17!

That's my position on the standby list.  John Manning just wrote to me, he was glad I had been in touch.


Judging by general Challenger opinion (Thanks Dave, Alan etc...), I stand a very, very good chance of moving onto the participant list.


The delightful and fabulous Mrs M has given me the nod and I am going to continue planning, and hopefully, by 2012 I will know for sure.  This is one occasion where I am actually hoping not to be able to knock off three-score Wainwrights! 


The shoes are back on tomorrow for another walk in the East Anglian countryside, this time with my good pal Den.

2012 - The Countdown Begins

Well it really has been a long while since my last post.  I've been up and over the Yorkshire Three Peaks, round the back o' Pillar and Scoat Fell etc in the Western Fells and made a few significant decisions concerning my future (more on that to follow). 

So here it is, I am now officially an applicant for TGO Challenge 2012 and my hours/days/weeks spent in front of the OS sheets are now being put down in ink for the first formal draft.  I'm doing it for real this time!  I just hope and pray that I am one of those first timers that gets on the challenge.

Great to see Bob and Rose's videos on Youtube - they are always really detailed and helpful.  Great for ideas for kit to take and kit to leave out.

I have to say though, that I threw in the towel with the Golite Jam - it was just too floppy and I couldn't be bothered with packing it so carefully.  I put it on eBay so someone else could take the time to get the most out of it.  I've apologised to the MACPAC now, and I think I am forgiven.  I'll never desert it again.

So now it is time to wait.  A wait in anticipation of the response from the TGO team with a confirmation that I am in.  And then I suppose I should get my skates on, get rid of the spare tyre(s) that have formed, and reduce my resting pulse rate a tad.

I'm off up to Lakeland in a few weeks to help a mate of mine finish of his last two Wainwright's - Rosthwaite Fell and Hard Knott.  We'll probably do a bit of a wildcamp so I can test my gear again and I suspect we'll stay at Fisher Ground on at least one night for a bit of campfire cooking.

I've pre-ordered my mate a copy of The UK County Tops (new release by Cicerone) so he isn't short of a list of things to tick off as he'll have finished the WWs.  I'm fearing he might not thank me for that, and if he doesn't, I'll ask for it back!

Oh, and after this trip, I've a week near Mosser in a wee cottage so I'll get out and about a bit that week with the family I should think - carrying the bairns up and down hills ought to help the pins get back into tip-top (ahem!) mountain shape again.

I'll do another post if anything interesting occurs between now and then.

Much love to my handful of followers - look forward to hearing about your plans for the outdoors.