The co-founder of the female-only firm discusses how her group promotes security and independence for feminine mountain runners
Because the darkish winter nights proceed, the considered lacing up your trainers and heading out into the chilliness can really feel daunting – particularly for girls.
The problem of staying secure whereas operating is one thing that many ladies face, and it may be much more pronounced in distant areas, just like the terrains of mountains, the place the isolation can really feel much more intense.
That sense of unease, particularly as nightfall falls, is without doubt one of the explanation why ultra-runner Keri Wallace, alongside pal Nancy Kennedy, determined to take issues into their very own palms in 2018, founding a trails and mountain operating group completely for girls within the Scottish Highlands – Women on Hills.
Primarily based in Glencoe, the female-only group focuses on path, fell and skyrunning. The pair additionally rapidly realised there was a broader want for not simply operating, but in addition run hill-walking, navigation and mountain security occasions.
Keri Wallace (B Chalmers)
Quick ahead to right now and their enterprise has blossomed into an inclusive and empowering neighborhood, boasting over 21,000 followers on Instagram. The group now extends its attain past the Highlands, internet hosting programs throughout the UK’s different nationwide parks, together with Snowdonia and the Lake District.
The mission of Women on Hills is obvious: to equip girls with the arrogance and abilities wanted to navigate the mountains independently and safely. The sense of security is one thing that Wallace, an elite ultra-runner and mountain chief, personally understands.
Her newest achievement concerned operating the whole size of the West Highland Means – Scotland’s oldest nationwide path, measuring 154km and involving a climb of 4312m. She accomplished the run with out a single cease and with the important gear supplied by Petzl, together with head torches for the darkish days and nights.
What does Women on Hills contain?
We take girls out on guided runs, but in addition guided hill strolling. We train navigation abilities and winter abilities so that ladies can proceed to get out within the winter surroundings and don’t need to really feel like they’ve bought to cease as quickly because it begins to snow.
We additionally run retreats the place we exit and get actually muddy, have a run after which prepare dinner our personal dinner. It’s about getting girls collectively for adventurous weekends and making a social area for outside actions in an surroundings the place it’s actually supportive. There’s much less of a pushing of tempo and it’s not a aggressive surroundings.
I feel plenty of folks don’t essentially like the concept of getting a single, gender group and suppose that it’s creating extra division than inclusivity. However really, it might present a very good stepping stone for individuals who don’t essentially really feel assured in a combined group.
Keri Wallace (B Chalmers)
Why did you resolve to begin the Women on Hills group?
Nancy Kennedy and I each based it as we knew one another via operating and each lived in Glencoe. I had only recently had youngsters and left my day job and we bought right into a dialog concerning the feedback from girls we each get, which is often them telling us they want they might do what we do.
We began to suppose there’s fairly an enormous hole between what folks suppose we’re doing and what we are literally doing. There was a way that ladies felt they couldn’t do it so we thought it could be good to set one thing up the place we may take extra girls out operating within the hills, within the trails, and attempt to construct a little bit of that confidence up. It was very a lot a small aspect hustle and we didn’t have a fantastic plan for it to grow to be a enterprise in its personal proper.
We solely had a number of guided runs within the first yr however it simply grew and grew and inside a few years it grew to become our principal job. It was all the time about getting extra girls out within the hills and empowering them with the talents and confidence to grow to be extra unbiased in that surroundings.
Why is it vital to encourage girls to participate?
We do see that there’s a participation hole in path operating and it’s lower than it was. The hole is nearly non-existent in path operating, it’s lowering on a regular basis, which is implausible. Whenever you get to extra technical path operating, mountain operating, skyrunning, extremely operating, you continue to see that hole fairly considerably.
You would possibly have a look at an extremely distance race and see solely 12% of the sphere is feminine. I feel it’s so multi-layered and a few of it comes from a cultural throwback to when it was the norm that ladies didn’t do this stuff. Should you return to climbing, mountaineering, racing, even operating marathons, girls weren’t allowed to compete. So, tright here was a way that ladies shouldn’t do this stuff and we weren’t actually succesful – it was a person’s factor.
It’s not utterly gone, there’s nonetheless parts of that. Women are nonetheless introduced up quite a lot of the time pondering that they’re not as bodily succesful as boys or that sport isn’t for women as a lot as it’s for boys – it’s a grassroots drawback.
I took this up as a passion in my 20’s as a result of it wasn’t a factor once I was a child in school. However the alternatives are actually growing and we’re, beginning to see that change within the media now. We’ve bought implausible feminine function fashions and we’re beginning to see girls can actually do these longer distances and we’ve bought attributes that make us actually good at lengthy distance operating. There’s plenty of implausible progress, however we’re not utterly there but.
Petzl
How did you get into mountain operating?
I’ve all the time been actually sporty, however in school it was conventional college sports activities and staff sports activities. I grew up within the West Nation in Cornwall and I moved to Scotland with my now husband in 2008. I’d simply not lengthy gotten into path operating and mountain climbing earlier than I moved as much as Scotland. I used to be a late comer to the sport in some methods, however I went straight into mountain operating and mixed my mountain climbing with my path operating ardour. Shifting to Glencoe, I had this superb playground.
I’d been doing that for a decade or so earlier than I began Women on Hills. So it was very a lot a ardour undertaking.
What’s your greatest achievement?
A couple of years in the past I ran the UK Sky Operating Collection and I got here third feminine in that which was an actual achievement for me. I felt like that was actually cool to have gotten a full collection accomplished and to be on the rostrum. I did the Winter Tranter Spherical and set a brand new FKT for that a number of years in the past which may be very very like a winter fell operating spherical.
I additionally tried some alpine racing in 2023, I ran the Extremely Tour Monte Rosa, which was my first 100-mile mountain race and got here fifth feminine in that, which was superior. Not too long ago, I did the West Highland Means and I’ve been shifting in the direction of doing extra solo unsupported issues partly as a result of it suits fairly effectively with the ethos of Women on Hills to point out that ladies can get out and do issues with out having to really feel like they want exterior assist.
Do you’ve gotten any function fashions and who’re they?
I work with Nicky Spinks quite a lot of the time and she or he’s a large function mannequin for me notably as a result of she’s nonetheless on the market within the 55 plus class, smashing data and setting new occasions and successful races. It’s a large inspiration to me to see that I don’t want to surrender operating anytime quickly.
I feel it goes with out saying however Jasmin Paris is an exceptional function mannequin for us. We had her come alongside to our extremely operating path abilities weekend in November and she or he was completely phenomenal as a result of she was simply so relatable. She’s all the time actually modest however she’s a superb function mannequin for girls.
Petzl
Do you’re employed with a headlamp model?
Women on Hills works with Petzl when it comes to a model partnership and we’ve all the time used their head torches. They supply us with a pool of head torches, which allows us to provide all people who comes on a winter course a very good head torch to make use of as a result of clearly we now have quite a lot of darkness.
In my very own private operating challenges, I’ve used their equipment. Once I did the West Highland Means in winter just lately, it was 17 dead nights, which is a reasonably very long time so I wanted multiple head torch for that. I used to be very well positioned with all the top torches and batteries that they had supplied me.
The torch that I used to be utilizing was the Swift RL Headlamp which is tremendous ridiculously vivid so that you virtually really feel such as you’re operating in daylight at occasions.
Why is it vital to make use of good high quality headlamps when operating?
I’m really fairly afraid of the darkish and plenty of girls are. You’re operating alongside pondering of all of the worst issues that would occur and having a very vivid head torch, understanding that it’s dependable, is an enormous a part of it for serving to me really feel extra assured.
There’s a actual private security difficulty for girls operating at evening. In rural areas, the paths are very quiet however the statistics present there’s not the identical form of stage of danger than in city areas, but we nonetheless see folks being nervous to run at the hours of darkness and run within the winter months. I feel having actually good tools and with the ability to belief that tools helps construct a little bit of confidence in going out and nonetheless feeling like you possibly can run within the winter.
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