Jon Marsden, Ian Marsden and Mark Adams comment on the long leg on day 2 in Norway.
 

How early in the course did you see the leg - what was your first reaction?

Jon: I saw it as I was summing up the course on the way to the first control and immediately identified it as something I needed to look at. Over the next couple of legs I was looking for any major route choice. There was no major route choice with the possible exception of north via 'Hvidstentjern', but I thought the extra distance completely overrode the slightly improved running and attack point for the control.

Ian: I am not sure when I saw the leg but I was struck by its length and the number of ravines. I looked at the route through the marshes to the lake and also at the power lines. Another issue was where to cross the ravines if not going north.

Mark: I saw the leg early on and was not too bothered at the prospect.
 

What was your plan for the leg?

Jon: I decided to go for the easiest reasonably straight route. I had identified how I wanted to get into the control (along the path beside the small lake and then over the pair of hills, using fine navigation from an attack point at the top of the hill). The first part of the leg was following a route that put together short stretches of path, then through the open marsh, aiming for the point that was passable in the ravine and finally joining up with the path as planned.

Ian: I ruled out the longer route through the marshes and decided to go almost straight using fine navigation throughout the leg.

Mark: Like Jon, planned to pick up the small paths to get to the large open marsh, then skirt round the south of the marsh and go over the ridge to the north east to cross the line of the ravine where there were no crags. From here the plan was to contour round the hill to the east and pick up the small path along the south side of the lake before heading up the hill just to the west of the control.
 

Did you execute the leg as planned?

Jon: Basically yes. I went a bit further north than I would have liked in the middle; I would have preferred to be closer the power line, although the forest under the power line was just as tough going as everywhere else.

Ian: Yes, I put together a few short pieces of path to get through the worst of the green and over the streams before cutting across to the N-S power lines. It was a fight uphill from here to the next longish path section leading to the major ravine, which was deep, but there seemed no choice (there were not many people around). Followed the re-entrant up to the col and over, then down to the next smaller ravine, up the hill and picked up the end of the small path. I got drawn by other people into another control but quickly corrected.

Mark: Not entirely. When I got to the open marsh the going got rough, so I started following the power line north east. The going here was equally tough and I then had to tackle the big ravine which was very slow and full of broken trees (it reminded me of the reports of Low's Gully in Indonesia, where a group was lost for days). From the gully I headed east and picked up my original route south of the small lake.
 

In hindsight would you have taken a different route?

Jon: No, I would take the basically the same route, possibly keeping 100m south of the power line through the middle section. I am not sure it would have saved me much time though, as it was all tough going. Final leg time 33:22.

Ian: No, I executed the keg as planned and was quite happy. Final leg time 37:17.

Mark: In retrospect, I would have gone around the north of the open marsh then picked up my original planned route-my 'alternative route', shown on the map. Final leg time 32:13