Scafell Skyrunning Weekend 2026 - Race Directors report and thanks

Wow, what a weekend! 

You came, ran and raced, the weather acted like true Lakeland weather, music was played, records [running ones not vinyl] were broken on several events and our volunteers and core team worked their butts off to make sure your experience was as good as it could be. I do hope you felt the same.

So many smiles and compliments over the finish line, many messages and emails post events weekend, the photography is out and our photographers smashed it in the weather conditions, helicopters came to the rescue [our competitor was ok], our ‘Mountain Safety Team’ & volunteer marshals made all the right calls in the mountains and assisted multiple runners, injured and/or timed out off the hill, the thousands of flags and signs and bamboo canes were stripped as quickly as they were placed out and now I’m sat in my office, dog tired, drinking oodles of coffee and writing the 9^th RD report for the Rab Scafell Skyrunning Weekend 2026.

The Races:

Friday Evening…

Stickle Grind 650 2026

Friday night saw a very well attended Vertical Race from Lanty Slee’s Sticklebarn to the summit of Harrison Stickle. ?? runners entered and 28 set off from Sticklebarn to make the fast, rough and gruelling ascent to the summit with our timing marshals and safety team members waiting to finish them there. Easy descending brought them back to our events centre for a quick prize giving and then to sit down in the Hayloft to watch ‘Winner Gets Cake’ supported by Rab Equipment & Sportshoes.com with a Q&A with Ted Mason, Sara Wilhoit [ladies winner and new record holder], Harry Holmes and Steph Knapman.

Bobby Gard Story [Ambleside AC], local runner smashed the men’s record, setting an awesome time of 25:21, held previously by Gavin Dale from Ambleside AC who’s time was 26:53 with the 2^nd place just missing the record also by 2 seconds.

Sara Willhoit, running for Rab and Scarpa, took the ladies win and record in true style. Sara runs on the Skyrunning World Series races in the EU and is no stranger to uphill struggles and ran a superb vertical to set a new record of 27:52, smashing the previous one held by Katie Lord in 2024 which was 31:48. Alexandre Duesbury took second place but was well outside the previous record.

Saturday morning….

The weather was typical Lakeland cold and wet and after last years storm coming through, we knew it was not as bad and had an improving forecast for the day. We had toyed with the idea of shortened courses, with our Mountain Safety Team [MST] watching the weather like hawks until Friday night, making final decisions to run the whole routes of each race.

Rab Scafell Sky ULTRA - 2nd Edition

The Rab Scafell Sky Ultra is now in its 2^nd year, was well attended. Marshals and MST were ready in the fells to receive the runners through their locations, the race was started just after 06:00 and the event was underway.

It was fast at the front, everyone through each checkpoint on time until CP12 in the Great Langdale valley, the cruel twist of dropping back towards the events centre before heading south and back out of the valley via Oxendale to tackle the southern side of the course with the classic Prison Band between Swirl How and Wetherlam.

Jeremy Swainson, who has attended and raced many of our events, took the win and set a new male record in a time of 08:41:00

Helen Newman took the Ladies win in a time of 11:49:54

Rab Scafell Sky Race - 9th Edition

The Rab Scafell Sky Race, in its 9^th edition, was set of 1 hour earlier than usual at 07:00, we have opened the race by 2 hours from a 10 hour time limit to a 12 hour time limit to allow more runners to come and enjoy and finish the race in style, rather than be timed out. The main reason is I see all our races in the Lakes as a great way to get to know the tops, you travel through many iconic places, over many Wainwright tops and summit the highest mountain in England, plus are taken on some of the most esoteric trails in the Central and Southern Lakes [at this weekend] that you likely would not visit, so we see our races as a ‘Tour de Force’ of the Lakeland higher summits and less know trails and a great way to experience the Lakes with the full support of a highly skilled race delivery and mountain safety team. We have a lot of show off in the Lakeland Fells.

Times were quick this year with Ed Brewer running for Team Scarpa and Bethan Logan stretching out in front. Ed crossed the line in a time of 04:53:31, Ed was never really challenged once he had taken the lead, running his own race and keeping to his strategy throughout.

Bethan was having a great time racing against Natalia Gaik, however a wrong turn in very thick clag by a few of the front runners put Natalia going over the summit of Kirkfell on the Ultra route, the others realising their mistake, leaving Bethan to make hay whilst the rain fell and extend her lead to cross the line in 1^st place in a cracking time of 06:18:18

Great Langdale 21k - 2nd Edition

I was very aware of the errors from last years race and so extra care was made to not only brief the runners correctly, but make sure the marshals team had the correct information and not send our GL21’ers up onto the Prison Band with the ULTRA folk.

The race was well attended and fast times were set. The male win went to Hayden Whitehead in a time of 01:52:43 and the female win went to Nicola Glover in a time of 02:18:37 both beating the fastest times from last year setting good quality new course records.

Checkout the Skyrunning UK race report for more information on how the races unfolded here: Skyrunning UK Race Reports for Scafell Skyrunning Weekend 2026

The Music by North Fire Sound

Many of you who know me well enough with know my love for music of all kinds, from Folk through to Drum and Bass. Since 2019 we have often had local folk singers attending our events but never in the profusion of this years event weekend.

We try to make the event feel friendly, warm [not the weather ;-)] and good fun for all. Once the races set off for many events, the event centre can seem low and not so much fun, but with the addition of music and fun, we hope this brings an extra element to the weekend.

For many years now I have been tied into the southern extravaganza known as The Love Trails Festival and I have loved the fusion of music and running since free-lancing for this team.

Ben Parkinson from Up Front Theatre, just north of Penrith, pulled all the stops out to deliver folk music and acoustic sets from early afternoon, in the Sticklebarn and out on the patio under the marquee.

Local artists and DJ’s from around the district played for you all, but by far for me as the best thing to happen was the debut D&B set by my son, Winter, under the stage name of DJ Frost at 17:00 so for those who didn’t see me milling around for 45 minutes trying to stay in control of everything, this was the reason why.

Volunteer Marshals, Core and Mountain Safety team and our Events Centre

Our industry is propped up by the help of volunteer marshals; it’s the same in the music festival scene as well. Without these selfless giving individuals, there would literally be NO races whatsoever.

I am always so bowled over by the kindness, attitude and help these folk offer us to make the races as you see them. Tirelessly helping behind the scenes, striding to mountain summits and checkpoints, proving and sweeping courses, removing flags, keeping the landscape clean, sitting registering you all, putting medal on tired runners as they cross the finish line, feeding you at Aid Stations and making sure I am not running around like a headless chicken.

So a MASSIVE THANKS to our volunteer marshal team.

Our MST and Core Team are picked by myself and some other core members, they are the backbone of the race safety, some on summits, some working race control for far too many hours and some managing registration, venue marshals, plugging holes that appear, double checking all the flags and signs are in on the days post event, making sure we leave only footprints and nothing else.

Again, a MASSIVE THANKS to all these skilled and motivated folk, who make my life easier, keep me on track when I’m flagging, making sure they know where all of you are and what to do if we have a mountain incident, of which we had a few, trying not to lean on the MRT unless it is 100% necessary, which it sometimes is.

There was an incident in the initial parts of the race where someone broke an ankle, the marshals and friends helped the stricken runner to the valley floor, the Langdale MRT being raised but only needing to help our runner in the final part of the descent from Stickle Tarn and another incident involving a runner cutting their leg badly on the traverse around Great Gable underneath Napes Needle – our 2 MST were deployed instantly, getting to the injured runner in amazing time, controlling the bleed and using our safety blizzard bags to stop the onset of hypothermia whilst the Coast Guard was raised and a helicopter flew in to deal with the injured runner. It turned out the bleed was not as bad as expected and marshals walked the runner off the mountain, once they were patched up, being brought back to base by other marshals available.

Lanty Slee’s Sticklebarn

We have been resident at the Sticklebarn over the years but migrated for the last 3 years to the NDG Hotel, the last 2 years there we struggled with food service post event when the management changed regularly. Last year The Sticklebarn crew asked us to come back and oh boy were we pleased to do so, without this, this years event would not have been as it was. The amazing amount of support from the team there, the use of the facilities, the Hayloft and ability to deliver live music as the North Fire Sound crew did was fantastic for me as an events organiser.

I do hope you agree and were pleased with the food, the service, the environment and more.

We are looking forward to delivering the event in an even better format from The Sticklebarn for 2027.

Over the coming weeks, I will be in discussions with the team at The Stickle to make next years event even better still.

Brands and our events village.

A massive thanks goes to Rab Equipment, without who’s support in the back end of 2021 when we had experienced the weirdest thing in my whole life with the world shutting down for a virus, these races would not have continued. Rab have stood with us for 5 years, helping and allowing us to develop the races to what you expereinced over last weekend. I am truly grateful for this.

A massive thanks also to VOOM Nutrition who have been supporting my races since I started them back in 2015. Robin, the head honcho there, has supported us, but also you with electrolyte drinks, bars and more since those early days where we set 55 runners off in to the fells from Ambleside University to run the 1^st edition of the Lakes Sky Ultra, which now exist as the Helvellyn Sky Ultra and Pinnacle Ridge Extreme.

Thanks also to the brands that make the little event village, the coffee supplier that had a rubbish day the weather and the ice-cream van who also suffered very low trade due to manky skies and rain.

So that wraps up the Scafell Skyrunning Weekend for 2026 and we look forward to seeing many of you next month at the Helvellyn Skyrunning Weekend – no DJ’s for this one, but do expect acoustic sets, folk rhythms and a cracking race weekend with 3 sky races, one vertical and a 15k to get you into the idea that Skyrunning is the most fun on 2 legs in the mountains – FACT!