Ourea Events has seen mountain race entries rise 30 per cent as it recovers from the pandemic

Shane Ohly is someone who likes to be tested.

"On a personal level, when I run and climb, I like challenges that have some jeopardy,” he says.

“To have an adventure, you only get that when you have uncertainty in the outcome. I take the same approach to work. I'm always attracted to projects that are hard.”

His love of the difficult things in life first caught the attention of the UK climbing scene when Shane began developing a reputation for taking on hard and bold routes as a teenager in Cornwall in the 1990s.

He developed a particular specialism for free soloing (climbing without ropes), with a sideline in scaling tall buildings, including the Eiffel Tower, Harrods and even a municipal car park in Truro.

The 2000s saw Shane turn his attention to elite fell running. One of his more recent achievements includes setting a record of 23 hours and 26 minutes for a solo, unsupported winter completion of the 106km Bob Graham Round, in the Lake District, in December 2020.

Shane became a professional climber through brand sponsorship in the early days of his career and moved to Sheffield where he founded outdoor equipment business planetFear with fellow climber Adrian Berry in 2000. However, the company went into administration in 2007.

"It was a very painful experience for me, personally," says Shane. "When you take on a challenging project when you're 21, you just don't know what you don't know. I made the classic mistakes of a business that grows too fast and runs out of cash. It was really difficult coming to terms with that.”

As difficult as the process was, Shane remained honest with his suppliers and contacts throughout. "We were very honest about the challenges we faced,” he says.

“I actually thought, after that experience, I might have burned my bridges with the outdoor trade. “But what I actually found is I'd actually built bridges because I'd been transparent and honest. Everyone saw that we worked really freaking hard to try and make it successful. What I found was I actually had lots of offers of work.”

Shane went on to work as a consultant for a number of outdoor brands, including big names such as Inov8 and Berghaus. "At the same time, I did a little bit of freelance event planning for a company named Rat Race Adventure because it was a bit of fun," he says.

"As a result of this work, Berghaus asked me to review an internal plan they had to create and run their own event.”

The result was that Shane suggested Berghaus sponsor an event known as The Dragon’s Back. The event sees runners complete a multi-day, 380km route starting at Conwy Castle, in North Wales, traversing the highest mountains in the country, and finishing at Cardiff Castle.

First organised as a one off by paratrooper Ian Waddell in 1992, Shane’s plan was to bring it back to life with Berghaus’ backing.

“It was a race that went into running folklore, mainly because it was so hard,” says Shane.

“It genuinely attracted the top ultrarunners in the world.

"I looked at the Dragon's Back, and I thought, 'Wow, what a project'. Without really giving it much thought, I just pitched it to the Berghaus board.”

Berghaus liked the idea, leaving Shane the challenge of turning his vision into a reality in September 2012 - the 20th anniversary year of the original - with a field of 82 runners.

There have now been seven editions of the modern Dragon’s Back Race, first backed by sponsorship from Berghaus and more recently Montane, with hundreds of runners now taking part.

Shane’s company Ourea Events (ourea is the name for mountains in Greek mythology) grew out of organising the Dragon’s Back and comprises a team of 10 permanent staff at its office just outside Kendal. It also employs around 50 freelancers during the events with the help of 100 volunteers.

“It’s a big team and in total you’ve got 550 people who need to be fed and looked after every day,” says Shane.

The Dragon’s Back is one of six events which Ourea Events operates. In May it will again organise the eight-day Cape Wrath Ultra, which follows the notoriously challenging 400km Cape Wrath Trail through the Scottish Highlands, involving hundreds of participants overnighting in even more remote mountain terrain.

“It’s even more challenging than the Dragon’s Back, which is probably why I like it,” says Shane.

In Cumbria it also organises the Scarpa Great Lakeland 3Day event and the Adidas Terrex 10km Trail Run, which starts and finishes in Kendal on the weekend of the annual Kendal Mountain Festival in November.

The challenge of running the company became even more pronounced during the pandemic, when restrictions meant the team had to cancel its events. It was ineligible for many support grants due to the fact it does not actually have premises which consumers visit. A local authority grant it could access covered about one per cent of its operating costs.

The team were also unable to go on furlough due to the fact they were required for the massive customer service operation of communicating with 5500 participants about cancelling their entries and deferring them to future events.

"We had 18 months and no income with most of our core costs unchanged,” says Shane. “We generated a tonne of debt. We will take years and years and years to pay that back, but we're still here.”

The company has bounced back with a 30 per cent increase in entries to the Dragon’s Back this year, partly driven by work with creative agency Outside of Ordinary, in Manchester, to redefine its brand.

Shane says while interest in trail running is booming, the lead time from people taking it up to entering events is quite long. "The likelihood is, over time, that people will enter races. So as an event organiser, you would like to think we're in a good position strategically,” says Shane. “We would love to organise more but as a result of Covid we are being cautious with the financial choices we make and we can't really afford a misstep. I think it's the same for many businesses.”

For now, Shane says he and his team are happy to know they are giving thousands of people every year an unforgettable experience.

"It's amazing to think people have these literally life changing experiences that stay with them," he says.