The 52nd OMM Location – Largs: Scotland. The Vikings hordes couldn’t hold these shores. Will the relentless terrain beat you?
Epic coastal views, virtually no paths, visibility…3metres. It’s the 52nd OMM.
Stunning vistas of the great Lochs and the inspiring Arran peaks behind while you slog up pathless, boggy, heather clad coastal hills. All of which you can imagine (as you probably won’t be able to see them) whilst you’re fighting through the clag on your way to the overnight camp.
That’s right, for the 52nd OMM we’re all off to Largs and the Clyde MuirShiel Regional Park.
We have 400km of remote glens featuring countless raging waterfalls and stunningly wild heather moors which you’ll look at on the map and utter the immortal words “it doesn’t look that bad, we can get through there.” We will see!
For those who don’t know..
With decision making and fitness at its core, the OMM pitches teams of 2 against the elements to search for checkpoints spread across the 400km2 course area. Route choice is key and checkpoints will drag tired feet well off the paths to face decisions of whether to straight line and cross bog and bracken filled glens or add distance to skirt around the summits. Young legs against experienced heads suddenly becomes a fair fight.
Another decision for the teams will be what kit to carry. Go lighter and faster is a good idea but go too far and you risk freezing joints overnight and not being able to run. For 2 days, teams are on their own and with the event intentionally held at the end of October “to guarantee bad weather” the event is not for the inexperienced.
Advice from the team.
The course planner’s advice is, “Practice your Nav, you’re going to need it. Stay flexible too as speed across the ground will be massively impacted by vegetation and boggy ground. This is real wild running and route choice should show off competitors’ individual running strengths (and weaknesses he muttered under his breath).”
As always we’ve booked the traditional OMM weather; 50mph winds and driving rain on the Saturday clearing up on Sunday for those who find the overnight camp.
Stuart Hamilton (OMM Event Director) says “We all wish we could compete as well in such a stunning location and look forward to welcoming everyone to the event centre at Kelburn Castle. I’m really grateful to Clyde MuirShiel Regional Park for enabling us to hold our event on such perfect terrain.”
The core of OMM.
The fundamentals of the event haven’t changed over the 52 years – a wild test of navigation, kit selection & mountain skills within the safety net of an event. In a world of thrill seeking and instant gratification, OMM bucks the trend in saying that all mountain users should invest in their knowledge to be a responsible member of the mountain and hill going community. As with anyone entering the UK mountains, they need to understand the condition and terrain they’re heading into and how to behave in it.
In the coming weeks we will have updates and all the information you will need ahead of the event. All of the information is available on the 52nd event webpage here.
Next month our ecologist David Broom will be surveying this year’s event area to ensure we all cause no lasting damage to the area. You can read the previous pre and post ecological assessments from past events here.