Edale Skyline 21m 4500ft ascent 29 March 2009 Steve White reports: Three intrepid Striders Gavin Long, Andy Bryant and myself tackled the challenging Edale Skyline fell race last Sunday. The Skyline follows a natural circular route round the village of Edale in the Peak District. The race starts just outside Edale with a climb up Ringing Roger, then a run over Jaggers Clough to Win Hill followed by a descent to the village of Hope, then a long climb up Lose Hill. The race route then leads over to Hollins Cross and up the busy tourist attraction (you can park not far from the top) that is Mam Tor. At this stage you are over half way round and most of the big climbs are out of the way, but the race becomes more challenging as after following a path to the Lords Seat, there is a long boggy path to follow which climbs up to Brown Knoll, and this saps energy levels. Over to Jacobs Ladder, and a climb up the Swine's Back is followed by a difficult route for tired legs over boggy and rocky terrain to Grindslow Knoll and then back round to Ringing Roger. Your efforts are then rewarded by a straightforward descent back down to Edale - or it would be straightforward without the previous 20 miles in your legs. We were blessed with fantastic sunny weather and a cloudless sky making navigation straightforward. The views must have been spectacular but little time was spent admiring them as the focus was on remaining upright. Sunbathing at the finish was lovely with time to appreciate the surroundings – then it was off to the village hall for tea, soup and cakes. We somehow managed to find time for a pint afterwards and then it was off home with Gavin displaying his fantastic ability to drop off to sleep anywhere. Special thanks to Paul Burgess for acting as driver – the plan was Paul would take it easy having a recce of the Kinder Downfall – the plan didn’t quite work as we ended up waiting for him as he managed to run almost twice the race distance of the Downfall doing a bit of exploring. All in all it was a grand day out.