56th OMM – The Shap Fells
“Bravely Attempted” by Heli Radcliffe and Martin Evans
When the location for the 56th OMM was announced, it is fair to say that we were a tad baffled and confused at the chosen location…. The Shap Fells..? Never heard of them!
Despite Heli having worked in Penrith in the past which is practically next door, the Shap Fells had managed to cloak themselves in secrecy, waiting for an army of fell runners to stumble into the OMM camp at Shap Abbey on the 25th and 26th of October 2025.
And stumble we did…. In fact ….we stumbled to an abrupt HALT as soon as we entered the OMM camp, as our campervan got stuck in the mud at that convenient time of 11.00pm the night before the event. Needless to say we both went to sleep that night praying that the OMM would treat us better than our poor van, which had already fallen at the very first hurdle.
Chronicles of Day 1
Before setting off, we treated ourselves to a farewell feast – the breakfast bap of champions that provided our last token of comfort for the next 2 days ahead. With full bellies and high spirits, we set off to the start at Shap Abbey, fuelled by equal parts determination and that glorious breakfast bap.
Having tackled the OMM’s Long Score in previous years, we decided it was time to roll the dice and take on the Linear B course. Fair to say when we were in the starting pen, we had no idea what awaited us, it was a classic case of fearing the worst while daring to hope for the best outcome.
Thankfully, we set off from Shap Abbey at 9:30 sharp, spirits high and feet dry. That lasted all of five minutes, when the bog swallowed our optimism with a squelch, but we pressed on, trundling on our north-westerly route towards Sadgill.
We trundled past Haweswater reservoir, ticking off a range of summits with names that sounded more like characters from Watership Down than official peaks: Dog Hill, Hare Shaw, Goat Scar. Surprisingly, day 1 went rather smoothly, as the weather was on our side, crisp air, blue skies, and a clarity that made every ridge and valley and checkpoint rather easy to spot and navigate to.
By the time we stumbled into camp, 25 km and 1400 m of elevation behind us, we were in surprisingly good shape and surrounded by familiar Sheffield faces.
The DowNFall (DNF) of Day 2
We woke surprisingly well-rested, albeit a tad stiff, however after yesterday’s success, we were quietly confident, that we could make it through the day without any major dramas. The day began better than we could have hoped for, we ticked off checkpoint after checkpoint, gliding through the valleys with relative easy. With nine out of the thirteen checkpoints collected, we felt like we were on the homeward straight… and then, disaster struck.
Without realising it, we had marched straight past checkpoint number ten and unintentionally got lost on a vast, high plateau with nothing but crags and bog to define the landscape. We tried so many times to reorientate ourselves only to find ourselves more confused as each one failed.
Our progress slowed as the wind and rain worsened and the endless bog bashing drained our energy. We made the tough decision to abandon our quest in search of the cursed checkpoint #10 and head back to camp.
To “DNF” at the thirdtolast checkpoint felt brutally unfair, almost like the mountain itself had conspired against us after such a promising start. As we jogged past Shap Abbey back to camp with heavy faces and disappointment weighing heavy on our shoulders, we were suddenly lifted by cheers from our Hash House Harriers friend “Mincer” which lifted our spirits immensely.
After warming up in the competitor tent, we celebrated our efforts, laughed off the mishaps with fellow competitors, and discussed plans for a hopefully epic comeback next year,,, in SCOTLAND!
See you there 24th – 25th October for the 57th OMM in Scotland!
The winners of the Linear B option wereJake O’Connell and Jake Porter in 7.08.29. The result show that Heli and Martin were out for 7.53.31 on saturday and were in 105th place overnight. The results indicate that controls 10-12 were missed on Sunday so no time is given. Well done to them both for taking part.
Full results: here