The Challenge begins at 07:00 on the Saturday, and in order to qualify for an award, teams must have crossed the finish line by 17:00 on Sunday.
The event starts and finishes at Okehampton Camp. Each team has to navigate and hike around a course allocated to it by the organisers on the Friday before the event, and each has to check-in at Army observation points on each of the ten tors on its course. The teams must spend one night on the Moor. Those teams walking 35 miles must stop at one of the first eight tors on their route by 20:00 on the Saturday. Teams on the 45 and 55 mile routes may camp where they like, but not closer than 400 yards from a house or pub, or within any other out-of-bounds area.
By Sunday the teams are tired (!) and, if a team arrives at a tor check-point so far behind schedule that it has no chance of finishing its course by 17:00, it will be 'crashed out', and returned to Camp by road.
Those teams that complete the Challenge receive a certificate recording its achievement - and each team member receives a Ten Tors Medal.
The organisers require that each team, and each team member, carry or wear a suitable set of equipment to ensure that they are prepared for two days on Dartmoor. The following is an outline, mostly as a guide for the curious, and should not be taken as a definitive list - for that see FTT7 on the Training pages!
(NB: the full equipment list (FTT7)
runs to two A4 pages and gives detail on the type and quality required
of each item...)