Skyline Scotland

Skyline Scotland is a set of three annual skyrunning races which take place on consecutive days in the mountains around Kinlochleven in Lochaber. The races are the Mamores VK, the Ring of Steall Skyrace and the Glen Coe Skyline.^[1]

The inaugural Glen Coe Skyline took place in 2015 and the Mamores VK and Ring of Steall were added in 2016. The races are sponsored by Salomon.^[2]

The courses include some of the most technical terrain found in running races. The Glen Coe Skyline in particular has significant sections of scrambling and it was selected to be the final race in the Skyrunner World Series Extreme in 2016, following the Tromsø Skyrace in Norway and the Kima Trophy in Italy.^[3]

Mamores VK

The Mamores VK is a vertical kilometre race in which runners compete on an uphill course with around 1,000 metres of ascent over a distance of approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi). The route begins near sea level in Kinlochleven and ends at the top of Na Gruagaichean.^[4]

In the inaugural VK race, the runners started at thirty second intervals.^[5] The event was won by Alexis Sévennec of France, his time of 42:17 being eight seconds quicker than that of runner-up Stian Angermund-Vik of Norway. The first woman was Georgia Tindley of Great Britain in a time of 54:34.^[6]

Ring of Steall Skyrace

The Ring of Steall Skyrace course is based on the Ring of Steall ridge-walking route in the Mamores. The race starts and finishes in Kinlochleven and visits checkpoints including Sgùrr a' Mhàim, Steall Waterfall, An Gearanach, Stob Coire a' Chàirn and Am Bodach. The distance is approximately 29 kilometres (18 mi) and the route has around 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) of ascent.^[7] Much of the ground is very rough.^[8]

A landslide in the area a few days before the 2016 race meant that a section of the course had to be rerouted.^[9]

The leading competitors in the previous day’s VK race were also prominent in the 2016 Ring of Steall. The Skyrace was won by Stian Angermund-Vik in 3:25:28, followed by Alexis Sévennec in second place around four minutes behind. The first lady to finish was Georgia Tindley in a time of 4:39:20.^[10]

Glen Coe Skyline

The Glen Coe Skyline route takes in the technical Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mòr, then heads west over Stob Coire Sgreamhach before an out-and-back section to Stob Coire nan Lochan. It then drops down to the valley near Loch Achtriochtan before climbing steeply up to the Aonach Eagach, a rocky ridge which is traversed from west to east before the route joins the West Highland Way to the finish. In 2015, the Skyline started and finished at Glencoe Mountain Resort but for the following year, the start and finish was moved to Kinlochleven and the runners reached Curved Ridge via the West Highland Way and a descent of the Devil’s Staircase. The race is around 55 kilometres (34 mi) in length with 4,750 metres (15,580 ft) of ascent.^[11]

The 2015 race was won by Joe Symonds in 7:36:21, with the first woman Emelie Forsberg finishing second overall in 7:44:19.^[12]

In 2016, four runners featured prominently at the front of the race for much of the way: Tom Owens, Jonathan Albon, Marc Lauenstein and Finlay Wild. Albon and Owens lost a few minutes in low cloud locating the checkpoint on Stob Coire Sgreamhach but were still leading together with Lauenstein at the start of the long climb up to the Aonach Eagach. By the top of the climb, Albon had pulled ahead and he held the lead on the crossing of the exposed ridge and the descent to the finish, winning in a time of 6:33:52. Owens finished second around three minutes later.^[13] Jasmin Paris won the women’s race in a time of 8:15:56.^[14]

References