I faced lightning, wildfires and horseflies to become fastest person to cross Alps
I faced lightning, wildfires and horseflies to become fastest person to cross Alps
Sonia TwiggTue, August 4, 2026 at 6:00 AM UTC
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Sophie Woods travelled through Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and France to complete her challenge - Zoe Salt
There are two things you do not want to be in a thunderstorm: exposed and carrying metal poles. Yet that is exactly how Sophie Woods found herself during her record-breaking 2,000km endurance race across the Alps.
The Via Alpina is a long-distance hiking trail, crossing eight European countries from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, with an elevation the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 12 times.
It was on one of the countless peaks that Woods and her friend and photographer Zoe Salt were trying to summit and descend as quickly as possible when the thunder clapped so close that it felt like they were in the storm rather than below it.
“There was a point where I [thought] what am I going to say to her [Salt’s] family if she dies up here because of this,” Woods told Telegraph Sport from her home in Andorra days after breaking the record for completing the route. She did it in 29 days.
“We were in the middle of the storm. It was pouring with rain, then it starts hailing. I don’t think I ran faster than when we were trying to get out of that. It was either we keep moving or we try to find somewhere to shelter in place. In a lightning storm rocks are conductive, trees are conductive, your poles are conductive, and I think it’s best to just move fast and get down.”
As they were beaten in their race against the storm to summit before it broke, Salt and Woods considered discarding their poles and even the camera used to document the feat as they raced to safety but ultimately kept hold of them. Despite the rain and the hail, the pair reached the end-of-day checkpoint.
With the challenge now a few days behind her, Woods, who competes as Sophie Grant, is finally able to stay awake for more than two hours at a time as she recovers from her efforts in the past month.
The previous record of 35 days and 21 hours was set by British runner Jake Cattreall in 2024, but Woods has set a new record despite facing gruelling conditions as Europe has experienced wildfires and heatwaves.
The heat might have been expected, even if it meant that Woods’s dog, Nila, was unable to join her on the route for long stretches, but the wildfires that caused her to change course were not.
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In the final week of her arduous journey, or day 25, the fires in France forced her to find an alternative route that was five kilometres longer and 200 metres more in elevation. Her husband, George, was sent to buy facemasks in case the smoke was blown towards her, but in the end it was an encounter with horseflies that proved more traumatic.
Woods’ husband George supported all the way - Zoe Salt
“They were horrendous,” Woods said. “I never wanted to have a meltdown as much as when I was surrounded by horseflies. When you run through these paddocks and there’s a bunch of flies, they swarm around you. It’s not the end of the world but then they come with you, you can’t outrun them.
“I had a big climb to do, I was already at the end of my tether and I suddenly noticed that there was this swarm starting to gather around me. Then they started landing on me. They started biting me and you can’t stop.
“I was in tears, screaming at them, and in the end I grabbed a bunch of ferns with each hand and just started whipping myself with it. I spent an hour going up a climb just doing that. I looked completely nuts but it worked and it kept them off me.
“It was absolutely horrendous; it was close to the end of the day and I was really, really tired. It still makes me panicky thinking about them.”
Woods set herself a 30-day target to complete the route because she had no desire to run for any longer than that, but that timeframe meant extremely long days. Woods and her husband initially expected her to take 14 or 15 hours to complete each daily leg, but often those numbers topped 17 or 18 hours. She would set off at 3am and would not reach the support van where she, her husband, Salt and the dog slept until nightfall. That meant the issue of sleep deprivation started to compound.
“When I was getting really weave-y and my eyes would just keep shutting on the trail, I would curl up on the side for five or 10 minutes and that restarts you, just long enough so that I could get to the van and then put my head down for 20 minutes.”
Woods’ photographer captured some spectacular views - Zoe Salt
The lack of sleep could have taken a much more serious toll but for a piece of equipment. “On the first 20-hour day that we had I fell running downhill and my head torch stopped my fall,” Woods explained. She was alongside Salt at the time and added: “I think she [Salt] struggled because she wanted to comfort me but also wanted to film it.”
Was it her only fall? “The second time was when George decided to just let Nila out to greet me, she came running to me and wound herself around my legs and I just Superman-dived onto the pavement. I was not impressed.”
Despite what she went through during those 29 days, Woods has three weeks of rest before she embarks on a new challenge. This time she will race with her husband along 300 kilometres of the La Petite Trotte à Léon at Mont Blanc.
Source: “AOL Sports”
