The Original Mountain Marathon Perthshire 2011.

The Original Mountain Marathon (OMM), UK‘s premier mountainmarathon event was held in Perthshire last weekend. Based at the CultybragganWorld War 2 prisoner of war camp, the 43^rd mountain marathon provedto be a tough event. In typical OMM weather, tricky terrainand navigation saw both controversy and numerous retirements on day 1.

On the penultimate control, elite class leaders Steve Birkinshaw and JethroLennox, inadvertently punched the wrong control. This error resulted in a 30minute penalty, which saw their 22 minute lead at the over night  point, reduced to 4^th place, 8minutes behind the new leaders Tim Higginbottom and Chris Near.

Once again Tim and Chris were using the LaserPhoton 1, “we have total confidence in it to shelter us in any conditions andthe weather at this year's camp was as testing as ever. We arrived in heavy,squally rain and the short time it takes to pitch was a real Godsend - lessthan a minute and we were both inside and staring blankly at the door! This isanother great feature of the Photon - we can both sit up in the inner, side byside, and still have room to do all the normal admin - dry clothes on, blow upBalloon Bed, sort out the stove, etc. etc. I'm 6'4" so this is no meanfeat, and the ability to sit up to eat and change makes the camp so much morebearable. The tent was initially a little damp as we'd had to pitch it in thepouring rain, but after a few hours it was drying out nicely, by the morning itwas bone dry (on the inside!). Overnight the wind was very gusty and the raincontinued to pour into the early hours but we were cosily cocooned inside thePhoton and never had any doubts that it was going to stay firmly in place. Whenit came to packing it away the next morning, it was as quick and easy aspitching it and the material allows it to be compressed into small sacks veryreadily. All in all another very impressive performance from such a minimaltent - we're still amazed how well the Photon is wearing, with no signs ofdamage or potential problems at all after years of racing in it!” says TimHigginbottom.

With improvingweather on day 2, this saw the men’s elite race hotting up. After 2 days ofintensive racing over tough terrain in challenging weather, Shane Ohly andDuncan Archer won the event, 13 seconds ahead of Tim and Chris. Elite winners Shane and Duncan were using the Laser Competition andLaser 20L rucksack at this year’s event.