James Forrest : The tale of the 3 peaks
Keen UK hikers will be familiar with the 3 peaks challenge, a national challenge to climb the 3 highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales all in the space of 24 hours. It’s a popular challenge for British hikers to embark on and despite the scope of the challenge, it’s completed by thousands of people every year.
So, James Forrest decided to take that challenge and expand upon it. He will undertake the endurance test but instead of the usual car journeys between the peaks (usually around 11 hours of driving), he will walk between the peaks. That’s almost 500 miles of walking!
James Forrest’s story is one of an adventurer, a bored office worker turned into a hiking record setter. Known for climbing all 1001 UK and Ireland peaks in the fastest time, James is someone that feels life is for the living and is constantly wanting to test himself and see how far he can take the human body.
For that, you need strong nutrition. Hiking requires a lot of energy and the best way to obtain that is through food. However, whatever food you pack is going to weigh you down so it needs to be nutritiously dense items that are light and small. This is why many people carry around trail mix, little bags of nuts, seeds and oats. These can be easily stuffed in a jacket and supply decent amounts of energy for a quick snack. However, they can be pretty drab and unappetising.
A much better option for quick nutrition is energy bars for hiking. These provide high levels of energy in a small bar, can be easily stored in a jacket or pocket and come in various different flavours. One of the issues with using energy bars is discarding the wrapper as on a trek, it can be hard to find somewhere to discard trash correctly. This is why James has partnered with Lucho Dillitos and their range of guava energy blocks. Lucho Dillitos is conscious of littering and has made their wrapper out of leaf material, making it 100% biodegradable.
James’ test is currently underway, having started on the 9th August, and he aims to be done by the 25th of August. This would be a world record for a self-supported run (the current reported record is 19 days. There is more information available here : https://www.jamesmforrest.co.uk/post/walking-the-national-three-peaks-in-17-days) and a herculean effort. We wish James all the best on his adventure and hope all goes smoothly.