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Re: Route of the Year Award

Well, I was going to keep out of this but.....

I am with Stuart and Maria.
I agree completely with them.

I can walk Scotland coast to coast whenever I want, or anywhere else for that matter.
So, I try and make the route to Braemar as exciting and adventurous as I can manage.
And then I join in the sociable bit.
Which for me is what makes the Challenge brilliant.

And expeditions to the other side of the world.
Maybe one day.
Lucy already has that T Shirt, and like John, I have to work for my family.

So well done to Jean.
It was an inspired route, with a wonderful theme.

Anyway, enough of that, I have to get ready for work tomorrow.

Re: Route of the Year Award

I thought Challengers went to sleep in the summer, but logging on I came across this intriguing thread.

I have sympathy with all the views expressed so far, and I should say that I still regard myself as a tyro on this event. Planning a route, usually modest low level forays, is the greater part of the challenge for me. And that is a good thing.

The intellectual challenge of planning has led me to books that I would never have encountered otherwise (currently Seton Gordon's "Highways and Byways in the Central Highlands" published in 1935), discussions with people that I would never otherwise have met, and from that, a deep appreciation of the land that I traverse.

But all of these are diverse and eclectic elements - very hard to pin down - so when someone says "we must have set criteria" by which to measure the merits of a route, I think that they are rather missing the point. The route of the year, beyond meticulous planning and documentation, should have something unique at its core.

And something unique, by definition, cannot be easily measured by a set of established rules.

So, surely enjoying a sociable jog to the coast from Braemar is fine (fine with me Stuart & Maria) but there is so much before! And even the closing stages can produce magic, as I found a few years ago when I abandonded the conventional plod to Edzell to discover the Blue Door walk by the river.

So I think it's a bit of a shame that this award has been dropped, but if it's ever revived then it should be idiosyncratic, unpredictable and surprising - just like the "average" challenger.

Oh, and by the way ...

Re: Route of the Year Award

Oh dear, I ought to have been responding to this sooner, but thanks to family commitments I have't seen the Message Board for a week.

As a keen hillwalker, but one who couldn't find an opportunity for the Challenge at all until just before retirement (I used to read about it & dream), from the first time in 2004 I LOVED the business of planning a route. That year, being instructed as a Challenge novice to stay low, I started where my parents grew up (Plockton) and passed through where I grew up (Portsoy) to finish in Fraserburgh....a very lonely hike, in the event. Almost unconsciously thereafter, I gradually fell into the habit of finding some sort of theme: but also in nine Challenges I've never duplicated more than a few miles of route in total (although sometimes I can see bits of one from another!) And I tried to find places I hadn't been, and to find interesting bits where initially the map didn't seem to promise much.

Last year, someone who heard I was on an "ancient history" theme said I was obviously aiming for the RoTY award: I wasn't. My efforts to make it interesting predated the award by years, and the pleasure in planning is part of the "return" John wants from the event. And I agree with Phil about the reading: and this year I found lots of new music, too!

As for competition - Mr Grumpy assures us it is not so, and anyway the final details always announce the first to finish, and it used to be that the greatest tally of Munros was announced at the dinner..... it's all very light-hearted, surely? Sure, it's encouragement in the presentation - I understand to try to reduce the workload of the vetters, which must be good. The point about not seeing the "ideal" route-sheet is valid; we used to get a sample completed route-sheet sent out with the details - perhaps that could be restarted?

I can sympathise totally with Stuart & Maria's policy - I often feel that the chaos in Montrose doesn't allow me long enough to reinforce friendships I've made en route. If I survive to my magic 10th next year, it will not be only post-Braemar that I'll be planning the most sociable route I can find!

Finally, I WILL write up 2012 eventually, I promise, but in the meantime (if anyone has read this far), I've collected all my route sheets into one compressed folder (about 16MB because the earlier ones had to be scanned), and I'm happy to e-mail this to anyone who asks for it. (This includes two versions of 2009, where I got in from Reserves two days before a long trip abroad and had to do a rush-job, and got a well-deserved rap over the proverbial knuckles.....so you have an example of a bad route presentation, too!) I have the vetters' comments too but I guess they are copyright of the vetters.

And thank you, Catherine and Jane, for your support, which alleviated the guilt feelings from some earlier posts

Re: Route of the Year Award

I know some Challengers do unspeakable things with the comments, including hanging them from a nail in the outhouse. I can't speak for fellow vetters, but I have no objectons to passing on my notes; just tidy up the grammar and spelling and take out the sweerie words.

Re: Route of the Year Award

Thank you for lightening it up, JD! Next time we meet I'll try to bring your favourite dehydrated food (to share, of course).

Re: Route of the Year Award

Despite my general thoughts about the RoTY award I do add my congratulations for your efforts this year! The theme for your crossing sounds inspired and inspiring!
I hope you enjoyed it and I hope we'll bump into each other on future Challenges.

Re: Route of the Year Award

Thank you, Laura. Seems I'm too late adding to this thread for anyone to take up my offer (I mean those who said they wanted to see the winning route sheet) - perhaps I'll have to make it again on a new thread, although I confess I'm reluctant to prolong the controversy!

Re: Route of the Year Award

I don't blame you - things did seem to get over-heated for a while!

Certainly my comment was in no way meant to be a criticism of anyone who had ever been given the award. My apologies if it seemed to read that way.

Re: Route of the Year Award

No, Laura, it didn't read that way - in fact I didn't take any of the individual comments that way.....I just began to feel a trifle guilty about the award! And I think it's true that they no longer send out a "sample" route sheet (or perhaps that was only for first-timers?), so I have sympathy with that comment.

I think we all have headaches fitting it in the space!

Re: Route of the Year Award

You certainly shouldn't feel guilty Jean.
It was an inspired and very worthy route.