13 Valleys Ultra, billed as the flagship event, gets under way this Friday evening in Keswick. The race, in England, covers around 185 km across the Lake District, with more than 7,000 m of positive elevation gain. The start is scheduled for 18:00 from Lakeside Car Park. The course is not expected to be marked, requiring navigation using GPX files and organiser notes.
On the safety front, a rescue operation on Sca Fell mobilised three mountain teams for a precise duration. The incident occurs on Tuesday evening near Red Ghyll, in the Lord’s Rake area. Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team says the initial call was received at 20:49 after cries were heard, but without being able to locate the person precisely.
The course of the rescue is then shaped by the weather conditions. A Coastguard helicopter, the R897, is requested, but low cloud cover prevents it from carrying out the rescue. The crew would nevertheless have located the victim and relayed the position on the ground. Eleven rescuers are dispatched as close as possible, with 400 m of rope, a stretcher and other equipment.
Alongside the competitions, Mammoth Trailfest adds a para-athlete segment in California. The event runs from 25 to 27 September, with a 26K para-athlete race scheduled for Sunday morning. The event announces 25 entries offered and a prize purse presented by FRACTEL, with an amount stated by the organiser as $6,200, described as unprecedented in trail running.
Further afield, the regulatory news concerns UTMB World Series Majors. UTMB announces that direct qualification from the Majors will change in 2027: the top 10 men and top 10 women from each Major on the 50K and 100K races, as well as on the 100M, will automatically access the Finals in Chamonix. This amounts to 60 automatic top-10 places per Major, compared with a total of 210 direct places under the previous system.
