Paragliding Race Parachutes Into Grasmere Sports’ 2025 Programme

Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show – an event older than the modern Olympics – is taking a leaf out of the book of Olympics organisers and breathing fresh life into its programme, with the introduction of a brand-new event for 2025.

To give the skies above the Grasmere Valley the equivalent of the challenging ground-based Senior Guides race for fell runners, it is introducing the Grasmere Hike and Fly Race, the first edition of which will be staged on Sunday August 24.

This will be a fast and furious paragliding race, tested in year one with 12 pilots.  These paragliding enthusiasts will move their paragliders between pre-determined locations, landing, taking off and running across land, in their quest to be top of the podium.

Competitors will be told which waypoints to tick off during the course of the race but their strategy in covering the course will be entirely down to them. In almost Americas Cup style, they will need to choose the right thermals, at the right time.  GPS tracking will make sure that all complete every part of the challenge and a screen will be set up to enable spectators to keep tabs on their progress.

It will be an incredible spectacle to behold, which will start, around 10.30 am, with a speedy charge of pilots out of the Pavilion door on the Grasmere Sports Field.  With the crowd urging them on, the paragliders will need to launch themselves into the air, from the part of the field dedicated to take-off, and make their way to their first chosen paragliding port of call.

There will also be a fabulous climax to the race, with a grandstand finish, in the exact same way that the fell runners and hounds enjoy.  The paragliders cannot land on the visitor-packed field, so will have to land in an adjacent field, quickly ball up their kit and hotfoot it to the finish line.  With crowds cheering them on, this should be a fantastic experience, way beyond the norm, for many of the paragliders.

Three competitors will then get a moment of glory on the podium, with a presentation that will see the winner taking home a trophy and £100.  The second placed competitor will scoop £50 and there is £20 for third.

This virgin event is being trialled in 2025, to formalise a loose association that has existed between Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show’s sports day and the activities of the Cumbria Soaring Club. Past visitors will have noted paragliders soaring overhead and there have been competitions for height gained by a paraglider and accuracy of landing in other years.  However, these have not been integrated into the sports programme and not been spectator spectacles.  There has never been anything like the proposed Grasmere Hike and Fly Race.

The introduction of paragliding is entirely in keeping with the ethos of Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show, which has always celebrated sports with local roots.  Although a relatively modern sport, developed as late as the 1980s, paragliding has its spiritual home in the Lake District, where early exponents used it as a means to explore the fells. 

Grasmere itself is a key piece in the puzzle of cross-country flying, being a bridging point between the Helvellyn ridge and Scafell Pike.  Furthermore, the oldest paragliding event in the UK, the Lakes Charity Classic, is based on the Grasmere Sports Field every June.

The open fell tops and wide valley bottoms of the surrounding area will be explored by the 12 pilots over what is expected to be a 3.5-hour period, with flying ending at 2pm.  The presentation will then take place at 2.30pm.

The event will be under the watchful eye of race adjudicator and paragliding legend, John Westall, the director of the X-Lakes paragliding challenge.  Participating pilots, in this first year of the race, will need to hold a BHPA Pilot’s Licence.  A small entry fee of £25 is payable, to provide both admission to Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show for the day, and also to cover the cost of the GPS equipment required.

Paul Abbott, who has pioneered this event on behalf of the Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show’s board, says, “We are absolutely thrilled to be introducing a new sport to the Show in 2025.  Paragliding is a choice that has a huge amount of logic, given its Cumbrian associations, but also one that helps us achieve the ambition of appealing to a younger generation that has grown up with adventure sports. By evolving the Grasmere Sports experience in this way, we can breathe life into it and give it new wings, which should enable it to continue to soar well into the future.”

There are still some places available on the entry roster of 12 pilots. Names who have signed up so far include Major Richard Mackie, Tom Hodgkin (the first person ever to finish the Bob Graham Round of English Lake District peaks with a paraglider) and Jacob Aubrey from Kendal, who has represented the UK for the Junior GB Paragliding team.  Various members of the Cumbria Soaring Club will also be competing.

Having bigger names taking part in year one should help to establish the event in the paragliding calendar. This will hopefully allow Paul Abbott to achieve his aspiration of introducing a lower tier, or ‘B competition’ for keen ‘weekend warrior’ paragliders like himself, in future years.

Anyone keen to rise to the challenge of filling one of the remaining places this year, who holds the necessary licence, can apply on Air Tribune (https://airtribune.com/grasmere-hike-fly-2025/info)

More information about Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show can be found at www.grasmeresports.com from where exceptionally priced early bird tickets are available for online purchase.

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Editors notes

Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show is an iconic event taking place in the heart of the English Lake District on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Its long historic roots date back to 1868 and it is renowned for its fell running, hound trails and Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling competitions, as well as being a fantastic family day out.