Coordinators
Sue Oxley & Di Gerrard
Sue took over as coordinator of the TGO Challenge in 2014 with Ali Ogden. Mick Blackburn joined them in 2023 to 2025, with Di coming on board in 2024. Ali and Mick retired as coordinators after the 2025 Challenge to create TGOC East. In 2020 Kelsey Media, the then owners, gave Sue and Ali the opportunity to acquire the Challenge which they did through the company Scotia Challenge Ltd. Sue and Di don’t see themselves as owners, more custodians who as Challengers themselves will aim to look after the Event so it can be enjoyed by Challengers for many years to come.
Sue is an 18-time Challenger who completed her first crossing in 1982 and for several years held the record for the longest time taken to achieve 10 crossings! Di completed her first Challenge in 1999 and completed 7 Challenges before moving overseas in 2007. Now back in Scotland, she is looking to emulate Sue and hold the new record for the longest time taken to achieve 10 crossings.
Sue and Di met on the 1999 Challenge and have walked together on several Challenges since and in 2025 whilst Di was working on Challenge Control, Sue walked with Di’s husband Ngumo on his 7th crossing.
Both Coordinators are keen walkers and backpackers with 25 TGO Challenge crossings between them and both members of the Hill & Mountain Walking Club.
Sue has walked Lands End to John o’ Groats solo, the Cape Wrath Trail and the Southern Upland Way amongst many others. She was a member of a Lake District Mountain Rescue team and the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Assessment panel. She holds a Mountain Leadership certificate and worked for several years as a voluntary ranger with the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Di backpacked extensively in Scotland before moving overseas with her husband, where they have both enjoyed mountaineering in Kazakhstan and East Africa. Di, in fact met Ngumo when climbing Mount Kenya.
Vetters
We have a team of route vetters. All are volunteers who give copious hours of their own time to review routes every winter. They all have many crossings to their name and plenty of other experience in the Scottish hills as well. Some have worked as professional guides or been Mountain Rescue volunteers whilst other wander the hills and glens in their free time.
Challenge Control
Every year one of the Coordinators will lead the Challenge Control team with the other free to participate in the Challenge. They are assisted by three or four volunteers. Again all are experienced Challengers who know well both the Challenge area and the trials and tribulations of a Challenge crossing so can offer support whenever needed.
Other volunteers
There are a whole host of other volunteers who give time back to the Event and make the Challenge possible. Most visible are Ann & Alvar Thorn who run St Drostan’s Hostel at Tarfside together with Gus and Rita McKinnon during the Challenge. Others offer support in the background helping with art and design, health and safety procedures, the design of this website and management of our social media. All they get in return is a guaranteed place whenever they want to participate and the heartfelt thanks of the Coordinators and the Challenge family.