Trail Runner Rebecca Hormann Completes Historic ‘Ethels275’ to Set New Fastest Known Time
Gale-force storms, petrol station physio, and 95 summits: Hormann sets a definitive new benchmark in a relentless multi-day push.
27th October 2026, The Peak District: FUGA Mountain Club athlete Rebecca Hormann has successfully completed the Ethels275 in a continuous round across all 95 hills, tors, and summits that make up the Peak District’s iconic Ethels. Battling unrelenting weather conditions through two back-to-back named weather systems - Storm Austen and Storm Boleo - Hormann returned to the village of Hope to establish a definitive new continuous standard for the challenge with a time of of 4 days, 11 hours and 44 minutes.
The round follows the precedent set in 2025 by Rob Gittens, who first linked all 95 summits over a 309 mile journey in 7 days, 13 hours, and 11 minutes. Inspired by Gittens’ outing and her own completion of the Lake District’s Bob Graham Round earlier this year, Hormann aimed to formalise the challenge as a self-contained, continuous round starting and finishing in Hope, Derbyshire.
Hormann’s route spanned 275 miles and over 40,000 feet of ascent, paying homage to Ethel Haythornthwaite, whose environmental activism was instrumental in creating the Peak District as the UK’s first national park in 1951.
Having set off from Hope at 11:00AM on 22nd October, Hormann’s bid quickly evolved into a demonstration in resilience and mental fortitude. The arrival of the storms brought severe moorland squalls and saturated bog, along with high winds and horizontal rains that flooded the route across the Peak District.
" It was a crazy adventure, a tough challenge, and I had to dig deep! I'm so thankful to everyone who was a part of it because it's not about the person running it; something like this isn't completed without the community and a support crew who were totally reliable and incredibly selfless throughout." Said Hormann "Quite early on when people came onto the course to cheer me I was totally thrown. Then the more it happened the more I realised this wasn't just a personal passion project but something that has the ability to involve and inspire people. Even though my round is now finished it doesn't mean it's over; one of my favourite things I heard throughout was people realising we have access to these trails. This was the whole point, the legacy of Ethels275, and I'm incredibly grateful to be backed by a brand in Kailas FUGA that supports this. I can't wait for someone to try and repeat it - hopefully they'll have better weather!"
Despite treacherous footing and limited visibility across exposed passages, Hormann leaned on her extensive ultra-distance experience to see the round through to its conclusion. The athlete who runs under the Swiss flag, entered the challenge off the back of a packed 2026 season, that included an outright win and female course record at Portugal’s 200-mile Terra de Gigantes and another course record at the mountainous TOR100 by Kailas FUGA in Italy.
Hormann’s achievement underscores the core philosophy of the FUGA Mountain Club (FMC) that remains dedicated to lowering barriers across mountain sports and championing female participation in ultra-endurance running.
With the Ethels275 route now established, Hormann hopes her journey establishes a legacy for endurance athletes to test themselves against the Peak District’s 95 Ethels.
A selection of imagery can be found here
Jordan Matthews
