Myself and Rob Sinclair drove down from Aberdeen for this one as it appealed to our techy running interest. Both of us had competed last year in the Lakes races, Rob at the Lakes Sky Ultra which he won and myself on Scafell Skyrace..
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| Race brief |
A small field of only 38 runners.. Charles had a fairly strict entry and vetting process similar to Glencoe Skyline where the entrant has to prove their climbing ability and provide a list of named and graded rock climbing routes they've done. This is to ensure safety on the route as you are soloing exposed climbs with no harness, you're not tied in, no protection, etc.. you fall, you get hurt or worse! There are fixed ropes in place that you "could" pull on but they're better left alone in my opinion. ;)
The routes aren't technically hard from a rock climbing perspective, there are good holds but if you're not used to this terrain and some exposure you could get jittery and the last place you want disco leg is half way up a crag with nae rope!
I started off fairly near the front of the pack with Rob flying off ahead of everyone clearly showing his speed compared to us mere mortals..
Sitting just behind the front runners I slowly moved up on the climbs and was probably top 5 for the first few kms. On the climb up to Hellvelyn I'd taken another 2 and between Swirel Edge and Catstye Cam I moved into 2nd place having taken another runner. Obviously all the legends never turned up!
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| Catstye Cam |
I didn't look back from here and blasted down and round to Striding Edge. An awesome, fast and technical decent on a loose zig zagging path then at the bottom onto flatter, tougher ground on long, thick, tussachy and boggy grass up towards Striding Edge.
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| Hellvelyn and Striding Edge |
Striding Edge was heaving with hikers but they were being asked by marshals to give way to runners and they were great and moved aside to let me through. I made good time and ran most of it sticking to the crest as much as possible.
The only delay was the down climb off the ridge which was a bottleneck with folk slowly lowering themselves down. I ended up going way off route to the left and down climbed a very steep, loose gully but it worked out and I managed to bypass hoards of hikers and then I was back onto the steeper last part of the ridge and back up onto Helvellyn.
Some good fast running from here over to Nethermost Pike and dropping into Grisdale Beck
then the horrendous climb up onto Sunday Crag/Pinnacle Ridge the most technical section saved for last just when you're legs are boxed!
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| Looking back over to Nethermost Pike |
This last ascent up to the ridge was hard, hard, hard! Everyone had the same tale to tell here where they struggled pulling up the heather and grass after the beating they'd taken to get here. I had a few stops here to contemplate my sanity but it was a good opportunity to get some more pics on the hoof.
Once I manned up it was time to get my head back down and I kept chipping away until I was at the bottom of Pinnacle Ridge, the main event!
This was great and the highlight of the race for me. Nice techy scrambling with some nice exposed positions. The only complaint is that it wasn't long enough, I could've climbed there all day!
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| Pinnacle Ridge |
I finished 2nd in 4hrs 48 mins. Next runner was Colin Smith 3rd in 5hrs 13 mins. Rob obviously smashed it to take the win!
What an absolute blinder of a course which suited me down to the ground and I was really happy to podium with Rob, nae bad for 2 loons fae the Deen!
The event was brilliantly organised by Charles and his helpers in an incredible part of the country! Surely a classic race in the calendar for years to come! I'll certainly be back next year.
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| Runner up and some beers for me from Charlie |
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| Chicken Dinner! |
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Aberdeen 1, 2!
Official Promo vid
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An awsome night and weekend all round! Shabba!
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