Skyrunning has firmly embedded itself into the Australian and New Zealand trail scene via events such as the Hillary and Mt Difficulty in New Zealand and Buller, Buffalo and the new Vertical K happening next weekend in Australia. While these races do an admirable job emulating their bigger-mountain cousins in the northern hemisphere, the epitome – not to mention the origins – of Skyrunning is found in Italy and within the hearts and minds of founders, Lauri van Houten and Marino Giacometti….
This editorial appears in the latest edition of Trail Run Mag (Ed #18), downloadable for FREE here. You can also purchase a subscription on iTunes for your iPad/iPhone or Kindle Fire. Have you ever bought a new car, perhaps something slightly unusual, and all of a sudden that’s all you see on the roads? Suddenly all you see are burgundy Toyota Tercels everywhere, like a Clone War of obscure imported All Wheel Drive station wagons? What about a new sport? …
This editorial appears in the latest edition of Trail Run Mag (Ed #18), downloadable for FREE here. You can also purchase a subscription on iTunes for your iPad/iPhone or Kindle Fire. Rebellion hath furthered many a righteous cause. And sometimes I’m glad that there are rebels in our midst risking angry lectures from park rangers at best, prosecution at worst, to forge new singletrack under a canopy of anonymity. Those who are by day law-abiding, tax paying, voting citizens, become…
Editorial: AU Editor Chris Ord looks at the balance, or lack of, in his trail running lifestyle. This editorial appears in the current edition (17) of Trail Run Mag, downloadable for FREE here. In my natural state, I am chaotic, unorganised, and essentially a lazy individual. But sometimes life demands more of you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still that same person sitting on the couch, eating fish and chips and ice cream watching endless episodes of Breaking Bad, wondering if…
Dan Lewis gets the Jedi mind trick low downs from those wielding the sabres of trail talent… Brendan Davies, former winner of The North Face 100, says his thick new beard makes him look more intimidating and protects his face from the elements in his native Blue Mountains, but it is not a secret weapon in his bid to win the prestigious race again this weekend. “It just seems to be all the rage in ultra-trail running now,” Davies said…
Over the last four weeks, we’ve run a competition in partnership with The North Face, daring trail runners to bare their deepest, perhaps darkets, hopefully funniest secret from on trail. A confessional of sorts that gives insight into the weird and wonderful things that happen out on trail, be that physically or in the farthest reaches of your minds (which trail running, especially endurance trail, tends to reach into!). The judges from The North Face have laughed and blushed through…
Dan Lewis previews this year’s The North Face 100, with an A-Z guide of the iconic 100km Blue Mountains trail running event (May 15-17) that attracts elite athletes from around the world. IMAGES: Incite Images / Mark Watson A is for AROC Sport, the organisation that runs TNF100 each year and started it in 2008. B is for Kilian Jornet Burgada, the freakish Spanish trail runner who won the 2011 TNF100. B is also for the cherished belt buckles awarded…
I believe the children are our future. Sure, Whitney Houston may not have gone on to be the greatest role model of all time, but her lyrics hold truths far greater than her kitschiness. Teach them well and let them lead the way. That’s it – you gotta show them what’s possible if they are going to be able to lead the way. Check all those kids setting themselves up for thumb arthritis as they ‘play’ on screens. Worse,…
Vicki Woolley, NZ editor’s column from the latest edition of Trail Run Mag. The other day I picked up a crappy cheap canvas board from The Warehouse, plain black with blue writing: “ONE DAY CAN BEND YOUR LIFE”. It’s not hanging on the wall yet, oddly, I move it around the house every few days. Even now as I glance at it propped up against my computer table, I am simultaneously empowered and humbled. The course of my life bent…
Growing up I was interested in a lot of things that my peers weren’t and a fairly mundane chain of decisions led me to university. I’ll never forget going back to the town where I grew up, having a beer with a mate who’d decided to be a tradesman. He couldn’t wrap his head around how I could “be so smart”. That is, how I could get through the lectures, readings and assessment involved in being a tertiary student. I…
