Trail running

Running kit is a negotiation between weight and the fact that you’re going somewhere remote, fast, and usually alone. The list above is my standard summer half-day: three to five hours, up to about 2800 m, on marked trails. It fits in a 10 L vest and I barely notice it.

A few principles:

• You cool down fast. Running keeps you warm right up until it doesn’t — a twisted ankle on a ridge, or twenty minutes waiting out a squall, and you’re cold in minutes. A shell comes every time, in August too: the wind shell in dry weather, the taped-seams rain jacket the moment there’s any wet in the forecast. Never both. Gloves and buff whenever it’s below 20 °C.
• T-grades feel harder at pace. A T3 you enjoy hiking is a different proposition when you’re tired, moving quickly, and looking three steps ahead instead of ten. Downgrade your ambitions one notch until you know the terrain.
• Plan the water, not the volume. 1 L is enough if you know where the fountains and streams are, and nowhere near enough if you don’t. Check the map for a refill before you leave, not when the flasks are empty.
• Descending is where things go wrong. Most trail injuries happen in the last hour, going down, on tired legs. Eat before you’re hungry and take the descent as seriously as the climb.
• Tell someone, and take the headlamp. Especially in September, when it’s dark by eight and a wrong turn costs you an hour you didn’t budget for.