Cleveland Survival Event29th March 2025£30 The Survival is a friendly event open to runners and walkers based on an orienteering course of about 24 miles, to be completed within the 12-hour time limit. It is held in a different location within the Teams area each year and the location is not revealed until the week before the event.The event is one of the major fundraisers for the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team and is widely embraced by the local community as a way of funding a voluntary organisation which benefits the public.The event can be completed as an individual or as part of a group.There will be a series of checkpoints identified by a grid reference and description. Your aim is to visit each checkpoint or via point in the order given on the route card.Information from Survival 2025 – Cleveland Mountain Rescue On Sunday evening, 23 March I received an email with the event details, the start location would be Ingleby Cross and I needed an OL26 map. My current OL26 is covered in Hardmoors’ routes. I figured that this would be confusing, so ordered another map, I picked the waterproof version in case of inclement weather. I went with my friend Ann from Bedale and Aiskew Runners. We had different start times, me at 08:44 and Ann at 08:52 but close enough for us to car share.
We arrived in good time to register and wandered over to the start by The Church of All Saints at the opposite side of the A172. I went to explore the church whist waiting my turn, Ann and I watched as others were given the grid references for the checkpoints and marked up their maps. I decided to mark each point and number it, then work out a route from one checkpoint to the next as I reached each point. Soon it was my turn.I entered the start pen, was handed my grid references and told that there were cut offs of 14:00 at CP 6 and 16:00 at CP 8.We were set off, I moved up the lane in the direction that previous runners and walkers had gone, laid out my map and started marking. CP 1 was on the other side of the double-sided map, it was a known point to me on the Cleveland Way, CPs 2 and 3 were also on the Cleveland Way, so they were easy ones to start. CP 8 was back on the other side of the map and so were CPs 9 and 10 and the finish was back at the registration hall. I recognised CP 10 too, so I only had 6 to actually navigate. It had taken me 10 minutes to mark up my map, I couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed whilst I was totally absorbed in marking it up. I folded my map and set off up the Coast-to-Coast path to the Cleveland Way and followed that through Osmotherley on familiar trails to CP 1 at the junction of the Cleveland Way and Burnthouse Bank. Checkpoint 2 was at Square Corner and checkpoint 3 was where I was to go onto new territory as I would have to leave the Cleveland Way at Whitestones/White Gill Head.This took me to Locker Low Moor and out to hall Lane and Checkpoint 4 before retracing my steps back to Locker Low Moor over muddy tracks, past Dale Head before crossing the Osmotherley to Hawnby Road and Checkpoint 5. Next came a wide sandy lane out to swainby shooting Hut at Checkpoint 6. Then continued on that lane after checking out the Nelson Stone to Checkpoint 7 opposite the Bilsdale mast. The wide lanes continued out to CP 8 on the other side of the map. Th wind picked up and made it difficult to resold my map to have the last few checkpoints in view, I stopped in the end but the win kept turning my map into a sail, eventually I had a roughly folded map and set off to Checkpoint 8. On route I tripped and bruised my knees and hand. The checkpoint was back on the Cleveland Way just south of Carlton Bank. I turned left and headed along the Cleveland Way. Ann caught up with me again and we worked our way down through the woods together.At Checkpoint 9, Ann had arrived ahead of me, the lady at the checkpoint had advised not to take a certain path, It was the one Ann had planned to take, I thought she meant the one I had planned around the Whorl, Together we decided to go via Faceby church and cut across to Whorlton Castle, then into Swainby and on to checkpoint 10, afford that features on the Swainby Sweep race, we were back on known ground. We crossed to the A 172 and crossed aiming for Ingleborough Cross and the finish. Ann was fresher than me and went ahead to the finish, I was suffering from my fall and followed on steadily.We were both relieved to complete this challenge.
Cleveland Survival Event
29th March 2025
£30
The Survival is a friendly event open to runners and walkers based on an orienteering course of about 24 miles, to be completed within the 12-hour time limit. It is held in a different location within the Teams area each year and the location is not revealed until the week before the event.
The event is one of the major fundraisers for the Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team and is widely embraced by the local community as a way of funding a voluntary organisation which benefits the public.
The event can be completed as an individual or as part of a group.
There will be a series of checkpoints identified by a grid reference and description. Your aim is to visit each checkpoint or via point in the order given on the route card.
Information from Survival 2025 – Cleveland Mountain Rescue
On Sunday evening, 23 March I received an email with the event details, the start location would be Ingleby Cross and I needed an OL26 map. My current OL26 is covered in Hardmoors’ routes. I figured that this would be confusing, so ordered another map, I picked the waterproof version in case of inclement weather.
I went with my friend Ann from Bedale and Aiskew Runners. We had different start times, me at 08:44 and Ann at 08:52 but close enough for us to car share.
We arrived in good time to register and wandered over to the start by The Church of All Saints at the opposite side of the A172. I went to explore the church whist waiting my turn, Ann and I watched as others were given the grid references for the checkpoints and marked up their maps. I decided to mark each point and number it, then work out a route from one checkpoint to the next as I reached each point. Soon it was my turn.
I entered the start pen, was handed my grid references and told that there were cut offs of 14:00 at CP 6 and 16:00 at CP 8.
We were set off, I moved up the lane in the direction that previous runners and walkers had gone, laid out my map and started marking. CP 1 was on the other side of the double-sided map, it was a known point to me on the Cleveland Way, CPs 2 and 3 were also on the Cleveland Way, so they were easy ones to start. CP 8 was back on the other side of the map and so were CPs 9 and 10 and the finish was back at the registration hall. I recognised CP 10 too, so I only had 6 to actually navigate. It had taken me 10 minutes to mark up my map, I couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed whilst I was totally absorbed in marking it up. I folded my map and set off up the Coast-to-Coast path to the Cleveland Way and followed that through Osmotherley on familiar trails to CP 1 at the junction of the Cleveland Way and Burnthouse Bank. Checkpoint 2 was at Square Corner and checkpoint 3 was where I was to go onto new territory as I would have to leave the Cleveland Way at Whitestones/White Gill Head.This took me to Locker Low Moor and out to hall Lane and Checkpoint 4 before retracing my steps back to Locker Low Moor over muddy tracks, past Dale Head before crossing the Osmotherley to Hawnby Road and Checkpoint 5. Next came a wide sandy lane out to swainby shooting Hut at Checkpoint 6. Then continued on that lane after checking out the Nelson Stone to Checkpoint 7 opposite the Bilsdale mast. The wide lanes continued out to CP 8 on the other side of the map. Th wind picked up and made it difficult to resold my map to have the last few checkpoints in view, I stopped in the end but the win kept turning my map into a sail, eventually I had a roughly folded map and set off to Checkpoint 8.
On route I tripped and bruised my knees and hand. The checkpoint was back on the Cleveland Way just south of Carlton Bank. I turned left and headed along the Cleveland Way. Ann caught up with me again and we worked our way down through the woods together.
At Checkpoint 9, Ann had arrived ahead of me, the lady at the checkpoint had advised not to take a certain path, It was the one Ann had planned to take, I thought she meant the one I had planned around the Whorl, Together we decided to go via Faceby church and cut across to Whorlton Castle, then into Swainby and on to checkpoint 10, afford that features on the Swainby Sweep race, we were back on known ground. We crossed to the A 172 and crossed aiming for Ingleborough Cross and the finish. Ann was fresher than me and went ahead to the finish, I was suffering from my fall and followed on steadily.
We were both relieved to complete this challenge.
