TEENAGE scouts from Abingdon won a national navigating and hiking challenge in the Lake District.
The eight Abingdon Explorer Scouts, aged between 14 and 17, from won July’s Operation Dragnet, beating hundreds of other scouts.
The annual weekend challenge, which attracts about 300 competitors, involves navigating fells and valleys after being dropped off in an unknown location. The teams must find their own way over 40 miles to reach the finish line.
Competitors needed to carry food and kit to keep them going through two nights of trekking.
They are also hunted down by marshalls.
After 35 hours, the Abingdon Scouts were crowned champions.
Explorer Scout Leader Mike Suggate said: “Simply getting to the end of the event is hard, it takes skill, determination and great teamwork – the fells at night are a very daunting place and you must keep spirits up and work together to make it to the end.”
They received the trophy from mountaineer and Scouting ambassador Sir Chris Bonington.
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