On Monday, August 12, ultra runner Jake Catterall, 32, officially set a new world record for the first, and fastest run across the Alps. He traversed the range on the new Via Alpina red route, taking 35 days.
His journey started in Trieste in Italy and took him into Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France, before finishing in Monaco, following the great arc of the alpine chain. This entailed covering around 60km a day, while the total distance was around 2,000km, with a staggering 110km of vertical elevation gain – that's equivalent to 12-and-a-half Everests from sea level to summit.
