Just so it's clear, abusing the points scoring system by, for example, posting an endless series of single-character forum posts won't get you anywhere. You'll simply be docked points, so while you might temporarily climb up the Leader Board, you won't be there for very long.
On top of that, the monthly winner will be chosen from the top ten on the Leader Board and the decision will take quality of contributions into account as well as quantity.
The Mountain Marathon is intended as a light-hearted way of adding some entertainment value to contributing to OM. You don't have to take it seriously or actively participate or get upset because you're classified as a 'Cliff-Walking Womble' or whatever, but if you do want to, it's there.
If you do want to take part, you can work out for yourself fair ways of gaining more points - reviews, forum posts, gallery images etc - and maximise your score and move up the levels as long as you do it fairly. Loopholes will be closed by the way and those exploiting them will have their points docked.
Thanks
Jon
