I promise there will be some non-TGO content soon but for now this is part V of my report on the 2011 TGO challenge. Read more »

This is part IV of my report on the 2011 TGO challenge. Read more »

This is part III of my report on the 2011 TGO challenge. Read more »

This is part II of my report on walking the TGO challenge 2011. If you want to start at the beginning, read about
my first two days of my TGO challenge. Read more »

After two long days I arrived in Ft. Augustus yesterday evening. Read more »

My TGO challenge begins with a pretty boring flight from Munich to Manchester on Monday afternoon. A thin layer if clouds prevents any views of the area below. I nearly doze off while thinking about important items I might have forgotten at home. But fortunately I can’t think of anything.

The flight arrived on time in Manchester and I’m one of the first off the plane. I was a little nervous because I had only 35 minutes to reach my connecting train. So I walked quickly through the hallways and passed the few passengers who where still in front of me. It seemed not a lot of people want to come to Manchester, because passport control was a huge room with about half a dozen officers waiting and not a single person standing in line. This means only seconds later I was standing at the baggage claim waiting for my luggage.

While I was waiting, I chatted with one of the customs officers and he told me that was only 5 minutes of quick walking to the train station. My bag showed up 5 minutes later and as promised I was at the platform 10 minutes before my train was supposed to leave. The train was there but the doors remained closed. Weird. I was not the only passenger waiting and nobody seemed overly concerned. I expected the doors to open perhaps 5 minutes before departure but I was wrong. I did not know at that time that there was a second train a little further down at the same platform and the doors for my train were closed to make sure that no passengers for the other train used it.

On the train, just after we stopped at a station, the typical announcement “This train stops at Dewsbury, [and a few other stations I don't remember]“.

A crowd rushes in and settles down. 30 seconds later the next announcement but this time it’s “This train does NOT stop at Dewsbury.” so the same crowd jumps up and rushes out again, looking irritated and confused.

Guess what happens another 30 seconds later? A third announcement, brutally honest “I’m an idiot, this train does stop at Dewsbury!”.

Anyway, I finally made it to Durham and was surprised to see blue sky and only a few clouds. This way the town looks actually pretty nice. Boring but nice.

Last week I realized that my planned route for the TGO challenge would cover 8 OS map sheets (33, 25, 34, 35, 36, 43, 44, 45) and this stack of maps weights nearly a kilogram.

I’m fortunate to have access to a A3 scanner and a good printer in our office. Late one evening I spent about an hour scanning the relevant parts and then fighting with the printer (didn’t want to print A3). The struggle was worth the effort because this brought the weight down to only 160g and I can get rid of some of the sheets once I leave them.

I was wondering, if there is any commercial service for this? I spent nearly 100 EUR on the original maps and about an hour scanning so I would absolutely be willing to shell out some money. Any hints welcome… (Update: I found out about grough which seems to be the service I was looking for. I will test it after the challenge and post a review)

Right now I’m in the final stage of packing all my gear for the challenge while listening to Runrig on grooveshark.

The Huckepack is at its limits but this will change after a day or two when I will carry less than the 3.5kg of food I will start with.

In about two weeks I will walk my first TGO challenge. The distance will be about 300km in 12 days. This means 25km walking with an average of 300m of climbing every day for close to two weeks.

Getting in shape

My gear plus food and water will weight around 10kg and I could spend some effort (and probably a lot of money) to get this weight down even further but I will never ever become an ultralight hiker. I want to carry my kindle. So instead of reducing my comfort I will now reduce my own weight. My goal is to get down from the 75kg I started with in January to 71kg.

Since early March I’m riding my bike to work nearly every day (20km one way) and when I’m not, I go running that day or do some other form of exercise. So far it worked pretty well and I’m down to 72kg and it looks like I will hit my target.

Additionally, I added a few back exercises – not much, just 30 to 60 minutes of free weights. At the end of the WHW my shoulders and lower back hurt a little and I don’t want to repeat this experience.

Gear tests

The only new piece of equipment I will use is a Laufbursche Huckepack. Last weekend I packed it with nearly all the gear I plan to carry and took it on a two-day hike in the Alps. The pack performed as expected (great!) and could easily handle all my gear. I will add a little more food, but not too much. I plan to never carry more than 6 days worth of food and will send two restock packages to Fort Augustus and Braemar.

Gear list

I haven’t created a full gear list, but here is a rough draft of what I plan to carry: Terra Nova Laser Competition tent, Thermarest NeoAir mat, Thermarest Haven sleeping bag, water filter (don’t remember details, will update later), Caldera Cone plus 1.1l titanium pot, Amazon kindle. All packed in the Laufbursche Huckepack.

The only big difference to my WHW packlist will be the added water filter which should allow me to carry only small amounts of water, because I assume that there will be plenty of streams to refill.

ps: In case you are interested, here is the track from last weekend. It’s a great hike, and if the weather would have cooperated I’m sure I would have had a few great views. Day two was pretty challenging, ~26km plus 1500m or so of climbing. The descent through Schinder Kar over snow and gravel was not much fun and getting up to Risserkogel over a snow field was

View 2011-04-23 14:59 in a larger map

Another weekend and another hike with the Munich International Hikers. Even though this hike was advertised as an eays hike only 7 hikers showed up (me included).

I met with the others in Aschau. The weather was pretty much perfect and it seemed like there was very little snow left. So I decided to leave my snowshoes in the car, probably not the best decision but more on this later. Read more »

In February I joined Munich International Hikers for a two-day snowshoe hike. Like the previous time I did not join the group at the Munich main station but drove to Rosenheim instead. About thirty minutes after boarding the train arrived in Kufstein where we had to wait a few minutes until a bus took us to the trail head. Read more »