From Dave Robson…

Hoof Stones was my first fell race of 2024 and a new one for me. At just over 8 miles and around 430m ascent the course was surprisingly runnable despite some wintry conditions.

The race starts at the Staff of Life pub near Todmorden and on the day consisted of:

– a well flagged, icy first climb up to CP1 and onto Stansfield Moor.

– a ‘quickish’ section to CP2 followed by a snowy slog up to Hoof Stones trig (CP3).

– from here you could take whatever route you think is best diagonally back down to CP1, before a fast descent down to the finish line.

A recce would have helped for the navigational section but with a bit of help from Tom (Otley AC) I still made decent time and managed to finish in 10th place overall (and I think 3rd V50)

Definitely worth another go in future.

Results

1st D Clarke (Todmorden Harriers)58:17

10th D Robson (Ilkley Harriers)73:57