108 mile racers survive winter’s worst

The Oldham Mountain Rescue Team competitors, from left, David Wyatt, Nicky Torr, Iain Airth and Chris Maylor.

A braveheart mother and three colleagues have successfully completed Britain’s most brutal mountain race for charity.

Described as “almost perfect in its cruelty” the 108-mile Mountain rescue Team Spine Challenger race from Edale to Hawes along the Pennine Way is a quest attempted by only the hardiest individuals, a trial of physical fitness, hill craft and mental strength, run alongside the public “Spine Challenger” event.

This year the inaugural MRT Challenger race was contested by 20 Mountain Rescue team members from teams along the Pennine Way.

Matt Torr, Oldham MRT’s chairman from Delph, set up and coordinated the MRT Challenger race: “I intended to be on the start line but was injured in December and had to pull out,” he said. His wife Nicky (42) and team treasurer David Wyatt stepped in to take part, joining the OMRT team with Iain Airth (Dukinfield), Chris Maylor (Royton) and Paul Mayall (Mossley).

“The race lived up to its reputation,” said Matt. “It was reasonably benign at the start but the weather played its part north of the halfway point at Hebden Bridge. Severe conditions made progress very slow on exposed sections of the route. Blizzards and driving winds tested physical and mental strength to breaking point, and conditions underfoot were as tough as they could be, due to the amount of rainfall over the past month.

“Large sections of the route were thick with mud or running water, higher and more exposed areas in deep snow or covered in ice.”

Repeated falls forced Paul Mayall to retire after 55 miles with a knee injury and the onset of hypothermia. The others made it to the finish in Hawes after almost two days of hardship.

David, Nicky and Chris finished in 47.5 hours — 4th place; Iain an hour later in 7th place.

MRT teams from Oldham, Calder Valley, Glossop and Holme Valley ran aid stations along the route to supply drinks and support to 160 racers.

Oldham MRT has a fundraising page set up for the race via: www.justgiving.com/OMRT-SpineTeam2016