From Marathon to Ultra….. The OCC

katy dartford France-based journalist

Last week I successfully completed by first official “Ultra Marathon” (ie anything over the distance of 50km.) The OCC or Orsières – Champex – Chamonix, is designed to offer something for those fairly new to Ultra running as its considered a middle distance race, (Trail Ultra Medium (M) between 42km and 69km). Mountain running is something I’ve…

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Chasing Waterfalls

katy dartford France-based journalist

I recently had an invite to watch the fourth and only French round of the World Cup in La Plagne and chat to team GB coach Andy Turner, as well as have a go at climbing the ice tower. This gave me the excuse to learn some of the skills of ice climbing that I’d been…

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Social Space: Climbing clubs and social media

katy dartford France-based journalist

I was recently asked by the British Mountaineering Council ( being the “social media expert” that I am ) to do a little investigation into social media and climbing clubs: do clubs still have a role to play in the digital age? I thought it would be best to ask the people and clubs I…

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Crevasse drop in the Vallee Blanche…

katy dartford France-based journalist

A few weeks ago, it was a blue sky, powder day in Chamonix and three of my friends decided to ski the Grand Envers route on the Vallee Blanche. All extremely good skiers, I waved them off and thought nothing of it, until another friend phoned me, asking if I knew where they were as…

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Top Ten Fearsome Fell Runs

I’ve been enjoying quite a bit of hiking and mountain running lately – so was rather pleased to put together a list of top fell runs for the BMC’s Summit Magazine: Top 10 Fearsome Fell Runs ( I know I’m going to have to try out a few very soon….)

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