An ultra-distance athlete has set his sights on running the entire length of the Alps on a never-before-traversed route in the hopes of inspiring others to “say yes to more of what they love”. Jake Catterall, 32, who is originally from Loughborough and relocated to Amsterdam 10 years ago, is no stranger to journeying long distances – he has previously cycled a complete lap of Iceland in one go and tackled the length of Europe on foot from Norway to Spain. However, the art director said his upcoming 2,000km (1,243 miles) challenge across the Alps, starting on July 8, will be a “big question mark from the very beginning” as he will be the first to take on a new route along the European mountain range which has not been crossed before.
Jake Catterall estimates his upcoming challenge will take 35 days to complete (Paula Bogatan/PA) “There’s been an interesting curveball because the Via Alpina group, a mountain association, have just made a new official route as of the end of last year, start of this year. “There’s an opportunity to do a brand new route that would never have been run before and it will be the new official route moving forward for the Via Alpina route, and I decided (on Friday) that I would go for this new one.” He added: “The whole thing is unknown, of course I’ve looked at the path, but the whole thing is a big question mark from the very beginning.
“I guess that is the beautiful thing about the whole trip, you just really don’t know h.
