The hardest part for Nepali trail runners is getting to the start line. There are few races in Nepal that offer real learning experiences for elite runners. To get the the top as a trail runner, you have run with the best trail runners. Roger Henke explains it well at the end of this blog […]
Manaslu Trail Race 2015 – words and images by Mark Brightwell The race starts in gloomy greyness at Soti Khola, 700m above sea level and flanked by the roaring waters of the Bhudi Gandaki. We will follow this river to its source at the snout of a glacier below the towering twin summits of Manaslu […]
UPDATE: Bishnu got a visa, and is flying to Hong Kong on 02DEC! It’s nice, we’re filling in the visa application form together. “It’s beautiful,” she says, thumbing through the pages of the passport. Phunchok from the Himalayan Children’s Foundation is observing, nodding. Bishnu Maya is staying at the home they have with nearly 100 […]
Home! Finished in 49:55hrs. Thanks every one for the messages and good wishes. And huge thanks to Mark Brightwell for running with me all night and listening to me hiccup for the last 6 hours. I’m hitting the shower and then bed. #Team7Hills Congratulations Seth. This is 50 hours of effort with no sleep. Great […]
“The stupid Official Volunteer directed Kiran to turn right instead of straight towards the dam. He thought the route might have changed, but they ended back at the starting point losing 1 hr 5 mins,” said coach Ramesh Bhattachan, “While going downhill Ras slipped and hurt his right thigh. Anyway they carried on till Check Point 8 Tai […]
Note: since 2019 there is a race along part of this route!! See Gosaikunda to Helambu Trail Race for map and GPS tracks. Our decision to walk from Dhunche to Kathmandu over the Tihar weekend was based partly on aesthetics and partly on pragmatism. Aside from the undeniable beauty of the Gosaikunda lakes and the spectacular […]
Happy news. It has long been known that Nepal has some fantastic trail runners that are world class, but they lack opportunities to compete. Travelling out of Nepal to race is simply expensive. Enter our hero Matt Moroz and China Mountain Trails. Matt first came to Nepal for the Mustang Trail Race. There he met […]
It’s not an official ISF sanctioned Vertical Kilometre race, but fulfils the criteria and is beautiful to boot. Hard work though, because of the altitude – from about 3500m to 4800m, we’ll update with the GPX track data later. But here are some of the photos from that stage of the Manaslu Mountain Trail Race […]
As trail runners we can certainly spend a moment to reflect what we can do with our legs and what that means for us. We can probably also try to image what suffering a serious injury or loss of a limb might mean. This happened to many people at the time of the earthquake, who were hit […]
This is a fundraiser to help restore Nepal’s damaged heritage sites. This is a great idea, to sell wonderful historic prints from the Nepal photography archive, and Peace Corps volunteers, to raise money for this specific cause. Click the image below to see all of the images offered, and info about the deal with DHL […]
As mentioned a couple of weeks earlier, the Dolomites Skyrace organisation, and the mail winner together collected a sum of money to assist the victims of the earthquake. Mira had a think about where she wanted that money to go. She wanted to help other sisters and in particular runners. This is what Danielle of […]
Thanks to a generous sponsor we could invite a number of runners to travel a race on the 1st of August. The monsoon period can be beautiful in different kinds of ways: blue skies, crisp white clouds with clear views to mountains between, or, alternatively, lukewarm cloud meeting mud. For the 18km race on the 1st August, the […]
This message left on the Trail Running Nepal website from Bruno. at http://www.irunfornepal.com/en/ He says: Hi Everyone, We’re releasing Today the first virtual race that sync automatically the runs to create a final valid leaderboard. We have partenered with Oxfam Intermón and 100% of donations will go to them to support Nepal. After a few months […]
It’s August 7th, approximately half way through the monsoon. Heavy rains cause big and small landslides through this period and generally people don’t travel much from the villages and everybody waits until the rains are over before doing anything substantial. Many people have been asking about safety for trekking in Nepal this coming season. Two […]
“I enjoyed it immensely. It’s a once in a lifetime race,” said Tite Togni, Mira’s big sister and mentor in Italy, about the Dolomites Skyrace which took place this weekend. Mira took part and finished 14th female in the 22km event comprising of a massive climb then descent at blistering pace. It’s a different game to […]
27th June 2015 Sindhupalchowk hosted a trail race on Saturday 27th and it was a great experience. Buoyed by the news of Mira Rai’s race win in France the day before, some 20 foreigners and 100+ locals gathered to race. It started only about half an hour late, which is the price you pay for […]
She ran the last 12km hard, she says, but for the rest, just “enjoying”, the “wow, beautiful place”, and revelling in this “great chance I have.” That mixture of a little bit of hard running and a lot of appreciation gave rise to a spectacular victory last Friday in the 80km Mont Blanc Ultra in […]
UPDATE: Follow Mira’s next race online on Facebook as it happens this Friday 26th June. An update from Lloyd Belcher who earlier this year took on the project of making a short film about Mira Rai, a trail runner with an extraordinary story. A description of the project can be found on the small crowdfunding website we […]
Newsflash…. On 27th June, there will be a 29km running race with shorter events of 15km and 1km. It’s a fund raiser and morale boosting event for the communities living near Thulo Sirubari in Sindhupalchowk. The Minister for Youth and Sport Purushottam Paudel has confirmed his attendance. French Ambassador has been invited also. Here is the […]
Just back from a few days in glorious Dhorpatan in Baglung district. The name comes from the flat meadows above the ~4000m high tree-line, which are locally known as patans, and the marshy flat open valley next to which the village itself sits called dhor. If you are a slightly adventurous trekker, trail runner or mountain biker, I can […]
Even bigger version here. This is the staged trail race around the Annapurna Circuit, largely following the off the beaten track ‘New Annapurna Trekking Trails’, that we’re excited to be running in collaboration with Seth Wolpin and Wide Open Vistas. Right away, here are some facts and figures: Nine stages 272km 14750m elevation change 5400m highest […]
Trail Running Nepal newsletter May 16th 2015 To say Nepal is going through difficult times at the moment would be an understatement. The web is filled with images and stories about the tragedy. Right now, just before the weekend comes though, we wanted to share two more positive stories from Nepal published in the Guardian […]
Good job Mira Rai and Samir Tamang for together writing another page in the drama-filled story of Nepali trail runners. Here they are leaving from Nepal for the Buffalo Stampede Skyrunning race in Australia. As one indignant (but fairly correct) commenter on Facebook put it, arriving one day before the competition showed “very bad managements”. […]
UPDATE >>>> https://trailrunningnepal.org/oceania-skyrunning-championships/ What a mess. At the time of writing it is one hour until the end of Delhi’s office hours, and an hour left for an email to come saying an Australian visa has been granted for three Nepali athletes – Mira, Purna and Samir. Hope has faded – 16:21… Everybody here knows how […]
The Everest Sky Race is one of the original multi-stage trail races in Nepal organised by Bruno Poirier and his team of Chevaliers du Vent and Amazones du Ciel. Always original, always changing, the routes are very challenging, not fearing to take the highest altitudes trails possible. You can download full information here: ESR 2015. Dossier […]
You may have heard of Mira Rai via this mailing list and elsewhere no doubt. It’s now March and fast approaching the 4th Himalayan Outdoor Festival 2015 of which the 50km West Kathmandu Valley Rim trail race is a part. This race last year was the first ultra trail race that Mira Rai had ever run. By chance, […]
For this varied audience just a note about what Skyrunning is. The name is gives a big clue, and as another has put it, “Skyrunning is the brave and burly cousin of trail running.” There are rules about what makes a Skyrunning course, but essentially it means running on trails at high altitudes with a […]
Just send out a new newsletter which you may have missed. It lists, with images, some of the new ultra trail races happening in Kathmandu this year. Trail running in Kathmandu is coming to life with now 4 x 50km races, an 80km course (UTMB 2 points) and several upcoming 10-30km fun Saturday events […]
A race directors nightmare, waking up to the sound of winter rain in the morning in the days running up to the race date. The forecast gave 60% chance of rain, and the forecast was right – a couple of days of wet weather in an otherwise guaranteed settled period of crisp, clear winter sun. […]
Thanks to Kristian Soltesz from Sweden for helping you all out with a report from his trip to the Everest Region of Nepal in the hope that it will make it easier for preparing your own trip. Thanks Kris! After an attempt of running/fastpacking the GHT in 2014, which ended in a dislocated shoulder and […]