The Award is presented annually and is not restricted to FRA members, although the recipient must be resident in the UK.  It is for one or more long distance mountain achievements within a year and the majority of the journey/s should be on foot.  Performances in races are not considered.  The award year ends on 30th September and in the first part of October, Martin Stone canvases a panel of some 28 long distance ‘enthusiasts’ and previous award winners.  They review the list of outstanding performances and a suitable recipient of the award is chosen.  The winner is usually presented with the award in November at the FRA Annual Dinner.

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Styles

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The following definitions apply to all record contenders:

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Supported

You have supporters or pacers that meet you along the way.  It can be one person handing you water once, to an entire team that accompanies you the whole distance giving you everything except physical assistance.  Whether it’s just once or continuously, any support at all means it is a Supported trip.  Supported can enable the fastest trips due to the ability to carry less weight.  For an achievement to be described as a Supported record you also have to beat the fastest Solo Self-Supported and Solo Unsupported times.

Solo Self-Supported

You may have as much support as you can manage or find along the way, but not from any pre-arranged people helping you. This can range from caching supplies in advance, purchasing supplies along the way, to finding or begging for food or water.  For an achievement to be described as a Solo Self-Supported record you also have to beat the fastest Solo Unsupported time.

Solo Unsupported

Unsupported means you have no external support of any kind. This means you carry everything you need from start to finish except water from natural sources (public taps along the route are acceptable, but if you ask for water, that's Solo Self-Supported).