Membership of the UK branch of the Austrian Alpine Club – www.aacuk.org.uk – is worth considering as this includes rescue insurance and hut discounts.
Members of the British Mountaineering Council – www.thebmc.co.uk – can buy a Reciprocal Rights Card which gives discounted rates in huts, including those owned by the Alpine Clubs of France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, South Tyrol, Austria and Spain.
Membership of the Alpine Club – www.alpine-club.org.uk – also provides some hut discounts.
Always check a hut is open when you are visiting. Have an idea of where you will stay and book ahead in high season, when huts will often be busy with both walkers and locals using them for weekend activities. Bed spaces and meals at huts can usually be booked via email and phone.
September is often a great time for Alpine fastpacking. The weather is usually good and, since it’s out of season, the huts usually aren’t as busy.
Where should I go fastpacking?
Breathtaking Glen Affric on a multi-day run across Scotland
As important as it is to pack light, choosing your route is perhaps key to your enjoyment – whether you design your own or follow an existing one. Fastpacking is about running to a place you can’t get to in just a day and there are many ways of doing this, from a short, out-and-back trip with an overnight stay, to doing a national trail over several days, to planning your own journey lasting weeks. Some adventurers have even run around the world.
Fastpacking routes fall into two categories: the ‘loop’, which starts and ends at the same place; and the ‘through route’, which is linear in nature and may require the additional logistics of returning to the start.
For time reasons, loops are often preferred by fastpackers, especially on shorter trips. These make great weekend micro-adventures, such as a two-day run on the Gower Peninsula, stopping at a bunkhouse – but they could be longer journeys, as in a full five-day circuit of Mont Blanc.
Through routes are great for longer trips, giving the satisfaction of making a point-to-point journey under your own steam and seeing your surroundings constantly change. However, you will need to factor in the logistics of travelling back to the start or perhaps to a different location. Trips you could try include taking a train out to a start point and running home over two or three days, or perhaps following an existing long-distance route such as a national trail.
A cloud inversion in the Italian Alps on the Grand Traversata delle Alpi (Photo credit: Chris Councell)
Designing your own route
Researching and planning your own route allows you to take in the landmarks you want to see, trails you want to run or perhaps hills you want to climb.
While training for the Marathon des Sables, for example, two friends ran 25 miles of the Wye Valley Walk, from Hay-on-Wye to Hereford, with an overnight stop at a guesthouse, and then back via the same route the next day.
Another group of fell runners head up to Scotland each year with lightweight mountain marathon gear so they can run and walk their own routes over a long weekend. One of their most memorable journeys was a three-day, two-night trip, parking at Muir of Ord and getting the train across to Attadale on the west coast, then running back and wild camping along the way, far from roads and staying high on the hills. You can simply pick a place you’ve always wanted to visit and design a trip around it.
Approaching Hay-on-Wye at the end of a three-day run across Wales (Photo credit: Chris Councell)
Long-distance walking routes
Choosing established routes, whether in the UK, Europe or further afield, generally means that there will be good transport connections, accommodation and services en route, making organisation and logistics much easier. There are often luggage-moving services available too. From a planning perspective, guidebooks and maps will be readily available, as well as online resources.
The UK has many well-established national trails and fantastic land access for walkers who enjoy the right to roam in much of the countryside and open spaces. You can camp or stay at hostels, bothies, hotels, bunkhouses and guesthouses. On European walking routes you will usually find fantastic networks of mountain huts and budget walkers’ accommodation, making them an excellent choice for fastpacking.
The UK has many national trails that are perfect for fastpacking trips
Another great resource is the Long Distance Walkers Association. Their website gives information on over 1500 long-distance routes in the UK, with links to books, maps and accommodation. For a small annual fee, as a member, you also get access to events and newsletters. See www.ldwa.org.uk
Ultra-marathon race routes
The routes of ultra-marathon races make a great choice for fastpacking trips and their route maps and GPX files are usually available on event organiser websites. Often competitors will use fastpacking as a way of training and doing a route ‘recce’. An advantage of these is that the race route is likely to be very runnable – although there won’t necessarily be much accommodation available along the way.
Top tip
Whether designing your own route or following an existing trail, choose a schedule that leaves room for adventure and taking in the views. It’s not a race!
Key considerations when choosing a route
Distance
What is the total distance of this route? What daily mileage is realistic and achievable? How long do you want to be out for each day? Some people like to start early and finish in the early afternoon, giving them plenty of time to refuel, recover and perhaps wash their gear. You might simply choose to run a standard walking stage each day, giving you more time to stop at cafés, enjoy the views and explore in comparison to walking; while more experienced runners may opt for full 12-hour days in the mountains. It’s a personal choice, to be decided by factoring in all information about the route.
Height gain and loss
What is the total daily ascent and descent? This is critical to how far you can cover each day. In fastpacking you will be generally walking the climbs and running the descents and flats and this is how you gain time compared to walking, thus allowing you to go further. But if your route is exceptionally hilly, with lots of steep climbs, technical descents and little flat, you may find that it’s impossible to run and you will actually be no quicker than a hiker.
Following a balcony path on the Grande Traversata delle Alpi, Italy
Difficulty of the terrain
This is crucial to your safety and also how far you can realistically travel in a day. How technical is the terrain? Will you be on smooth, easy, well-made trails that are easy to run on? Will rocky, rough ground slow you down on the flat? Does a steep, technical descent mean you won’t be able to run downhill? Will there be river crossings that slow you down or require a lengthy diversion? Again, very technical terrain means that you may not be able to do much running.
Some routes include scrambling and exposure, which you may not be happy doing, especially in running shoes and certainly not without previous experience. On many