New Organising Team For 10Peaks™ In 2017

We are delighted to announce that a new organising team will be managing the 10Peaks™ events in 2017.

Our regular participants may have suspected that a change was coming with the delay to our usual 10th October entries opening date. This delay was unavoidable as the details of the transfer of ownership by co-owners Mark Bottomley and Paul Smith to Ourea Events was being finalised.

With events like the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race™, the Cape Wrath Ultra™ and Skyline Scotland™, Shane Ohly and his team from Ourea Events have been steadily building a reputation for delivering world-class mountain running events in recent years, and this move puts the 10Peaks™ events in safe hands for the future.

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Ourea Events Race Director, Shane Ohly, at the Skyrunning World Series Dolomites Skyrace earlier in 2016.

Ourea Events Race Director, Shane Ohly, said, “I love the principle of the 10Peaks™ events; to visit the 10 highest mountains, with an emphasis on navigation and with a challenging yet beautiful route through the mountains. It is very much in keeping with my personal preference of the types of journeys I like to undertake in the hills.” He added, “The 10Peaks™ courses and format are rock solid, and we have no intention of changing these fundamental details of the event. During 2017, we plan to deliver very similar excellent events to those which Mark and Paul have organised in previous years.”

Mark Bottomley said, “The events have become such an important part of our lives that it is extremely hard to let them go! The history behind the Lakes race is incredibly personal to Paul, and the Brecon race was my creation, so we both have a real bond with them. BUT, the ever increasing demands of our day jobs mean that we cannot give the events our proper attention, so we had to seek a successor. It was an obvious choice for us about who to approach to take 10Peaks™ over, as the main priority was to hand over to someone that had the skills and experience to manage the events to at least the same standard that we had always strived for. It was all about finding a safe pair of hands that would continue with the same ethos and energy that we had. Having raced a few of Shane’s events before, I knew Shane operated in a similar fashion and created events that were similar in style to ours.”

Also, there will be some minor changes to the events as the new team become fully engrossed in the organisational challenge. For example, only solo entries are possible* and the mandatory kit list has already been changed: Survival Blankets are out, Survival Bags are in.

*Just accepting solo entries is for results and entry-system clarity. We still actively encourage participants to team up with others and create informal groups along the way!

The price for the Brecon Beacon event has been increased to match The Lakes event, and naturally GPS tracking has been introduced at the Brecon Beacons event, as this was the reason for the price difference.

The dates for the 2017 10Peaks™ events have now been confirmed:

• Lake District 10Peaks: Saturday 24th June 2017
• Brecon Beacons 10Peaks: Saturday 9th September 2017

Entries for both events are now open

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If you have previously volunteered at one of the 10Peaks™ events and would like to stay involved, you will be very welcome. Please fill out the volunteer application form.