News, Events & Enrichment
Ten Tors 2026: Friday 8th – Sunday 10th May
BackSo 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 as well!
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 the theme this year was mostly of rain & high river levels - 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 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 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 permitted river crossings – it’s not just hiking 35 or 45, there’s lots to consider in planning routes! Luckily the training over the last 6 months had covered the majority of the routes the students would encounter.
The weather turned out to be dry and temperatures were kept cool with a welcome breeze which meant the new Ten Tors Heat Illness Policy wasn’t required. The 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 the permitted river crossing points, which the higher river states would have brought.
As last year, each of the 3 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)..! The Team Leader of 35B drew the unlucky ticket and so 35B had to face the Scrutineering later on the Friday, whilst we ran our own final kit check for the 35A and 45 Teams to make sure they had everything as listed on the Ten Tors kit list. 35B successfully navigated the Army Scrutineering and so all 3 teams 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 the Friday evening, students helped with the washing up and tidying up before an early night before the 5am Saturday morning alarm!
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 2026 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 3 teams would make it back across the finish line – hopefully before 5pm for a well earned medal and pasty!
All 3 CVCC teams did exceptionally well – we were very impressed that for the 2nd year in a row, not one student dropped out, and all 3 CVCC teams made it back and crossed the finish line as 3 complete teams of 6! All the students looked shattered, and there were some tears, as they crossed the finish line but had done amazingly well, 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 EN – Lily, Daisy, Ava, Dexter, Georgie & Jack – finished: 13:20
35B KJ – Eoin, Ursula, Lawrence, Max, Kingsley & William – finished: 15:48
45 TJ – Otis, Max, Ed, Joel, Sam & William – finished: 14:17
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..! Harry P, an ex-CVCC student, has been helping us out on Ten Tors for the last 10 years and so was awarded the Bronze certificate Saturday evening by the military commander for all his help over the last 10 years – many thanks for all your help, richly deserved!
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.
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
