Girls on Hills Official guided Recces, everything you need to know

Written by Girls on Hills

OFFICIAL GUIDED RECCES – are they for you?

Girls on Hills has been the official recce provider for Salomon Skyline Scotland® since 2018 and we’re delighted to be back for 2025 – with 7 new race routes to explore! We may be called Girls on Hills but our guided recces are open to all genders – and you don’t need a race entry to join in. Perhaps you’re undecided which race is for you or you have your eye on an entry for 2025? Either way, you can join one of our relaxed and sociable guided recces to check-out a race route for yourself or just enjoy a guided run through the spectacular mountain scenery of the Scottish Highlands!

The guided recce events are open to everyone ©No Limits Photography

Why recce?

A guided recce is a great way to get to grips with the route of a given race. If it’s a technical route like the new Ben Nevis Skyline, then it will enable you to get hands-on with the graded scrambling sections and size-up the nature of the challenge. If you’re nervous about the technical difficulty or exposure, having a qualified mountain-leader with the skills keep you safe and give advice can be a real confidence-boost. Our running guides are not only skyrunners themselves but are also local professionals with lots of experience of guiding runners over your race route in all kinds of weather and conditions. They’re best placed to give you advice about the race but can also give guidance on training, equipment/clothing and footwear for race day.

If you’re keen to recce a longer, less technical race route then a guided recce can be a helpful way to test out your race kit, nutrition and layering. Experiencing the route first-hand will help you get the measure of the terrain and inform your race-day pacing and strategy. Your guide can advise on how the route might feel different or change underfoot in different weather/seasons. You might even choose to recce with us simply because we take care of the logistics for you on long through-routes that would otherwise leave you stranded (for example on the Jacobite 100)!

Meeting other runners and competitors can also be a really good way of learning – use each other as a sounding board and discuss all your unanswered questions. Often, you’ll find that others feel the same way as you in the build-up to a race, and meeting likeminded folk can help allay pre-race nerves.

An adventure awaits! ©No Limits Photography

What to expect

A guided recce will feel very different to race-day. It’s not our intention to run at race-pace or worry about cut-offs. The aim of a recce is to experience the route and discuss any technically tricky sections, long/hard climbs in the race profile and get a sense of where aid stations are located, so that you can plan nutrition and hydration accordingly. You can also get a feel for the water supply and take advice on good sources for refilling, if this is a concern. We don’t vet our runners, so you can expect a mixed ability group. The pace will be relaxed and sociable (think walking climbs and jogging flat/downhill sections), with stops for refuelling and discussion along the way. Nobody gets left behind on a Girls on Hills recce, so even if we get a wee bit spread-out, we’ll stop and re-group regularly, working as a team to complete the day. If the weather forecast is atrocious on your recce day/weekend, you can expect your guides to make a decision similar to that of the race organisers and switch to a shorter/alternative course as necessary (the final route will be at the guides’ discretion but obviously our aim is to complete the exact course if safe to do so).

Our team will organise logistics for your day which will involve a mix of shuttles and/or lift-sharing to access the start and finish of your route. We can also give details of local accommodation providers (and a discounted price). We don’t include accommodation however, which gives you the freedom to choose your own to suit your travel plans and budget.

Get ready for the mountains ©No Limits Photography

Official Recces for 2025:

For full details of all the race routes, see Skyline Scotland.

·       Salomon Jacobite 100 Official Recce - Sat 14/15th (Saturday or weekend ticket)

·       Salomon Steall Marathon Official Recce – Sat 21/22nd June (Saturday or weekend ticket)

·       Salomon Ben Nevis Skyline Official Recce – Sat 28th June

What if I can’t make those dates?

Girls on Hills is offering one recce event for each of the longer Skyline Scotland® 2025 race routes (see below). For the Jacobite 100 and the Steall Marathon, you can choose to recce over a single day or full weekend (with the latter option covering more of the route). The Ben Nevis Skyline route will be recced in its entirety on a single day (see event details for a breakdown of the proposed itinerary in each case). If you can’t make the date of the group event, then please reach out by email ([email protected]) and ask about a bespoke recce. The more people you can pull together for a bespoke recce, the cheaper it will work out per person, but you may prefer to have a one-to-one guided recce and go at your own pace. Contact us for a price and we will be able to agree a date together that will better suit your calendar.

If you want to recce your race route slightly differently than proposed here or you wish to recce one of the trail races or Aonach Mòr Anarchy, just get in touch at [email protected]. Please note that all Official Recce events will require three persons to run. In the event of a cancellation due to low numbers, you will be given advance notice and refunded in full.

You can also see our Cancellation Policy here.

Explore new trails ©No Limits Photography

Why choose Girls on Hills?

Girls on Hills was founded in 2018 by Keri Wallace and Nancy Kennedy, who both live in the Highland village of Glencoe. Nancy is a running guide and long-term member of Lochaber Athletic Club, through which she has raced the Ben Nevis race multiple times. Keri is a mountain leader and an experienced skyrunner, who raced as part of the UK Skyrunning Team in 2018 and finished 3rd F in the UK and Ireland Skyrunning Series in 2022. She is the author of the guidebook Running Challenges and Mountain Walks Ben Nevis. Keri also competed in all of the previous Skyline Scotland events, finishing first V40 in the Glen Coe Skyline and 5th F in the Ben Nevis Ultra.

Girls on Hills is an award-winning outdoor provider that has been delivering guided skyrunning courses for 7 years in the mountains of Glencoe and Lochaber. We use a number of experienced local mountain runners who are summer mountain leader qualified as a minimum, including elite trail/skyrunner Georgia Tindley (previous winner of both the Salomon Ring of Steall and Glen Coe Skyline races). We can’t wait to show you the great routes that Skyline Scotland® 2025 has in store!

Gain confidence in the mountains ©No Limits Photography

Feeling inspired to enter the Salomon Skyline Scotland® in September?