Round Square Adventure Race

What is the Round Square Adventure Race? Imagine a weekend filled with excitement, camaraderie, and the thrill of the great outdoors? The Round Square Adventure Race takes a team of six year 9 and 10 students who are ready to push their limits, and pits them against five other Round Square schools in a jam packed 48 hours. In the spirit of 'plus est en vous,' this exhilarating event is the ultimate test of physical endurance, technical skill, and teamwork.

Since 2006, students from six Round Square schools have met on an annual basis in either Snowdonia, the Cairngorms or the Lake District, for an intense two days of mental and physical endurance. Over the year’s challenges have involved canoeing, open sea and lake swimming, climbing, mountain bike orienteering, night navigation and problem solving. The event culminates on the Sunday with a 10km+ mountain run. The Adventure Race promotes the stamina, teamwork and leadership skills that Gordonstoun is renowned for developing in students.

Gordonstoun won this year, and last year – and have, in total, won 9 of the 16 races since its conception in 2006.

Here’s what the competitors said about this year’s competition:What did the race involve for you e.g. activities? We started the first morning with a sprint and lake swim, later followed by mountain biking, climbing and team building activities. That evening we also did night orienteering. On Sunday we completed a 9k fell run. Then we had an amazing journey back. What did you enjoy about the race? We enjoyed the different range of activities and the difficulty of the activities we completed. It was also great becoming closer and more effective as a team through the days. What did you find challenging?As we each had different strengths and weaknesses, some found certain activities a piece of cake and others not so much. However, with the encouragement from the rest of your team members and the motivation to beat the other teams we succeeded with all the activities. Why do you think you were successful as a team?We think our team was successful because we persevered as a team through everything and made sure no one was left behind. We used everyone's different skills for our advantage and in the end did very well. Gordonstoun team 1:

William G
Rudi W
Niamh
Molly W
Louisa P

Gordonstoun team 2:

Sophie C
Scarlett L
Megan S
Henny J
Eva W
Matilda V

Congratulations to Team 1 who placed first overall, and Team 2 who came third overall but were also the first female team to finish.