Challenge Walks

The basic idea of a challenge walk is to walk further than any normally sane person would in a normal day. They thus typically involve walking longer than twenty miles (often much more so) and/or implausible levels of climbing.

The primary motivation for attempting challenge walks is not really to have fun, but to test the limits of peoples endurance. Despite this some have become amazingly popular. Some of this down to the wonderful ability of human memory to only remember the good bits and forget the pain.

Popular long distance walks include: Yorkshire three peaks which is in fact entirely managable for fit walkers, the Welsh 3000s a rather more taxing affair in which the club participates annually and the Ten Tors in Dartmoor. Numerous other challenge walks exist.

Most popular by some distance, and rather unpopular in walking circles is the three peaks challenge - that is climbing Snowdon, Scafell pike and Ben Nevis within twenty four hours. The problem with this walk stems from it's geographical absurdity - it is normally done by busing large groups of people between the mountains leading to substantial disruption. The only mitigation to this is that it often raises money for charity - better ways to do this do however exist. The annual race to climb these peaks using bicycles, boats and running is a much more credible (and energetic!) affair.

The Bogle Stroll is a charity walk run by the Manchester RAG and is open to all in the university. The Bogle began in 1961 after a group of UMIST lecturers attempted to walk home from Lancaster after missing the last train and reportedly saw a little imp (called a bogle) which told them to stop. The Bogle stroll is inexplicably popular and involves walking fifty-five miles around the Greater Manchester area, entirely on tarmac and starting on a Friday evening and walking right through the night. The target is to finish within 24 hours, after which anyone still going is forced to stop for their own good. Only around 50% of participants finished in 2011 with perfect weather, and the majority of survivors come away with some form of limb injury from the stupid distance (e.g. blisters of epic proportions, previously unknown muscles in agony and a general inability to not walk like an arthritic old lady in need of new hips and in the case of one hike sec, being off hiking for three months with a persistent knee ligament strain). Many hiking club members have attempted (and mostly succeeded) and immediately said 'never again', only to forget about the agony when it comes around to signing up for the following year's Bogle, after which they say 'never again, and I mean it this time!'. Many RAG organisers and volunteers (the ones who stand at checkpoints through the night to give food and caffeine to the nutters) are on record as saying they're not daft enough to attempt the Bogle themselves.

Practical elements

If planning a challenge walk it is prudent to be familiar with the area first. Not only is a challenge walk no way to introduce yourself to an area, it is impossible to understand how hard it can be to navigate when truly tired until you've tried it - see some of the trip reports about the Welsh 3000s for examples!

Many of the walks above should not be attempted except without support - not only does this provide extra safety, but without being fed at the checkpoints there is a real risk of simply running out of energy.

Fell Runners

While the above walks are more than challenging enough for most people, no mention of challenge walks is complete without mentioning the incredible feats achieved by fell runners. One example is the Bob Graham round in the lake district - 42 separate peaks in 24 hours involving ~65 miles and a mere 27,000 ft of climbing!

In fact over 1000 people have now done this and the record number of tops in 24 hours is up to a quite astonishing 77....

Numerous other quite incredible example can be found :)

It need hardly be said that before trying anything of this nature one must be superhumanly fit and regard hike 1's as short strolls in the park.