Kentmere Horseshoe Fell Race, 28th July 2019

Richard Slack seems to have acquired a taste for fell races in the Lake District. His latest adventure was the Kentmere Fell Race, which he says was great fun (I’m not sure that 1,000 metres of ascent over 12.3 miles is my idea of a fun race!).  Richard’s time seems excellent to me – so well done! Here is his report:

After a deluge of rain on the Saturday, amazingly the sun came out again on the Sunday – so the choice of gear went from full waterproofs to Claremont vest and sunscreen. Kentmere Fell race is a long established classic Lakeland Fell race over 12.3 miles and 3,300 foot of ascent (about 1,000 metres). The route appropriately starts and finishes in Kentmere village and takes in the Ill Bell ridge before a final push up to High Street, the highest point on the race at a height of 2,718 feet. Thereafter, the route descends into Nan Bield, a high lakeland pass between Mardale (Haweswater) and Kentmere. You then head up again towards Harter Fell before veering off to the right to the summit of Kentmere Pike – the final checkpoint. From here it is an increasingly steep descent back to Kentmere. After the rain from Saturday parts of the route were knee deep bog and the rocks no help at all with no real grip. Soon that passed and the final stretch was along the bridleway into Kentmere.

Time was 2 hours 38 minutes which was well under my 3 hour target.  Another great day on the fells.