UKC

My mate starts the fourth and final leg of his project in extreme backpacking to walk coast to coast of all the 4 nations of the British Isles tomorrow.

He does all his routes unsupported and without resupply - starting out with all his food on his back (>30kg), sourcing water and camping en route. He expects to be 'out' for a month.

Walking approx 500Km across Scotland from Peterhead in the East to Ardnamurchan in the West he's also taking in the 10 highest peaks including a 90Km detour to bag Ben Lawers.

I'm sure he'd appreciate the moral support of the climbing community...

www.transnationcoast2coast.com
www.twitter.com/TransnationC2C

All the best and good luck Paul, stay safe mate…

In reply to Short Andy:

Good lord... And good luck indeed.

In reply to Short Andy:
Good luck! BUT ya do realise "Km" means NOTHING in Scotland? BTW, I will check out the "90Km" detour to bag Lawers. "Extreme backpacking" WOW! lols

In reply to Padraig: km does though.

Don't get the "no resupply" bit though? Why? A contrivance for the Xtreems?
All the best though.

In reply to Fat Bumbly2:

Why - Why do anything at all ? It's his way of pushing the envelope to see what's possible and has ideas for longer self-supported trips in the future.

In the meantime he's now approaching the Cairngorms via the River Gairn and may bag Ben Avon today.

Tweet @TransnationC2C : show him the lurvvv guys...
http://www.transnationcoast2coast.com/p/blog-page_13.html

The first of the top 10 highest summits today.
How many have climbed Cairngorm from the ski centre and how many from the sea ?
I make that about 190Km so far...

In reply to Andy Harpur:


From his twitter feed... "A hard day yesterday, battling winds & tough terrain. Made camp but v windy. Headache & sick after dinner…thinking altitude. Feel fine now."

And from this thread yesterday... "How many have climbed Cairngorm from the ski centre?"

I don't want to criticise someone who clearly is doing a jeffing long walk with a big back pack, but if he thinks he can get altitude sickness on the top on Cairngorm somebody needs to be making sure he is ok every night because he is clearly not very experienced.

As to how many have climbed Cairngorm from the ski centre? I would guess at least tens of thousands, most of them either going up in trainers in the summer or up a hard route in the winter.

In reply to Andy Harpur:
That is backpacking taken to extemes-
Is the 30kg quoted just food?
If "out for a month"= ~1kg per day!

That figure seems very low if having to cope with big days over rough terrain.
With that level( and presumably limited variety) of food intake - even if I had to mental fortitude to keep going- I would probably end up very low in mood and malnourished.

If there's the added weight of (even ultralight) camp gear that is some load to carry.

Given the starvation diet I'd question why the adventure needs to be hyped up further by using 'km' not 'miles'

In reply to llechwedd:

I'm almost 50 and even I use "km" sometimes. Surely nobody under 30 thinks in miles any more?

In reply to ablackett:

<Quote> but if he thinks he can get altitude sickness on the top on Cairngorm somebody needs to be making sure he is ok every night because he is clearly not very experienced </Quote>

This is precisely why, despite being a registered member of this forum for over a decade I hardly ever post. UK Climbing is full of negativity with numpties continually trying to have a pop at everyone else.

Paul's done plenty of 4000m peaks in the alps, leads grade 5 / WI4+ ice on a regular basis and has already done England, Wales and Ireland C2C in the same lightweight manner.

If you'd taken a minute to look at his web page then maybe you'd be a little more positive.

When he speaks of "Altitude" he means the raw physical effort of lugging a massive pack up a Scottish hill. When I spoke to him last night he compared it with doing Mont Blanc every day, day after day. Some people will have notices tweets from his spot tracker, people are watching out for him.

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In reply to llechwedd:

<Quote> Is the 30kg quoted just food? </Quote>

I don't know for sure, but I think it's his total weight carried, because he said at the start that he was carrying 33Kg with water. He's been working on this project (4 x C2C) for the last 5 years. I'm sure he's calculated his daily calorie intake reasonably accurately.

<Quote> I'd question why the adventure needs to be hyped up further by using 'km' not 'miles' </Quote>

I have his route on memory map. I use Km when I'm in the hills, and also when I'm sea kayaking (though maybe I should use nautical miles). All my maps are im Km, though I do have a big box full of my dad's old 1:63K imperial maps. Maybe you are still using those ?

Paul's out there doing a journey set by his own rules. I for one wish I had time to be there doing it with him. If it's caught your imagination then please consider donating to Water Aid.

http://www.transnationcoast2coast.com/2009/02/charity.html

In reply to llechwedd: He could be carrying dehydrated dinners.

In reply to Andy Harpur:

I'm almost as impressed as I am jealous

In reply to Andy Harpur:

Some needless negative sniping here.

Surely you can read the altitude thing as tongue in cheek? We surely don't need to have an emoticon for everything.

And the ski centre comment is clearly just to make a comparison with the way he has actually done it, from the sea.

As for the km versus miles comment. All I can add is ffs.

From my comfy seat with the sun streaming in through the window I have nothing but respect for the lad's efforts.

Jase

In reply to JCurrie: Aye, I think anything extreem gets peoples backs up though.. he's on a holiday.. 300 miles in a month, 10 miles a day.. carrying 30 kilos or not.. hills or not.. its hardly extreem..

It does seem quite hyped, maybe thats the way of the world now.. you look at inov8, soloman advertising and its all majorly hyped up.. savvy I suppose, a way of people to afford the life they do but I do wish there was more of a focus on pure performance.

Good luck to him.. maybe he needs a facebook athlete page everyone can like.. everyman and his dog has one now..

Re Km.. I walk in k's.. run in miles.. no idea why.. but I know what a 15 min k is walking, yet would have no idea what a 4min k is running, yet would know 6:10 min miling..

In reply to IainRUK:

And just to add..

"All the best and good luck Paul, stay safe mate…"

I think you yourself are overplaying the danger and extreme nature.. he's walking coast to coast.. in Britain.. relatively small distances a day.. with lots of communication.. twitter.. phone.. shed loads of food and equipment..

The danger aspect is minimal and little more if any than any typical day walking in the hills.

Its all fine, but I think to any overplay the dangers involved in british hill walking.. putting people off.. thinking its for those risky types..

Not really sure why people choose to take exception to the word 'extreme', or to one small aspect of my best wishes for a good friend thinking I'm trying to 'over-hype' it.

The extreme nature isn't the terrain, agreed... the twitter/phone only work if the sun's out , as for a shed load of food and gear; then he's only using what he started out with... which is the whole point. If walking the route unsupported without re-supply [Alpine syle if you like (?)] isn't extreme, then what is?

For the record, having looked at his route again it's approx 610Km / 380miles. Kilometers/ miles y'takes yer choice! Either way it's a long way in my book and a pretty good adventure by most peoples standards.

In reply to Andy Harpur:

A month out on a trip like that - carrying all equipment and, in particular, all food and fuel - is very impressive. So hats off to the lad.

In fact, I'd reckon a month might be about the longest period anybody could actually manage. The only alternative might be to do it Hamish MacInnes style - and take a gun!

In reply to Andy Harpur: >30kg Good effort and good luck

In reply to ablackett:

Fair play to the guy, how can you have anything bad to say about it. This is why people don't do what they have always wanted to, because idiots like you don't like it, and you don't even know why. I do, because you are NOT doing it.

You've dropped a bollock

In reply to IainRUK:
Take your point about the 'extreme' thing. And the daily distance, although I guess this is a function of the amount of food he must have. As he eats through it I expect, nay demand, that his mileage increases. It might make a good wee problem for the mathematically inclined to predict how it should increase.

And, having reread my previous post, I'd like to add that I did get out on the road bike this morning. I'm not larding it about.

J

In reply to Steve Perry:
I've just seen his website -you're correct, the cooked food is dehydrated stuff but the biggest contribution to calorific value comes from nuts and dried fruit. The claim is 4000 Kcal for 1kg per day.

He mentions trying to boost the calories by drinking hemp oil.
Doesn't sound like an enjoyable diet but it's his project and his walk.

In reply to Andy Harpur:

Wow! Carrying load of over 30kg on a long, tough trek is very impressive. I think it certainly qualifies as a challenge. I wouldn't do it personally - I think the weight would destroy any enjoyment for me. However, it's up to him and I hope it all goes well.

In reply to JCurrie:

Surely you mean kilometreage?

In reply to Andy Harpur:

Good grief, I've just realised the magnitude of this challenge...

Totally unsupported, no restocking of anything except water... this means... no beer!!

I reckon he's covered about 300Km now, more or less half way and will probably do Ben Lawers tomorrow.

Someone previously asked, "Why ?". Well Paul's not yet committed himself to anything in the future; but if you can be totally self sufficient for a month, then there are plenty of places on the planet where there simply is no chance of re-supply, or pull your supplies on a sled or by kayak, or opportunities to significantly live off the land.

West is best

Paul slept on the col between Aonach Beag and Aonach Mor last night and has just bagged the Ben.
A pretty good effort so far I'd say. The plan now is to head out to Ardnamurchan via Loch Shiel...

Paul has his final full day of his little adventure today; expecting to finish at Ardnamurchan point about 3pm on Thurday. He's deliberately slowed down on this final week as one of his aims was a full 31 days self-supported - everything carried from start to finish. I met him at Salen on Sunday and considering what he's done, he looked lean but pretty fit and strong. He wouldn't even accept a beer to carry to the end of the journey...

http://www.shareyouradventure.com/map/google/TransnationC2C/Transnationc2cS...

http://www.transnationcoast2coast.com/p/blog-page_13.html