2024 Year in Review
Since taking over as director for Skyrunning UK this time last year (news HERE), I wanted to take a moment to reflect on a transformational year for Skyrunning UK, it’s National Series, as well as share more about what’s in store for 2025. Read on to learn more about how all things Skyrunning UK played out this year…
In order to get the skyrunning train rolling earlier in the year, we are still actively exploring options for new Series events for April and May (including Scotland, which sadly still doesn’t feature). However, this year’s Skyrunner® UK & Ireland National Series once again opened in early June, at Scafell Sky Race, taking place in the beautiful English Lake District.
Featuring several superb traverses, this is a true connoisseur’s skyrunning route! © Tanya Raab
This was the only event this year to feature just one Series race. But we’re delighted to confirm that the iconic 40km/2,800m+ Scafell Sky Race will be joined next year by the inaugural 65km/4,400m+ Scafell Sky Ultra (info HERE), to offer something new to those seeking a longer challenge throughout the technical Scafell massif.
As in previous years, another sun kissed race day greeted runners in the beautiful Langdale valley, with several outstanding performances in both male and female races witnessed. Our in-depth race report can be found HERE, with entries to next year’s Sky Race and Sky Ultra (31st May) now live HERE and HERE respectively.
The indomitable Crib Goch features on the Snowdon SkyRace® & 14 Peaks Ultra © Tanya Raab
Three weeks later and the Series returned to the mountainous wilds of Eryri, North Wales, for a bumper-packed day of Skyracing at SkyRun Eryri®, featuring the 27km/2,300m+ Copper SkyTrail (U23 Series race), fifth edition of the 38km/3,300m+ Snowdon SkyRace®, as well as inaugural 14 Peaks Ultra – an epic 52km/3,900m+ North-South traverse of the Welsh 3000s route and first race of the new SkyUltra® Series (series info HERE). The event enjoyed a big step up in participation in comparison with previous years, with over 650 runners entered across all events.
Alex Hill & Victoria Thompson claimed title of UK Skyrunning National Champions this year!
The Snowdon SkyRace® was also this year’s inaugural Skyrunning UK National Championships race (info HERE), which boasted an enhanced prize purse (£500/£250/£125), as well as +50% bonus Series points. Alex Hill and Victoria Thompson emerged victors, both finishing in astonishing times for this incredible technical route. We’re delighted to announce the 2025 UK National Championships race will be Scafell Sky Race, so enter now if you’re seeking those added series points!
Race reports from the event can be found HERE, HERE and HERE respectively. Entries to all 2025 races (21st June) are now live HERE.
Just one week later, a 15-strong team represented the UK at the ISF Youth Skyrunning World Championships, held in Bar, Montenegro. Amongst several high performances, most notable were those from our female athletes, with Eve Pannone and Alexandra Whitaker winning the 5km/1,000m+ Vertical race in the U23/Youth C categories respectively (news HERE), with the same duo finishing 1st and 2nd in the 21km/1,600m+ SKY race too! News HERE.
Eve Pannone (center) and Betty Bergstrand (right) claimed medals in the Vertical race.
Many thanks to Niki Rylance and Stephen Ashworth for coordinating team selection and arranging logistics for the trip, as well as also Ronhill for their generous support with the team kits. I had a great time designing them (along with a similar design for Ireland) and hope you’ll agree they looked great! The 2025 Youth Championships will take place in Gran Sasso, Italy over 1-3rd August (info HERE) with details of how to apply to join the team due to be announced shortly.
The UK team finished an incredible third overall at this year’s Youth Skyrunning World Champs!
In July, the National Series returned to the Lake District for its third event and a bumper weekend of skyracing taking place across two days, with the 57km/3,700m+ Helvellyn Sky Ultra (second SkyUltra Series® race), 29km/2,050m+ St. Sunday Mountain Race (second U23 Series race) and the inimitable 28km/2,700m+ Pinnacle Ridge Extreme welcoming nearly 300 keen and committed skyrunners to their start lines.
Pinnacle Ridge Extreme: the only race in the UK to feature Grade 3 scrambling! © Tanya Raab
Competition was starting to heat up in the Overall Series standings too, as those at the sharp end of competition started to race more strategically in order to accumulate the most Series points possible, with a young Salomon-sponsored Caleb Nonhebel from Scotland emerging as one to watch.
Caleb Nonhebel (left) and Luke Weldon (center), both aged under 23 dominated the men’s St. Sunday Mountain Race. © Callum Robinson
Following last year’s deluge at the event, it was great to be back supporting the event under far more forgiving skies, even getting to run the Place Fell 10k race on Sunday morning! It was also wonderful to witness several standout performances by several runners who were subsequently selected for the Skyrunning World Championships team.
Race reports from the event can be found HERE, HERE and HERE. Entries to next year’s races (now all taking place on Saturday 19th July) are now live HERE, HERE & HERE.
We’re already looking forward to returning to the Lake District next year! © Tanya Raab
Following a short break through August, September proved to be another busy month for Skyrunning UK, with the World Championships and penultimate National Series event at the Seven Sisters Skyline in Ireland.
A record 41 countries travelled to Soria in Spain, for the eighth edition of the biennial Skyrunning World Championships, hosted at the Desafío Urbión event, where owing to injury and travel issues, a smaller than initially planned five-strong team of committed British athletes took part in the Sky and Sky Ultra races.
Skyrunning UK & Ireland prepare to take on the World Championships! © David Searle
The weekend proved to be a highly memorable experience by all who attended (apart from the nightmare journey home thanks to a cancelled flight!) mixing with passionate skyrunners from around the globe, with myself enjoying getting to know the UK team, crewing and supporting them throughout the event.
Spain, Italy and Japan proved the dominant teams by the end of the event (ISF report HERE), but we’re already looking forward to sending a bigger team to compete at the highest level in the Vertical, Sky and Sky Ultra disciplines when the World Championships next take place in 2026.
Later in September, the National Series visited the spectacularly rugged mountains of Donegal, Ireland, for the penultimate round of the Series. Here, the 30km/2,100m+ Seven Sisters Sky Challenge (third and final U23 Series race) and classic 55km/4,000m+ monster of a race – the Seven Sisters Skyline (SkyUltra® Series race) both took place.
A wonderfully technical route! © Ian Corless
Almost perfect weather graced the weekend for my first visit to the event and I wasn’t disappointed! It was a pleasure to be hosted by event RD Eunan Quinn and immerse myself in all things Irish mountain and Skyrunning culture, as well as catching up with friends old and new. In the men’s Sky Challenge race, Irish athletes Enda Cloake and Luke Weldon claimed 1st and 3rd, with ever-present Caleb Nonhebel second.
With all but one event now complete in the series, following victory in the Sky Challenge, it was confirmed that Victoria Thompson would also be crowned Overall Series champion, claiming a huge £1,000 thanks to the +50% bonus points garnered for her victory at Snowdon SkyRace®. In the men’s racing, it was still all to play for in the Series standings going into the final event of the Series at SkyRun the Mournes!
Relive the races in our reports HERE and HERE. Entries to next year’s event on 20th September now live HERE. See you there?
The spectacular Irish mountains of Donegal await in 2025! © Ian Corless
And so, in October all eyes turned to the Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland, for the final event of the 2024 National Series at SkyRun the Mournes, where the classic 35km/2,700m+ Mourne Skyline (earlier this year revived by Apex Running/myself, following a two-year hiatus – news HERE) and inaugural 50km/3,500m+ Mourne SkyUltra® (4th and final SkyUltra® Series race) would take place.
Nicky Spinks takes on the first climb in the inaugural Mourne SkyUltra © Evan Davies
Once again, this event enjoyed unusually kind weather, with stacked elite fields in both races set to toe the start lines. Several familiar faces topped the podiums in both races, with many commenting on how pleased they were to see the event back in the calendar, as well as how brutal but rewarding the new SkyUltra route was. However, we were surprised to learn that Caleb Nonhebel and Irish Enda Cloake had tied on points in the Overall Series standings, subsequently forcing a rethink in the Series’ rules for 2025 (more below).
It was a joy to witness skyrunners of all ages and abilities take on the Mourne Skyline! © Evan Davies
Race reports from each race can be found HERE and HERE. I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that next year’s Mourne Skyline will also be part of the Skyrunner® World Series (news HERE), with the event also now featuring the inaugural 20km/1,300m+ Mourne SkyTrail (U23 Series race). Following this year’s ten-year anniversary edition of the event, next year looks set to be bigger and better than ever! Entries to all three races are now live HERE.
What’s new for 2025?
We’re delighted to have already shared the 2025 National Series calendar (more info HERE), which features TWO brand news races: Scafell Sky Ultra (new SkyUltra® Series race) in May and Mourne SkyTrail (new U23 Series race) in October.
We’re also thrilled to announce that the Overall Series cash prize pool will remain unchanged, with a cool £1,000/£500/£250 up for grabs for the top 3 M/F athletes. The overall structure will remain very similar too, with the SkyUltra® and U23 Series’ again running concurrently with the Overall Series, but results from both sub-series counting towards the Overall Series ranking (results from all races count towards the Overall).
We do however have some minor changes planned to our rules, including the following:
To qualify for a final Overall Series ranking, runners must run (start) the Mourne Skyline race. In the event of any Series points tie prior to this race, it is the result at this end-of-season finale which will act as the tie break.
While Overall and Age Group Series points went down to the top 20 this year, this will be revised to go down to the top 300 (TBC) in all series’, giving greater visibility to athletes of a greater range of abilities in the Series Rankings page of the website. We hope this entices more age-cat runners to consider committing to several races across the series, rather than just completing the odd one.
With Thanks
2024 has certainly been the result of a solid team effort from Skyrunning UK! First and foremost, we’re hugely grateful to Wassen and Ronhill for their generous support this year, which helped subsidise the Senior and Youth World Champs trips.
If you’re a brand that wants to elevate your message to a highly engaged, niche but growing audience, we’d love to hear from you! Please email Partnerships Director Woody Anderson to learn more about how we could work together: woody@skyrunninguk.com
Thanks again to Niki Rylance and Stephen Ashworth for coordinating the Youth Champs team. The future of Skyrunning in the UK is certainly bright based on the talent witnessed at the Youth Champs and across the series this year! Don’t forget: Skyrunning UK subsidises any U23 Series race entry for athletes aged 23 or under on 31/12/2025 to the tune of 50%. Simply email me to claim the discount: mike@skyrunninguk.com
Joint Overall Series champion Caleb Nonhebel emerged as an outstanding U23 talent this season. © Evan Davies
I’m also hugely grateful to my fellow National Series RD’s Charlie Sproson and Eunan Quinn, for buying into the more comprehensive vision that I had for the National Series, with its various new sub-series’, UK National Championships, etc. We’re all in confident agreement that following this year’s relative ground-up restart to the Series, 2025 looks set to be the best yet for Skyrunning in the UK and Ireland!
Last but by no means least, a huge thanks also to Keri Wallace of Girls on Hills for the highly invaluable support in writing each race’s preview and report, which have been a huge asset in telling the story of how the Series unfolded this year. It’s been a pleasure to work with someone else who also lives and breathes Skyrunning!
Stay Tuned!
The website will be revamped to reflect the revised Series rules in the coming weeks, so please check back well ahead of Scafell to ensure you’re up to date with everything, including info regarding the selection criteria for those wishing to join the UK team for the various ISF Championships taking place next year.
In the meantime, entries to all races that will feature in next year’s National Series are now live, so take a look HERE to see which ones take your fancy.
Want to make next year a season of mountain running to remember? Well, what are you waiting for? Why not commit to the Series and become a Skyrunner in 2025!
