Chrome Hill fell race

[sbrt]

A lovely little race, over my favourite mini mountain in the White Peak.
Tindersticks yes there are caves.

[Welsh Harrier]

In my quest to try out different fell races it was a pleasure to spend the afternoon at Hollinsclough village fete and it's accompanying fell race, Chrome hill. Whilst driving down into the village you notice the landscape is dominated by the impressive looking Chrome Hill and it's neighbour Parkhouse Hill.

The fete is small but full of charm with live music, not particularly my type of music but heavy metal may have spoilt the ambiance and spooked the chickens. Like most fetes the cakes were great, it's always a good sign when an elderly lady is behind the cake stall selling cakes made to perfection after years of memorised ingredients. If I hadn't eaten so many cakes the barbecue would of been sampled but I'd made myself feel sick by this point....thankfully this was post race.

The race was tough mainly due to the humidity, it completely drained away what little energy I had after a busy week racing, 4th race in 4 days. Once across the rutted fields the spine of Chrome hill soon comes into view looking like a dragon's back. The run along the tops is pretty hairy across slippery limestone and I'm sure we ran passed a cave near the summit. When dropping off the ridge a road is reached and Parkhouse hill looms in front taking the appearance of a mini Matterhorn, unfortunately we don't climb it, such a pity it looks brilliant. The final section is fast running across fields and up the road back to the village fete and bizarrely one of them drone thingys hovering above the finish line.

Thanks to all involved....especially cake lady.

Hi TS

Glad you enjoyed Chrome Hill - were you told that the locals call it Croom Hill?

I organised this race for about 10 years, starting it off in 1997 or thereabouts. The cave you spotted is atually a short tunnel from one side of the hill to the other. I remember Dale Gartley suggesting at the time that I should reroute it through the tunnel in future!

[noel]

Good to see Tindersticks back at Chrome hill. Along with Carl Bell and several fast friends.

Lots of poor excuses about why the course record wasn't broken: 30 degree heat, racing last night, on a stag weekend.

As ever, a picture postcard fell race scene - sunny day, jazz band, tombola, cakes, etc. Well worth a visit if you've not done it before. See you next year.