West Highland Way In Two Days

[stevengr68]

We managed to do the WHW in two days with 15 mins to spare, for a Children’s Cancer Charity. This was one of my toughest challenges.

We started at 4.10am on Friday from Milngavie walking through Drymen and Balmaha where we stopped at a lovely Cafe selling Apple and Cinnamon Scones with Jam and Cream (food of Kings).

We moved on through Rowerdennan to Inverarnan, the walk up Loch Lomond was spectacular but technical, lots of climbing over rock and tree's for around 10km, tiring when you have 75km to cover. We stopped at the Drovers Inn for a meal where we met some fantastic people all with stories of their walks, where they had started, their next stop, blisters, weather, scenery.....great folks. However, we did get a few raised eyebrows when we said we started from Milngavie that day and hoped to reach Fort William the day after.
We walked through to 11pm when we finally arrived 5km short of Tyndrum, 19 hrs of walking with two stops for food.

We slept in a layby that night and managed to get a couple of hours sleep.

We kicked off again at 6am on Saturday morning and we were determined to complete the full 156km without stopping, even if we didn’t do it within the two day target.
We passed through Tyndrum, Inveroran and on to Glencoe Ski Centre where we met a bunch of runners doing a hill race. I was walking up the drovers path towards Glencoe Ski Centre when I saw a runner coming up the hill behind me so I stepped aside to allow him to pass, just as he was passing I said, ‘Gawn yer sell pall, great effort’ to which he replied ‘Jeeso Stevie, how’s it going’…..it was Trevor Galloway from my work out for a run from Tyndrum to Glencoe, what a machine….and btw, there is no way I would run with him, what a pace, he looked like he was running for the bus!!!

We departed the ski centre with some food in our stomach and moved onto Kingshouse and up to Kinlochleven where we arrived at 9pm, we had seven hours to go to Fort William to meet the two day target and 24km to cover so we didn’t hang around, to be honest I think we all thought we wouldn’t make it but no one said anything, my feet looked like a butchers shop window, Martin ands Stewart were still strong so off we went.
We filled ourselves up with food and energy jells…., anything we could get down in 5 mins and we were off.
This was the hardest part of the walk, we were getting on for 22 hours of constant walking and when we were close to the 2am/3am slot the body clocks started to shut down too.
We finally arrived in Fort William at 3.45am and Stewart and I asked our friend Ross where the finishing point was, he pointed to a bench about 100 meters away to which both Stewart and I said ‘your f’ing joking’, longest 100 meters I have ever walked.

The most important person on the challenge was Ross Hamilton our support driver, what a star, always ready with the motivation, compeed, plasters, food and drinks, we would not have done it without him.
Anyway, its done……….my friend is running it in two weeks, taking part in the WHW annuall race, trying to do it in under 36 hours, absolutely unbelievable…..btw, the record is 13hrs and change, anyone interested??

[Sgurr]

We slept in a layby

More an ordeal than anything else. Well done, but it's an experience I would never have contemplated. After a huge cycle ride for charity, I came to the conclusion that the hardest bit is raising the money, and people would just have readily put their hands in their pockets if I had cycled over the Tay Bridge. Not that I want to detract from your achievement, which is fantastic.

[Scottk]

Great achievement and the weather was good to you. Maybe a bit warm.
The record is about 13 1/2 hours for men and slightly longer for women.

[Chrisjk]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice and guidance. Me and a friend are wanting to walk the west highland way non stop either this September or the following march for charity. The plan is to walk it in 30/35 hours which will require walking through the night obviously. We've already had people tell us we're delusional but to be honest that just makes me more determined. My thinking is 96 miles at an average pace of 3mph which should get us there in 30/35 hours. Any advice on the feasibility from someone who has done similar would be appreciated. Neither of us have done the WHW before and we plan on doing some sections we anticipate to be the most difficult beforehand in order to gauge the timings. We will have help along the way from family etc providing food/ drinks where possible. My thinking is by making it hard we can hopefully raise more money the phrase "no pain no gain" comes to mind. Hoping some people will lend some of their knowledge of the walk as i'm pretty sure well need all the help we can get. Thanks

[Sack the Juggler]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice and guidance. Me and a friend are wanting to walk the west highland way non stop either this September or the following march for charity. The plan is to walk it in 30/35 hours which will require walking through the night obviously. We've already had people tell us we're delusional but to be honest that just makes me more determined. My thinking is 96 miles at an average pace of 3mph which should get us there in 30/35 hours. Any advice on the feasibility from someone who has done similar would be appreciated. Neither of us have done the WHW before and we plan on doing some sections we anticipate to be the most difficult beforehand in order to gauge the timings. We will have help along the way from family etc providing food/ drinks where possible. My thinking is by making it hard we can hopefully raise more money the phrase "no pain no gain" comes to mind. Hoping some people will lend some of their knowledge of the walk as i'm pretty sure well need all the help we can get. Thanks

Hi Chrisjk and welcome to the forum.

Over here we have the Parish walk, its 85 miles and has to be completed within 24hours. There are usually approx 1,500 starters each year, but not everyone plans on completing it, most stop before Peel (32.5 miles), this is usually my target, as you need a dedicated support car after that, so I'd say about a third push on after Peel and about 10% make it to the finish line before the 24 hour cut off (there are cut off times at each Parish so if you are slowing down you get pulled way before the finish line).

The winners normally do it in about 15-16 hours, but these are serious road walkers, but a few friends of mine, who are no athletes have done it within the 24 hour cut off.

Bearing in mind this is road walking, so you can go at a faster pace, but the WHW has a good path for most of the way (I believe).

I know of one lady who did it twice in two days (so basically finished the first lap, then carried on and did a second lap), but she was pushing herself and started seeing things and hearing voices from around the 130 mile mark.

So can it be done? Most certainly, but if I were you, I'd have supply points along the way with friends waiting to encourage you and top you up with water and food so you can carry as little as possible on the journey, pick a midsummer day so you have light as long as possible, and maybe even have someone to guide you over any tricky bits that you might have to do in the dark.

In terms of training, make sure that you know the route as much as possible, so walk sections of it on your training so you know what speed you can achieve on each section, and work out who will meet you at various points for re-supply and coffees / beers along the way.

Also, if you realise that you are not going to make it (due to weather, injury, etc) bail out, don't push yourself your speed / core temperature is falling and you know its not going to happen. You can try it again the next week / month / year.

And good luck by the way.

[Chrisjk]

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice and guidance. Me and a friend are wanting to walk the west highland way non stop either this September or the following march for charity. The plan is to walk it in 30/35 hours which will require walking through the night obviously. We've already had people tell us we're delusional but to be honest that just makes me more determined. My thinking is 96 miles at an average pace of 3mph which should get us there in 30/35 hours. Any advice on the feasibility from someone who has done similar would be appreciated. Neither of us have done the WHW before and we plan on doing some sections we anticipate to be the most difficult beforehand in order to gauge the timings. We will have help along the way from family etc providing food/ drinks where possible. My thinking is by making it hard we can hopefully raise more money the phrase "no pain no gain" comes to mind. Hoping some people will lend some of their knowledge of the walk as i'm pretty sure well need all the help we can get. Thanks

Hi Chrisjk and welcome to the forum.

Over here we have the Parish walk, its 85 miles and has to be completed within 24hours. There are usually approx 1,500 starters each year, but not everyone plans on completing it, most stop before Peel (32.5 miles), this is usually my target, as you need a dedicated support car after that, so I'd say about a third push on after Peel and about 10% make it to the finish line before the 24 hour cut off (there are cut off times at each Parish so if you are slowing down you get pulled way before the finish line).

The winners normally do it in about 15-16 hours, but these are serious road walkers, but a few friends of mine, who are no athletes have done it within the 24 hour cut off.

Bearing in mind this is road walking, so you can go at a faster pace, but the WHW has a good path for most of the way (I believe).

I know of one lady who did it twice in two days (so basically finished the first lap, then carried on and did a second lap), but she was pushing herself and started seeing things and hearing voices from around the 130 mile mark.

So can it be done? Most certainly, but if I were you, I'd have supply points along the way with friends waiting to encourage you and top you up with water and food so you can carry as little as possible on the journey, pick a midsummer day so you have light as long as possible, and maybe even have someone to guide you over any tricky bits that you might have to do in the dark.

In terms of training, make sure that you know the route as much as possible, so walk sections of it on your training so you know what speed you can achieve on each section, and work out who will meet you at various points for re-supply and coffees / beers along the way.

Also, if you realise that you are not going to make it (due to weather, injury, etc) bail out, don't push yourself your speed / core temperature is falling and you know its not going to happen. You can try it again the next week / month / year.

And good luck by the way.

Thanks for the reply. We plan to have some family members/friends meeting us at certain check points along the way with supplies like you mentioned as travelling light is a must i think. We were going to do it in the summer but midges and heat (yes it can be warm here haha) are not my cuppa tea on such a long journey with little to no shelter so at the end/beginning of summer would suit as there's not as many of the horrible little S***s haha. We also plan on doing most if not all of the sections beforehand to gauge the time required, we will maybe try and do one or two sections over a weekend to achieve this. The baling out part is a good idea as i think because its for a charity you don't want to let anyone down so you'd probably push on and possibly put yourself in danger, however i really really want to do it so there will be a degree of stubbornness well just need to keep it in check. Thanks a lot for the advice though i'm sure it'll come in handy and thanks for wishing us luck no doubt we'll need it haha

Chris

[Buggiba]

Whatever you do make sure you walk the stretch from Rowardennan to Beinglas Farm in daylight. Decide between the Conic Hill or low level route early.

Best of luck.

[Chrisjk]

Whatever you do make sure you walk the stretch from Rowardennan to Beinglas Farm in daylight. Decide between the Conic Hill or low level route early.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the advice a guy in work said its quite muddy and lots of vegetation up the side of Loch Lomond so doing it in daylight seems a good plan, i think were planning on leaving around 3 or 4 in the morning so light shouldn't be a problem. We are also thinking well try to time it so we get the devils staircase in daylight as well as it might be tricky in the dark. Were still debating whether to use the low level route or go for conic hill and well probably decide after we've tried out the route, we don't want to seem like were selling out by taking the low level route but in the same breath time and exhaustion will be a factor we'll be fighting. Thanks again
Chris

[chrisw177]

Hi guys,
A group of people from work and i are planning on doing the WHW in two days for charity. Was wondering if anyone had any recomendations for boots and gear ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

[Scottk]

Hi, I would probably choose trainers if the forecast was looking good. I have done it twice in Salomon x mid gtx boots which are great for me. Light and fit me well but can get too hot and sweaty in warm conditions. Take plenty of spare socks so you can change them often and make sure the footwear is well broken in and the socks are the usual type you walk in.
The path is mostly good but can get very slippy in wet conditions round about Loch Lomond.
Good luck.