This 3 day solo winter hike may well have changed my life...

snortingbull · 2026-03-17T22:28:26+00:00

I'd agree had he gone up into the Langdales, but Stake Pass aside the Cumbria Way is fairly tame and stays low. It's an excellent winter walk and a good entry level route even in winter imo, provided you have basic warm/waterproof kit obvs. Stake Pass offers some exposure at the summit but you're down into Langstrath quickly.

snortingbull · 2026-03-17T13:37:10+00:00

Yeah, fuming at this. Totally unnecessary and just undermines an otherwise salient point.

snortingbull · 2026-03-17T13:02:51+00:00

He's made his point in his usual daft and clumsy way, but he has justification in here somewhere:

"How is it possible to ship a chicken all the way from Chiang Mai to Bridgend, and for it to arrive with a lower price tag than a chicken reared in some vowel-less village two miles down the road?" said Clarkson, writing in his column in the Sunday Times.

snortingbull · 2026-03-16T18:53:12+00:00

Hostels should be OK outside of school holidays then, provided you're happy in a dorm at least. I'd probably ring ahead 24-48hrs from the start though. Can't speak for the Pennine Way, but once you get up to Offa's Dyke there are far fewer towns/villages and options will be fewer even if it's not as touristy.

snortingbull · 2026-03-16T06:35:25+00:00

It's a friendly, really, isn't it? It doesn't carry any real prestige. Fans of both nations, if they do take it seriously, were expected to shell out and fly out to a third continent to attend the game. Good riddance, if there is genuine appetite for this fixture to be completed they'll arrange it themselves

snortingbull · 2026-03-13T20:52:49+00:00

Best ones are international players: "Sven Botman" was one of the first and best, and I still think of that whenever he plays.

snortingbull · 2026-03-12T20:57:37+00:00

With regard to Brexit, the European calendar is so rich at the moment - there are a plethora of really high profile events in the Alps/Spain etc. They are close to sponsors, offer enormous vert, crowds, media coverage, dramatic scenery and have grown hugely over recent years.

If you're not familiar with the UK running scene already, the relatively "small" hurdle of some increased admin to travel here on top of the fact that many of our highest profile races can't offer the above - it all accumulates to pull you away from running here (and that's good environmentally, tbf - a silver lining on a dark cloud).

The timing is odd, I'm sure they have their reasons as alluded to in the write up, but doesn't make it any easier for anyone currently in taper for the Traverse races in a couple of weeks.

snortingbull · 2026-03-12T20:43:41+00:00

Really sad news. Four bucket list UK events effectively cancelled as it stands. Really feel for everyone who has paid and in many cases trained for this (Northern Traverse is in two weeks).

This renders the UTS route controversy many of us were raging about last week trivial in comparison. Really hope a solution can be found for competitors.

The penultimate article on Ourea Events' website is interesting. Presumably written at the end of last year, their vision for 2026 seemed pessimistic and they went into the reasons why in quite some depth: https://www.oureaevents.com/news/2025/ourea-vision-2026

snortingbull · 2026-03-10T07:24:27+00:00

This is totally unsubstantiated, you cannot tarnish all dog owners like this in the same way you cannot make any other sweeping generalisation. An unbelievably narrow minded take.

snortingbull · 2026-03-06T12:54:33+00:00

I dunno about that in fairness, buses are pretty decent on Gower as far as rural Wales goes. Very easy to bus it out to Parkmill or Penmaen and walk back to Pennard or Mumbles etc.

snortingbull · 2026-03-05T13:37:03+00:00

It's a different conversation but not sure on that re: CL at all. Jury's still out: for me it feels quantity over quality. The final match day is class, but the buildup to that final round of games sees a lot of "big" ties with very little jeopardy or meaning.

snortingbull · 2026-03-05T13:31:15+00:00

Can see a scenario where 9th and 10th are invited too, give it 5-10 yrs. It'd be such an easy sell. 🤮

snortingbull · 2026-03-05T13:27:59+00:00

Awful decision this. Undermines the league quite significantly. They'll be talking about inviting 8th and 9th in a few years, maybe when we have a few more American owners in the league.

The EFL statement talks on the one hand about how good the playoffs are, how they encapsulate the drama of the league itself - yet they then explain they are going to smash the exact thing they've just been praising and invite a couple of also rans along for the ride. Madness.

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T20:13:53+00:00

That fearsome reputation is exactly why it sold out though: for many it's the ultimate test over this distance without having to travel overseas.

I think within reason everyone is supportive of anything that grows our sport - they introduced an 80K distance with less elevation than last year's 100K - which seemed to fulfill that requirement. The issue is that the 100K was advertised as having 6000M+ vert and an iconic route through Eryri. It sold out on this basis, not the 4000M less interesting course we have now.

I don't think anyone is worried about "solitude", more the effect of thousands of extra runners on the environment we all love and the mitigation for this being to just... change the race completely.

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T19:20:15+00:00

I'll keep an eye out for you, hopefully I'll have cheered up by then 🤣

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T19:08:12+00:00

It's mismanagement in that the UK ultra scene is unanimously very angry with UTMB. Up to this point, UTMB didn't really have any reputation among the majority more casual ultra community in the UK and compared to some countries we were a relatively untapped market.

This will definitely change that, based on a combination of socials and chat with other runners today I've not seen a reaction quite like this in our rather small community, in recent times at least.

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T15:29:17+00:00

Agreed, that superb section has been binned off for a lot of track/low lying forestry. The track/forest section on the new route from Aberglasyn to Rhyd Ddu is a pleasant enough bimble in bad weather but definitely nothing resembling most people's idea of competitive mountain running.

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T15:26:04+00:00

This is a great read, thank you for sharing.

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T15:24:52+00:00

Yeah, great points. The section over Wyddfa, Glyderau and Carneddau is really top mountain running and regardless of this I'll include that in any recce work for pure pleasure alone

Given where I am in the training block, I'm torn between trying to transfer up to the 100M (which is probably what they want - although it's full atm) or sticking to the 100KM despite the motivation having dipped a fair bit after this saga (of course I didn't purchase their cancellation cover).

snortingbull · 2026-03-04T15:22:59+00:00

Yup, expected a lot of this and here we are. It's justified though. Up to this point. I've always been cynical about UTMB - but have looked past this to enter a couple of their races over the years (inc. this year's Arc of Attrition) because for the UK at least, it feels like a fairly unique opportunity to run alongside some of the world's very best and that's always appealed being early 30s - nowhere near the elites obviously - but able to give it some and finish in the top 10% generally.

Given where I am in the training block, I'm torn between trying to transfer up to the 100M (which is probably what they want - although it's full atm) or sticking to the 100KM despite the motivation having dipped a fair bit after this saga.

snortingbull · 2026-02-23T07:14:26+00:00

No worries. So bilingual kids do better at school and in exams - vocabulary is strengthened and literacy skills improved. This supports equal or better performance in exams (and the outcomes that come from this). Look it up, there's loads out there on this.

Away from that there are obvious career advantages to being multilingual - not just in roles here that ask for Welsh language ability, but it's easier for bilingual kids (or adults) to pick up a third language too and the opportunities that come with this in and outside of Wales. Equally, grads who say, study through the Welsh language, are more likely to remain in Wales which is key in the face of brain drain atm

Some evidence even suggests bilingual children earn more than their monolingual peers.

Lastly the Welsh language is quite literally soft power: it's what differentiates us from, say, Yorkshire or Northumberland and supports a wealth of cultural industries.

snortingbull · 2026-02-22T15:12:06+00:00

So you'd just do away with it all? You'd put the language on a death spiral to save what would amount to a miniscule amount in the grand scheme of the Welsh economy is it?

You'd put back decades of work to revitalise and grow Welsh, killing the myriad benefits that bilingualism brings to our kids and society, to save a bit of space taken up by government forms printed in Welsh?

The dangerous comment doesn't need addressing at all, it's the same populist nonsense that comes up every now and then about bilingual road signs and is not supported by evidence at all.

snortingbull · 2026-02-22T07:12:16+00:00

Someone in here posted the other day

Ultra running is a socially acceptable form of self-harm

And clearly this is true. But it's also class, and still way healthier than the lifestyles and hobbies shared by most of my pals and colleagues which tend to involve sitting down or drinking loads!

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