had another 'via' to go to at Fernworthy on the western point of the Fernworth Forest. This was a fairly short leg across boggy ground however we had to wait just before checkpoint as a member of the team running the base ran towards us and got us to wait while one of the three helicopters which support the event picked up somebody who had hurt their leg and couldn't walk on.
We didn't stop any longer than the amount of time it took to check in at Fernworthy because we had already had a break waiting for the helicopter. We then made our way around the north edge of Fernworthy Forest, cutting up north east to our third tor, Kes Tor. From there, we walked south, on the eastern edge of the Fernworthy Reservoir, heading due south to Water Hill as the weather took a turn for the worse. The weather was at its worst point for the whole weekend while we were at Water Hill - one of the most exposed points on our route - so we only stopped briefly before heading down into Postbridge.

The field behind the car park in Postbridge where the army had made their base had become a quagmire as a result of every single route passing through this bottle neck, as had most of the paths in and out. We stayed just long enough to see one of our 35 teams and then headed up a slippery track full of teams back onto the moorland. From head we headed north west towards Rough Tor. By this point some members of the team were starting to struggle so we had a brief break halfway between Postbridge and Rough Tor. Shortly after moving off again, I noticed the tracker that the army supplied us with was beeping, and when I took it out of my bag, saw the emergency button must have been activated (I don't know how this happened because it was still in its sealed case), the screen said 'are you in danger'. The only option the device gave me to respond with was 'Yes', so because we were now just at the bottom of Rough Tor we though the best option would be to explain the problem to the team there.

As we approached Rough Tor we were asked who were, and when responded with 'x-ray alpha', we were told that I, as team leader, had to go with the tor leader and phone Ten Tors HQ because our tracker had been activated and the tor party had been put on alert to look out for us. Once it had been cleared up that we hadn't activated the tracker and were all ok, we checked in and left, just as a helicopter arrived at the checkpoint to help find us!

On the next leg we walked passed Beardown Tors (although this wasn't one of our checkpoints), passed Beardown Farm and onto the South Moor. It was getting close to the 8pm cut off time by this point and we didn't want to be stuck at our most southerly point, Peat Cot, overnight so really picked up the pace, overtaking a few other 55 teams on our route as we did so. We got to Peat Cot at 7.55pm giving us 5 minutes spare to check in before we were allowed to walk on. We headed up the 'yellow brick motorway' until South Hessary Tor where we curved off to the West. We crossed the B3212 as it was starting to get dark and the weather started to turn again. We preceded to follow the old railway track west and then north to the disused quarry next to Yellowmeade Farm were we decided to stop for the night.
We tried (unsuccessfully) to find a sheltered spot for our tents and promptly went to bed.

The next morning we managed to oversleep - we'd meant to get up around 4am, giving us two hours to pack up and make our way to our next tor for when checkpoints open at 6am. Unfortunately, we didn't wake up until 5am so despite getting our kit packed in record time, we didn't make it to our 7th tor, Middle Staple Tor' until 6.55am. Fortunately, because we'd managed to get passed Peat Cot on Saturday evening we were still in the top half of the team on our route and we made up lots of time by powering through the next section to Standon Farm. By this point we were the fourth team on our route (out of 12), behind QEH, who were over an hour ahead on the team in second, Great Torrington Adventure Group, and Norton Hill who we arrive at Standon Farm just one minute behind.
We left Standon Farm and headed passed Lane End going north west and ticking off Ger Tor and Hare Tor as we passed them before arriving at Chat Tor, our 9th. Norton Hill had taken a slightly different route from us for this leg but we both arrived at Chat at exactly the same time!

Our penultimate leg was the longest and by far the hardest of the challenge, from Chat we had to Cosdon Beacon on the east side of the moor, overshooting the finish line at Okehampton Camp. To do this, we first went north west to Kitty Tor where we dropped down the steep valley to cross at Sandy Ford. I managed to hurt my knee on the steep descent which made the steep climb on the other side even harder. We hit a track just north of Dinger Tor and followed this east and then north until we were just south of Higher Tor. From here we left tracks and went east over the River Taw and up Cosdon Beacon. We'd managed to overtake Norton Hill on the long leg so were now the third team. We took a slightly longer break than usual before descending again, down around Higher Tor, passed Cullever Steps and up the track there until we could see the camp. At this point we met Mr Stuart and Mr Sayers who gave us each a flag which we carried, running the last few metres across the finish line into the camp at 3.50pm.

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After the event, the army uploaded the GPS tracker data from our route which can be seen below:


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Below is the full write up from the event from the school newsletter:

Ten Tors 2014
Great Success for Beechen Cliff teams. Have no doubt, this year’s event was tough. With an
almost deliberate timing low pressure with rain and gales gathered over the Atlantic to take great delight in blasting Dartmoor from Thursday to Sunday morning over last weekend.
However this could not undo the preparation or determined attitude of our teams who responded
brilliantly over the weekend and won out in due course. Once again we had teams walking at all distances, 35 miles, 45 miles and 55 miles respectively. Training began in January as this is not the sort of event where you can ‘just turn up’. The ante is progressively upped with day walks on the Mendips and Quantocks turning into more arduous weekend expeditions over Dartmoor.
As ever the teams have to become self-sufficient, able to spend a night out on the moor and navigate across no matter what conditions. In this way they visit their Ten Tors.

Okehampton Camp high on the moor was our exposed base for the weekend where teams from all over the South West converge for the mass start at 7.00am Saturday morning. This means that the place fills up over Friday as kit checks and briefings are conducted by the Army. Teams also see their respective routes for the first time and have to plan their tactics and approach. The atmosphere builds in this tent city which even boasted a 200 person strong ‘conga’ line at one stage, weaving its way around tents and portaloos.
The start was as spectacular as ever with the sun shining briefly before the maelstrom returned to cover the 2400 participants. Then as ever parents and staff become glued to the Ten Tors website as team’s positions and progress is tracked across the moor. Despite a day of driving rain and gales our teams were in good positions to complete on the Sunday, if they could hold their nerve against the conditions. It was at a relatively dry finish that they rolled over the horizon to see crowds and waiting parents at the finish before the medal ceremony. For most of the 55’s it was to complete the
set of medals, topping Bronze and Silver medals with a coveted and prestigious Gold. Special mention must be made here to Harry Jenkins who walked with another 55 team (Norton Hill School). Without him and his training and ability to complete this most demanding of distances they would not have been able to start the event as teams of six are needed. Well done Harry!

Ten Tors is a firmly fixed event on the Beechen Cliff calendar and is recognised nationally as the premier youth challenge event of its kind. I am sure pupils would want to acknowledge the huge input and hours given up by staff at Beechen Cliff of whom seven have been regularly involved in preparing groups for the event.
Completing Ten Tors is a huge achievement and the scale of the event has to be seen to be believed. On this note it was greatly appreciated by staff that so many parents came down to witness the finish and understand what all the efforts have been for. Here’s to Ten Tors 2015.

Dave Brewer (Head of Humanities), Richard Stewart (Head of Chemistry)

Ten Tors Training - Dartmoor 3

On Friday 25th April we went down to Dartmoor for the final Ten Tors training weekend before the event itself in two weeks time. After the usual stop at Exeter services, we went to South Zeal for our kit check, route planning and bed.

Early the next morning we drove to Okehampton Camp and met the 55 team from Norton Hill School. As they had 5 people wanting to complete 55 and we had 7, one of our team would be joining then for the event and we would be walking with them for some of the time this weekend. We then promptly headed off, reaching our first checkpoint at Cullever Steps just after it started to rain. We then headed south passed Oke Tor as the weather continued to deteriate, and on to Waters Tor. The weather then started to improve as we cut across east to Kes Tor and held out until we reached Fernworthy when it started to get worse again. We then made our way to Sittaford Tor and continued to complete the long leg over to Water Hill and then back down into Postbridge. At this point, we met Mr Brewer and, as we were ahead of schedule, continued on through Postbridge and up to Bellever Tor, meeting the staff and minibus at the road on the other side of the Tor.

We were then told that so we got to know the 55 team from Norton Hill we would be camping with them at the campsite which the staff use in Princetown and so, for the first time, would not be wild camping. The Norton Hill team were still walking (we had the same route as them but had overtaken them at Cullever Steps), so we ate and set-up our tents while it was dry and were just about to go to bed when the Norton Hill team arrived. We went and sat in their minibus for a while and found out that they were planning on sleeping in the bus overnight rather than in tents, and then went to bed.

The next morning after breakfast and collapsing our tents down, we set off again, this time heading our south, towards South Hessary Tor and Peat Cot where we almost doubled back on ourselves and headed towards Two Bridges. Once there, we headed up the path through Beardown Farm to Beardown Tors where we met Mr Stuart and his drone. We then headed down the valley with the intention of crossing it at the bottom, but hight river levels from all the rain we had had the day before made this much more difficult that we'd expected and delayed us slightly. Eventually we did find a way across and headed up to, and passed Higher White Tor before walking around the boundary wall north west of Postbridge where we were able to find the footpath in to Postbridge, at the end of which we waited for the staff and other teams to arrive just as it started to rain. 

Ten Tors Training - Dartmoor 2

Having missed the first Ten Tors training session of the year on Dartmoor earlier in the month, this was my first visit to Dartmoor in 2014. We drove down on the evening of Friday 28th and after a brief stop at Exeter services as usual, we arrived at the hall in South Zeal and had our kit checked before planning our routes for the next two days.

Early the next morning we drove to Okehampton Camp and promptly headed off into the fog surrounding Yes Tor, once there heading back down and over the West Okement River to Sourton. We then headed south along once of the well established tracks to Great Links Tor, before heading down off the moor via Chat Tor, and to the right of Sharp Tor and Hare Tor to the Lane End car park. We then followed the road and paths to a footbridge over the Tavy, and then continued passed Standon Farm up to the top of Lynch Tor. After this we did the dreaded walk east to Baredown Tors, and then back, west to Little Mis Tor where we briefly met some of the staff. Following the poor advise of an ex-student who was helping, we then headed straight down the side of the valley and eventually managed to cross the river at the bottom and traverse the two barbed wire fences on some very boggy ground in which I went up to my waste, allowing us a supposedly quicker route to Great Staple Tor. Our final checkpoint of the day was, as usual, Black Tor, so to get there we headed down off Staple, crossed the road, and followed the dismantlement railway for most of the way before crossing a small area of open more to our campsite.
Once there, we met Mr Brewer and other members of staff who brought us away from our normal spot down to next to the Devonport Leat before leaving us to have our dinner and go to bed.

The next morning, after having breakfast and backing away our tents and kit, we headed north to North Hessary Tor and then followed the pass down one side, into Pricetown and passed the Plume and Feathers where the staff had been staying. After a quick chat with Mr Brewer we sped down the 'yellow brick motorway' to the Whiteworks at Peat Cot before going east and then north to the Prince Hall Hotel. Once there we crossed over the road and went up Bellever Tor where we met Mr Stuart and Mr Mason before descending the other side into Postbrige where we finished.

Ten Tors Training - The Quantocks

On Saturday 8th February I took part in the second Ten Tors training of the year. We had originally intended to go to the Black Mountains but due to the met office issuing an amber severe weather warning it was decided on the Thursday before, that we would move to the lower Quantock hills.

We left school at around 7.30am and had an approximately two hour journey down to the Quantocks. After a bit of a slow start, we soon got moving over the hills whilst the weather was nice, if a bit windy of the top of some ridges. The weather stayed nice for most of the morning but as we came off some of the more exposed hills onto a wooded path we got caught in a very heavy rain storm which then turned into hail.
After the rain storm passed, he headed down through some fields and then back up to some moor-like land on the other side of the valley where we met Mr Brewer. He told us to be quick across ridge that we had to walk across because it was about to rain and become even windier. When we got to the other side of the ridge, we went down into a valley following a stream, and then back up the other side. We then came off the moor-like area and followed some paths down to a park where we met Mr Stewart and some other teachers. We then went down into a valley following the side of a forest and up the other side as it started to rain. By the time we reached the car park at the top where the minibuses were parked the rain was coming down very hard, we then got on the buses and left at between 2pm and 3pm.

Ten Tors Training - The Mendips

On Saturday 25th January I took part in the first Ten Tors training of the year.
We met at school just before 8am and departed for the Mendips just after. The drive took slightly longer than expected due to some closed roads but we left the minibuses and started walking at about 9.20am.

Our route took us all around the Mendips, first by heading East, and then South Weston along a ridge into Cheddar, where we then turned North before doing some small loops, and heading back to near where we started.
We finished the walk at almost exactly 4 and arrived back at school approximately an hour later.

Ten Tors 2012 - The Event

On the 11th, 12th and 13th of may was the ten tors challenge 2012.
In the weeks leading up to the event, despite the 45 mile team being 2 people short, Mr Brewer convinced Will and Chris (2 of the people who completed 55 miles the year before) to do 45 mile with us.
We arrived at bear flat and departed at about 7:10, we then went to Oakhampton. We had a brief stop at Exeter services and then arrived at the army base at around 10:00.
When we arrived we quickly unloaded all out kit from the coach and went through 'tent city' to where the three beechen cliff flags were - looking better than all the others!
There we met Mr Brewer, Mr Stewart and the teachers from castle school, Mr Sayers had travelled in the coach with us. We then waited in the tent for about an hour while the 35 teams sorted out their kit for scrutineering. When the 35's were done, we spoke to Mr Brewer and Mr Stewart, before headed up to the scrutineering shed. The queue wasn't very long and, despite a paper airplane fight breaking out, we were seen by one of the scrutineers quite quickly. When we reached the scruitineer he said that we didn't have enough food, despite us telling him that we were going to make our lunches later so that they were more fresh, he refused to pass us until he had seen them, so Mr Stewart had to send someone back to our camp area to borrow some peoples sandwiches, so we could pretend they were ours.
After we got scruitineering stamped on our route card, we dumped our kit at our 'base' and went to the compulsory briefing where there was a massive queue because someone had fainted halfway through one of the earlier briefings, which had caused a major delay. As a result of this, the army were cramming the briefing room with as many people that they could physically fit in there. During the briefing they told us all the basic stuff - don't drop litter, motivation, etc.....
After getting briefing stamped as well we went back to our mess tent and planned our route, this didn't take very long and afterwards we went to where the people from BCS who were part of the Keynsham ATC have a look around.

We then had dinner which comprised of pasta which this year hadn't been left cooking all day because Mr Stewart wasn't cooking this time, with bolonaise followed by Apple pie and without the cold, straight out of the can custard which we got last year. Afterwards we had free time until bed at ten so we all chatted fpr a while before trying to get an early night, despite the parties going on around us.
The next morning I woke at 5:00am as over the camp tannoy came chariots of fire for us to wake up to. This was then followed by other inspirational music such as, we are the champions, these boots are made for walking, dancing queen? and many more. I then had lots of cereal for breakfast, because there wasn't a vegetarian alternative to the bacon butties. We then had our team photos, before putting on our bags and heading up to the start.

We took are place on the ring of participants and gave our flags to the teachers (we could see all our other teams because our flags were so much bigger and taller than everyone else's). We were a bit late to the top because there had been a backlog of people trying to get up to the start, so we were caught unawares as then two huge guns then went off and all hell broke loose. Everyone ran down the hill at once and it was absolute chaos. We quickly got on route and headed to our first tor. The map of our route can be seen below:

We made our way quickly to Hound tor by taking a road/track most of the way, going past the Jubilee challenge on the way. We then continued upwards and onwards, past Watern tor, following the wall round to our second tor - Sittaford, where Rob was given a replacement emit card (the computer chips they use to check where we are), because our old one has broken. We then headed down through a valley, a wood and over some giant stepping stones, before climbing up to Combestone tor - our third, were we saw the teachers from Castle school, including Mr Brewer's sister. We then went diagonally up to Ryders Hill, and then straight across to higher hartor, where on the way, we were waved at by the people in 'the small helicopter', which as a result, got it promoted to my 2nd favorite instead of by worst helicopter (below the zebra helicopter, and above the green sea king). Once we got to higher hartor, we were delayed because at Sittaford, they'd given us the wrong type of emit card, so we were forced to wait for about 15 minutes while they registered us with another one. We then headed straight down, following a noticeable path, to Trowlesworthy tor, before heading straight back up to higher hartor again. We then followed the yellow brick motorway up to South Hessary tor - number 6. We then raced on, hoping that we might reach Beardown tors (7) before the 8pm cut-off, meaning that we'd be allowed to go on to our 8th. We went very quickly through Princetown, but came to the conclusion that we weren't going to make it, so slowed right down and took a leisurely walk up to Beardown tors where the temperature quickly started to drop. We put our tents up and ate as quickly as possible before setting our alarms and going to bed.

The next morning we woke up at around four. We got our stuff all ready inside our tents, and then (stupidly) decided not to have breakfast. We left the tents up for as long as possible as there was a significant wind chill, and it was cold enough the the ground was frosty. After we'd put the tents down, the military people who were in charge of the tor made us all stand around a square outside their check in tent. They then handed out all the 35's routes cards and at exactly 6:00am, the person in charge of the tor blew his whistle and Rob (who was our team leader) ran to the checkpoint to get our route card (45 and 55's don't get theirs handed out).

We then headed off, along with most of the other teams, down and across a small valley, and up to our 8th tor - Lynch tor. From there we headed down to a river crossing which we had used on previous training sessions, and then straight up to Kitty tor (9) - this is where we suffered the most because of not eating breakfast, and we slowed right down, however after having some food we soon got back up to speed. At Kitty we had a nice chat for the army people for a few minutes. We then headed along a well made track - which we've also used numerous times before in training - which took us round to our tenth tor - Sourton. From there, we went down a really steep path into the valley, and up the other side, before heading underneath Yes tor, and joining one of the paths that leads into the camps where we met Mr Stewart and some of the other teachers, who gave us the school flag - which I carried - and a union flag.

We then walked 'the walk of fame' down into Oakampton camp and completed the challenge at 12:10am!

Ten Tors Training - Dartmoor 2

On the 23rd, 24th and 25th, we had our second (and for people doing DofE, our last) training session of the year.

We met after school on Friday and loaded the mini buses before leaving for Dartmoor. We spent the journey listening to U2's Glastonbury set-list and stopped at the 'ten tors (Exeter) services' for dinner. We then drove down to the  community hall in south zeal. We unpacked all our kit and then went to bed after looking after the dogs while the teachers went out (and cleaning up after them when they decided the floor would make a good toilet. 

The next morning we woke up and packed all our stuff up, and ate breakfast before driving to Okehampton army base. We headed off after meeting some of the teachers from Norton Radstock school who would be working with us and castle school to check us in so that there were enough teachers to support us on the moor. We quickly followed the tracks around the army base, to our first checkpoint - yes tor. After that, we headed down to the same river crossing that we did on the previous training session where we met Mr Brewer's Dad. From yes tor and the river crossing, we then followed the same route as on the previous training to Sourton tor, then following a track to Kitty tor, and from there, south to another river crossing. We then went away from our old route, and crossed over the river and went to Lynch tor, we we met Mr Brewer and Mr Stewart.

After a brief break, we went across from the west to the east of the moor to Beardown tors, and then back again to Great Mis tor. Afterwards we went down to yellowmeade farm, where we crossed over the road and followed the track over to Black tor where we were camping for the night. Once there we put up our tents and cooked, before filling up with water and going to bed at about 8pm.

The next morning I got up at 4am, while it was still pitch black out side. After packing away all our kit from the night, we got out of the tent and cooked our breakfasts before taking the tents down, and leaving just before 6am. We followed the Devonport leat along to Eyelsbarrow, where we met Mr Brewer's sister who we chatted too for a while, whilst Mr Brewer was telling her what to tell us through their long ranch radio.
We then headed off down to higher white tor, and from there, we walked across the moorland to redlake, which is right next to a large 'rock' which from a distance looks just like a volcano. We had quite a long stop there as it had been a long stretch to get there, and we had another long stretch to go. We then went on to Pupers Hill, where we met Mr Brewer's dad, before heading on to the cairns, and from there to Ryder's Hill. After that we went on to our final checkpoint - some more cairns, before following a footpath (on which I managed to walk straight into a tree), down off the moor to the car park where the over teams were ready to go.

Ten Tors Training - Dartmoor 1

Over the weekend, we did our first ten tors training weekend on Dartmoor of the year. Despite there being a lot of interest for 45 (the mileage I am 'applying' for this year) there was a maths GCSE on the Monday after which didn't involve me, but did involve most people meaning that there were only 4 of us in our team.

We met after school on Friday, and after loading our kit into the mini buses (and fixing a broken window), we drove down. On the way we stopped at the 'Ten Tors service station' (Exeter), and had burger king for dinner before driving down to south zeal. We were staying in the community hall there.
After we had unpacked every out of the minibuses, we did a kit check, before planning our routes for the weekend. We then had drinks and biscuits before going to bed at around 11pm.

The next morning we had a slightly more relaxed start to last year, when we had to be up at 4am and ready to go at 4.20am! This year we woke up at around 6am, and leisurely packed up our kit and had breakfast. Mr Stewart than spent about half an hour explaining to one of the 35 teams, that they had taken too many tents, and repacking their bags for them before we loading into the minibuses, and drove to Okehampton.
Once we got to Okehampton, Mr Stewart gave the 35's a tour of the base while we walked up to the start point with Mr Brewer.

We then headed off, starting with Roos tor, which is right by the army base. We then walked along one of the military tracks to East Mill tor, where one of the teams from castle tor (Beechen Cliff sometimes train with them as Mr Brewer's sister teaches there) went in completely the wrong direction.
From East Mill tor, we walked in a direct straight line over the moorland to Yes tor. When we went around to the other side of Yes tor, we were almost blown off our feet by the incredible change in the strength of the wind. We started to walk away from Yes tor, but soon it started to rain, so we stopped to get on water proof trousers etc... We then set off again and it started to hail before we went down a very steep drop, over a river, and up the steep other side to Sourton tor. We then took a path which led us past Gren tor, and up the Kitty tor. Once there, we met a lot of the teachers, and had some food for lunch. We then went a few hundred meters before having to stop while Sam sorted out his shoe. In this time, a team from Millfield came over to us, and when I looked at their map for them, I realised that they were on completely the wrong side of the moor! After I had pointed them in the right direction, we went down to a river crossing where we met Mr Brewer's brother. We then headed back up to Chat tor, before going across to Great Links tor which was our final tor of the day. We then headed down of the tor where we met Mr Brewer's sister, who showed us to a good place to camp. We then pitched up, ate dinner and went to bed at about 7pm.

The next morning, we had a lie in, and didn't have to wake up until 6am. As we were expecting, it was raining, but it wasn't very heavy. I quickly packed up my sleeping bag etc... and started to heat up our breakfast on our trangia. We then packed up our tents and went to the campsite where the teachers were for 8am. We were meant to be being driven back to Okehampton, so we could walk on the east moor, but due to lack of teachers in the misty and wet weather, our route was changed, so we started from where we finished the final day.
We started by walking up the steep slope that we had gone down the previous day. We went slightly too far to the left, and ended up at little links tor instead of great links tor. We then headed directly up to great links tor, from which we took a bearing down until we hit the path that we had taken the previous day. We took this path along to Sourton tor. Afterward we went back along the river crossing that we had done the day before. We then went directly over the moor (meeting the teachers halfway) to Okehampton camp, which was our finish point.
After that we drove back to school via the 'ten tors services'.

Ten Tors Training in The Black Mountains

We met at school at 7am on Saturday 4th February before driving to Abergavenny. Once we had arrived, it instantly started to snow. As a result of this, for safety, we decided to do the route backwards.

We started by leaving the town of Abergavenny and ascending sugar-loaf mountain. We then quickly descended and went across country to table-top mountain which we climbed before heading back to down in the now, much heavier snow to allow us time to get away before the roads became too frozen. 

Ten Tors 2011 - The Event

On the 13th, 14th and 15th of may was the ten tors challenge 2011.
The  teams were picked the week before and everyone who wanted to do it made it onto the 35 team except two people, one who filled a space on our 45 team and another who joined 'sexy school's' 45 team
We arrived at bear flat and departed at about 7:10, we then went to Norton hill school because we were sharing a coach with them and headed off to oakhampton whilst on the way I texted friends who would also be taking part. We had a brief stop at exeter services and then arrived at the army base at around 10:00.
When we arrived we quickly unloaded all out kit from the coach and went through 'tent city' to where the three beechen cliff flags were - looking better than all the others!
There we met Mr Brewer and Mr Stewart, Mr Edy had travelled in the coach with us. We then went quickly to scrutineering where I saw some people I knew. Luckily because we had arrived early the cue wasn't very long and we were seen by one of the scrutineeres quite quickly. When we reached the scruitineer he gave us a full inspection (as were are a double green school, we should only have a reasonably brief scruitineering but our scrutineer made us take everything out of our bags and through it all - he even counted our water purification tablets!)
After we got scruitineering stamped on our route card, we dumped our kit at our 'base' and went to the compulsory briefing where they told us all the basic stuff - don't drop litter, motivation, etc.....
After getting briefing stamped as well we went back to our mess tent and planned our route, this didn't take too long and afterwards we went up to the start line to have a look around.
We then had dinner which comprised of pasta which had been left cooking all day with bolonaise followed by Apple pie and cold, straight out of the can custard. Afterwards we had free time until bed at ten so I spoke to a friend from wsj and another from my primary school before going to bed in anticipation....
The next morning I woke at 4:55 from Rob's alarm clock and we all waited quietly as the sun rose until 5:00 when over the camp tannoy came chariots of fire for us to wake up to. This was then followed by other inspirational music such as, we are the champions, these boots are made for walking, dancing queen? and many more. I then had a the most disgusting egg I have ever eaten in my life, and I've had lots of camp cooking (no offence Mr Stewart). We then got a scary briefing from Mr Brewer and Mr Stewart explaining how failure is not an option. We then went up to the start and the atmosphere was HUGE. We took are place  on the ring of participants and gave our flags to the teachers (we could see all our other teams because our flags were so much bigger and taller than everyone else's). Then as it approached 7:00, there was then a speech from several important people from the army and the ten tors prayer was read. Two huge guns then went off and all hell broke loose. Everyone ran down the hill at once and it was absolute chaos. We quickly got on route and headed to our first tor. The map of our route can be seen below:

On the way to our first tor I stupidly managed to loose one of my gloves within about the first five minutes. We made our way quickly to Oke tor and were the first team on our route to get there. 

We turned around quite quickly and went off down into the valley from the tor. We quickly made our way towards Shilstone tor. On the way - despite Mr Brewer warning us not to - we ended up in a huge bog, the one which someone had died in three years before! We got through it as quickly as possible but needless to say, it had slowed us down considerably. We reached Shilstone tor and were just leaving as one of the three helicopters came to land there. We were much quicker on this next leg, and stopped to collect water where we had done in the last training. About 1/3 up the next tor I realized that I had really stupidly, left the map case with all the important stuff in (route card etc...) at the bottom by the stream. I quickly chucked my bag on the floor and ran down to the bottom of the steam and luckily it was still there! I grabbed it and ran back up to the others - that was REALLY stupid of me!!!

We reached our next tor - Watern, quite quickly and were starting to catch up on the time we'd lost in bog. We then went on to Higher White tor, following the wall that runs along there which didn't take too long, although Tom started to get quite bad cramps and had to stop at lower white tor. When we got to the tor, some of us went to the loo while tom asked the army person in charge how to help the cramp, and was told to have some salt. 

We then set off to Great mis tor which was probably the hardest stretch.  It was hard because every few meters, tom would stop and just lie on the floor, stretching out the pain, screaming and shouting at us not to wait for him. The Zebra helicopter left just as we arrived. We stopped briefly but decided best to go as quickly as possible so that tom's cramp didn't start again and so that we could try and get to Staple tor (the tor after next) rather then being stopped at Black tor (our next tor). 

We went down and crossed the road near Princetown. We then followed a track almost all the way to Black tor. When we got there, we met tom and my friend - tom from jamboree We then walked with his group back up the same track until we reached the road. From there we walked down the road and filled up our water next to a small pub. We then went up a steep track until we reached Staple tor. By the time we'd arrived it was too late to go on so both our groups stayed there for the night. I started to cook everyone meals while they put up the tents. We then stuck our bags our bags in the tents and sheltered behind a rock to eat because it was VERY windy. I then had a chat with one of the RAF people (each tor was manned either by people from the army, navy or RAF and Staple tor was RAF) about vegetarian sausage and beans - breakfast. We then went to bed as soon as we had finished.

The next morning we woke up at around four. By half four we had started cooking and our tent was partially down. The other 'tent team' then got up and helped. By about 5:15am we had packed everything up and were sheltering to stay warm. We then did a litter sweep of the whole area before the army would give us our route card back (we got Tom into the front of the queue to get ours), and at exactly 6:00am, the person in charge of the tor blew his whistle and we were off - a slightly less spectacular start than the day before but good all the same. We went across the 'saddle' of a few tors and before long we had reached Lynch tor, where we met one of our 45 teams. We had a brief break here and then went on, firstly along quite a flat area, then down steeply into a valley and out the other side where the grass was so long we became completely disorientated and it took us a while just to work out which of the surrounding tors we were aiming at. Once we'd worked out which tor to head to, it didn't take us long to get to the next tor - Chat tor. We hardly stopped there, before going straight up the not so steep, hill to our 10th tor - Kitty tor. We stopped there for quite a while because we were so happy that we'd got to our tenth. We then left and went down a really steep hill, and up the other side, whilst listening to a mix of Tom's radio, the grating sound from the winder on Tom's radio and a team near us that couldn't stop arguing with each other. We then went along the top and met Mr Stewart at about 11:40am, who congratulated us and gave us a flag to carry. We then walked 'the walk of fame' down into Oakampton camp and completed the challenge and 11:50am!

Ten Tors Training - Dartmoor 3

From 27th to the 29th April was Ten Tors training 'Dartmoor' three. We arrived at the sports barn after school on Wednesday and unpacked all our kit to go through as if doing scrutineering. After this, we went down to the co-op while the 45ers and 55ers did their scrutineering. When we got back we were given our rout cards and went to plan our route. It was mainly going straight from one tor to another as the weather had been good so we didn't need to go around bogs etc... We then went to bed as soon as we could.

The next morning at 4:00am we were woken up by the lights being turned on. We quickly got dressed and packed up all our kit before grabbing a breakfast of a flapjack, some fruit, some flavored water and a pan au chocolat. We then loaded out kit into the trailer (not a horse box this time). And went into our mini bus to eat the remainder of our breakfast and catch some sleep.

After a brief stop at Exeter services, we went straight to Okehampton army base and unloaded our kit. We then went to the gate where the event would start. Our team where the last to be allowed to leave, we had staggered starts, but were still the first to reach our first tor - Row tor before the two teams that left before us (our other 35 team and the 35 team from Mr Brewer's, sisters school (castle school)), even though I did almost step on a discarded grenade.
We then powered on (seriously with Tom leading us) to Oke tor. When we reached the top we saw our other 35 team crossing the river at the bottom as we left to our next tor but didn't see them reach the top our come down the other side, we were later told that one of them had fallen in the river and they had had to wait 30 mins for him to get changed. We then went on to Sharpitor where we met Mr Brewer's sister and her colleague followed by Watern tor, Quintins man and the Sittaford tor where we met Mr Brewer and Mr Mason. We then went on to a large rive crossing where we met Mr Stewart and his dogs, followed by Higher white tor where we met Mr Brewer's sister again followed by Beardown tors where we met Mr Brewer's sister (the Brewer family say that they have mastered the ability of apparition). We then went down through a farm and along the road from two bridges to Princetown. We then made use of the toilets in the town (but they stunk so much we would almost have been better off waiting till we camped. We then continued along the road until we turned off at Black tor where we were first to arrive for the night. We then set up our tents, collected some water, lit our trangia and cooked our ration meals while the other teams trickled in. We then set up our tents and cooked our dinner on the trangia's. The teachers then came to check on us and when the left we skillfully avoided the pile of skin that Josh had peeled off his feet before going to bed.

The next morning we got up at around 4:00am and quickly took down the tents and cooked our meals on the trangia's before the teachers arrived and after checking we were all good, our team were dismissed first. We then went from Black tor, to South Hessary tor. From there we followed 'the yellow brick motorway' down to higher hartor and then up Eylesbarrow tor where we met Mr Brewer's sister and her colleague again. We then went down into a very steep valley and up the other side to down tor. We then went along to Cramber tor followed by Black tor where we had camped.
Mr Brewer then phoned us and told us that because we were going so quickly, instead of going straight to Leedon tor we went to Sharpitor first. We then went to the road at the bottom of Sharpitor where we met Mr Brewer, Stewart and Mason and they told us we were doing very well. We then continued up to Leedon tor. We were then planning to go straight across to North Hessary tor but Joel Flint and his friend blew their whistle from the bottom of the tor. We presumed they were calling us when actually they were calling the other 35 team who had just reached Leeden tor. We then walked together up to the huge mast on the top of North Hessary tor where we met Mr Brewer, Stewart and Mason again. We then walked down into princetown with Mr Brewer to the mini buses where we sat, ate and drank while we waited for the other teams. While we were we spoke about who wanted to be on the team for the actual event. Cobi said that he didn't want to which left 8 people going for 6 places.

A week later we were told the final 35 teams for the event which consisted of; Me, Tom, Rob, Ollie, Tom and Josh. Adam and Marcus who didn't get in then went with different 45 teams and also took part.

Below is what Mr Stewart wrote for the school about the training and the up coming event:
"TEN TORS CHALLENGE FOR BEECHEN CLIFF

This  weekend 24 Beechen Cliff  pupils  will take on the

challenge that is Ten Tors. This event requires the teams

of six to navigate across Dartmoor and be self­sufficient

for two days,  whatever the weather.  These pupils  have

been training since January  spending 3 weekends  on

Dartmoor and a long day in the Black Mountains, Wales,

to practice and refine their skills.  Year 10 pupils will be

attempting 35 miles, Year 11 will walk  45 miles  and 6

Year 12 pupils  will attempt  the 55 mile event. They  will

gather along with 2400 other youngsters on Okehampton

Camp this  Friday.  The place becomes  a tent city  as

organisations set  up their base camps.  The buzz  starts

and the atmosphere will build along with the anticipation.

Teams  undergo kit  checks,  route planning and briefings

before the adventure begins.

The teams will start at 7:00am Saturday and aim to finish

before 5:00pm Sunday  afternoon.  If successful  then

bronze,  silver and gold medals  will be allocated

accordingly. If they  finish outside 5:00pm then to quote

Ann Robinson they  will ‘leave with nothing’.  The stakes

are high.

Ten Tors  is  one of  the most  challenging events

youngsters  at  this  age can attempt, both mentally  and

physically.  It  is  held  in high regard by  employers  and

Universities  alike and Beechen Cliff has  a proud record

with the event.  Every  year the finish is  well attended by

parents  and spectators  as  well  as  making local  and

national news.

You can follow  the progress  of our teams  by  visiting the Ten Tors  website at

http://events.exeter.ac.uk/tentors/ and following the links. We wish all our teams  well and hope to report

success next week. Regardless the experience will be unforgettable!!

Mr Brewer, Mr Stewart, Mr Edy, Mrs Denning, Mr Mason."

Ten Tors Training in The Black Mountains

 
On the 13th March, everyone doing ten tors met at school at 7:00am, ready to go down to abergavenny and the black mountains. The drive wasn't too bad and after dropping the 45 & 55mile teams at a car park, we (35miles) were dropped at the bottem on the Black mountain with Max (one of Mr Stewart's two dogs)

Max, Mr Stewart's Dog

Climbing the Black Mountain

The two teams decided to go as one as there was no real point in splitting up, so with me taking Max, we went up. It took us about 30mins - 1hr to get to the top and on the way we encountered wild horses. When we reached the top, we met Mr Brewer (& his dad), who told us that we should split up, our team went off first towards table top mountain (which was actually down hill because it was a smaller mountain than Black mountain  .
Once we reached table top mountain, us, the other 35 team, the 45 team and Mr Stewart who were all going the same way walked together. We went down the side of table top, then through a farm, along a lane, through another farm where we realised that the farmer had fenced off the way out with barbed wire - so that meant over the barbed wire fence - yes the two dog as well!

We than ran down to the end of the field - literately as Max was pulling me over. When we reached the bottom of the field there was a road, so we stopped to orientate ourselves so that we knew which way to go, the 45's worked it out first and headed off but the rest of us wanted to check first. The 45's then returned saying that they were wrong and it was the other way but we worked out that they were right the first time after they had already gone off in the wrong direction. The rest of us went the right direction until we reached a  pub where we found the other teachers.

The view from the viewpoint

Mr Brewer told us that we had to go off on our own again so my team headed off first along the road with me navigating. We turned up another road and along a footpath which, after going two farms, ended up at a view point from which you could see all the way back to Bath, Mr Brewer was there and told us that when we reached the end point - the hospital, to be careful not to sit on any hypodermic needles. We walked quickly down the road and eventually reached a housing estate which we went through until we reached the hospitals and the mini buses.



 The 55 team were already there, the other 35 team arrived about 15 minutes later and the 45 team arrived about 30 minutes after them. We then took the mini buses back to Bath

Mere - Mr Stewart's other dog sat on Tom for the journey home

Ten Tors Training - Dartmoor 1

This weekend was the first proper ten tors training which took place on the south moor of Dartmoor. We arrived at school (B4 geography room) at 7:00 and after putting our phone numbers into a spread sheet we were given our route cards and planned our routes. We did this, listened to Mr Brewer and said hello to Mr Stewards dogs, Max and Mere, until 9:00 when the sports barn was free for us to move into. 

Once we'd moved in, we checked our kit, adjusted our bag straps, and divided up group kit. We then decided unanimously that my roll mat was harder than the wooden floor, and went to bed.

At 4:00am we were woken up and quickly packed up our kit and ate a breakfast of pan au chocolat, flap jack, fruit, fruit juice and strawberry and kiwi flavored water. We then all put our bags in the horse box (makeshift trailer) and boarded the mini-buses, for most of journey from school until Exeter services, I slept.

When we reached Exeter it was just before 7:00am, I bought some red salmon and cucumber sandwiches from M&S for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. We then set off it the minibuses towards our start point...princetown.

As we drove across the north moor towards princetown and amazing sunrise came up over the moor.

When we reached princetown, everyone got there waterproofs on and gaiters (except me because I don't have any) and almost immediately set off towards our teams first tor: North Hessary tor (below and left)

The start in Princetown (bottom right)
to North Hessary tor (top left)

When we were climbing it, the tor was so misty that we didn't see the giant mast on the top of it until we were about five meters away from it 

The transmitter on
North Hessary tor

We then went from North Hessary tor to Rundlestone the B3357 and followed it left (west) until Yellowmeade farm junction were we reached a stream and a junction where some of us filled up our water bottles, we then went diagonally across a stretch of the moor to king's tor, successfully practicing to use a compass bearing, where we met Mr Mason and had a short break

North Hessary tor (middle left) to Ruddlestone (top right)
to Yellowmeade junction (top middle) to Kings tor (bottom left)  

We then went south along a bridleway to Leeden tor where we met Mr Brewer and Mr Stewart who wanted to check that we ALL knew where we were (which we all did). We then went down the other side of Leeden  tor and crossed the B3212 to go up to the top of Sharpitor where we again met Mr Mason. We then went back down Sharpitor the same way as we had come up and followed the B3212 right (north east) until we reached Black tor. At the top of Black tor we had another rest and ate some food for our lunch before going down the other side, crossing an annoyingly wide river/bog and then ascended hart tor

Leeden tor (top left) to Sharpitor (bottom left) to Black tor (top middle) to Heart tor (top right)

 At the top of Heart tor we met the other team from BCS doing 35 miles and decided to walk with them to the next tor, South Hessary tor, which, after walking through some seriously boggy terrain and massively regretting being the only one without gaiters, we arrived at it to find Mr Brewer and Mr Stewart who told us that we had to split back up into two teams. We rested at South Hessary tor for a bit while Mr Brewer explained to us how that the whole of Dartmoor used to be on a tectonic plate boundary and used to be a mountain range like the alps and had be eroded down to how it is today. 

The Devonport leat

Our team were the first to be ready so we left before the other 35 mile team and went south along the well build public footpath that Mr Brewer continuously referred to as being "a motorway". Because of the path being a lot easier to walk on than the moor we went exceptionally quickly for quite a long stretch and caught up on any time we had lost in the bogs between Heart tor and South Hessary tor. About halfway along the path we saw Mr Brewer going the other way which was strange because we had only just seen him about 10-15 minutes before, he claimed he had aperated :)  We walked with Mr Brewer, whilst discussing who would win in a fight between Darth Vader and Lord Voldemort - we didn't reach a conclusion. We then reached Nun's cross and the end of "the motorway" where we met Mr Mason who we left along with Mr Brewer heading north west. We had been advised by Mr Brewer to find and follow the Devonport leat back to Black tor where we were camping for the night, unfortunately, we found a section which came off the leat first which confused us a bit, luckily after finding the proper leat and meeting the other team again, we all followed the leat back to Black tor, just before we arrived we filled up our water bottles from the leat and climbed the side of the tor about half way up, until we found the flat ground which we would be camping on.

Black tor (top left) to Heart tor (top middle) to South Hessary tor (top right)
along "the motorway" to Nun's cross (bottom right) following the leat to the flat field on Black tor (bottom left) 

Not wanting to have to pitch our tents in the dark, we quickly pitched them, put our stuff inside, and lit our trangia to boil the water for our ration packs. At about that time, the teachers turned up and checked that everything was running smoothly before leaving us to eat our dinner. At around 6:00pm, just after it got dark, we decided to go to bed to get the optimum amount of sleep ready for the next day.

At about 9:00pm it started to rain, which wasn't a problem. At around 10:00pm the wind really picked up which was more so. At 11:00pm we woke up to find that one of the guy ropes on the outside had been ripped out of the ground by the wind and Josh who was in my tent, went out and fixed it, At about 1:00am we woke up to find that one side of the tent had effectively collapsed onto the third person in our tent, Ollie, making him quite wet! Me and Josh moved ourselves so that Ollie was no longer submerged and attempted to get to sleep again. At 5:30am the alarm on my phone went off and we all got up and started to get ready for walking at 7:30am. We soon realized how wet everything on the inside was, due to the extreme wind, and put our waterproofs on (I found a puddle had materialized all around my coat) we quickly packed away all our personal kit and met with the other 35 mile team to decide that due to the weather we would act as one big group. 

First we put all the bags in one of the other tents and started to take down ours which was a lot harder that it sounds when it is half 5 in the morning, dark, the wind powerful enough to blow you over (I was almost blown over twice), and with rain constantly pelting it down. After we had packed away the first tent we moved all the bags again and started to pack away the tent that bags had been in (I don't have a clue why we did it in this order). After we had finished this we were about to start putting down the third of our four tents when the teachers arrived back saying not to.

We were then told that we were in a severe weather warning and because of this were not able to do the second days walking, but our teachers, deciding as always not to take the soft option, said that we could walk back to Princetown instead of taking the mini buses. 

We then quickly packed away the other two tents and were split back into our original two teams. My team was ready first so we set off along the B3212 towards Princetown. 

For the whole of that walk the weather didn't stop and I was blown into the opposite side of the road twice, luckily it wasn't very busy. 

It didn't take us very long to reach the reassuring sign which said: 

Although it wasn't snowing :)

We quickly made our way through Princetown to the inn where the teachers were staying and the minibuses.

We then drove to Exeter service station, where we gave all the school kit we had been carrying (tents and trangia's)  back, before relaxing inside for about 15 minuets

We then went on the 2 hour drive back to Bath where we unpacked all the kit and finally went home...