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Ultras · United Kingdom · England

Montane Winter Spine (Spine Race)

Full
Entry has closed for this year. Entry for the full Spine is sold out; the race site offers a waiting list. The race page itself still reads "Check back soon for entry details on this race" in the static page.
Race dateJanuary 10-16, 2027
Duration7 days
Start8:00am
Whenin 74 days
First held2012

Who's going to Montane Winter Spine (Spine Race)?

Free. You can start with nothing.

Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this. Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.
Distance The race
268 miles
Climb The race
35,210 ft
Descent The race
35,896 ft
High point
not checked yet
Time limit The race
156:00:00
Aid stations
9
Started
151
Finished
88
Finish rate
58%
The course

Where it goes point to point · 9 aid stations

Full Pennine Way, Edale to Kirk Yetholm, 268 miles, 156 hours.

Described as Britain's Most Brutal endurance race. Daytime 0 to 10C, night -10 to 2C, 8 hours of daylight in January. Deep snow, storm force winds and driving rain are expected.

The race

What this one is

A non-stop, 268 mile race along the Pennine Way from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders, in January. Unsupported, with checkpoints, a 156 hour limit and a mandatory kit list.

Getting in

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

Lottery
not checked yet
Lottery opens
not checked yet
Lottery draw
not checked yet
Field cap
150 thespinerace.com
Registration
Race website thespinerace.com
Qualifying
Complete a mountain, hill or moorland ultra over 100 miles, or a Montane Spine Challenger event. Otherwise other experience is vetted by the Race Director; the full-race list on the qualification page says an ultra over 80 miles or a Challenger North or South finish qualifies automatically. thespinerace.com
Minimum age
21 thespinerace.com
Transfers
not checked yet
Deferrals
not checked yet
Crew access, pacers and drop bags

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Crew allowed
No thespinerace.com
Vehicles per runner
not checked yet
Pacers
No thespinerace.com
Muling
not checked yet
Drop bags
Yes thespinerace.com
Cupless
not checked yet
Course marking
GPX Required thespinerace.com
Night running
Yes thespinerace.com
Dogs
not checked yet
Headphones
not checked yet
Crew rules
Outside support is strictly prohibited. Private support vehicles may not follow you. Friends and family may cheer once during the race and must not hand over food, drink or other items. thespinerace.com
Pacer rules
Pacing is not allowed. thespinerace.com
Drop bag rules
Resupply (drop) bags are moved checkpoint to checkpoint by the race. Every bag must weigh no more than 20kg. thespinerace.com
Cutoff philosophy
Cut-off times are strictly enforced. Maximum 6 hours at each main checkpoint and 30 minutes at monitoring locations. thespinerace.com
Aid stations

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes   ○ no   ? nobody has checked   – does not apply to this race

Mile Station Cutoff Crew access Bag Pacer Med To next
? Edale (start) ? ? ? ? ? ?
? Hebden Hey (CP1) ? ○ ● ? ● ?
? Malham Tarn ? ? ? ? ? ?
? Hawes (CP2) ? ○ ● ? ● ?
? Langdon Beck (CP3) ? ○ ● ? ● ?
? Alston (CP4) ? ○ ● ? ● ?
? Bellingham (CP5) ? ○ ● ? ● ?
? Byrness ? ? ? ? ? ?
? Kirk Yetholm (finish) ? ? ? ? ? ?
What it looks like out there

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

Nobody has been out there with a camera or a microphone yet. A gap means nobody has found it, not that it is not out there. Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send us the link.

Add to this page

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

Leave blank if it applies to the whole race.

Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Optional. Something like “Cal Street, mile 62 to 78”.

Write it the way you would say it to someone at the start line.

Optional, and it decides nothing. It only tells the next runner where this is coming from.

Optional.

Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this note.

Leave this field blank.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.

This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.

Optional. Filled in for you when you start from a specific line on the page.

Copy it as it appears, so we can find it.

The corrected value.

Required. Where it came from: the race email, the runner manual, what you saw on the day.

Optional.

Optional. A screenshot or a photo of the sign works.

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Optional.

Optional, only so we can come back to you about this correction.

Leave blank if it is about the whole race.

Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Leave this field blank.

Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.

Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.

Required. A line is plenty. Where the climbs are, what the footing does, what the last twenty miles look like.

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Optional.

Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this one.

A YouTube link, a race report, a photo gallery, whatever it is.

Optional, and we credit them on the page.

Leave this field blank.

Have the GPX? Send us the link.

We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.

The page or file on the race's own site.

Optional, and only so we can ask you a question about it.

Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.

We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.

Required, because this is a conversation and we write back.

Tell us what is wrong, out of date, or missing on this page. We read every one of these and we will get back to you.

Optional.

So we know who we are writing back to.

Optional. Director, assistant, comms, whoever you are.

Leave this field blank.

Where this came from. Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 113 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
47% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.
See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know
Were you out there? Say which stops a text got out from
Got footage of this course? Send us the link
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
Anything else: [email protected]

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.

Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.

No account, and nothing to cancel.

What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.

I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.

Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.

No account, and nothing to cancel.

What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.

I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.