The Brit completed the challenge in 72 hours, aiming to shine a light on the country’s stunning locations.
James Norbury set a record on September 18 by climbing 30 of Britain’s highest peaks in a 161km challenge.
The 31-year-old completed the challenge in 70 hours and 49 minutes as he scaled the 10 highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales.
The challenge involved running at an altitude of over 14,000m, equivalent to one and a half times the height of Mount Everest.
This is a more demanding version of the popular National Three Peaks Challenge, which sees explorers summit the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales – Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon – in 24 hours.
However, in recent years, the popular peaks have made national headlines for overcrowding and regular queues at the summit.
Norbury, from Oxfordshire, took on the challenge to encourage people to explore Britain’s little-known mountains, and he hopes his record will inspire others to beat their time.
Despite only sleeping three hours a day on average, it Colombia The ambassador did not stop at 30 peaks. In a spontaneous decision, he extended his challenge by adding six more summits in Wales for a total of 36 summits in 72 hours.
Now living in the French Alps, she is preparing for her next challenge in New Zealand, continuing her mission to inspire others to explore the outdoors.
Below is our Q&A with Norbury.
James Norbury (Columbia)
How did you first get into ultra running?
I started running during lockdown because there was nothing else to do. I used to run track, but I didn’t like it because I grew up either skiing or doing team sports and it wasn’t really my thing.
When I got back to the French Alps, where I live, one of my friends invited me for a run, and I thought it looked very difficult, steep and difficult. But it was great. You don’t have to worry about dividing your kilometers and half the time you spend enjoying the amazing views. I grew up hiking a lot, so it was more like that than running on the road.
It’s this long, slow adventure rather than running 10km that’s scary. I stumbled upon it but then realized I absolutely love it. I wouldn’t claim to be a particularly good road runner. If you put me in a sack, I would be beaten by many people.
How did you train for the project?
I didn’t have that much time because I decided to do it about three months before the actual date. I work out a lot, hike a lot, and run a lot, so it’s not like I was starting from scratch.
I had a 10 week block and spent a lot of time in the French Alps. There are a lot of great trails and a lot of decent terrain, so a lot of it actually takes getting used to the movement you’re going to be doing because there was only a small amount of flat, easy, and runnable trails.
The course was in some ways harder than the project because it is relentless. I was full of excitement in the draft and my team was with me and we were very lucky with the weather. Whereas during training most of the time I was running for four hours in the pouring rain and it was really cold.
James Norbury (Columbia)
What gave you the idea for the project?
I’ve been trying to think of a challenge to do in the UK since I’m from there. I thought about the three peaks challenge where you climb the highest mountain in Scotland, England and Wales in 24 hours. The more I looked into it, the more I realized it’s such a popular challenge, which is great because it gets a lot of people out into the mountains, but I think it’s overpopulated. When we visited those three peaks, there were so many people that you had to stand in line to get to the top.
I wanted to challenge a map that would bring people to more of the mountains that the UK has to offer because we are so lucky to have these incredible mountain ranges in such wild spaces. And that’s where the challenge came from.
It was originally planned to be done in a week, because I didn’t think it could be done in three days. Then I looked into it more, I realized that it is possible, just. I really liked the idea of ​​it being on the edge, I wasn’t really sure if I was going to finish it in three days or not.
How did you and your team plan the challenge on such short notice?
Sorting out the journey was probably just as difficult as the physical aspect of it. For example, in Scotland the peaks are spread over three areas and are all within a few hours of each other.
I had a team of nine around me and it wouldn’t have been possible without them, we had a camper van. One of the really challenging parts was that we wanted to make a little documentary to show the challenge properly. Throughout the project, we were trying to figure out how to get the camera guys into certain areas while carrying their full camera kits. I think one of the camera guys did about 70km in total.
Check out this post on Instagram
During the three days, which moment stands out for you?
The last peak in Scotland was Ben Lawers and is the 10th highest peak. It’s all self-contained, so we had to go on a special mission to point it out. At that point we had already covered 60km and about 4000m of elevation that day so we were really tired.
I was half way there and wondering how I was going to make it two more days like this. I called my girlfriend and cried a little on the phone. I went up and when we got to the top we saw the clouds coming up over the top. The mist had blown away and we got to see this incredible sunset over the lower highlands.
There was no one there except me and one of the camera guys. We had a 360 degree view of the lakes and a magical sunset which was simply incredible. This huge bloody full moon then came up behind us beyond, which was wild, we were getting a show from nature. From there I knew we were going to do it and I was so grateful to be there and see it.
Did you stick to the original project plan?
As if that wasn’t hard enough, we decided to add six peaks to the final day. There is a challenge called the Welsh 3000 which is 16 peaks in Wales over 3000ft and I thought that would be really cool.
We woke up an hour early so we could get six more peaks. So we did 36 instead of 30, which made it pretty exciting because we were incredibly close to the time.
I had about an hour to go and one of my friends I hadn’t seen in 10 years was waiting for me at the top. We chatted and ran our way along the ridge to the finish and I made it to the top with only an hour to spare.
James Norbury (Columbia)
Would you do something like this again?
There’s always more on the cards, but these projects are never the end goal for me. When I got to the top and finished it, I didn’t have this big “wow, I’ve done it” feeling because I loved it all the way through. I was on cloud nine for three whole days.
I set a record and I really hope someone sees this and goes out and smashes my time, it will be really fun.
The point of the mission is to get outside and experience the outdoors more. It can be something completely different and mean something different to each person.
When I was younger, I watched the Lord of the Rings movies and was fascinated by the vast natural landscapes. I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand, so my next plan is in January, where I’ll take three months to shoot the length of New Zealand and visit every Lord of the Rings film set along the way.
» Subscribe to AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
The post An ultra-runner sets a record for climbing Britain’s 30 highest peaks in three days appeared first AW:.
