Dave Gothard makes the
most of late season snow
Photo: Ali Ogden- This year there were 356 starters and
319 finishers. Over the 40 Challenges
there have been 10,469 starts and 9312
successful completions. - Challengers have ranged in age from
18 (our minimum) to 91. Bill Robertson
from Perth has the most crossings
(33). We have had every possible
combination of family teams and on two
occasions, a three-generation team. - We have welcomed 350 overseas
Challengers from 26 countries, some of
whom return year after year. - Challengers who achieve 10 crossings
are awarded a plaque, and another after
20. So far 251 people (189 men and 62
women) have completed 10 crossings
and of those 25 (22 men, 3 women) have
gone on to reach 20. Next year three
Challengers are in line to hit 20 in 2020!
We at TGO can be
proud of the fact
that we backed a
winner 40 years
ago, and continue
to do so...
Challenge
facts & figures
The 40th
TGO
Challenge
Following another fantastic Challenge fortnight,
TGO founding editor Roger Smith reflects on the
extraordinary success of this unique backpacking event
ON A BEAUTIFUL late May evening this
year, three greybeards sat in the ballroom
of the Park Hotel in Montrose, on Scotland’s
east coast, casting their minds back to a very
similar evening 39 years earlier.
The three were Hamish Brown, Chris
Townsend and myself – and we were
joining a happy crowd of Challengers at a
dinner marking the end of another hugely
enjoyable event. None of us could have
foreseen, in May 1980, that we would be
here in 2019 ,not only celebrating the 40th
Challenge but already looking forward to
the 41st – and beyond.
The Great Outdoors Challenge is a
wonderful success
story, and I am proud
to have played a
part in it over the
years. But let’s go
back to 1980 – even
earlier in fact, to the
autumn of 1989.
TGO magazine was
only 18 months old
and was still finding
its feet when, at the
annual Harrogate
trade show, Hamish Brown handed me a
small notebook which laid down the outline
of a non-competitive backpacking event he
thought we should promote.
I was TGO’s editor at the time and
immediately saw the potential, but we
needed another sponsor to make it work.
We found one in Bill Wilkins, the American
gear innovator who had recently set up
Ultimate Equipment. He agreed to come
on board as long as we called the event the
Ultimate Challenge.
No problem with that, and the entry
form duly appeared in the magazine. Would
anyone be interested? In the end we got
65 entries which we thought was a good
start. That first event, uniquely, lasted for
three weeks, and this gave Chris Townsend
the opportunity to climb a phenomenal 56
Munros on his way across, ending on Mount
Keen in a thunderstorm (prior to that the
weather had been glorious).
The Park Hotel had bravely agreed to
act as the finish point, and in fact we spent
most of the third week waiting for Chris to
finish his walk! It was generally agreed that
the event showed enough potential to try it
again, but the time allowed was reduced to
two weeks, as it remains today.
In the October 1980 edition of the
magazine we printed two contrasting
accounts of the first Challenge. One was
fairly serious but very well-written and the
other was a hilarious account of a crossing
by a complete novice (fortunately his
brother who was
with him was more
competent).
The accounts
clearly struck a chord
and before long
we had nearly 200
entries. This caused
some concern as we
weren’t sure we had
the administrative
framework to cope
with them!
The weather was again kind to us and all
the feedback was very positive. We now felt
we had the beginnings of something rather
special. Just how special was to become
clearer as the years progressed. Entries
continued to come in at a heartening rate
and the event admin grew along with them.
We started forming a team of route vetters
and giving ever more accurate advice to
Challengers. Ultimate withdrew in 1989
and from then on the event has been known
as the Great Outdoors Challenge.
Much to our delight we also started
getting entries from overseas. Welcoming
our friends from far and wide has become
a very special part of the Challenge and
we now encompass the globe. This year
William Burton from Barbados was with us
for the sixth time and we welcomed our first
Japanese Challenger, Jotaro (Joe) Yoshida.20 The Great Outdoors June 2019
ALMANAC