Activities

Ten Tors Expedition 

"Ten Tors is not so much about Tors, or the fact that there are Ten of them, or even about a long trek over Dartmoor through some inevitably adverse weather.

 

It is about six mates and how they take on The Challenge, individually and as a team.  It is a roller-coaster of blisters, doubt, and overwhelming achievement. It is Dartmoor's way of laying bare your soul. It is unforgettable..."

The Ten Tors event - in parallel with the Jubilee Challenge - takes place one weekend in May, every year, and is now limited to 2400 individuals - 400 teams of six teenagers.  The teams, depending on age and ability, face hikes of 35, 45 or 55 miles between ten nominated Tors over two days. The intention is that the teams shall be self-sufficient, carrying everything they need to survive two days on the Moor.

The event starts and finishes at Okehampton Camp.

Each team has to navigate and hike around a course allocated to it by the organisers on the Friday before the event.  Teams check-in at 10 pre-defined Army observation points situated on some of the many tors scattered across the moor. The teams must spend one night out on the Moor.

By Sunday the teams are extremely tired and, if a team arrives at a tor check-point so far behind schedule that it has no chance of finishing its course by 17:00, it will be 'crashed out', and returned to Camp by road.

To get a better sense of the Ten Tors atmosphere, you might like to check out some photos from the 2002 event.

Bournemouth School CCF always enters at least two teams for the event; a Junior team tackling the 35 mile route and the Seniors who do the 45 miler.

To learn more about how teams performed in each year, please select the appropriate link:

• Ten Tors Expedition 2004

• Ten Tors Expedition 2003

• Ten Tors Expedition 2002

• Ten Tors Expedition 2001

• Ten Tors Expedition 2000

• Ten Tors Expedition 1999

• Ten Tors Expedition 1998

Dartmoor is one of the last wildernesses in England. It is a National Park, and occupies some 368 square miles (954 square Km) of hills topped by granite outcrops - the 'Tors'.

Vixen Tor Area, Dartmoor

At its lowest points Dartmoor touches 325 feet (100 m) above sea level, and the highest Tor-capped hill reaches 2018 feet (621 m). The valleys and dips between the hills often hold bogs to trap the unwary walker.

...and survival forms a real part of the challenge.  In 1998 temperatures were in the eighties (26º C) and dehydration was a major risk. In 1996 the Moor was struck by a snow and sleet storm over the Ten Tors weekend, and the teams had poor visibility and numbing cold to contend with.