This site is for fell runners who enjoy the challenge of running up and down some of the most beautiful and remote mountainous peaks in the British isles. The most important thing for us is that you enjoy our races, give us your feedback and join our band of regular supporters, who come back year after year to run our three often gruelling but definitely challenging classic fell races; the Ennerdale Horseshoe, the Wasdale Horseshoe and the Scafell Pike.
The Fell Runners Association (FRA) often reward our races with championship (English (E) or British & English (B&E)) status: 1997 Wasdale (E), 1998 Buttermere (E), 1999 Scafell Pike (E), 2000 Ennerdale (E), 2005 Wasdale (E) and 2006 Ennerdale (B&E), 2009 Wasdale (E), 2010 Ennerdale (E), 2013 Wasdale (E), 2014 Ennerdale (B&E), 2017 Wasdale (E), 2021 Ennerdale (E) & 2024 Wasdale (E).
Examples of the difficulties with taking decisions over allowing these formidable races to go ahead or not depending on forecast weather conditions are firstly with Colin Dulson who took a very difficult but correct decision to cancel 2022's Ennerdale as the forecasted weather conditions were going to be dangerous for the runners & checkpoint marshals alike & secondly with Richard Eastman who allowed the 2023's Wasdale to go ahead even though 2 event shelters had been destroyed in early morning wind gusts. In both cases the Race Organisers' decisions were vindicated. Let's hope conditions in 2024 will be more benign.
All three fell races, Ennerdale, Wasdale & Scafell Pike have now been registered for 2024 with Colin Dulson as Race Organiser (RO) for the Ennerdale & Richard Eastman as RO for both the Wasdale (with help from Richard Byers) & Scafell Pike races. The dates are:- Ennerdale Sat 8th June, Wasdale Sat 13th July & Scafell Pike Sat 14th Sept.
Please note that in 2024 both the Ennerdale & Wasdale will be the last races that Colin Dulson & Richard Eastman will be acting as Race Organisers. We have both been putting in a lot of time & personal expense in organising these classic fell races for over 30 years. We have been asking for replacement ROs to come forward & take over the tasks. Hopefully before the FRA calendar is finalised for 2025 new ROs will be in place. We both thank all of the volunteers who have helped out on the checkpoints, registration, radios & paramedic cover plus other tasks over the years. Richard Eastman will continue to be the RO for the Scafell Pike Fell Race for the foreseeable future.
Details of all three races can be found on the Race Calendar page.
Missing Wasdale Fell Race Results - from 1987's race, if anyone has a set of results please can they let me have a copy? You can send me a photocopy or e-mail me a scanned copy, any format will do, thanks.
Historical Wasdale fell Race Certificates - I still hold several certificates going back some 13! years, believe it or not, which have not yet been collected. There is a list of names/clubs & the year of the race as a link here ( Unclaimed Wasdale Certificates ). If you would like to receive your certificate, please contact me & I will post to you.
As race organisers, CFRA pride ourselves on our safety rules and precautions. Following an unfortunate fatality at the Ennerdale Fell Race in 1981 the CFRA committee produced a Safety of Fell Running document ( Safety of Fell Races ). All of our races are graded 'A' by the FRA which means that they're greater than 250 feet of ascent per mile. Both the Wasdale and Ennerdale are very tough races and employ closing times on the early checkpoints to limit the exposure time for runners and checkpoint marshalls. We use a radio network for our checkpoint marshals to keep in contact with the race control, & for the Scafell Pike race a tally system (as used by for example miners, firemen & mountain rescuers). Both the Wasdale & Scafell Pike races employ independent hard copy record systems for logging runners through & a tally 'clicker' for giving a total number of runners through each checkpoint. These methods give us up to three different ways of knowing which checkpoints each of our runners have passed, retired at or timed out on, & most importantly when. From 2009 we have also used an electronic timing system which employs e-cards or 'dibbers' to obtain more accurate and more easily reported checkpoint times.
Navigational skills are a definite must! This becomes obvious when running in cloud where visibility can be reduced to a few metres. Local knowledge and previous experience are also essential as the race course can be some miles from habitation and weather conditions may be severe. Please note all our CFRA fell races do NOT permit the use of GPS systems for race navigation purposes, only for safety. If they are used then the runner is assumed to have retired from the race.