Rory Harris battles snowstorms to take victory in the Montane Spine Winter Challenger South

Rory Harris battles snowstorms to take victory in the Montane Spine Winter Challenger South.

The weather forecast was for 70 mph winds, snow blizzards and a wind chill of -11 degrees. And that’s exactly what the competitors got. 24 hours into the race and nearly 40% of competitors had DNF’d proving this is one of the most brutal races in Britain. In an intensely challenging race, Rory Harris took the overall win in a time of 26:25:30 in this year’s 108-mile Montane Spine Winter Challenger South starting from Edale and finishing in Hawes.

Rory explains, “It was a tough day and night on the trail. I’m just relieved to get through it. The real damage was done coming off Pen-y-ghent. I battled through headwinds, blizzards and experienced a complete whiteout. At one point I couldn’t see my feet.”

Brothers Rupert and Joshua Lee put up a good fight finishing in joint second place in a time of 30:28:36. Working together, their race strategy was to go for the win but conceded there was no way they could keep pace with Rory. They commented, “We had rainstorms, hailstorms and snowstorms. We’ve had it all! Huge congratulations to Rory. There was no way we could keep his pace. He ran a great race”.

Finishing in supreme style, the first woman to cross the line was Sarah Hodgson. Running a fantastic race, she put out a solid and consistent performance with a time of 33:26:44. Second woman to finish was last year’s Sprint defending champion and course record holder Alice Kershaw in 37:40:50. Catherine Hill completes the winners list as the third place woman in a time of 48:07:45.