Outdoor Gear Podcast - Lake District Sky Trails

Click on the Outdoor Gear Podcast below to listen to the interview

Below is a little history around the long standing Lake District Sky Trails SkyRaces.

How it became to be, where it all started. 

Charlie started fell running back in 2003, nothing major, just some running on the local fells. Little was he to know that his life would be fully changed and he would become a fell running addict. 

The Lakes is steeped in mountain history, the birth place of rock climbing in England and sort of the world, the birth place of fell running and a forging ground for hard men and women to test themselves against what was left before them and a chance to develop new routes, styles and skills. Charlie was super lucky to grow up in an outdoor shop, based in Windermere, the 5th Outdoor Store to be opened in the UK at that time, the year was 1975 and Charlie was all of 18 months old. That store was named The Fellsman and it serviced a growing demand for outdoor clothing and equipment, turning into a ski shop by the mid 70's that became country renowned at the time. Charlie's father, David [or Spro as he was affectionately known] was a keen 'outdoors man' or 'fell's man' as it would be known in the Lakes, hence the name of the shop. His mother, Rachael, came from a professional ballet background, dancing at the top of her game for the Ballet Rambert, a world class outfit then and now. With the love of the fells from his father and the desire to push in athleticism from his mother, Charlie was given a fantastic upbringing in the Lakes, being offered all manor of outdoor sports as he grew and being fully integrated in the Outdoor Retail Trade, meeting many great [and to become well known household names] fell runners, rock climbers, skiers, mountaineers and alpinists as he grew up in the shop.  

He left the Lakes in the early 90's to spread his wings, enjoy growing up, finding the music scene in West London, Nottinghill, a real pull. Of course the concrete jungle never suited a free spirit like Charlie and he made a move back to the Lakes in 2001.   

Fell Running ensued as a drive for fitness was needed and a desire to get back in the mountains on the crags and run over them in an evening. Running and climbing became the norm after work and most evenings were spent doing this. By 2005, Spro put a copy of the 'green pamphlet' in his hand, inside this small green book were words crafted by Paddy Buckley [who developed the Welsh Round of the same name] and this set Charlie on fire. "I read the book in a few minutes and was infected by the desire to run this epic route in the Lakes", Sproson says. "I think it was a November night when I sat in bed and read it, I could not think of anything else and avidly asked other mountain athlete's what they thought of me attempting it, I had only been running for a few years at the time"

By the time the Christmas season was over, the Bob Graham Round had to become real. Starting just after January he started to train with his good friend, Chris Graham. It turned out Chris' work life took him to Vietnam and so Charlie was on his own. Not one for a big fuss, he decided to train 'not' on the round, having only run Leg1 and some of Leg4. The idea that came, as support seemed far to intense to have waiting on you, was to set off and run it as 'on-sight' as possible, navigating on-route and having minimal support so no one was let down if a completion wasn't made. "I knew John Brocksap well enough and he said they would organise a crew, but I just wasn't comfortable with the idea of having other runners waiting on me and runners I did not know didn't suit me either, so I chose to be semi-supported, with Chris on Leg 1, Leg 2&3 solo, Chris on half of Leg4, Leg5 with 2 friends from Windermere [Dan Hinton and Boomer] with Chris joining for the glory leg from Newlands Church".

Charlie finished the round in 22:49, running the whole thing with his dog, Scratch, who we think is the 6th dog [at the time] to run the whole round.

Charlie says "The BGR was really the start of it all, I was already active on the Mountain Marathon scene and this just seemed the next thing to do and in an MM style also seemed to fit me best."

Working in the shop [The Fellsman - then known as The Outdoor Warehouse] allowed him to keep following his passions outside of work but was soon to close in 2010 as a 'bricks and mortar' store, but continued online as Mountain Lite for a few more years. This finally closed in 2012.

What came next was unexpected and expected at the same time. With a baby on the way, no business or job, pre-Christmas was a little awkward to say the least, but dreams are made in the most difficult times and so Charlie dreamed up an idea to open a company that could support his mountain running, family and be fun at the same time, this was the start of Mountain Run.

Dreams should never be under estimated. The BGR was a dream and that was made into a reality and so the same process was applied to Mountain Run - dream big and see what happens. The idea of Mountain Run led Charlie into the race planning world with Shane Ohly, planning out the courses for the newly invigorated GL3D, which had been started and run by Joe Faulkner of Nav4 Adventure and was part of Charlie's training back in 2006 for his first BGR.

Working for Ourea Events was a fantastic start and place to learn the newly exploding trail and mountain running world [of course it was there pre-2010, but certainly not like it is now]. This led to a chance entry into the fabled Dragon's Back Race and so in the same year [2012], planning the GL3D became training for the DBR. As warm up in July, pre-DBR, Charlie and a friend, Mike Elliot, trained for and completed the very esoteric Lakes Classic Rock Round, making the 5th completion in a sub24 hour time. [Shane Ohly would years later take the record to a ridiculous time of 9:22] The DBR came next and completion was made. 88 stood on the start line, 33 finished.

The concept of the original sky race from Lake District Sky Trails was the epic Lakes Sky Ultra, hatched out after returning from delivering the Berghaus Trail Chase with Ourea Events, after meeting Ian Corless and learning what Skyrunning actually was. The idea of running and climbing combined actually had a name and race series in Europe and this was well received. The route of the LSU was planned out after a missed opportunity to race in the Trofeo Kima [one of the original EU technical sky races] after Scratch died. The route was an ode to Scratch and an ode to the missed race. History in the Lakes was being made and the year was 2015. Both Ourea Events and Mountain Run released iconic races in both Scotland and the Lake District in the same year, putting on 2 races that became known as 2 of the hardest races in the world. Glen Coe Skyline was in-aptly named 'The Death Race' by the media rags and the Lakes Sky Ultra sat close behind it. Both races tackled graded scrambling in serious mountain terrain, a new era was born.

Next for the LDST outfit came the Scafell Sky Race, point to point to start with, but the course was re-designed in 2018 to make a loop from Great Langdale, creating 2 SkyRace weekends in the Lakes.

2019 saw the split of the old LSU course to create 2 ultimate races, the all new Helvellyn Sky Ultra and the newly developed Pinnacle Ridge Extreme. During the years between 2016 [2nd BGR guiding Damian Hall to a 22:00 completion - on-sight for Damian] and 2019 Charlie and Damian ticked off the BGR [planned hatched at the DBR 2015], the Charlie Ramsay Round [on-sight] in 2017 in a time of 23:15 and then 2 years later the pair made an early Spring on-sight attempt at the Paddy Buckley Round, completing but in over 24 hours [25:20] by making some classic errors and finding the navigation [in pea-soup] from Capel Curig to Aberglaslyn along the 'apparent' fence line.

Post 2020 and the LDST races took a hit, but by 2022 we were back on track and over the last few years have developed some more [soon to be classic] skyraces to compliment each weekend.

Looking to the future, we hope to encourage, help, train and offer skills through Mountain Run to as many aspiring Skyrunners as we can.