Competitors in last year's event in Cumbria. Photo: Ben Winston

Organisers of a night-time mountain marathon have chosen some of the most challenging navigational terrain for runners.

The Marmot Dark Mountains event will take place around Kinder Scout and Bleaklow in the Peak District, the national park’s highest and second-highest hills, at the end of this month.

One competitor described conditions in last year’s inaugural event as having the worst conditions in 24 years taking part in mountain marathons.

Race organiser Shane Ohly said: “Obviously, we would all like to have a still, cloud-free and moonlit night but competitors don’t enter this event unless they are up for an epic mountain running experience and it is our job to deliver this safely without compromising on the nature of the challenge.

“The knowledge gained from the first event shows that with experienced and vetted competitors, you can run an event in atrocious weather and allow the competitors to make decisions about their own safety.

“Kenny Leitch, a competitor at the 2013 event summed it up nicely: ‘What an extraordinary event. I did my first mountain marathon 24 years ago and Marmot Dark Mountains definitely had the worst conditions ever’.”

Kinder Scout and, particularly, Bleaklow have a fearsome reputation for being difficult hills to navigate, with large expanses of bog, with deep groughs cutting their peat hags.

Bleaklow in winter: challenging

Mr Ohly of Ourea Events said: “The Peak District has the perfect blend of high moorland areas, challenging terrain and a wonderful sense of wilderness, especially at night.

“Precisely because of the superb nature of the area, we have had to negotiate over a two-year period with the National Trust, national park and other agencies to secure permission for this event.

“We have six different courses on offer and they all take advantage of some of the best parts of Bleaklow and Kinder Scout. It promises to a superb test of competitors’ mountain running skills.”

The courses have been set by experienced Peak District fellrunner Dave Taylor with the elite course covering more than 55km and involving over 2,600m of ascent.

There are also A, B and C courses of 45km, 41km and 36km respectively and a short-score, eight-hour course and long-score course of 10 hours.

Organisers have worked with Harvey Maps to produce a bespoke high-contrast map of the event area, which shows the contours and other map detail with greater clarity than a standard map.

There’s a £500 cash prize for the winning elite team of two thanks to sponsors Marmot and Silva.

Top elite runners Tim Higginbottom and Chris Near from Team Haglöfs have entered the event. Tim Higginbottom said: “Elite mountain marathons are hard to finish let alone win.

“The courses are long, navigation tricky and route choices crucial. So if you take this concept, remove the half-way rest, run it overnight to make the navigation nearly impossible, and then stage it in deepest winter for good measure you have something that will stretch the best to their limit.

“There’s a certain type of person that enjoys a challenge this hard. See you out there!”

Marmot Dark Mountains will take place on 25 and 26 January. More details are on the event’s website.