Lily Dyu - Fastpacking: Multi-day running adventures: tips, stories and route ideas

Photo credit: David Palmer

Lily is a writer and a runner based in the Brecon Beacons, Wales. Her childhood was spent in Ireland and the northwest of England and her love of the outdoors grew from studying geology during a natural sciences degree. She started running in her 20s and since then the sport has taken her from pounding the pavements around Birmingham University to running around Manaslu, Nepal, the worlds eighth highest mountain. She also enjoys cycle touring and has ridden Lands End to John OGroats and the loftiest roads of the Himalaya in Ladakh. She still enjoys the buzz of a big-city marathon but is always happiest spending time with friends, beneath open skies and preferably in lumpy places.

Lily is passionate about sharing her love of adventure and the natural world with others. A proportion of author royalties from this book will be donated to nature conservation projects and activity breaks for disadvantaged children.

FASTPACKING

Multi-day running adventures: tips, stories and route ideas

by Lily Dyu

JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,
OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL
www.cicerone.co.uk

Lily Dyu 2018

First edition 2018

ISBN 9781783627004

Printed in China on behalf of Latitude Press Ltd

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Route mapping by Lovell Johns www.lovelljohns.com

All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated.

Crown copyright 2018 OS PU100012932. NASA relief data courtesy of ESRI. Contains OpenStreetMap.org data OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA. NASA relief data courtesy of ESRI

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Joe at Cicerone for helping to shape this book; to Verity, Andrea and Georgia, my fantastic editors; to the very talented Caroline, for her great design work; and to my writerly friend, Judy Mills, for all her support.

It was a privilege to hear the inspiring stories of all my contributors; this book is dedicated to them, with heartfelt thanks for being so generous with their time and input.

Running has brought so many friends into my life and Im indebted to all those Ive shared the trails with (you know who you are!) Special thanks to Chris for many of the wonderful photographs within these pages and precious memories of shared fastpacking adventures. Without his enthusiasm for crazy capers, this book would not exist.

Updates to this guide

While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/957/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time.

The non-UK route maps in this guide are derived from publicly available data, databases and crowd-sourced data. As such they have not been through the detailed checking procedures that would generally be applied to a published map from an official mapping agency, although naturally we have reviewed them closely in the light of local knowledge as part of the preparation of this guide.

We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to updates@cicerone.co.uk or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, LA9 7RL.

Register your book: to sign up to receive free updates, special offers and GPX files where available, register your book at www.cicerone.co.uk.

Mountain safety

Every mountain run has its dangers, and those described in this guidebook are no exception. All who fastpack in the mountains should recognise this and take responsibility for themselves and their companions along the way. The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this guide was correct when it went to press, but, except for any liability that cannot be excluded by law, they cannot accept responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person using this book.

To call out the Mountain Rescue, ring 999 (in the UK) or the international emergency number 112: this will connect you via any available network. Once connected to the emergency operator, ask for the police.

Front cover: Sea views from Mam Meadail, Knoydart, Scotland (Route 8) (Photo credit: Chris Councell)

Fastpacking is the art of moving fast and light on multi-day trail-running journeys (Wengen, Switzerland, Route 11)(Photo credit: Chris Councell)

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the world of fastpacking

We were wilderness running. Power hiking. Kind of backpacking, but much faster. More fluid. Neat. Almost surgical. Get in. Get out. I call it fastpacking.

Jim Knight in an article in UltraRunning magazine following his 1988 traverse of the Wind River Range, USA. He and his running companion, Bryce Thatcher, completed the 100-mile journey in just 38 hours.

Fastpacking is a great way for runners to explore and discover new places Vallone di Vallasco, Italy

Fastpacking is a fast-growing niche in the world of trail running. Put simply, fastpacking is the hybrid of running, hiking and backpacking. Its the art of moving fast and light on multi-day trail running journeys.

To purists, it means being self-sufficient in wild places, experiencing the mountains raw, but there are many styles of trip: from running with a pack between overnight stops, like guesthouses and hostels, to bothying in remote wilderness locations. Hut-to-hut running is increasingly popular in places like the Alps where networks of mountain refuges in spectacular locations provide hot meals and a bed, allowing you to live well and travel light.

Over recent years there has been a boom in trail and ultra-running and stage races. This has evolved into offshoots such as Fastest Known Times, or FKTs, where runners try to set speed records on established routes, such as Damian Hall completing the UKs 630-mile South West Coast Path in less than 11 days and Kilian Jornet running and climbing over Mont Blanc, starting in Courmayeur and finishing in Chamonix nine hours later.

Multi-day running is not all about times, though. More and more people are pursuing solo running adventures as a way to experience and explore the outdoors. Elise Downing ran the coast of Britain in 301 days, camping and staying with friends, and Anna McNuff covered the length of New Zealand in 148 days, stopping to speak at schools and inspire children to get outside. But you dont need to go far. It could be an out-and-back running trip from your doorstep or following a local long-distance path at a leisurely pace. Fastpacking is for everyone.