Tour de Helvellyn

Enjoying the very soggy conditions at CP3. Knee deep snow here last year! 

(Photo from Stu Smith of Adventures in Mind & Nav 4 Adventure)

Just in the process of drying out after an epic Tour de Helvellyn. Last year this 38 mile classic trail run featured knee deep snow over Sticks Pass, this year it was almost knee deep in water! Entries had more than doubled and there was a long crocodile of runners making their way up on to the fells from Askham in the early hours of the morning. This is probably the trickiest bit of the route in terms of navigation and it looks like plenty of folk had decided to extend their day to 40 miles plus. I managed to keep on track this year and was ticking along nicely until an old injury flared up while traversing above Thirlmere. A tight hip flexor and IT band meant that I was reduced to a hobble downhill but was fine on the flat and uphill. However I'd done enough early on and I managed to get back round to Askham in 8:41, over an hour quicker than last year. Big congratulations to Eden Runners Kim Collison who beat the 6 hour barrier by 7 seconds, lowering the course record in the process and to Joe, Stu and the rest of the Nav 4 team for another great day out.

Ultra Marathons

Descending off Green Gable on leg 4

I've been putting the miles in on the hills since returning from Nepal with the though of a winter Bob Graham attempt keeping me focused. Unfortunately a wee tumble while out on an all night training run has left me a bit battered and bruised. Long grass, ice and waterproof bottoms don't mix and I took a slide over a small outcrop performing a couple of backward somersaults before landing on my head. Somehow I walked away but have had to put my attempt on hold until after Christmas.

However with the shortest day of the year approaching it's also time for the now classic Tour de Helvellyn, a 38 mile off road ultra in the Lake District. The last couple of years have seen plenty of snow on the route but things are looking like they're going to be a lot more wild and woolly this year. There are more than 200 runners entered for what's a great day out in the hills. Here's a small video I put together from last years event.

Tour de Helvellyn - 17th Dec 2011 from Mountain Zac on Vimeo.

For January 2013 there's also a new event in northern England with the inaugural Marmot Dark Mountains, an overnight mountain marathon. I recently spent a night out in full on conditions route checking and it's looking like being a very challenging competition which will really test runners mountaincraft. This is a great original idea so if you're looking for something a bit different next year then I'd encourage you to go for this especially as the organisers have promised a full moon and great conditions!

A wee run in the snow...

 Looking towards Helvellyn from the Eastern Fells

Started in the dark and finished in the dark but 44km and 3400m of ascent later it was a pretty good day. Tough going in the drifting snow but the Lake District is world class on days like this

Braving the spindrift driven on by a strong northerly

A stunning winters day on Helvellyn

 Looking down to Grisedale Tarn from Fairfield

35km & 2000m of ascent today over a spectacular Helvellyn range. It's always interesting to see what your fell running fitness is like after an extended period in the Himalaya so not too bad today. There was some new snow over the old frozen pack which gave good running for around 60% of the time - the rest of it was postholing through a breakable crust! I had my spikes with me but only needed to use them on the very icy paths around Rydal Water in the valley bottom

The east face of Helvellyn was incredibly quiet considering it was a weekend with a perfect forecast. The few teams who were out reported reasonable conditions on most of the major gullies plus V Corner. The turf is frozen where the snow pack is shallow but remains soft in some of the larger bays. Plenty of unconsolidated snow to play with but overall things are pretty stable. Away from Helvellyn there was some action on Rampsgill Head where conditions were reported to be pretty good.

 Red Tarn from the summit of Helvellyn

Walkers on the west ridge of Catstycam