17 September/18 September 2016 ★ FTWeekend 7 Travel

other woman. The race was the 166km UTMR’s tagline is “Bold, Beautiful, Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, now Brutal.”Thedifficultyiskeytoitsallure. Europe’s best known ultra. Hikers typi- With many conventional marathons it Running in the clouds cally take eight days to walk the course; is now arguably more difficult to get to Hawkerhasdoneitinjustover25hours. the start line than the finish — last year She first went to Monte Rosa on holi- 172,888peopleappliedfor38,262places day with her parents at age six. “The in the London marathon, but 99 per Adventure | A ‘beautiful and brutal’ 116km race in the Alps is the latest addition to the growing roster of mountains always felt like home to me, cent of runners finished. Such a high so when I went back to the UK I always success rate leaves some wanting a felt something was missing,” she says. tougherchallenge. ultra-marathons. Patrick McGee dons headtorch and GPS tracker to test the limits of his endurance “It was the start of a long love affair.” “There’s definitely a tendency to go The paths around the massif became alwayslonger,harder,addmorealtitude her favourite training ground for the gain,” says Jürgen Schoch, a statistician Mont Blanc race, which she went on to at DUV and an ultra runner himself. “I win another four times. Now she has think it’s a competition on the runners’ tanding in snow, on shaky Still, Pam Reed outright won the turned race organiser,transforming her side, but also on the race director’sside, rocks high in the Alps, I 217kmBadwaterUltramarathoninCali- trainingrouteintotheUTMR. to say ‘I have the longest race in my realise I have not seen a Grächen fornia’s Death Valley, in 2002, in just country,orthehighestaltitudegain’.” course marker in more than under 28 hours. The next year she did it After 11 and a half hours I had made it Not everyone agrees ultras are inher- 15 minutes. I should probably SWITZERLAND again, reaching the finish almost half an tothe47kmcheckpoint,aless-than-im- ently harder. Some shorter-distance Sturn back, but I don’t know where I left Saas Fee hour before Dean Karnazes, the self- pressive pace but still on track to finish runners look down on ultra-maratho- the course and I am fatigued and Zermatt styled ‘Ultramarathon Man’ who would within the 32-hour time limit. Ahead of ners as glorified distance-hikers, given struggling to think straight after racing, Matterhorn later gain fame for running 50 mara- me were the two biggest climbs of the the common strategy among amateurs nonstop,for80km.Then,Islip. Macugnaga thons,in50days,inall50USstates. race. Both would take place in the pitch to hike the climbs and only run the flats My body tumbles towards the edge of Cervinia Dufourspitze For me, the rise of women participa- black, guided by a head torch and aided and descents. Schoch simply points out the cliff and I topple over. Six or seven Alagna tion is more than a statistic. It was a by peppermint candy to open my nasal ultras demand a different skill set, feetdown,Icrashontoaledge,graspfor Gressoney-la-Trinité womanwhotalkedmeintothisraceand passages as I gasped for oxygen almost focused on endurance and experience something to hold on to but fail to halt another woman who designed the 3,000m up. It turned out I preferred the ratherthanspeed. the momentum, stumbling, then drop- km ITALY course. My fiancé Eleni, who runs night time: the darkness masked where They also require more kit, attracting ping another seven feet. I catch myself 100km races with an all-women’s team thesummitwasandIcouldimagine,for thelikesofTheNorthFaceandSalomon there, just. Now in ripped shorts, miss- called Hot on Their Heels, had signed hourafterhour,thatitmustbejustmin- to sponsor races the world over. UTMR ing a trekking pole, with a bloodied arm me up to the Vibram Hong Kong 100 utes away. At 5.50am I made it to the required me to carry two head torches, and hurt ankle, I look down to see the up from 728 a decade earlier, according Ultra Trail this year. I finished it, albeit spare batteries for my phone, water- next fall is 10 or 12ft. Beyond that there to the German Ultramarathon Founda- innear-collapse,18hourslater. Many have been inspired proofs, thermals, first aid kit and an arenomoreledges,justasteepdrop. tion,orDUV,theworld’slargestassocia- But UTMR was something else. At the emergency blanket. Special insurance I am shaken up, alone, close to tears, tion of ultra-marathon runners. The third checkpoint, about 35km in at the by the idea that the longer was required in case a helicopter rescue still on uneven ground and wondering number of runners taking part leapt Col d’Olen, I received a text that Eleni a race is, the higher the was needed. And I rented a GPS tracker whattodonext. from fewer than 40,000 in 2000 to had dropped out after struggling with somyfamilycouldhaveliveupdates. 172,540 in 2010, and 413,042 in 2015, the heat and altitude. I was, at the time, chances a woman will win it That GPS tracker came in handy Twenty-five hours earlier,at 10am on accordingtoDUV. enjoying the best cup of tea I’ve ever when, shortly after reaching the top of September 2, I had started running the Whoarethesepeople?In2012aNorth drunk, but only minutes earlier my the final big climb — the pass at Monte inaugural Ultra Tour Monte Rosa, a American study of 100-mile racers inner monologue was probing whether 71km checkpoint in Macugnaga, wel- Moro, 2,853m up, crowned by a golden 116km race around western Europe’s foundthat80percentweremale,70per the race director could be prosecuted comed by a massive cheer from dozens statue of the Virgin Mary — I tumbled second-highest mountain. The route cent were married, 81 per cent had a for crimes against humanity. The of runners preparing to hit the trails over the cliff. It took me more than an starts in Cervinia, an Italian ski resort, degreeandthemedianagewas45. ascentswererelentless.Onseveralocca- again. They were running the same hour to find my way down over rocks then climbs and falls over five high “It’s about being out in the wild, a sions I was forced to stop and lie down course, but broken into up to three sec- and scree to a lake (later identified as mountain passes, winding through the multi-sensory experience,” says Jeri beside the path, adopting a foetal posi- tions to be tackled on consecutive days. the Mattmark reservoir). A Swiss cou- villages of Gressoney, Alagna and Chua, a former fashion editor who now tionforafewmomentsofreprieve. Hawker had organised the stage-race to ple who had been cycling on the wide Macugnaga before crossing into Swit- directs races and distributes running The sadist in question is the demure, coincide with the ultra to attract more path beside the lake saw me hobbling zerland, passing Saas Fee and eventu- nutrition products and who was volun- 5ft 4in Lizzy Hawker, who was born in participants and introduce more and took pity, the man offering me his ally arriving in Grächen. The elevation teering at the UTMR. She is one of the suburban London but has become one women to the sport. The plan worked. bike to ride to the nearest road, about gain is 8,300m — equivalent to climbing growing number of female participants of the world’s most successful long-dis- Onlyafifthofthe115ultrarunnerswere 1km away,while he jogged alongside. At frombasecamptothesummitofMount — up from 6,503 in 2000 to more than tance mountain runners. She holds the women, but the 145-person stage race the road I found a bus top, but just as I Everest twice. The terrain is almost 50,000lastyear,DUVdatashows. world record for running the 320km wasevenlysplit. was stuggling to decipher the timetable, alwaysrugged,unevenfootpaths,either Many have been inspired by the fromEverestBaseCamptoKathmandu, My friend Claire was among them, amanpulledupinacarandaskedifI ascending or descending — there are intriguing idea, popularised by Christo- a route she covered in 63 hours. And in beaming after a good’s night sleep. I wasPatrick.Iwasstartleduntilheintro- preciousfewplacestojustjog. pherMcDougall’sbookBorntoRun,that 2011 she won the Commonwealth From top: runners close to the watched her take off while I ate two duced himself as the race doctor, The UTMR is the latest in the growing the longer a race is, the higher the Mountain and Ultradistance Running Monte Moro pass between Italy and slices of delicious pizza, refilled my bot- explaining he had noticed my GPS was international roster of “ultra-mara- chances are that a woman will win it. Championships, completing more than Switzerland; passing chalets in the tles with electrolyte drinks and swal- welloffcourseandsetouttofindme. thons” (events poorly defined as any One theory is that women exploit their 246km in the 24-hour time limit, beat- Champoluc valley; a water stop near lowed a salt tab to combat muscle Thedrivetothefinishheldmorerelief race longer than a marathon). Single- higher body fat percentages as energy ing all the male competitors and setting Macugnaga; a ‘tattoo transfer’ map spasms. The next checkpoint was just than disappointment. Wepassed Claire, stage ultras typically range from 50km reserves in endurance events. A 2014 anotherworldrecord. of one section of the course — Fabio Menino; 8km away, but the climb was 1,550m — who was happy to call it a day and jump to more than 161km (100 miles), while study based on four decades of races Hawker, 40, entered her first moun- Giacomo Meneghello about five Eiffel Towers. The zigzag in the car. Eleni was already waiting multi-stage events take place over days offered an alternative explanation — tainracein2005whileshewasfinishing ascent was so daunting that the second with all our bags at the finish line. It or even weeks. Almost invariably they only the very fittest women participate up a PhD in physical oceanography (she and third-placed runners had, hours might not have been a triumph, but we i / DETAILS are run on rough trails rather than in ultras exceeding 200km, whereas hadboughtherfirstpairoftrailrunning before, opted to drop out rather than hadtestedourlimits,andfoundthem. roads; many involve significant climbs. hordesofunpreparedmenarewillingto shoes just 10 days earlier). Unsure if she Next year’s Ultra Tour Monte Rosa will take place continue. It took me almost three-and- And the sport is booming. Globally, give them a shot, making the gender wouldevenfinish,andwithoutanysup- on September 6-9; entry to the ultra costs €195; a-half hours, yet I actually moved up PatrickMcGeeistheFT’sFrankfurt there were 3,738 ultra events last year, datalookmoreeven. port team, she went on to beat every see ultratourmonterosa.com seven spots in the rankings. correspondent

hen we go for a walk in Kovats’ giant 3D renderings of the my instinct was to side with them — POSTCARD the forest, we don’t Ordnance Survey viewpoint symbol, livestock farming is a hard enough think of it as a tree strategically positioned to focus on hereabouts without a new predator to factory,”the artist different aspects of the water. Ryder contend with. But the more I learnt, FROM... Anya Gallaccio, who Architecture’s Janus Chairs (pictured, the more I saw merit in the idea thanks Wworks a lot with trees, told me this left) are giant seats that swivel to allow to an ecological process known as a year. “We think we’re in wilderness, you to take in the view; Chris Drury’s trophic cascade. It’s explained in a KIELDER but we’re not.” Wave Chamber is a drystone “beehive” widely viewed short film on YouTube, FOREST It was a thought that haunted me as I containing a camera obscura that How Wolves Change Rivers, based on a trekked through the dense woodland of projects the lake’s surface on to its floor Ted talk by environmentalist George Kielder Forest in Northumberland to a and echoes to the sound of the waves. Monbiot, about the reintroduction of rocky outcrop known as Cat Cairn. It is A dozen of the installations are wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the site of a Skyspace, one of more than linked by a trail around the reservoir’s 1995. The arrival of wolves altered deer 80 created worldwide by the American periphery. In all it is 42km long, so the behaviour, causing them to avoid parts artist James Turrell. This one is obvious way to explore it is by bike of the park where they could be easily partially subterranean, a circular Matthew Cook (electric ones are available for those in hunted. This enabled the vegetation to room, clad in local stone and entered northern Europe), and in 1975 need of a helping hand). To appreciate regenerate, encouraging the return of through a tunnel, from which one is construction began on Kielder Water, a the trees and the wildlife, though, it’s other species. In just six years, some invited to contemplate the ever- reservoir more than 9km long, better to walk. Amid the verdure as we trees quintupled in height, drawing changing sky through a central oculus. sufficiently ragged in form to seem as strode to the Skyspace, we saw several migratory birds, as well as bald eagles It stands surrounded by a sylvan though it was created by glaciers and of the roe deer that thrive here, but not and hawks, which fed on resurgent landscape — mostly Sitka spruce but erosion rather than bulldozers. Its the ospreys or red squirrels that have populations of rodents and rabbits. The also Scots pine and Douglas fir — raison d’être was also industrial: to been successfully introduced. (Though trees’ revived root systems in turn through whose canopy dappled supply the steel and chemical there were skinned grey ones on the stabilised river banks, which became sunlight falls on a hummocky forest industries in Teesside, but with their butcher’s stall in nearby Hexham’s more fixed in their course, encouraging floor, traversed by sparkling streams. It decline, so it became redundant. The next proposal in the market, alongside a note bearing the the return of fish, beavers and otters. is a glorious scene: English landscape at Since then its purpose has been to warning: “May contain nuts”.) The Lynx UK Trust, the charity its loveliest. Yet it is as much a bring tourists to the area. Some come project to ‘rewild’ Kielder The next proposal in the project to behind the initiative, hopes that construct as the Skyspace. for water sports, and hiking and “rewild” Kielder, and which was put to something similar, albeit on a smaller Kielder is the largest forest in mountain biking around the water’s is to bring in 10 or so the people of Kielder village last scale, may be effected here. For a place England, stretching across 600 sq km edge, others for the growing body of month, is to bring in 10 or so Eurasian that started life as a plantation, parts of i / DETAILS just north of Hadrian’s Wall. It was contemporary art installations — 23 at Eurasian lynx, a powerful lynx, a powerful wild cat, weighing as Kielder Forest already have the air of a For curator-led walks around Kielder Water see established in 1926 as a national timber the last count. I loved Nick Coombe much as 30kg. They died out in Britain wilderness. Thanks to a few lynx and kielderartandarchitecture.com. For general reserve, not least to supply pit props to and Shona Kitchen’s discombobulating wild cat that died out in about 1,300 years ago, probably hunted the eternal mutability of nature, it may, information go to visitkielder.com. Details of the the mining industry. Over the century maze, Minotaur, built of local black to extinction for their pelts. by its centenary, seem wilder still. lynx programme are at lynxuk.org. Book rental the forest grew (it is now the largest whinstone and lumps of recycled glass Britain 1,300 years ago Not surprisingly the farming bikes at The Bike Place (thebikeplace.co.uk) area of man-made woodland in that glitter in sunlight. And Tania community is set against it and at first, Claire Wrathall

SEPTEMBER 17 2016 Section:Weekend Time: 15/9/2016 - 18:29 User: rossi Page Name: WKD7, Part,Page,Edition: WKD, 7, 1

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