Ben Tibbetts talks to me about alpine bivouac huts, and his project to visit and document hundreds of lesser known cabins and mountaineering routes across the Alps.

Ben is an IFMGA Mountain Guide and a professional photographer whose first book Alpenglow showcases the finest routes on the 4000m peaks of the Alps. With his partner Valentine Fabre, he has recently self published Cabin Wild: Alpine Bivouac Huts in two volumes which explore a selection of simple mountain shelters across the Alps detailing the trips and common mountain itineraries accessable from these special places. The books are illustrated with Ben's stunning photography throughout.

We talk about the allure of these (usually) quiet huts, and get a sense of the scale of Ben and Valentine's project to visit them over the past decade or more. Ben's interest in the history of alpinism is clear, and the link between mountaineers and bivi huts across the ages is also a fascinating journey. Ben's interest in simple mountain shelters started with Scottish bothies, and we compare and contrast the UK and Alpine networks.

We delve into some alpine mountaineering history, as well as the paradox of promoting quiet places. Ben sees a lot of scope for a spreading of demand across a wider number of places and objectives - for example we discuss the brilliant Balanselmo Traverse, a practically unknown route at around 3300m altitude above the Gressoney Valley.

Mountain cabins are not without issue or conflicts, and we discuss visiting these places with respect, as well as the cultural generosity of those who build and maintain these places.

Ben's website is at www.bentibbetts.com where you can find out more about him and his books: Alpenglow, The 4000m Peaks of the Alps (West), and Cabin Wild. The Central volume of his 4000m guidebook is due for release later this year.

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Bobby Gard-Storry tells us about his Wallers Way - a month long 30th birthday celebration in March 2025 in which he ran between the 26 major valleys of the Lake District, repairing a dry stone walling project each day, and sleeping out on the hills each night.

Bobby has lived in Cumbria for most of his life and was introduced to the outdoors at an early age. However, it was only later that his passion for the fells and running developed, and time away in the city only strengthened his wish to live and work in the rural Lake District. He became a dry stone waller, working long hard days outside and running the fells in any spare time. He slept well.

He devised his project to combine his work and hobby in a celebratory month which was more an unscripted personal interaction with the land than a traditional 'round'. Sometimes he ran and worked alone, sometimes with friends. He went to summits as the fancy took him, often seeking out routes new to him. Some farmers were perplexed by his project, but mostly they were oblivious: many of the walling repairs are in obscure and rarely visited corners of the Lakes. He camped, bivvied, slept in caves and barns. It was cold - some nights he had to get up to sprint and generate some warmth.

Bobby tells us about his journey in walling and in running: how he got started and what keeps him motivated, how you can never fully know a place - there is always a different side to it, in a different season or different weather. He talks about the history of walling, the unknown wallers of hundreds of years ago, and the connection he feels to that world when hefting the same rocks, below the same fells.

We talk about similarities he sees between walling and running: the flowing states of mind that can occur in both activities. The games we play and the stories we tell.

Bobby's article 'The Wallers Way' can be found in Fell Runner #142 (Summer 2025), or on his website at: www.spidershankes.com

Before and after photos of his 30 wall projects can be seen at: www.spidershankes.com/the-wallers-way

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I speak with Es Tresidder, Ben Bardsley and Jon Morgan about our week-a-year traverse of the Grand Alpine Arc, from the Mediterranean to Vienna.

Starting in 2016 at Menton near Nice, we have skied together on 9 iterations of this 'Speedy Tours' project where we utilise skimo racing kit for big mountain travel.

February 2026 was our final week of the traverse - restarting at our 2025 finish point at Seeweisen we finished out a further 6 days to finish at St Stephen's Cathedral at the heart of Vienna.

Reflecting on the project a few days later we discuss our tactics and tribulations. Some of the best memories from this long term project relate to working as a team towards a common goal - the moments of shared adversity or critical decision-making forging a bond between us.

The project took 61 days over 9 weeks across 10 years, with only one of these days as a full stop with no forward progress due to weather conditions. We skied on every day of the traverse except the very first day, and the very last. Total distance was 1788km, 104,000m ascent and 504hrs.

For more on Speedy Tours please see Episode 26 which was recorded with Ben Bardsley and Jon Morgan from a bivi hut on year 6 of the project. Also see my Speedy Tours videos on my Youtube channel (finlay wild).

David Hamilton's website which we found particularly useful as a planning resource is at highadventure.org.uk/introduction.html

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In June 2023 Jamie Aarons set out on her continuous, self propelled Round of all 282 Munros. 31 days and 10 hrs later she finished on Ben Klibreck with a new record and an incredible story.

Moving to Scotland in 2005, Jamie and her partner Andy Taylor completed their first Munro round over one year (2013), before returning in 2020 with their rescue dogs for a second round.

Hearing about Donnie Campbell's Munro Round Record in 2020 (Episode 12) set Jamie wondering how she would approach the challenge herself. She knew her superpower was going without sleep, and incorporated this into a plan which evolved over two years. She would just keep going, on minimal sleep, and streamline the route she took between hills by freeing herself from the contraint of returning to the roads to sleep and refuel.

For this she needed a complex plan of support and many, many spreadsheets. Her friend Jenny Allen became Operations Manager with partner Andy taking on Field Operations. With 117 volunteers supporting her at different points, the Round pulled in interest from enthusiastic friends and strangers alike: meeting her at unlikely times in remote places with bivi kit and food resupplies; paddling across remote lochs to allow Jamie to cross between mountain ranges most efficiently; and getting bikes into position just in time for Jamie's arrival.

I chat with Jamie and Andy in detail about her Munro Round and try to get a sense of the scale of the challenge as well as the tricky logistics which were constantly adapting to keep pace with Jamie.

Jamie travelled 2576km with 135,366m of ascent, and so far has raised over £25,000 for World Bicycle Relief. The campaign is ongoing and her target is to fund a bike for every single munro summit. You can donate here: www.justgiving.com/page/jamiesmunrochallenge

Jamie's website: jamiesmunrochallenge.run/

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I speak to Andy Berry about the Lake District 24-hour Fell Record, which he broke in 2023 with a new time of 23 hours and 23 minutes for 78 peaks.

The Fell Record has existed in some form since Victorian times, and has evolved and grown in parallel with the honing of criteria for eligible peaks. This has led to some route quirks, and also the fact that the women's record follows a different route than the men's due to certain peaks being 'baked in' or omitted due to choices and requirements to meet the criteria of the time (the women's record evolving later than the men's and so set with newer criteria in play). Fiona Pascall holds the female record of 68 peaks set in 2022.

Peter McDonald has written a book called 'England's Everest: The 200-year story of the Lake District 24-hour Fell Record' which chronicles the evolution of the round from it's very early days when 'pedestrianism' (endurance walking) was very popular.

In 1904 Dr Wakefield first formalised criteria that a peak had to be over 2000ft in height. Later criteria were added - the current rules being that you must complete all the peaks of the existing round, and that any additional peaks must involve at least 250ft of re-ascent and be at least 0.25mi from existing peaks. Bob Graham's 24-hour Fell Record of 42 peaks in 1932 clearly became its own entity, but the Fell Record went on, increasing by a significany margin with Joss Naylor in the 1970s to 72 peaks. It wasn't until 1988 that Mark McDermott managed to improve this to 76 peaks, then Mark Hartell with 77 peaks in 1997 and Kim Collison with 78 peaks in 2020. This stood until 2023 and Andy's record time which was 22 mins quicker than Kim's for the 78 peaks.

Andy is a running coach who spends his time between Durham and Fort William. He holds the Steve Parr Round record (116 miles, 33hrs 46mins), has the 4th fastest Bob Graham Round time (13h 35m, 2025), won the Lakeland 100 in 2023 and the UTMR Mattertal 50km in 2024.

Andy can be found at: www.andyberrycoaching.org/

England's Everest by Peter McDonald can be found at: www.bookscumbria.com/product/uk-books/sport-uk-books/englands-everest/

See this podcast by The Rest Is History for more about Pedestrianism: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000721953819

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In March 2024 Anna Wells became the fourth person, and first woman, to complete all 282 Munros in a single winter season. She started on Dec 22nd 2023 and took a little under 83 days, equalling the record set by Martin Moran in 1985. Helen Rennard has subsequently lowered the time to 80 days and 9.5hrs in winter 2024-25 (Episode 47). For related episodes see also Ep 12, 15, 35, and future Ep 58.

Anna was introduced to indoor climbing at the age of 12, and was a member of the GB Ice Climbing team for 4 years, competing all over the world in dry tooling events. As well as climbing extensively in the UK, she has climbed on Yosemite's El Capitan, the high summits of the Alps, and even on the chalk cliffs of the Isle of White.

Anna talks us through her several careers - in which she has worked as a doctor, an alpine babysitter / transfer driver, a mountaineering instructor, and as a risk model analyst.

She enjoys the sudden inspiration of a 'spark' of an idea which has led her to adventures such as attempting to climb all the 4000m peaks of the Alps in one summer, as well as the Winter Munro round.

We talk about her Munro round and her unique approach which involved choosing 'unbreakable loops' of hills to fit the weather conditions throughout the season - big loops with many Munros in good weather, smaller loops in difficult weather or when fatigued. She preferred to do bigger days and then return to the comfort of a bed, rather than relying on bothies or van dossing. Anna found her voice particularly as a role model for women, and had many positive interactions and generous offers of support throughout her trip.

Struck down by a lurgy in the final stages of the round, she lay ill while frustratingly good weather reigned outside. Recovering quickly she returned to the hills and finished her final Munro on Cairn Gorm, equalling Martin Moran's record of 83 days (rounded up in both instances).

Anna's book 'Breaking the Snowline' tells her Winter Munro Round story and can be purchased via her website at: shop.rocksandtrails.com/

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I talk to Esther Foster about the Langdale Extreme Rock linkup which she completed with Callum Coldwell Storry in May 2025. This challenge involves climbing all seven Langdale routes from the iconic book Extreme Rock in 24 hours. These routes range from E2 - E6 and visit three varied crags: Raven Crag, Gimmer and Pavey Arc.

Extreme Rock, by Ken Wilson and Bernard Newman, was published in 1987 and forms a triptych with Classic Rock and Hard Rock. It showcased cutting edge climbing across Scotland, England and Wales in a coffee table book that was both guidebook and inspiration. The printing plates were lost and so only 4000 copies were ever produced. These have become cherished collectors items and change hands for hundreds of pounds. As it happens, Vertebrate Publishing have just released the long awaited Extreme Rock 2nd Edition by Grant Farquhar - which keeps the format and most of the iconic routes, but with brand new stories and photos. You can get a 10% discount on the book by using code EXTREME10 at www.adventurebooks.com/products/extreme-rock

Vertebrate have also released a short film to mark the release, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX_6KzcLGq0

Esther is an MCI and Development Coach living in the North Lakes. She is a director of the Women's Climbing Symposium. She has climbed for the past 20 years with trad up to E8, sport climbing 8a+ and bouldering V11. She particularly specialises in climbing coaching. She has written a chapter in the new Extreme Rock, on the Langdale climb 'Eqqus'. Her website is www.estherfoster.co.uk

The UKC article detailing Esther and Callum's linkup - and with photography by Esther's husband George Foster - can be found at: www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/esther_foster_and_callum_coldwell_storry_on_the_langdale_extreme_rock_challenge-16396

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Rob Greenwood - who interviewed me about my Dark Bob Graham in Episode 33 - returns to chat about his own adventure on the Fleetwood Lakes 40. Often called the 40 at 40, or Lakes 40, this route was devised by John Fleetwood as a 40 peak challenge to celebrate his 40th birthday. Hear more from John Fleetwood in Episode 42 "Beyond the View".

Rob Greenwood has an impressive and broad resume in both the climbing and running worlds including headpointing E8, the Brandler-Hasse on the Cime Grande (Dolomites), and of course countless Dark Peak Fell Runners obscure Peak challenges (and a lot of racing besides)! No stranger to long distance runs, he has completed all 4 of our classic national Big Runs (Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley, Charlie Ramsay and Denis Rankin rounds), as well as the Spine Challenger.

Rob talks about his introduction to the outdoors and early days as an obsessive climber. Before his more recent days as an obsessive runner! He brims with enthusiasm and we talk about how a positive mindset has helped him in the outdoors as well as in the very different challenge of recovering from a life-threatening ruptured appendix.

Rob is one of only a select few people who have completed the 40 at 40, which was devised as a Lake District run that covers interesting and varied terrain with similar stats to the famous Bob Graham Round (BG), but by sharing as little terrain as possible with the Bob. The result is a route mixing big and small peaks, and which let Rob explore some new ground, in mixed weather. At 108km and with around 7700m of ascent, the route only shares 5km with the BG, and Rob recounts his memorable day on the round (completed in 19h35m).

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Damian Hall is an ultrarunner, coach and writer who has held records on many of the UK's long distance challenges including the Pennine Way, Paddy Buckley Round, Cape Wrath Trail and Wainwrights Coast to Coast. He has placed 5th in UTMB (2018), 4th in Tor des Geants (2023), and has won the Spine Race. He has competed in the infamous Barkley Marathons ultra twice.

Damian is also a founder of The Green Runners which is a global community of over 3000 runners who aim to highlight and take action on the climate and ecological crisis. Their 4 Pillars consider How We Move (travel), How We Kit-up, How We Fuel (diet), and How We Speak Out (activism). Damian talks us through the formation of The Green Runners, as well as talking about campaigns and activism, such as action taken against sportswashing. One of Damian's books is 'We Can't Run Away From This' which examines running's carbon footprint and ways to improve on this.

In September 2025 and on the back of his Lakeland 100 win, Damian set out in suboptimal weather for his Three Solo Challenge where he attempted to run the UK Big Three rounds (Charlie Ramsay, Bob Graham and Paddy Buckley rounds) linked together by public transport. The Big Three had previously been linked together by car by Mark Hartley (1990) and then by bike by John Kelly (2020) in his Grand Round. Damian's round would add the vagaries of Britain's public transport system into the mix. We talk logistics and sleep deprivation, deteriorating weather, and about how he made the eventual decision to bail due to worsening conditions on the final half of the Paddy Buckley round in Snowdonia.

Damian's website: www.ultradamo.com

The Green Runners: https://thegreenrunners.com/

Into Ultra: https://intoultra.org.uk/home

The round the world cycling book I mention is 'Coffee First, Then The World' by Jenny Graham.

Links to articles on topics mentioned by Damian:

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cvgxe2n05v3o

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv22vl99vwro

www.badverts.org/gamechanger

thegreenrunners.com/running-through-oil/

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I sat down with Rob Woodall to talk all things peak bagging. After completing all the Munros, Corbetts and Grahams, Rob progressed to more obscure categories such as HuMPs (hundred metres of prominence) and TuMPs (thirty and upwards metres of prominence), via some long distance hill running rounds (The UK Big Three, the Rigby Round, and his Cuillin Round to name a few). Rob also devised the Trans Cuillin but never got to complete it - James Gibson doing this in 2023.

From an early age Rob was interested in maps, and as one list led to another in 2016 he became the first person to visit all 6190 British Trig points - a huge feat which required negotiation with not a few landowners, and even special arrangements to visit trigs within military facilities.

We chatted about his recent trips to Norway and Turkey, where he has been ascending P1000 mountains (mountains with a prominence of 1000m or more).

In 2014 he became the first person to complete all 1556 Marilyns, UK peaks of P150m (150 metres prominence). The final crux of this endeavor were the 6 summits on the remote archipegalo of St Kilda, two of which - Stac an Armin and Stac Lee - are stacks rising vertically out of the Atlantic and requiring not only calm sea conditions and an approach between October and March to avoid gannet restrictions, but also careful landing stretegies and roped climbing techniques.

Rob has always been a collector - he describes initially 'completing' classic symphonies eg by Brahms, Mahler and Sibelius, then also collecting logs of birds, plants, and long distance hill running rounds, as well as his astromonical number of peaks worldwide in a whole range of categories from TuMPs and HuMPs, right up the Ultras - which have 1500m prominence. I also mention a list of P4000m Peaks - but this is a worldwide list not a South American list as I state.

Further information on these categories and more can be found at www.peakbagger.com, where Rob is ranked #1 worldwide for his P-Index (a calculation designed to indicate the number and quality of prominent peaks the person has climbed).

Rob has even been involved in some work to relocate 'lost' trigpoints, and to find previously uncategorised hills. Many thanks to Rob for giving us a glimpse into his world of prominence and relative peaks.

If you want to buy me a cuppa to help support the podcast, thank you and please do at: ⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/finlaywild⁠