Montane Winter Spine Race 2025 Kit Review

My aim at the Winter Spine 2025 was to complete the route within the 168 hour time limit, enjoy myself, have an adventure and not be too broken! Ultimately I achieved everything I wanted to finishing late on Saturday night comfortably in control with no blisters and having banked more than 20 hours sleep. Four days after the race I was back guiding on Helvellyn.

My kit choices had occupied many months of thought but I was very happy with how the vast majority of it performed. Key principles were a simple and robust kit system. I aimed for minimal technology, faff and complexity and good durability so I could concentrate on more important things!

I echo the thoughts of many that the event kit list is too prescriptive and extensive and the concern is that participants worry too much about not failing kit check rather than assessing their individual requirements for staying safe and completing the race. There were plenty of runners without enough warm kit during the forecast bad weather and turbo thaw on Monday night and then conversely when the organisers upped the insulation requirements for the Friday night we were all just carrying excess kit which wasn’t needed. I was carrying extra insulation from the start and ended up wearing 7 layers (2 thermals, Powerstretch fleece, 2 x Primaloft jacket, windproof jacket and waterproof jacket) on the Cam High Road which was only just warm enough while moving. 

My compulsory kit weighed in at 5.3kg minus food and fluid. I had a good balance of lightweight kit to meet the kit requirements and heavier weight practical and functional kit supplemented by additional items for use during the race. The total weight of my pack at the start including food and two litres of fluid was 9.8kg

Fell Shoes: La Sportiva Cyclon Cross GTX with Superfeet Carbon Innersoles

• Brilliant shoes. No blisters or cold feet. Wore one pair throughout the race sized up 1 UK size from my normal size. The gaiter isn’t waterproof, only the shoe,  but it worked very well to keep debris and snow out. The Boa lace system is brilliant with no pressure points  on top of the foot, no laces to come undone, get knotted or ball up with snow and easy to adjust with gloves. They are also surprisingly wide for a La Sportiva shoe and my wide feet didn't have any issues even with a thick waterproof sock. Cushioning was firm but just about enough
• ​Proper innersoles are key to supporting the foot throughout these long events. The vast majority of manufacturers innersoles are cheap bits of foam so definitely worth investing. They also seem to absorb water which means the shoes regularly feel like they're full of water. With proper innersoles and waterproof socks I never felt the need to empty my shoes even after some particularly deep bog crossings.

Socks: DexShell Waterproof Compression Mudder Knee Length

• Essential piece of equipment which kept my feet warm and dry through most of the race with no blisters or foot issues. Had two pairs for the race but one did fail late on when I snagged it on something creating a small hole. Footcare involved smothering the whole of my foot in Sudocream at each checkpoint. I removed the socks each time I bivied to allow my feet to dry before recoating with Lifejacket Barrier Cream​

Leggings: Rab Modulus / Powerstretch Tights & OMM Winter Tights

• Powerstretch is a brilliant material and perfectly designed for events in these wet and cold conditions. Highly recommended. Rab have replaced Powerstretch with Thermic Stretch Pro which performs almost identically
• The OMM Tights aren’t warm enough for proper winter conditions and I suffered a quad injury going over Cross Fell likely related to the muscles getting very cold, and a wee bit fatigued! An old pair of Powerstretch tights then managed to keep the muscle a lot warmer and got me to the end.

Underwear: Runderware Running Boxer

Thermal Tops: La Sportiva Synth Light & Brynje Mesh

Fleece Tops: Powerstretch Hooded Jackets from Mountain Hardwear, Rab & La Sportiva

Insulated Tops: Various weights of Rab Primaloft Hooded Jackets & Gilets

Windproof: Rab Vital Hooded Jacket

• An oversized windproof with a stiffened hood. Worn throughout and only supplemented by a waterproof when it was actually raining for a few hours over Fountains Fell and the Cam High Road. 

Rucksack: Lowe Alpine Flyte 28, Lomo Dry Bag, Exped Dry bags & OMM chest pouch

• An old stripped back and very simple running sack paired with an OMM chest pod. I added large cord loops onto the shoulder straps to allow easy clipping and unclipping of the chest pod. The contents of the main bag were protected by a Lomo Dry Bag and further protected and sorted with Exped Dry Bags

Compass: Silva Type 54

Maps: Harvey's Pennine Way North & South protected in an Ortlieb A5 Map Case

GPS: Garmin eTrex 30X with Talky Toaster Maps

• Used throughout to navigate the route completely onsight. Worked flawlessly and I never went off route. Carried in my OMM chest pod on a short tether. 
• I simplified my unit set up for ease of use and had the following screens available to me. 

1. Satellite screen displaying BNG grid reference
2. Talky Toaster Map with route marked
3. Trip computer displaying time, elevation, sunrise, sunset, BNG grid reference and battery status
4. Menu screen for accessing the current track GPX

• To conserve battery power I simply followed the marked route across the map rather than having the GPS trackand guide  me. I also only used the American GPS system, switched off WAAS, EGNOS, etc and had a 15 second  timeout but did keep the backlight on to help my tired eyes. I also had separate GPX files for each leg as the unit only has limited processing power.
• Back up was the OS mapping app on my phone with the GPX files and maps downloaded for use offline

Whistle: Fox 40

• Very loud whistle which easily out performs the rucksack chest strap type in an emergency situation

Goggles: Julbo Cat 0 clear ski goggles

• Not used but essential kit. I regularly use googles for work in the hills and once spent 3 hours rescuing a runner who had gone wind blind during the Fellsman. However weather conditions weren’t too extreme this year and I didn’t use them relying on decent wired hoods to protect my face. 

Headtorch: Fenix HM65R-DT (& Petzl Actik Core) 

• Brilliant headtorch which I mostly ran with on the low warm setting. This was friendlier on my eyes during the 16 hour nights. Switching to the white light was a useful change / stimulus when the sleep monsters came calling. The main issue with the torch is the screw on battery cover is not attached so changing the battery in challenging conditions has to be done very carefully and I would look to source and carry a spare cover for future races. Also the automatic SOS flashing function should really be changed to the international distress signal of 6 flashes every minute. The Petzl torch was carried as an unused back up.

Waterproof Jacket: Rab Sharp Edge

• A full spec but lightweight mountain jacket with a good wired hood. Only worn while it was actually raining for the section over Fountains Fell and the Cam High Road

Waterproof Pants: OMM Kamlieka

• Brilliant waterproof, stretchy and surprisingly durable waterproof trousers which I was happy to wear for the majority of the route

Hat: The North Face Beanie
    
Gloves: Mountain Hardwear Powerstretch, Extremities Primaloft and Mountain Equipment Randonne gloves.

• All warm when wet, slide on easily over wet hands and able to operate all my kit, GPS etc while wearing them. I also used a pair of waterproof & insulted industrial freezer work gloves which although they don’t pass kit check are very purple and very effective!

Waterproof Mitts: Extremities Tough Bags

• Only used during the wet Monday night over Fountains Fell and the Cam High Road

Ice Spikes: Yaktrax Pro & Katoola Microspikes

• I carried the Katoola Microspikes for the snow cover on the first two legs but never used them and didn’t take any falls in the snow. Suspect that many folk who used them extensively through the first few days developed feet and knee problems as they do change your gait and increase pressure on your feet.
• I then swapped them for the Yaktrax for the rest of the race to reduce weight but again didn’t need them. The Yaktrax are very poorly designed being very fragile and worse than useless on ice so were only purchased and carried to fulfil the compulsory kit requirements. My 10 year old Katoola Microspkes are brilliant and I have logged many miles running on the fells in them with no issues

Sleeping Bag: Rab Neutrino 200

• A lightweight hydrophobic down bag which has worked well for a few mountain marathons. All my bivi’s were under cover (bus stop, bothy, barn, veranda) but was still only just warm enough for a cold bivi at the Greenside Visitor Centre.

Sleeping Mat: Nortec Ven 2.5

• A superlight option which worked very well for my bivi stops. However I have spent many nights on thin Thermarests through work and I suspect many runners would find it too small and thin

Bivi Bag: Alpkit Hunka

• I went for the regular size which was snug but fine for me at 6 foot and 100kg. Simple lightweight  and cheap bag which added significantly to the warmth of the sleeping bag. Packed loosely in the bottom of the rucksack to fill in the gaps

Stove: MSR Pocket Rocket

Gas: 100g canister

Pan / Mug: MSR Titanium Pan

Lighter: Lifesystems Fire Steel

Spoon: Lexan

Water Container: 4 x Nalogene 500ml

• A simple and robust solution for carrying my fluid. Soft flasks are easy to puncture and drink vales regularly freeze so using bomproof hard flasks was one less thing to worry about. I carried two inverted in my rucksack side pockets and two in the main body of the bag. The large neck means that any ice plugs that form can simply be pushed down. Can also be filled with a hot drink which gives a nice hot water bottle to cuddle for a few miles .

Red Rear Light: Petzl e-Lite

• Useful back up torch but not the brightest red rear light and easily got knocked and or switched off. Would probably revert to a simple bike light in the future

Trowel: Boglerco

• Not used! A expensive and useless piece of aluminium weighing 14g

Med Kit

• As per the compulsory kit list but only used a few paracetamol. 
• Why are we still carrying foil blankets when they offer no benefit in the mountain environment? A SOL bag or orange plastic survival bag would be far more appropriate increasing survivability by a significant margin. 

Drop Bag: Mountain Equipment 120+ Litre Duffel Bag

•  A very large 120+ litre duffel bag which was very loosely packed to reduce checkpoint faff. Also used a couple of checklists and all kit was sorted in labelled plastic bags

Trekking Poles: Black Diamond Flicklock

• A robust pair of poles with large snow baskets that I usually use for ski mountaineering. There were plenty of reports of people breaking lightweight poles so going heavy weight was one less thing to worry about while the large baskets gave a lot more support in the deep wet snow and bogs. Used for the whole race so no need to have a storage system. Normal strap system rather than the fixed Leki option is less faff especially in gloves

Bothy Bag: Rab Superlight 2 man Bothy Bag

• I had a bothy bag in my kit bag in case of very bad weather as it gives a huge amount of survivability and makes problem solving a lot easier. In the event I never carried it as the weather was never too extreme and improved dramatically during the week

Watch: Casio F91W Digital Watch

• Very basic but waterproof and indestructible watch which tells the time! Set to beep every hour to remind me of the passing of time and to keep on top of the nutrition and hydration. In the past I’ve bruised the back of my wrist and given myself tendonitis wearing large watches and using poles  but this is very low profile and comfortable to wear. Very glad I reduced any tech to the absolute minimum and ran on feel. Even the earphones only got used for an hour at the most.

Powerbanks: Anker

• Limited sockets available at the checkpoints due to the multitude of races that are now part of the Spine stable. Was using very limited tech and managed to do all my charging using five powerbanks of various sizes

Useful additions

• Sudocream, Lifejacket Barrier Cream, Fishermans Friends throat lozenges, Vix Nasal inhaler, heavy duty waterproof trousers, Crocs, towel, old sleeping bag & sleeping mat for Bellingham CP,