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UTWT 2019 Episode 4 
Fourth Episode of our series following the 2019 Edition of the Ultra Trail World Tour. This episode is dedicated to two exceptional races on two different continents : the Madeira Island Ultra Trail on the Portuguese Island located in the Atlantic Ocean with top runners such as François d’Haene or Tim Tollefson and the Ultra Trail Mount Fuji in Japan.

Bikingman Peru
The ultimate unsupported cycling exploration races on earth! BikingMan Peru (Inca Divide) cameras followed athletes as they ride unsupported over 1,800 kms in under 12 days. The extremes of altitude make this one of the toughest tests of human endurance on the planet.

Swansea Triathlon 2019
The Swansea Triathlon takes place in Wales’s second city and offers an exciting sprint distance race for elite and age-group athletes. 800 athletes have signed up to this hugely popular event and Rugby legend Gareth Thomas is doing his first ever triathlon.

Walks Around Britain – Alderney Forts / Lanercost Priory
It might be tiny, but the Channel Island of Alderney packs a fantastic punch of wildlife and military history – and this first walk has both in buckets.  Discover why Andrew calls this “The Alderney Forts Walk”.
Then take in both the ruins of Lanercost Priory and the very much intact Lanercost Priory Church, before walking along part of the 84 mile Hadrian’s Wall Path on this lovely walk through the Cumbrian landscape.

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Marathon des Sables 2019 – The film
The MARATHON DES SABLES is a foot race, open to runners and walkers, with several stages, free style, and with food self-sufficiency over a distance of about 250 Km. Each participant must carry his/her own backpack containing food, sleeping gear and other material. The 34th Edition brought more than 1000 competitors in the Moroccan desert for a 250 km and 6 stages race.

Dave Goes west
Dave Goes West is an experimental adventure / comedy documentary about a man from Derbyshire running 10 marathons in 10 days despite his own physical limitations and lack of proper training. The story of this film began one day in the pub. The film’s Director, Joe O’Connor, asked his old friend Dave if he thought he could run 10 marathons in 10 days. Dave thought about for about three seconds before replying ‘Let’s do this!’

Ice Climbing – Olga Kosek: My First Finals
Polish climber Olga Kosek is enjoying an excellent 2018-2019 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour with highlights so far coming with her first Lead finals appearances at the World Cups in Beijing and Rabenstein. Kosek reflects on her climb in China, discussing route analysis with Liam Lonsdale.

Walks Around Britain – Glen Wyllin / York to Riccall
A first walk which takes in part of the miles of closed railway lines on the Isle of Man, before detouring along part of the island’s coastal path… oh and there’s two beautiful glens along the way too.
Just one part of the massive Trans Pennine Trail, this second walk between York and the village of Riccall is perfect for children as it is flat throughout… and has the added benefit of having scale models of the Solar System along the way…

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Salomon Golden Trail World Series 2019 – Round 1,
Zegama – Aizkorri
Taking place in the Basque region of Spain, this exclusive mountain marathon has truly legendary status, with thousands of supporters on the streets and even on the high summits, roaring on the competitors. It’s also a new occasion to admire the stunning performance of the “ultraterrestrial” Kilian Jornet.

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly 2019
The 2019 ÖTILLÖ Isles of Scilly World Series swimrun race was nerve-wracking until the long swim from St Martins. This fourth edition of this race had the top teams in the mens category dog-fighting all the way until the long swim to St Mary’s. For the Sunday World Series race 116 teams of two from 20 nations braved the 37,2 kilometres long course – 29km of trail running and 8,3 km of swimming – was a true test, alternating technical trail running with long, challenging stretches of open-water swimming. A total of 10 runs and 8 swims.

Ice Climbing – Route Analysis with Enni Bertling
Finish female ice climber Enni Bertling provides tactical analysis on her historic bronze medal climb in Beijing in January 2019 which secured a first ever UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup medal for Finland. Interview with Liam Lonsdale.

Walks Around Britain Season – La Grève de Lecq to Devil’s hole / La Corbière
A first outstanding coastal walk along the north cliffs of Jersey, from the wonderful beach at La Grève de Lecq to the fascinating Devil’s Hole. Prepare for many rise and falls along the way – but the scenery is staggering.
A second walk along the extreme south west coastline of Jersey – taking in several German World War IIbuildings and heading back along one of Jersey’s old railway lines.  And if you get the tide timings right, there’s a walk across to a stunning lighthouse too…

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Ibiza Marathon 2019
Ibiza Marathon really makes a difference among the outstanding European marathons. It is held in the evening so that runners can enjoy the spectacular views of the most international island in Spain. The Ibiza 21K + 21K Relay is a new race that complements the Ibiza Marathon and has been designed so that two participants share the experience of completing the 42,195m course. A parallel 12 km race completes the proposal of Ibiza Marathon so that all running enthusiasts can experience the island in a different way with a route passing through the most popular spots in the island.

XTERRA Taiwan 2019
Lets fly to Taiwan for what is tagged amongst the toughest triathlon championships in the world. XTERRA Asia Pacific signalled the start of the 2019 Asia Pacific Tour, and some of the best triathletes on the globe gathered in Kenting – an adventure tourism destination in southern Taiwan; which provided an amazing landscape for this off-road race.

Film : Monkey See Monkey Do
This collection of four films features world class climbing from the UK, Canada and Madagascar.

Slate Monkeys
Matt Segal, Hazel Findlay and Johnny Dawes take it in turn to crimp, palm, squirm and wriggle their way up the esoteric route, Gin Palace. But whose technique will prove successful?

Single-Handed
Kevin Shields is known as the ‘one handed climber’. Despite being born with most of his left hand missing Kevin has shocked the climbing world with some daring and inspirational ascents.

Little Big-Walling in Madagascar
The West Face of Karimbony in the Tsaranoro Massif is home to one of the world’s hardest big-wall free climbs, “Tough Enough?”. James McHaffie and a team of top UK climbers head to Madagascar to find out if this route is indeed tough enough.

Hey Presto
World class climber Sonnie Trotter teams up with world class belayer Cory Richards to take on the Squamish classic, ‘Presto’.
DIRECTED BY PAUL DIFFLEY

Walks Around Britain – Tresco / Caer Caradoc
The small island of Tresco is one of the Isles of Scilly – and has some fascinating heritage and wonderful Caribbean-like beaches – all you’ll discover on this short walk.  The route is a linear walk, and finishes at New Grimsby for the boat back to St Mary’s.  Check as you come ashore the return ferry is from New Grimsby – if not, you need to walk back to Carn Near.
The second walk is from the town of Church Stretton to the top of one of the most famous hills in Shropshire – Caer Caradoc.  And you can even walk to it straight from the railway station too!

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Salomon Golden Trail 2018 review and preview of 2019
This programme looks back at the 2018 Salomon Golden Trail series dropping in at the most amazing mountain races in the world where the world’s best trail-runners such as Kilian Jornet, Sage Canaday, Thibaut Baronian, Emelie Forsnerg, Ida Nilsson, Ruth Croft among many others experience local culture and are challenged by spectacular landscapes.

The secrets of the Trento film festival
The secrets of the oldest and most prestigious mountain film festival are revealed in this exciting exclusive interview with Sergio Fant, head of film programming at the Trento Film Festival. Sergio touches the main outdoor film topics such as, the environment, the increasing role of women climbers and film directors, recent climbing tragedies, sports mountaineering and valuable insights on the criteria for choosing a film and a lot more.

Ultimate Tsaigu Trail 2019
With a strong international presence, 2019 Ultimate TsaiGu Trail has established itself among the biggest professional ultra trail races in China. The course is located in the Kuocang Mountains of Linhai City, where the roads are rugged and the vegetation is dense. The route is composed of sand tracks, forest fire roads, gravel roads through streams as well as old highways. The race starts and ends at Xingshanmen Square in Linhai Ancient Great Wall Scenic Area. This year there were three races of 110 kilometers, 80 kilometers and 50 kilometers. The longest route included a total descent of 6,600 meters over 10 mountain peaks each over 1,000 meters height.

Walks Around Britain
Ningwood to Yarmouth / Huggate to Thixendale
The full Isle of Wight Coastal Path is a 67 mile trek all around the island… but there are fantastic short walks taking in parts of the Coast Path, like this one.  Starting from Ningwood inland, the walk joins the Coastal Path all the way to the harbour town of Yarmouth.
The second walk is a short walk along part of the 79 mile Yorkshire Wolds Way, from Huggate to Thixendale – proving there’s great little walks to be done along the epic lengths of England and Wales’ National Trails.

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While an avalanche backpack can keep the victim breathing and alive until rescuers arrive, another tool can play a critical role in locating the victim.

RECCO is not an Italian sea-side town (which is what shows up in Google searches) but rather a two-part system involving a reflector that allows a person to be located and a detector, typically used by rescue crews to search for avalanche victims. RECCO is a product that has been around for over 30 years, but is now starting to gain a much higher profile. RECCO labels are increasingly  shown alongside GoreTex tags. Recco is the annoying little bar that you can find integrated in high-end ski and mountain clothing—and now even in mainstream items — and that most people don’t even know that they have. Last year a skier was rescued in Switzerland thanks to a RECCO he didn’t even know he had in his jacket.   

Rescue crews around the world have Recco detectors, which have until recently were hand-held devices that are used by search and rescue crews on the ground, but now, thanks to further developments by the Swedish company, larger and more powerful detectors can be deployed on search and rescue helicopters, allowing rescuers to cover a much larger area in far less time. In the future, detectors will also be able to be mounted on drones that can cover areas where it is too difficult or dangerous to fly helicopters and to get much closer to victims. Frederik from the RECCO team explained how the device is not only being used for the most dramatic cases of avalanche rescue (only a small share of the persons rescued, as seen in the statistics from AiutAlpin), but also for who are people lost or injured in the woods, hikers, mushroom hunters, and particularly children.  A big growth segment for the installation of the reflector devices is in outdoor clothing for children 8-12 years of age, as these youngsters often like to ski or snowboard off-piste and go exploring in the woods, but cannot always find their way back.. With the expansion in the consumer segment, the way the RECCO reflectors are being sold has also changed as the interest in the product has grown. Now it is no longer necessary to buy a new jacket, as you can buy attachable RECCOs for helmets and backpacks—and my favourite—integrated into a wool-insulated cellphone pouch.

UTWT 2019 Episode 3
Third Episode of our series following the 2019 Edition of the Ultra Trail World Tour. This episode is dedicated to three exceptional races on two different continents : the 100 Miles of Istria Croatia, the Patagonia Run Argentina and the Penyagolosa Trails Spain.

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö 2019
The second race of the 2019 ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series on the beautiful island of Utö in Sweden was a fight to the bitter end. Tough, intense but beautiful. A little more than 650 competitors came out to participate in the start of the Swedish swimrun season and braved the cold water. For the Sunday World Series race the 40,3 kilometres course was a true test, alternating technical trail running with a total of eighteen (18) very, intense swims in some times 8 – 9 degree C water.

Film : The Long Hope
St John’s head on the Island of Hoy is a wild and remote 1150 foot sea cliff. It was first climbed in 1970 by climber and poet Ed Drummond together with Oliver Hill. They took 7 days to climb the cliff, sleeping on ledges and in hammocks along the way. Now, 40 years later, one of the World’s top climbers, Dave MacLeod, sets out to climb the cliff in a single day, finishing with a new desperately hard final pitch up the headwall. Macleod’s historic new climb, The film also follows Drummond, now in his late sixties and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as he makes a pilgrimage back to St John’s Head to look upon the route one last time.

Walks Around Britain – Silverdale Glen / Elter Water
1) A walk from the Isle of Man Steam Railway station of Balasalla, past the ruins of a medieval abbey and through one of the most green and secluded glens on the island.
2) Proof the Lake District isn’t all mountains and hill walks… this beautiful walk is one to do througout the seasons for the change the year brings.  Start at the Langdale Estate or Elterwater village and walk alongside Elter Water.

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ABP Newport Wales Marathon and 10K
The national marathon for Wales takes in the historic city of Newport. Elite racers battle for honours on the supremely flat and fast course, while behind them thousands enjoy the special spirit of this event. Organised by the same team who put on the massively successful Cardiff Half Marathon, this race has a great future with elite runners also taking on a 10K event and a family mile allowing anyone to get involved at any level.

Shanghai Half Marathon 2019
Welcome to Shanghai one of the most contemporaries City’s Of China well known for her tradition on Outdoor sports and mostly for the magnificent series of Half marathon, 10k run and the great Shanghai marathon. Under the same umbrella of the Half Marathon there was a 2.1 km Kids run which took place a day before the race. The route of the half marathon starts from Pudong’s Oriental Pearl TV Tower and pass through many famous places before finishing at the Oriental Sports Center.

A Colombian Mountain Jungle Adventure
No bikepacking this time for Michele but a very exciting hiking trip to discover remote parts of Colombia. Hiking from the remote city of Leticia on the border with Brazil and Peru to Bahia Solano on the Pacific Coast and then to the North of Colombia, Michele takes us through the Amazon Jungle, the Tatacoa Desert and the Palmari Natural Reserve. Discover the Pedra del Perrol, one of the biggest granite monoliths in the world, the intense canopy of the Amazonian jungle and a lot more….

Walks around Britain – Silverhow and Fishlake
Andrew walks us again through two easy walks. The first walk is a climb to the unassuming summit of Silver Howe above the village of Grasmere – the heart of Wordsworth country.  Prepare for quite a steep climb, but be rewarded with some of the best views in the Lake District – if you have the weather! In the second walk, you discover an old port, well-travelled dead Saints and a surprising old windmill on this short walk around the historic village of Fishlake, 8 miles east of Doncaster.

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Nepal – The other side of things
A unique spiritual voyage among the giant Himalayan mountains of Everest and Annapurna along ancient paths and across rivers, capturing the local beliefs to discover the marvels of an ancient mountain people in order to understand the meaning of self.

Cycling & Tasting
Our two cycling pros prepare for the Giro D’italia by cycling in one of the top wine growing areas of Italy – Barolo. During their training they stop and taste Barolo, Barbesco and other wines in the best wine cellars while also stealing sweets from a Torrone  factory…..The hills are splendid and the riding gourmand!

Bracciano & Surroundings
Visit the magnificent Odescalchi castle and historic town of Bracciano overlooking  volcanic lake Bracciano.  We take a long hike through the amazing countryside visiting numerous towns nestled among Hazelnut trees. Discover wonderful Bracciano and all the activity it has to offer.

Raid Amazones Sri Lanka 2018-2019 : The Film
RAID AMAZONES is a women-only adventure-sports camp, mixing team racing and local discovery that takes place in some of the most beautiful locations in the world. Raid Amazones provides a perfect mix of adventure, nature sports, teamwork and women power as well as social responsibility. In November 2018 and March 2019, Raid Amazones was in Sri Lanka.

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05.05.19 – ABP Newport Wales Marathon & 10K –

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Getting to ISPO was a bit of a challenge this year, due to long lines of lorries and piles of snow occupying one lane of the Brenner Autostrada, followed by the slowdowns as vehicles crept through the Austro-German border and heavy snowfall in Southern Bavaria. The snow and intense cold made it a test of fortitude and iron will to cut across the Munich Messe courtyards in order to get quickly from one immense hall to another….needless to say, not that many people lingered to check out the Nordisk tents that occupied part of the outdoor area….

Most of the major outdoor clothing and accessories brands have started paying attention to sustainability, not just from an all-important environmental perspective (what would our nature sports be without a protected environment!), but also focusing on larger circularity concepts and fair work and social issues. The increasing mainstreaming of sustainability in our sportswear and equipment is a positive trend, also reflecting the fact that consumers have started demanding more from their products than just functionality, performance and good appearance. There are brands like Patagonia and Schoeffel that pride themselves on their lifetime product repair services, understanding that the message of reuse rather than replacement may actually sell more clothes—or make their customers feel better about spending the extra euros on such products.

The message of sustainability was also seen in the new materials that have come on the market—one example is “THINDOWN” the world’s first and (as of yet) only down fabric that is 100% made in Italy. The fabric can be used in the place of poly-based fibre fillings in puffy jackets and winter clothing. THINDOWN is made entirely of down fibres from ducks and geese and can even be made with recycled down (THINDOWN RECYCLED), consequently is a 100% natural and biodegradable fabric that numerous clothing manufacturers are starting to incorporate. While I haven’t yet had a chance to try any products incorporating the fabric, it apparently has outstanding performance in terms of lightness, warmth, moisture wicking, comfort, breathability and thermal insulation.

While we are on the topic of down, Alliance Down has set a standard for the sourcing of down from ducks and geese which ensures that the animals producing the natural fibres were not mistreated. In fact, all of the Alliance down standard product comes from the food industry, mostly from China, but also from Europe. No live plucking is allowed

Another type of product that was made with a new material and won an ISPO award this year is the KUPILKA® outdoor cup. Made in Finland, using a Kareline® Natural fibre composite (plastic+wood) that is apparently carbon neutral, manufactured using renewable energy, the product is dishwasher safe, light and durable and the hot drink in the cup won’t burn your fingers. While a far cry from some of the sleek water bottles and high-tech drinking cups offered by other manufacturers, the cup has a certain primitive charm (it would not look out of place in Oetzi the Iceman’s lair or in a rustic alpine hut).

We all need to do everything we can to save the planet. Sustainability is key. The outdoor industry is leading the way in sustainable products. A growing number of companies have a sustainable culture and the sustainable wave is spreading worldwide. As consumers become more aware of sustainability, demand for sustainable products will become mainstream.

by:  Julia Culver

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