Race Directors Report - Rab Helvellyn Sky Ultra weekend 2024

The Helvellyn Sky Ultra Weekend has grown exponentially since 2021. We are extremely happy with the results so far and we hope to keep going in the same vein for future skyrunning weekends. We hope you agree that 2024 has been the best yet.

This all started 10 years ago with the Lakes Sky Ultra, born out of a chance meeting with Ian Corless at the Berghaus Trail Chase, a trail running weekend that I planned for Ourea Events back in 2014. He explained skyrunning in Europe to me and showed some pictures of KJ on the original EU skyrace, Trofeo Kima. I got the bug and we had to create this in the Lakes.

Roll on 10 years and we have been through many ups and downs, literally, skyrunning has grown and shrunk and I’m very pleased to say, its back on the up and everything seems very exciting and hot. Skyrunning this year is on fire for sure.

Mike Jones of SkyRun Eyri/SkyRun the Mornes is in the lead role, driving Skyrunning UK and Ireland into the future and it's a very exciting time to be involved in this niche form of mountain running.

Last year we grew this weekend into 5 races, the Scafell Sky Race is yet to undergo this step up, but fear not, you will see a change to that weekend for 2025 and one that we know you are going to love. This year was the culmination of the growth from last year and whilst we know we controlled it well, there are always area’s to be improved and revisited for a make over and clean up.

Course markings & Race delivery:

Each year, we pride ourselves on how we mark the courses, but there appears to be a few holes in our [thought to be] bullet proof plan, it's always dangerous to sit back on what you think is bullet proof, as one day it's not and a few bullets hit home.

SG850:

The SG850 went according to plan, but as ever it would be great to see more runners taking on this European form of racing to the summit of a mountain. The times were fast and the winner was only 16 years of age, local and on the Skyrunning UK Youth Squad, son of our amazing videographer, Steve Ashworth - Men - are you going to challenge Rowan’s time in 2025?? I certainly hope so.

Katie Lord smashed it again, after her solid win at last month's SG650 [Stickle Grind 650] and went on to win the SG850 ladies race and the following day, the iconic Kentmere Horseshoe, in true style.

Rab Helvellyn Sky Ultra:

Once the Helvellyn Sky Ultra was underway, we felt and saw everything was working fine until the lead runners hit Ambleside, or more importantly, did not arrive at the Feed Station in Ambleside. Some quick work by the marshals there fixed the issue, but the first group of 6 runners missed the Feed Station and that was not great. The problem was fixed quickly, but that brings me to the fact that our Feed Station was not up to scratch and this is definitely something we will be working on for 2025.

As the lead runners moved up to Red Screes we had reports from our proof runner that course markings had been removed from the night before and therefore they had to spend time reinstating around 5km or more of course markings, so the lead runners could stay on course. Unfortunately a marshal directed some of the lead group the wrong way on High Street causing a minor issue and some extra distance, but again this was fixed very quickly. The majority of runners will know nothing about this, but we do apologise to that lead group for the errors you encountered.

Timings and cutoffs worked well, all runners were down in time with the final course cut off and we learnt that the cut-off at CP8/Thornthwaite Beacon was better served with a time penalty rather than DNF, these adjustments were made and we will be enacting the same time penalty for 2025 onwards.

St Sunday Mountain Race:

We were very excited to see the St Sunday Mountain Race be part of the new U23 Category race series created by Mike Jones this year as part of the Skyrunner National Series and even more excited to see the U23’s took the 1st and 2nd podium places in year 1.

Marshals and markings seemed to work very well and this is always a fear when morphing 2 courses using the same route, with differences. All marshals and runners remained on top of their game with runners following the desired route making it to the finish line uneventfully in that case. However, what we did experience was more injuries in the mountains related to runners. I am very pleased to say that our comms from marshals, competitors and our safety team worked extremely well with any injured runners being dealt with swiftly as possible by the Mountain Safety Team, Mountain Rescue and our valley based Paramedics from New England Medics. Runners where helped off the mountain, some self evacuated, one taken off the fell by the Ambleside MRT and several runners patched up by New England Medics. We will still be reviewing our MST and marshal cover for 2025.

Sunday's Racing: 

Moving to the Sunday’s racing, all was set but a short section of the Pinnacle Ridge Extreme was still to be laid. It's not how we want it, but then we are somewhat restricted by marshal drop outs and this can and will put pressure on the team to mark the courses, even when we do have a proof runner heading round each section of the course. In saying this, marshal drop outs and no shows have increased in the last few years and this can put a major stress on any event and it's not just our events suffering with this. Please understand, we are so appreciative of the time marshals give and I am not casting any judgement on the no show/drop out rate, it is just something to communicate to all, as we hope to eliminate this as much as possible, but we all have a life and often other things crop up and these must be dealt with in how we see fit.

Rab Pinnacle Ridge Extreme:

As we arrived at the events centre to open registration, we found that the water pressure in the pavilion dropped and then all water stopped flowing. This was a valley wide problem and we think the rain from Saturday night caused an issue with the water substation. I went to a private supply water source [filtered and treated] that I knew of in the valley of Glenridding to cover any issues this may cause throughout the morning, knowing the United Utilities were working hard on it, but this did delay the start of the Rab PRE by 15 minutes. We felt this was a better idea than not and it turned out we did need the water for the start and the start of the PF15k later that morning.

As the Rab Pinnacle Ridge Extreme was in process, we found out the hard way that there was a problem with the turn up to Stepped Ridge on Brown Cove Crags and some runners continued on the adjusted route from 2023. Thankfully the runners realised and corrected themselves, but this again is not what we want to see and knowing now there is a problem area, we will account for this accordingly for 2025. Our course marker who finished off the CatstyCam to Hole in the Wall section found that they were massively under pressure and marked a route, easily followable, but slightly higher than the line it should have been, so for all you Rab PRE runners, we know it wasn’t quite right, but then it was a continuous line and it worked all the same.

My final thing to say about the Rab PRE is the small fiasco that some of you may have seen and heard on Pinnacle Ridge Extreme itself. A drone was flown by our fully qualified and experienced pilot and a member of the public took exception to this, shouting and causing a problem that was resolved quickly, but could have turned into a bigger problem. We think hard about how all the videography and photography works and we will be reviewing our policy for 2025 in light of this situation. We hope it didn’t spoil the race experience for those who may have been on the Ridge at the time.

Place Fell 15k:

All looked set and fine for this race, however with the mornings issues with water and small course marking errors, I realised that I forgot to advise all runners to only follow the route markings and not the gpx file supplied. On Saturday we realised the bracken was high, too high, after the Feed Station and we re-routed the PF15k race route to follow the road from Sandwick Bay into Boredale itself. This caused an issue for the first runner, who on reaching the turn followed the gpx in complete race mode. For 2025, we will be using the road.

Discussions were had and we decided the most correct thing to do was to level the playing field and we created a joint 1st place.

A celebration of Lakeland roots:

Moving to more positive notes, the event weekend over all, from my perspective is everything I have been trying to create in the last few years and since the conception of the races back in 2015. Skyrunning is a hard and technical sport, it's at the niche end of the running spectrum and it is great to see so many trail and mountain runners taking it on. Yes there is a cross over into Fell Running and from the ISF’s [International Skyrunning Federation] perspective, the Ben Nevis Hill Race is cited as one of the first Skyraces ever to be run.

My dream and vision is to create all inclusive weekends in the English Lake District, an iconic area in the UK, known for its history in mountain and fell running. They are to be relaxed, fun to be at with local music, artists, beverages and foods, much like a local agricultural show feel, but based around Skyrunning, an EU race format, with very British roots. It's a work in progress and from one year to the next we hope you see, feel and enjoy what we are creating. As I always say, I come up with the ideas and concepts and it's not possible without the extremely hard work of the staff and volunteers alike.

I hope you feel the same and that we managed to pull off a little European flair in a very british and lakeland way. We will continue to develop, keeping this core principle as the driving force.

Feed/Aid Stations:

The food was good, the look was lacking in places. This is something that will be ironed out for 2025 and we hope you enjoy the changes we will make.

Food was supplied by McClures, a local food wholesaler, alcohol was supplied by Windermere Wines, a local alcohol wholesaler and one of my oldest friends, collection of all this was delivered by my awesome sister, Rebecca Patterson and for this I am very proud to have her back on board.

Local meats and cheeses are hard to come by strangely, at an affordable cost and this is still a work in progress, I hope to get it right for 2025. Our vegan offerings for savoury food seem to have not made it to the Feed Stations and so Vegans and plant-based fooders, please accept my apologies for this.

Event Food:

Again a work in progress, Lakeland Grazing’s food is great and they are a local company. We have to balance they’re income against your needs and desires. We hope to have race entries for 2025 to support 2 food vendors to offer more choices for the weekend as a whole. We hope you enjoyed the pizza, wraps and loaded fries. They are a family business, run by the whole family and we love that part of it all.

Our coffee and treats were delivered by Jonathan Podda from Podda and Wren, locally based coffee roasters who are fully entrenched in the outdoors and outdoor sports. We love their coffee and style.

T-shirts & Event Merchandise:

Something of an enigma to me. I love a bit of merch, but I try to balance it with creating little or no waste. We sell t-shirts in advance, along with Goat Bells and massage.

We will be looking hard at how to make this better and offer you more, without causing waste. Every year, we still end up with T-shirts left with us and so thank you to all that contributed to our collection for the Patterdale Junior CofE school with regards to the sale of previous years T-shirts. Support of the local schools in the Lakes [I’m sure it is the same country wide] is super important to ensure their survival for valley folk to keep their kids schooled locally.

Course Records fell:

Swirral Grind 850:

Course records fell like flies with a swatter over the weekend, with correct times being set on the SG850. The storm in 2023 meant we produced an up and down, classic fell race, not being safe to summit Helvellyn.

Notable performances were Rowan Ashworth [Ambleside AC/Skyrunning UK Youth Squad] who is 16 and Frazer Dunn [Helm Hill] and who was racing his dad, putting the adults in their place with 1st place for Rowan [CR] and Frazer placing 11th overall and only 48 seconds behind Katie Lord, who notably took the win for the Ladies Race, set the CR and then went on to win the Kentmere Horseshoe the following day.

Rowan Ashworth: 00:43:53 CR

Katie Lord: 00:51:32 CR

Rab Helvellyn Sky Ultra:

It's a hard one to sort, as I have gone through too many machinations to get this right since we moved from Ambleside, the original start and events centre, to Patterdale and then split the route in 2, from the original Lakes Sky Ultra to the now Rab Helvellyn Sky Ultra and Pinnacle Ridge Extreme. [For awareness, I did this to make the Rab HSU open for all runners, especially ultra-runners who often lack the climbing skills necessary to pass the stringent vetting and create a classic distance Extreme SkyRace for the ‘tech-heads’, like me, to enjoy.

It should be noted that Simon Roberts [now Team Scarpa] who placed a uber fast time on a reverse direction course, clockwise [it is now anti-clockwise] is the Course Record for that direction [06:50:28], but as we now run the route in an anti-clockwise direction, it serves as the record for a clockwise direction, but can’t operate as a CR for the anti-clockwise route.

We now have new CR’s for the Rab HSU, set this year by Rob Corney and Holly Wootten and we hope to see other winners from over the years come back to challenge these new times, but also celebrate everyone who has set a winning time over the years.

Rob Corney: 07:10:32 CR

Holly Wootten: 08:28:34 CR

St Sunday Mountain Race:

With thunder and lightning causing disruption to the inaugural SSMR in 2023, this year the full course was able to be run and some cracking times have been laid down.

Luke Weldon [aged 19], in the U23 category placed first in the men's race, setting a cracking time and taking the overall win.

Kasia Osipowicz took the win for the ladies, throwing the gauntlet down for all female skyrunners to come and challenge.

Luke Weldon: 03:24:55 CR

Kasia Osipowicz: 04:39:54 CR

Rab Pinnacle Ridge Extreme:

Back in 2019, we hosted the original version of the Rab Pinnacle Ridge Extreme, it's a course I love through and through and in my eyes, is THE epitome of hard and technical skyrunning, just how I like it. Rob Sinclair came to play and cracked the sub-4 hour time straight off. Since then, we had not had a sub-4 hour finish until last weekend.

This year, 2 runners went under 4 hours, with 1 more possible, had we not had a course marking error. Local lad, Phillip Rutter was the champion of the Rab PRE for 2024.

In the Ladies race, 2019 saw Ursula Moore finish in 5:45:13, but last year Sara Willhoit took the time to sub-5 hours, with a performance of 04:45:17.

It was fantastic to see local Kelli Roberts race hard against Sara Willhoit [Team Rab/Scarpa] to produce a slick and fast improvement taking the CR to 04:32:03, with Sara only minutes behind her.

Phillip Rutter: 03:48:15 CR

Kelli Roberts: 04:32:03 CR

Place Fell 15k:

Last year was the inaugural year, with 60+ runners toeing the start line. CR’s were produced by Paul Bower and Cathy Park, so it was with great excitement that we saw very fast running by the lead men and women.

A new shared CR* for the men [* details above] and a new CR for the women.

Arthur Marshal and Jon Shield [Team Scarpa] : 01:17:13

Kamila Feret: 01:26:11

So that wraps up my Race Directors report for 2024.

What’s Next?:

Moving forward, all eyes will now turn to the epic SkyRaces based out of Donegal, taking on the awe inspiring Derryveagh mountains from Errigal to Muckish on Ireland’s rugged and very wild west coast with the Seven Sisters Skyline Weekend, containing 3 races and 3 distances, plus one of the Skyrunning Ireland Championship races, being the Seven Sisters Skyline 30k.

To book your place, use the following link: https://excelsports.ie/sevensisters/

The final races in the 2024 SNS races will be ‘SkyRun the Mornes’ based in Northern Ireland in the Morne Mountains, a granite plug with some amazing fells.

Who will be crowned the Champions of the Skyrunning United Kingdom Skyrunner National Series for 2024?

Will it be you?

A sincere thanks:

All that is left for me to say is a heartfelt, warm and massive thankyou to my team of volunteer marshals, changeable every year with some serial marshals that come year on year. These folk ARE the HEARTBEAT of this and all other running events countrywide. You know we cannot do it without you and we are honoured by your selfless and hard work to deliver these races.

Your Course Marking team was lead by Steve Hopwood and contained:

• Paul Maddison

• Danielle Hopkins

• Jodie Gould

• Dave Thorp

• Martin Slack

• Owain Tomos

• Oliver Murray

• Colin Harding

• George Butt

• Ian Morran

• Lawrie Jones

• Adam Buxton

• David Ousby

• John Vernon

• Tony Eastwood

• Tara Brook

• Sean Bolland

Course Proofs’ and Sweeps:

• Owain Tomos

• Phil Padfield

• Dave Thorp

• Ben Beaumont

• James Wilson

• John Vernon

• Tara Brooks

• Ian Moran

• David Ousby

CP Mountain Marshals:

• Vicky Cook

• Tara Brooks

• Giedre Stulgyte

• Bill Whitfield

• Kathryn Frazer

• John Vernon

• David Ousby

• Bob Overbury

• Oliver Murray

• Lawrie Jones

• Colin Harding

• Caroline Graham

• Paul Maddison

• Danielle Hopkins

• Ian Morran

• George Butt

• Tony Eastwood

• Kate Allen

• Anna Johnson

• Martin Slack

• Louise Greenwood

• Liz & Sean King

Feed Station Marshals:

• Bev Notton

• Kim Potter

• Susan Graham

• Pete Johnson

• Elizabeth & Shaun King,

• Callum Robinson

Events Centre:

• Teresa Keeling

• Sarah Blundell

• Lee Tait [lead medic]

• David Elsender

• Grace Isaacs

• Tracey Kennet

• Izzy White

Core Team:

• Rachel PLatt

• Millie Ravenhill

• Emma Brabazon

• Steve Hopwood

• Jack Overhill

Mountain Safety Team:

• Paul Aitken

• Sharon Kennedy

• Chris Wright

• Nick Cannon Jones

• Chelsea Robinson

• Alex Henderson

• Ffion Harris

• Lily Gildaley

• Matt Etheridge

Event Director and RD:

• Charles Sproson