NavShield 2010 Report

The Squad had two teams entered in the event, split between both the two day and one day events. Both teams were competing in Class 2 being unranked and performed well. All checkpoints aimed for were hit and they had an enjoyable event. The two day team was comprised of Squad members Andrew Baker and Megan Pryke, while the one day team was a mix of Squad members and ASF cavers namely Peter Brady, Joe Sydney, Alan Wright (all Squad members) and Alan Caton and Patricia Seiser being the two ASF cavers.

A particular highlight of the event was that Joe Sydney received his 20 year recognition award in that he had completed 20, but non-consecutive, years of competitive attendance at NavShields. As Keith Maxwell joked, some people appear not to get the message and keep coming back. At lease now Joe has something to show for the years of pain.

The one day team decided on a very easy route and scored 360 points which was a fair whack behind the winners of the one day event who scored 1140 points. The one saving grace was that after the two top teams at 1000+ points, the next group were all at 700 points or below.

The one day team's route looped around to the south of base camp and as mentioned in the course notes encountered some very rough terrain, particularly on the southern sides of the ridge. In one case a traverse along the south side of a ridge to regain the fire trail reduced the speed to less than 1km/h. After that they stuck to fire trails and the much more open tops and northern faces of the ridges.

In a major stroke of luck as the one team were preparing to head back to base they found an abandoned and overgrown road which, despite the thick brush, was considerably more open than the surrounding valley walls and significantly easier going than the adjacent creek some 30m below the road. This enabled them to get a relatively clean and quick run back to base camp and arrive well before the end of the event. Not quite fast enough to grab an extra check point but comfortably enough to saunter in.

As already introduced Joe Sydney received his 20 year recognition award. This came as a shock given that he was not expecting this, just being told not to go away too quickly. The award was announced by Keith Maxwell, President of the BWRS, and was presented to Joe by Russell Ashdown, President of the VRA. Jon Tonitto was on hand to assist and congratulate (or perhaps commiserate with?) Joe.

Two Day Team Report by Andrew Baker
After staying up late the Friday night to plot the maps, we were up at dawn to get the gear sorted and have breakfast and complete our route intentions by the start of the event. The terrain looked marginally less hilly in the southern section of the course, so we headed south from base camp, picking up a number of check points on our way to radio checkpoint Charlie. After a quick bite to eat at Charlie, we continued on our way.

The plan after lunch was to follow a fire trail to a major junction and then turn to our next checkpoint (43). Neither of us was paying a lot of attention as we assumed the junction would be obvious- but it wasn’t and we ended well past the junction. Fortunately there was a 30 and 80 point check point in easy reach which made our effort worthwhile. Late in the afternoon we returned to the junction we had missed – which turned out to be a narrow walking track that was hidden by a fallen log!

We pulled out our headlights at checkpoint 43 and headed off along a long meandering ridge which, if we followed it correctly, would lead us to several checkpoints and the radio checkpoint Alpha, where we intended to camp the night. It relatively slow going, but the darkness made us be pay very careful attention and eventually we made it. Megan did a great job leading a fair bit of this section as I was feeling the effects of very busy week with little sleep. After a setting up a fly and cooking some dinner I was more than ready for a sleep.

Neither of us was super keen for an early start and it was well and truly light by the time I woke up. We checked out of Alpha about 7:45 am and after picking up checkpoint 74, climbed back onto the ridge we on the night before and onto branch that had a number of checkpoints along it that would lead us back to base. Daylight made it so much easier to tell where everything was, and we made good time, arriving back into base just after 1pm. We then enjoyed the catered lunch and the presentation before heading home.

Overall we had an enjoyable weekend. This was Megan’s first time in the two event and the first time we had walked together. Inevitably it had taken a bit to adjust to each others style of navigation, but we found every checkpoint we aimed for and were only 170 points from the Class 2 winner.