Ten Tors 2025
So the week of the 1st May bank holiday had arrived, which could mean only 1 thing – the week of the Ten Tors main event weekend had arrived!
After 6 months of training, lunchtime sessions, day walks, & weekend camps on the moor that had experienced all ranges of weather from sun to rain to snow, but mostly of very heavy fog, the time of the main event weekend had now arrived. It brought with it nervous anticipation… What routes would the teams be assigned? What would the weather be like and hence the river levels too? Would the teams get scrutineered (full kit check!) by the Army and if they failed, they wouldn’t be allowed to start! What time would the teams cross the finish line on the Sunday? How many students would not make it round?
So so many questions and early in the week we didn’t know the answers to all of them, but as the week progressed into the weekend, we would soon find the answers…
The routes the CVCC 2 x 35, 1 x 45, and 1 x 55 mile teams were assigned were published on the Tuesday and the students then busied themselves planning their routes, considering the night stop times, the crash times, the bird nesting and out of bounds areas, and the river crossings – it’s not just hiking 35, 45, or 55 miles, there’s lots to consider in planning routes! Luckily the training over the last 6 months had covered all but 1 of the checkpoints, and the majority of the routes the students would encounter had been covered too.
The weather turned out to be nice, and even a little bit cooler compared to the heat of last year’s event, which the students appreciated. The long dry weather beforehand meant the river levels were low, the river state was therefore normal – which the students appreciated too as this meant there was no need for long detours to permitted river crossing points, which the higher river states would have brought.
This year there was a change at the Team registration early Friday morning – each of the 4 Team Leaders would need to accompany us to Registration and they would also get to pick a raffle ticket to determine if their team would face the dreaded scrutineering (full kit check process)..! Milly, Team Leader of 35A LT, went first to draw a ticket and avoided the Scrutineering! Followed by Ethan, Team Leader of 35B ML, who also avoided it, but then Kate, Team Leader of 45 VP drew the unlucky ticket and so her team was selected for it. Finally Nina, Team Leader of the 55 ZX avoided the Scrutineering too. So we ran our own kit for the other 3 teams, but for the 45s Harriet (their Deputy Team Manager) went through a kit check before heading off to the 30minute scrutineering interrogation at 4pm – luckily they had a kind Scrutineer, the teams made a great first impression, greeting the Scrutineer with a smile, answering questions well, finding items of kit quickly, and so the team were done quickly and had passed – they were then all cleared to start the event 7am Saturday morning! The rest of the Friday was spent finalizing routes, kit, visiting the start line, meeting others and participating in the Army’s extensive engagement village on the parade ground. After dinner on Friday evening, the joyful party atmosphere continued with the majority of the participants gathering on the parade ground to chill out/party after a long Friday and before the 5am Saturday morning alarm! We had 3 external students join our 55-mile team (as all teams must start with 6) who led many of the others Friday evening in the party atmosphere whilst some of our other students sensibly stood to the side and spectated from afar!
Clear skies arrived early Saturday morning, with a lovely sunrise visible from our base camp 5am that morning. After a hearty breakfast & final team photos, the teams made their way up to the start point – there were speeches made, the Red Devils Army Parachute Display Team jumped out the plane and led a huge Union Jack down to the start line – a loud bang at 7am set everyone on their way, Ten Tors 2025 had begun! The teams all set off on their routes whilst the adults nervously kept hitting the refresh button on the Ten Tors website to see when the teams arrived at their assigned checkpoints…
During the Saturday, all the CVCC teams had made excellent progress and now, with Sunday dawning, it was time to see what time all 4 teams would make it back across the finish line – hopefully before 5pm for a well earned medal and pasty!
All 4 CVCC teams did exceptionally well – for the first time ever with 4 x CVCC teams, not one student dropped out, and all 4 CVCC teams made it back and crossed the finish line as 4 complete teams of 6! All the students looked shattered as they crossed the finish line but rightfully proud of themselves, and we’re very proud of them all too – they pushed themselves to new heights during the training and successfully rose to the occasion on the main event weekend!
35A LT – Milly, Buddy, Ed, Joel, Otis & Ruthie – finished: 14:56
35B ML – Ethan, George, Max, Michael, Sam & William – finished: 13:20
45 VP – Kate, Jack, Jake, Lili, Rudy & Zac – finished: 14:52
55 ZX – Nina, Millie, Finley, Will, Charlie & Toby – finished: 15:15
We must give thanks to all the staff and volunteers who have helped, no matter how big or small the contribution, as it’s a big team effort throughout the training months and the main event weekend to enable our Clyst Vale students to be at the start line of Ten Tors! Many thanks to you all and hope you’re all keen to help again next year..!
For those students keen to get involved next year, it’s likely to all start around October half term so please look out for information and posters around that time, for year 9 and above. Then you too could experience the thrills, fun and excitement that Ten Tors brings, not just during the months of training, but hopefully on the main event too!
Big congratulations also to all the other Clyst Vale students, both past and present, who also participated in the event with other organisations too. It was a lovely atmosphere at the finish line watching teams from different establishments crossing the finish line, and the predicted thunderstorms also held off too.
Now it’s the Summer season, we move on to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions for Bronze, Silver and Gold! For those students doing both Ten Tors and DofE, they’ll probably find the DofE expeditions a relative ‘walk in the park’ compared to Ten Tors, but DofE has it’s own challenges, not least more than 1 night camping on the Silver and Gold…
Mr Eales
Ten Tors Manager
