This site is for fell runners who enjoy the challenge of running up and down some of the most beautiful and remote mountainous peaks in the British isles. The most important thing for us is that you enjoy our races, give us your feedback and join our band of regular supporters, who come back year after year to run our three often gruelling but definitely challenging classic fell races; the Ennerdale Horseshoe, the Wasdale Horseshoe and the Scafell Pike.
All three fell races have been registered for 2025 with Dan Worsell as Race Organiser (RO) for Ennerdale, Richard Byers as RO, (supported by Ed Gamble as main contact), for Wasdale and Richard Eastman as RO for Scafell Pike. Details of all three races can be found on our Race Calendar page.
Update: 25/04/2025 - Regrettably Scafell 2025 has been cancelled. Richard Eastman has experienced a serious health issue requiring a long period of recovery, he has tried but was unable to find a substitute RO so has had no choice but to cancel this years Scafell Pike race.
The Fell Runners Association (FRA) often reward our races with English (E) or British and English (B&E) championship status: Wasdale 1997 (E), Buttermere 1998 (E), Scafell Pike 1999 (E), Ennerdale 2000 (E), Wasdale 2005 (E), Ennerdale 2006 (B&E), Wasdale 2009 (E), Ennerdale 2010 (E), Wasdale 2013 (E), Ennerdale 2014 (B&E), Wasdale 2017 (E), Ennerdale 2021 (E) and Wasdale 2024(E).
As race organisers, CFRA pride ourselves on our safety rules and precautions. Following an unfortunate fatality at the Ennerdale Fell Race in 1981 the CFRA committee produced a Safety of Fell Running document (Safety of Fell Races). All of our races are graded 'A' by the FRA which means that they're greater than 250 feet of ascent per mile. Both the Wasdale and Ennerdale are very tough races and employ closing times on the early checkpoints to limit the exposure time for runners and checkpoint marshalls. We use a radio network for our checkpoint marshals to keep in contact with the race control, and for the Scafell Pike race a tally system (as used by for example miners, firemen and mountain rescuers). Both the Wasdale and Scafell Pike races employ independent hard copy record systems for logging runners through and a tally 'clicker' for giving a total number of runners through each checkpoint. These methods give us up to three different ways of knowing which checkpoints each of our runners have passed, retired at or timed out on, and most importantly when. From 2009 we have also used an electronic timing system which employs e-cards or 'dibbers' to obtain more accurate and more easily reported checkpoint times.
Navigational skills are a definite must! This becomes obvious when running in cloud where visibility can be reduced to a few metres. Local knowledge and previous experience are also essential as the race course can be some miles from habitation and weather conditions may be severe. Examples of taking difficult decisions over allowing these formidable races to go ahead or not depend on forecasted weather conditions. Colin Dulson took the very difficult, but correct decision, to cancel Ennerdale 2022 because the forecasted weather conditions were going to be too dangerous for the runners, checkpoint marshals and volunteers alike. Whereas Richard Eastman was able to allowed Wasdale 2023 to go ahead even though two event shelters had been destroyed by early morning wind gusts. In both cases the Race Organisers' decisions were vindicated. Please note all our CFRA fell races do NOT permit the use of GPS systems for race navigation purposes, only for safety. If they are used at all, then the runner is assumed to have retired from the race.