Sidmouth College students beat British Army's Ten Tors Challenge

Sidmouth College students successfully completed the Ten Tors Challenge last weekend (7 and 8 May).

Organised by the British Army, this year was the challenge's 60th anniversary and saw more than 2,500 youngsters take part after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19. It involves hiking routes of 35, 45, or 55 miles to ten tors on Dartmoor in under two days.

Both of Sidmouth College's two 35-mile teams, each made up of six Year 10 students, finished well before the cut-off time of 5pm.

One of the two teams (Sidmouth College)

A spokesperson said: "Sidmouth College have a long history of teams in this challenge and it was great to be able to offer both the training and the event to our students, especially as they had periods of time during the pandemic when opportunities to be with each other and take on new challenges together were limited.

"We were delighted to work with our Year 10 cohort and throughout the training from October to April all of the students involved showed resilience and enthusiasm, learning new skills such as map reading and teamwork.

"We are fortunate and grateful to have a group of skilled and experienced volunteers who work alongside staff members to offer this opportunity and who travelled to the Okehampton Army Camp for the weekend.

"We are also aware of the support that our students receive from their families.

"Our volunteers also got up at dawn on the Thursday before the event to drive our 'camp' equipment to Okehampton and find us a good base camp on the site! 

"We are grateful to Martyn, Nick, Jen, Andy, Geoff and Andy and to our two staff members who were new to Ten Tors this year, Mr Richards and Miss King.

"Congratulations to Bronwyn, James, Matilda, Tom, Haiden, Dan and Roman, Harriet, Sam, Rose, Josie, Ethan."

Click here to find out more about the Ten Tors Challenge.