To mark the end of her teens, Jenny took on one of the Lake District’s most exhilarating challenges – the Pinnacle Ridge Extreme. This brutal 28km race weaves together iconic scrambles like Pinnacle Ridge, Cove Crags, and the legendary Striding Edge on Helvellyn, blending technical hands-on-rock action with relentless climbs that push both body and mind to the limit.
It was two weeks before race day when I decided to enter. As soon as I discovered that my family holiday to the Lake District, my 20th birthday, AND a skyrunning event all fell on the same weekend, I knew I had to at least apply!
Without telling anyone, I nervously sent off my application form and silently (but desperately) hoped it would be accepted.
Described as being “hard, pure and extreme”, the Pinnacle Ridge Extreme is a 28 km trail running route with a massive 2,700m of ascent. This includes five graded scrambles (up to grade three) and long sections of technical running, requiring runners to undergo a vetting process before being allowed to enter.
The route starts in the quaint village of Patterdale and winds its way around the iconic lakeland hills of Helvellyn, Catsy Cam and St Sunday Crag in a series of single track trails and exhilarating ridgelines. In short, a dream Lake District route.
I got accepted. Suddenly the adjective ‘extreme’ began bouncing around in my brain. I wondered – am I ‘extreme’ enough?
Race: On
A week or so later I was standing on the start line in a field in Patterdale. In true race day fashion, it had been a bit of a chaotic morning (though not nearly as bad as my Snowdon SkyRun event).
With my entire family in tow, it had been a bit of a mission to get everyone out the door so early. However, we made it in ample time (plus a 15 minutes race start delay due to plumbing issues).
As a result of the stricter entry vetting process, to my surprise, there was definitely a relatively small group of runners standing at the start line.
As I looked around the other competitors, I also felt significantly younger than the majority of the entrants. Although this slightly contributed to the nervousness I felt, the draw of the route ahead of me outweighed the nerves, and I was fizzing with anticipation to start.
As always, once I was off, my body relaxed into the pace and feel of the trails. The self doubt slipped away with each step and I had the space to fully relish the experience.
The race begins fairly mellow, with a long runnable trail winding its way around the Glenridding Mines. Scenic, undulating and with a few small sections of bog squelching, it was a fab warm up for the excitement to come.
Descending from Sticks Pass, I reached the first checkpoint about 7 km in. At the end of the descent, the route suddenly turned from west to south, and a strategically placed marshal stopped me from running straight in the wrong direction. Something told me I wasn’t the first person to make this mistake.
As I began to traverse White Side up towards Helvellyn, there were some slight route finding difficulties between myself and a few others. One man whipped out the route on his Garmin, and the rest of us followed his lead up the hillside. A short while later, a group of runners sped by us, having suffered the navigational blip we managed to narrowly avoid.
The First Scramble
Upon reaching the first scramble of the route, a bit of a bottleneck began to form, but this allowed a bit of welcome chat between the rest of us waiting in line.
“Using the ropes is cheating” a man joked to me, referring to the in situ lines that had been placed to help with the scramble.
Although I typically prefer the challenge of a more ‘pure’ route, I disagree with that sentiment. Having ropes (with each scramble managed by a mountain professional) makes the experience safer and more accessible to a wider range of abilities – something I personally feel passionate about.
A short but fun grade two scramble later, I made it to the first peak of the day. Being a familiar mountain to me, summiting Helvellyn felt fab. An enjoyable technical descent down Swirral Edge (graded a 0.5 scramble) led to the summit of Catstye Cam.
In the shadow of Helvellyn, the mountain of Catstye Cam often gets overlooked in favour of its towering sister peak – and I was guilty of this myself. But it’s a fine peak in its own right, and for the first time, I was able to fully appreciate it.
Steep, exciting scree descents were definitely the theme of the day and the descent down from Catstye Cam was no exception. I made it down to checkpoint six in one piece, and was surprised with the news that I was currently placed as the 10th female.
Dancing my way up Striding Edge, back towards Helvellyn, was a definite highlight of the day. An iconic knife edge lakeland ridge, Striding Edge consists of simple scrambling with a fairly significant amount of exposure. Perfect terrain for moving fast – as long as you have a relatively good head for heights!
After a short run along the top of the Helvellyn massif, it was descending time again.
The marshal warned me this was a very technical descent and I should take care. She wasn’t wrong. A few kilometres of steep scree slopes and falling on my arse multiple times later, I was at the bottom, ready for the final stage of the route.
Tackling the Namesake: Pinnacle Ridge
From the valley, looking up at the climb towards St Sunday Crag/Pinnacle Ridge is definitely very daunting. Especially in the later stage of the race. Looking up, I could see a long, very steep grassy slope with a train of competitors zig zagging their way up.
With no ‘path’ as such, it was definitely a case of following the route markers and ascending in the most energy-efficient way possible. For me, this was a hands-on-grass job, with small ascending zig zags. Although it was physically the hardest part of the race for me, elevation was gained VERY quickly and about a kilometre of uphill walking later, I reached the rocks!
I was at the most iconic part of the race: Pinnacle Ridge itself.
Some gentle scrambling led me up to the base of the ridge, and a marshal told me I could either use the ropes and traverse round the edge of the ridge (making it a grade 1/2), or run straight across the Pinnacles (grade three)!
Opting for the Pinnacles, I hopped across. My short legs didn’t give me any problems reaching, as I feared they might. The exposure was less than the photos made out, however certainly not insignificant.
A short downward climb off the penultimate pinnacle later, it was over in a flash and I was onto the home stretch.
The Final Push
A long, classic lakeland path led me down back towards the field where I had started five hours ago.
My family had booked to go for Sunday lunch that afternoon, so I wasn’t expecting to see them at the finish line. However, they had been tracking me and realised I would finish in time to join them! My mum, dad and sister were there cheering me over the finish line into 9th female place.
Devouring a roast dinner about an hour later (still muddy and bedraggled), I processed my Pinnacle Ridge Extreme experience. The race was fabulous, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
If this is what my 20s are going to be like, I’m ready for them!
Pinnacle Ridge Extreme Route Map
All images are credit of Jenny Coatsworth or purchased from official Pinnacle Ridge Extreme race photographers.