Salomon Skyline Scotland® is an exciting weekend that takes place every September in Kinlochleven, Scotland.

It is one of the most hotly anticipated events in the trail running and sky running calendar, with runners coming from around the world to compete. With two brand new races for 2022, this year’s event is shaping up to be the best yet. In the lead up to this event, we asked Race Director, Shane Ohly, some questions about the races.

 

1. How is Salomon Skyline Scotland different to other mountain running events? 

"Salomon Skyline Scotland is really unique in the UK – there’s nothing else like it. We combine trail running, mountain running and sky running into this amazing international weekend. It’s a festival of off-road running. It has an amazing vibe. It’s absolutely inspired by these big European mountain races and it is unique."

 

The event village has a great atmosphere ©No Limits Photography

 

2. What advice would you have for someone looking to get into sky running?

"If you’re new to sky running events, which are our more technical and adventurous races, then, as with any training, you need to just take incremental steps, gradually building up your experience, your fitness, your stamina, but also your technical skills. You need to be able to run on very technical trails. You want to be doing lots of ascent and descent in your training because the courses are very challenging with lots of up and down."

 

Sky running is an awesome challenge ©No Limits Photography

 

3. For a first time off-road runner, which race would you recommend?

"One of the fantastic things about Salomon Skyline Scotland is the huge variety of different races. We have everything from the 5k trail race, all the way through to probably the most technical mountain race in the world, which is the Glen Coe Skyline. So if you’re new to the event, you can start with the trail races. We’ve got 5, 10 and 18 kilometre races, and they are challenging by trail race standards, but they are absolutely possible for a novice runner to do."

 

The trail races are tough, but perfect for beginners ©No Limits Photography

 

4. Do you have any favourite memories from previous Salomon Skyline Scotland events?

"It would be really hard to choose one personal highlight from the event. We’ve done so many amazing things over the years. We’ve been in the Skyrunner® World Series, we’ve been the Skyrunning World Championships, we’ve been in the Golden Trails World Series, this year we’re in the Spartan World Trail Championships. We attract so many elite international runners to the event – it’s just such an amazing vibe. But if I had to pick one moment that was special to me, I think it would be the first time I ran the full Glen Coe Skyline route in one go as a recce, and I realised this was going to work as a race, and the realisation that we had something really special that was going to happen."

 

The Glen Coe Skyline isn't for the faint hearted ©No Limits Photography

 

5. What are you most looking forward to about this year’s edition?

"This year I’m really excited about the new relationship with Spartan, and being included in the Spartan Trail World Championships, and we have two really brilliant new trail races – the Lochaber 80, an 80k trail race, and then the Mamores Stalker, which is a 27k trail race. Both of those races are quintessential trail running events, and they just sit so well with our mountain and sky running races. We really do have a weekend where there is something for everyone."

 

Join one of the brand new trail races ©No Limits Photography

 

Feeling inspired?

If our interview with Shane has you yearning to try out one of these incredible races, there are still limited spaces available for our 2022 event – sign up now to avoid missing out.

ENTER NOW

 

It's going to be an awesome weekend ©No Limits Photography