SKYRUNNING 2014 Calendar Announced – SWS14 #SWS14

Posted on November 28, 2013 by talkultra

Kilian Jornet Trofeo Kima 2012 ©iancorless.com

The ISF is pleased to announce the 2014 Skyrunner® World Series. Fifteen quality races, three disciplines, the same winning formula. The 2014 Series will offer participants benefits amounting to 1,000 race slots, 230 free entries, 125 accommodation slots and 50 travel slots.

Five Sky, five Ultra and five Vertical races are distributed across six nations in three continents.

The Sky Series comprises some of the best races in the history of the sport and welcomes back Zegama, Dolomites SkyRace, Course de Sierre-Zinal celebrating its 41^st year, Zermatt’s Matterhorn Ultraks launched this year and Limone Extreme tying up the Series.

Opening the season in May will be the almost legendary Transvulcania Ultramarathon. In its third successful year on the Skyrunner® World Series, the event will be enhanced with a spectacular “sea to sky” Vertical Kilometer®, where contestants climb up the same rugged, steep descent of the long distance race.

The Ultra Series heads over to France for a repeat of the 65 km Ice-Trail Tarentaise over the snow-covered peaks above Val d’Isère. A Vertical Kilometer® will also take place here. From 1996 five editions were held on the imposing Face de Bellevarde, where the first world record was set.

Utah’s Speedgoat 50K returns on the Ultra Series followed by the biennial Kima Trophy. Probably the most emblematic skyrunning event, it will celebrate its 20^th anniversary with skyrunning legends Bruno Brunod and Fabio Meraldi.

Concluding the Ultra Series in September, we welcome new entry, The Rut 50K, in Montana’s appropriately named Big Sky resort. Organised by two American Ultra running icons, Mike Foote and Mike Wolfe, it’s set to make its mark on the international scene. Here, America’s first World Series’ Vertical Kilometer® will also take place in the rugged Montana mountains.

The Italian Dolomites, home of the 2013 European Championships, are again back on the calendar with a SkyRace® and Vertical Kilometer® double.

Italy’s incredibly spectacular and gruelling Limone Extreme SkyRace® and Vertical Kilometer® will again host the World Series final in October on Lake Garda.

462 kilometres across the three disciplines are set off by no less than 36,150 metres vertical climb with inclines between 16% and 50%.

The reward for this gruelling programme? Benefits amounting to US $ 200,000. $ 120,000 cash prizes, $ 25,000 World Series final prizes and $ 55,000 worth of benefits.

The rewards don’t finish here however. There’s more in store with the new Skyrunner® card. Details will be revealed in January 2014.

2014 Skyrunner® World Series

Team partners are a growing success story with two partnership formulas to choose from. At least ten principal outdoor brands are involved. See here for further information for team entries in the World Series.

SKY
1. SPAIN: Maratòn Alpina Zegama-Aizkorri – 42 km – Zegama – May 25
2. ITALY: Dolomites SkyRace® – 22 km – Canazei – July 20
3. SWITZERLAND: Course de Sierre-Zinal – 31 km – Valais – August 10
4. SWITZERLAND: Matterhorn Ultraks – 46 km -Zermatt – August 23
5. ITALY: Limone Extreme SkyRace® – 23 km – Limone sul Garda – October 12

ULTRA

1. SPAIN: Transvulcania Ultramarathon – 83 km, La Palma – May 10
2. FRANCE: Ice Trail Tarentaise – 65 km, Val d’Isère – July 11
3. USA: Speedgoat 50K, Snowbird, Utah – July 19
4. ITALY: Trofeo Kima – Aug 31
5. USA: The Rut 50K, Big Sky, Montana – September 14

VERTICAL
1. SPAIN: Transvulcania Vertical Kilometer® – May 8
2. FRANCE: VK Face de Bellevarde, Val d’Isère – July 11
3. ITALY: Dolomites Vertical Kilometer®, Canazei – July 18
4. USA: Lone Peak Vertical Kilometer® – September 12
5. ITALY: Vertical Grèste de la Mughéra, Limone sul Garda – October 10

*Legend

SKY – races more than 22 km and less than 50 km long with at least 1,300m positive vertical climb (SkyRace® and SkyMarathon®)
ULTRA – races over 50 km long that exceed the SkyMarathon® parameters (Ultra SkyMarathon®)
VERTICAL – races with 1,000m positive vertical climb not exceeding 5 km distance (Vertical Kilometer®)

Skyrunner^®,SkyRace^®, SkyMarathon^®, Vertical Kilometer^®are registered trademarks

Press Release ©ISF

Skyrunning Vertical top 100 men and 50 women

Posted on November 27, 2013 by talkultra

Limone Vertical Extreme, the final of the Vertical World Series, Limone, Italy, 2013. © iancorless.com

After the Ultra and Sky rankings released recently, it is now the turn of the ISF Vertical discipline to announce the top ranked athletes.

Ten races in five continents were selected in the Vertical category and count 239 men from 20 nations and 115 women from15 nations.

Italy leads the men’s ranking followed by Spain and France and places second in the women’s ranking which is led by Spainand followed by France.

The Vertical discipline is clearly at home in the steep and technical terrain of the Alps where skyrunning was born. For added drama, many of the events take place at night. “One thousand metres skywards” however, can be found in many countries and new nations are adopting this fascinating discipline, introduced by the skyrunning inventors in 1994 who registered “Vertical Kilometer®” and it’s derivatives as a trademark. America will feature among the countries including the “VK” in their national calendar. Talking of new nations, it’s also interesting to note the very high performance level of new entries like Norway, ranking 10^th and 12^th

Urban Zemmer, 2012 & 2013 Vertical World Champion heads the Vertical ranking. © iancorless.com The overall ranking has been devised for the three skyrunning disciplines based on 55 races in 2013 (24 Ultra, 21 Sky and 10 Vertical). Among the principal aims was to take into account the quality of the field and the time relative to the winner, along with a proprietary ISF algorithm and other factors.

Here’s the general overview on the calculations previously published in the Ultra and Sky news:

“The ranking was elaborated on the basis of the participation and results obtained by the athletes in the international races selected by the ISF.

In calculating the points, the ranking is based on a proprietary ISF algorithm specifically studied for outdoor running, taking into account a consolidated algorithm used by the International Ski Federation.

Fifty-five races were selected for the 2013 season (24 Ultra, 20 Sky and 10 Vertical) – see ISF announcement in March. The selection was aimed at identifying the world’s most prestigious races with the greatest number of elite athletes participating, as indicated in the ISF news in January.

In each selected race, the first 30 men and first 15 women were counted. For each athlete, points were calculated on the basis of: the final position, the time relative to the winner and the number of elite athletes ahead or behind.

The final points were calculated on the average of the three best results of the season obtained by each athlete. For athletes who did not participate in at least three of the selected races throughout the season, a penalty of 11% was applied to those who participated in only two races, and 22% was applied to those who participated in just one.

The 2014 ranking will be based on 2013, but with a more precise indication of the elite athletes based on the previous year’s ranking.

The ISF ranking will be complete at the end of the 2015 season as the points will be calculated on the average of the previous three seasons with a weighted coefficient for each year.

The ISF assesses the yearly performances in their whole within the context of the results and performance in each race. As in other disciplines, it does not analyse the performance in absolute terms due to the many variables in outdoor running (vertical climb, type of terrain, climate, level of the competition… etc), the comparison between different races or different editions of the same race, would be too approximate.”

Erik Haugsnes, strong new Vertical contender from Norway. © iancorless.com

Here’s the top ten men and women at a glance

2013 ISF Vertical Ranking

Men

1. URBAN ZEMMER (ITA) 301,482

2. KILIAN JORNET BURGADA (ESP) 291,557

3. NEJC KUHAR (SLO) 237,842

4. ALEXIS SEVENNEC-VERDIER (FRA) 235,754

5. PHILIP GOTSCH (ITA) 235,538

6. MARCO FACCHINELLI (ITA) 230,773

7. AUGUSTI ROC AMADOR (ESP) 227,807

8. MARCO MOLETTO (ITA) 227,626

9. SAUL ANTONIO PADUA RODRIGUEZ (COL) 224,861

10. ERIK-DAGSSØNN HAUGSNES (NOR) 219,095

Women

1. LAURA ORGUE VILA (ESP) 230,564

2. CHRISTEL DEWALLE (FRA) 224,725

3. ANTONELLA CONFORTOLA (ITA) 223,595

4. VANESA ORTEGA TRANCON (ESP) 206,194

5. SAMANTHA GALASSI (ITA) 202,008

6. TESSA HILL (GBR) 195,039

7. ALBA XANDRI SUETS (ESP) 189,899

8. EMELIE FORSBERG (SWE) 184,717

9. VALENTINA BELOTTI (ITA) 179,400

10. CELINE LAFAYE (FRA) 168,187

2013 Vertical ranking

Top 100 men

Top 50 women

Article ©ISF

IMAGES – Coffee Table Photo Book

Posted on November 25, 2013 by talkultra

I am pleased to announce that my coffee table book, IMAGES is now available to order.

Details:

Size: 10×8 inckes/ 25×20 cm’s
Format: Landscape
Pages: 68
Paper: High quality images printed on Premium Lustre paper
Cover: Hardcover with full colour images dust jacket
Foreward: by Emelie Forsberg (Salomon Running)

Availability:

Book : £50.00 (plus postage) full colour hard bound book with dust jacket, signed on request.

eBook : £15.99 available for iPad – direct purchase HERE

Hints n Tips:

The ebook IMAGES by Ian Corless is available for download. Here’s how to get this ebook onto your iOS device:

Open this email on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
If you do not have the free Apple iBooks app you’ll need to install it before downloading your book.
Follow this link to get the book: YOU WILL BE SENT A LINK
(This link will expire in 48 hours, after which you will be prompted to log in)
Safari will open and begin downloading the ebook to your device.
When the download is complete, you will be given the option to ‘Open in iBooks’. Tap this button once.
iBooks will launch, im port the ebook, and then open it for viewing.

A few notes for a smoother experience…

Connect to Wi-Fi: Image-rich ebooks can be quite large, so downloading and importing them to iBooks can take several minutes.
Be patient: Very little feedback is given while iBooks is opening the file, so you may want to check your device after a few minutes.
Make room: Make sure you have enough free space on your device or the download may fail.
Can’t find your book? In iBooks, make sure you’re viewing the ‘Books’ collection and not the ‘PDFs’ collection. To switch views, just tap the ‘Collections’ button in your iBooks library.

PDF : £12.00 a high-resolution full colour PDF available for computer viewing in Adobe or similar software

Races included in the book:

Trofeo Kima, Templiers, The Coastal Challenge, The Causeway Crossing, Transvulcania La Palma, Zegama-Aizkorri, Haria Extreme, Ronda dels Cims, Mont-Blanc Marathon, Ice Trail Tarentaise, Dolomites VK & Skyrace, Trans D’Havet, Matterhorn Ultraks, TNFUTMB, Grand to Grand, UROC, MDS and Everest Trail Race.

Ordering:

Books are available to order with an estimated 12-day turnaround.

Ultrarunners – Hitler has a rant!

Posted on November 23, 2013 by talkultra

Once again, the ‘Hitler’ series of video’s excels with a very funny look at Ultra Running. Worryingly, I see plenty of truth in this short clip…

©bwelb

MARMOT24™ – A NEW 24-HOUR MOUNTAIN MARATHON

Posted on November 21, 2013 by talkultra

The World’s first 24-hour mountain marathon, the inaugural Marmot24, will be held on the weekend 2nd and 3rd August 2014.

This exciting new event combines the very best elements of the predominantly British mountain marathon phenomenon with aspects of the more international, 24-hour rogaining events. With mountain running and navigation at the heart of the event competitors will have 24, 12 or 6-hours to visit as many checkpoints as possible on a score format course. With the 24-hour race starting at noon Saturday, the 12-hour race starting at midnight Saturday and the 6-hour race starting at 0600 on the Sunday morning, everyone will finish at 12 noon on the Sunday in an exciting and dramatic finale to a memorable weekend of racing.

©JonBrooke

Seven times OMM Elite winner, Steve Birkinshaw was quick to state that, “A non-stop 24-hour mountain marathon has been missing from the UK calendar, the Marmot24™ fill this gap. It sounds like a great event that I am really looking forward to competing in.”

©RobHowar

Race Director, Shane Ohly explained his thoughts about the new race, “I’ve actually been injured since August and this has given me some extra time – when I would normally be running – to think about concepts for events and as Steve Birkinshaw said, a 24-hour mountain marathon really was the missing piece in the current range of mountain marathon events in the UK. So, by this time next year, there will be high quality mountain marathon events each month from the Highlander in April through to the OMM in October. There will also be a great variety of events with the 3-day format Great Lakeland 3Day™, score format races like the RAB Mountain Marathon and even an overnight winter event with Marmot Dark Mountains each January.

Marmot24 will have a central event centre within the event area where all teams will start and finish. The location of the controls is such that competitors can choose to pass through the event centre during the race, with the two-person teams making the choice whether to rest, or eat, whilst the four-person teams can tag-in their team mates; swapping tired runners for fresh runners. The event centre will be a hub of activity with a large marquee, race control, retail shop, catering and camping for competitors and supporters. Supporters are actively encouraged and they can provide help for the competitors at the event centre.

©JonBrooke

With events like the Dragon’s Back Race™, the Great Lakeland 3Day™ and Marmot Dark Mountains™, Shane Ohly and his team from Ourea Event have been steadily building a reputation for delivering high quality mountain running events in recent years. This years 2013 OMM Elite winner, Nick Barrable, was happy to lend his endorsement, “Experienced race organiser Shane Ohly, always puts on a good show and I am sure that much fun will be had.”

Marmot UK Sales Director, Hugh Harris said, “After the great response to Marmot Dark Mountains™ (MDM), we wanted to extend Marmot’s support of mountain based events. MDM is brilliant, but it’s deliberately extreme and targeted at experienced, and seemingly masochistic participants! After working very successfully with Shane Ohly and his company Ourea, on MDM, we asked him to create a brand new summer event for us that would be open to a much broader range of participants. The result is Marmot24, and we’re really excited to be launching it this week.”

Key Event Information

Website: www.Marmot24.com

Date: 2nd & 3rd August 2014

Venue: Northern England

Entry: from £55

Courses: 24-hour, 12-hour and 6-hour

Coffee Table Book – iancorless.com

Posted on November 20, 2013 by talkultra

My 2013 Coffee Table Book is slowly coming together. It is still very early days with a great deal of designing, editing and layout work to be done within the next 7-10 days.

Once designed and a ‘test’ proof has been received, the book will be available for delivery in 8-12 days from ordering.

10×8 inches in size, landscape in format with a hardcover and dust jacket, the book will have 20-pages minimum, however, I anticipate 30-pages to be more appropriate. As you can imagine, selecting images has been a difficult task. So many to choose from…!

Content will be varied and cover locations, places, landscapes, people and of course iconic moments from the 2013 racing season. A minimum of 30 images will be included within the book.

Delivery within the UK is anticipated to be available from Dec 2nd which should allow adequate turnaround and delivery options for pre Christmas. However, at the moment, delivery outside the UK cannot be guaranteed until the New Year.

Price per book £48.00 (plus postage and package)

If you’d like to express interest or pre order, please fill out the form below and I will contact you directly. Many thanks for your support.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

HOME – Salomon Running TV S3 E02

Posted on November 20, 2013 by talkultra

Anna Frost has spent the past 8 years wandering the globe competing in some of the worlds top trail races. Her win at Transvulcania in 2012 cemented her place as one of the top ultra trail runners in the world. Following that race, Anna was plagued by a string of injuries and forced out of the racing circuit. As a result, in late 2012 she decided to return to her home in Dunedin, New Zealand.

In this episode Anna reconnects with her identity and roots as she questions what running means to her.

More inspirational work from The African Attachment and Salomon Running but the star of this film is Frosty….

Music:
“Make Me Fly”
By No Dancing!
Written by Henk Labuschagne
Produced by Francois de Klerk

“Wrecking Ball”
By Holley Maher

Additional Race Footage:
Transvulcania – Dream Team Television
Marathon du Mont Blanc – Mouss Productions

ISF Sky Ranking

Posted on November 19, 2013 by talkultra

Kilian Jornet & Marco De Gasperi Mont-Blanc Marathon ©iancorless.com

The top 100 men and 50 women in the ISF Sky ranking announced today offer more food for thought after the Ultra rankingannounced earlier. Twenty-one races in five continents were selected in the Sky category. The top 100 men count 487athletes from 37 nations while the top 50 women are calculated out of 216 athletes from 29 nations.

The overall ranking has been devised for the three skyrunning disciplines based on 54 races in 2013 (24 Ultra, 21 Sky and 10 Vertical). One of the principal aims was to take into account the quality of the field and the time relative to the winner, along with a proprietary ISF algorithm and other factors.

Some considerations on the ranking per country for the two distances:

In the Ultra distance France, Spain and USA count four, three and three athletes respectively in the top ten overall. If we take the mean value of the points of the top three ranked athletes per nation, the men’s results show Spain leading (247,649), followed by USA (245,363) and France (236,344).

The women’s Ultra ranking presents a more varied picture however, with, apart from the nations mentioned above, Sweden, Italy and New Zealand featuring. Again, taking the mean value of the top three per nation, Spain leads with (194,477), followed by France (192,846) and USA (190,065).

The Sky discipline with respect to the Ultra counts more nations in the top ten men’s and women’s rankings, with athletes fromfive nations. Again, Spain’s prowess dominates with four men and four women in the top ten overall. In both cases Italy, the cradle of skyrunning, boasts two men and three women in the top ten. In the men’s field, using the above mean value,Spain again leads the ranking with (262,317) followed by Italy (235,146).

The women’s Sky ranking is led by Spain (251,559) followed by Italy (234,246).

Here’s a general overview on the calculations previously published in the Ultra news:

“The ranking was elaborated on the basis of the participation and results obtained by the athletes in the international races selected by the ISF.

Fifty-four races were selected for the 2013 season (24 Ultra, 20 Sky and 10 Vertical) – see ISF announcement in March. The selection was aimed at identifying the world’s most prestigious races with the greatest number of elite athletes participating, as indicated in the ISF news in January.

The 2014 ranking will be based on 2013, but with a more precise indication of the elite athletes based on the previous year’s ranking.

The ISF ranking will be complete at the end of the 2015 season as the points will be calculated on the average of the previous three seasons with a weighted coefficient for each year.

The ISF assesses the yearly performances in their whole within the context of the results and performance

in each race. As in other disciplines, it does not analyse the performance in absolute terms due to the many variables in outdoor running (vertical climb, type of terrain, climate, level of the competition… etc), the comparison between different races or different editions of the same race, would be too approximate.”

Following on from the Ultra and Sky distances, the Vertical will be announced next. Subsequently, all the runners will be listed by country.

2013 Sky ranking

Top 100 men

Top 50 women

2013 ISF Ultra ranking

Top 100 men

Top 50 women

Article ©ISF

Mud, Sweat & Tears – Nepal & ETR

Posted on November 19, 2013 by talkultra

You can read the complete article on Mud, Sweat & Tears HERE

Salomon Skyrun in South Africa faces extreme conditions

Posted on November 18, 2013 by talkultra

Lady Grey, the start of the 2013 Salomon Skyrun powered by Red Bull, was ravaged by some of the worst weather seen in the 16 year history of this extreme race. Testing from the begining with monsoon conditions greeting the runners at the 4am start on Saturday morning, fierce winds gusting up to 80km/hour were the order of the day as rain and low cloud cover made visibility very poor. The runners were battered by these conditions throughout the day, as the temperatures plummeted and the terrain became very tricky for both athletes and marshals. The very real risk of sever hypothermia and exposure to the brutal elements, left event organisers with no other option but to shorten the race. Always a difficult decision however the safety of runners was top priority. The Salomon Skyrun is an extreme mountain challenge at the best of times but when conditions are as hard as during this year’s race, the need to carry all compulsory equipment as well as a solid event organisation are critical to ensure that all athletes come off the mountain safely. “This year’s race will be spoken about for many years to come by all who were at the Salomon Skyrun 2013 and can only add to the reputation that makes this race one of the toughest ultra-mountain runs in South Africa, if not the world” said Race Director Adrian Saffy.

The Skyrun Lite remained unaffected by the decision and all athletes that reached Balloch completed the race in its entirety. The Skyrun Lite was won by Chris Cronje, with Murray Sanders in 2^nd place and Justin Short in 3^rd. The Ladies Lite was won by Laura O’ Donoghue, with Taryn Mc Donald in 2^nd and Janneke Laesk in 3^rd.

Iain Don-Wauchope took 1^st position in the shortened Men’s full route, with Hylton Dunn in 2^nd and Steven Erasmus in 3^rd. The runners will however have to wait another year in order to take a crack at 2012 winner Ryan Sandes’ lightening quick record of 12hrs36min. Salomon sponsored Sandes did not compete in this year’s event as he will be racing in The San Francisco 50 Miler at the beginning of December. In the ladies race, 1^st place in the full route went to Annemien Ganzevoort, with 2^nd going to Su Don- Wauchope and 3^rd to Tatum Prins.

There is no doubt that athletes will look back on this year’s running of the legend that has become the Salomon Skyrun with a mixture of frustration, relief and respect as so well put by AJ Calitz “ I was humbled by the route, weather and our Maker….felt pretty small out there in the mountains. The fact that everyone is safe is testimony to Pure Adventures incredible team. Well done Mike and Adrian, your team and the mountain rescue crews. 2013 is a year I will never forget…all the athletes are truly bound together by this EPIC experience. See you in 2014.”

For full results and pictures please visit www.skyrun.co.za

Results:

Men’s 100km