1. Home
2. Blog
3. Sustainable Mountain Challenges

If you are considering participating in one of the UK’s many mountain challenges, we are extremely excited for you. They are a great way to engage with your natural surroundings, push yourself physically and enjoy that well-earned sense of achievement.

However, as concern over our everyday environmental impact increases, a growing number of challenge participants are looking for ways to minimise their environmental footprint and protect the landscapes they love exploring. In this article, we help you do so by providing 13 top tips for an environmentally-friendly mountain challenge.

On the Trail

1. Pack in, pack out
Leave no trace is the golden rule of outdoor adventuring. Essentially, it’s the idea that anyone who enters nature should leave nothing behind. That means ensuring everything you pack into the region comes out with you. From rubbish to coffee grinds, you need a way to transport everything you carry back to somewhere it can be disposed of safely and correctly.

Leave no trace principles increase the enjoyment we derive from nature by keeping the environment clean and pleasant. On one level, it is an aesthetic thing. Who wants to climb a mountain only to find the summit littered with discarded cans and plastic wrapping?

However, leave no trace also helps protect the delicate ecological balance found in mountain environments. Everything we leave behind affects the environment – animals can become trapped or harm themselves on rubbish and, over time, discarded food scraps can lead to changes in wildlife behaviour.

Strictly adhering to leave no trace guidelines is the only way to protect natural environments. Even seemingly harmless actions often have unintended consequences. We often see people chucking banana skins because they are natural and biodegradable. But banana skins can take up to two years to biodegrade (Guardian). The result is a mountain landscape littered with the slippy yellow skins.

2. Keep to the trails
With all that wild expanse stretching out before you, it can be tempting to head off-piste and make your own trails as you look for a shortcut that will cut a few minutes off your mountain challenge finishing time. Unfortunately, that can quickly lead to environmental degradation. Especially when it occurs in large numbers.

Leaving designated paths often results in challenge participants trampling plant life underfoot and causing damage to the local flora. In most national parks, the trails are adapted and improved to manage heavy footfall and reduce the impact on the environment. Though many will have formed fairly naturally over hundreds of years of travel, they are often adapted to accommodate safe water run-off and minimise erosion.

In other words, they have been purpose-built for all of us and represent the safest and most environmentally friendly means of participating in mountain challenges. At the same time, we understand that keeping to the paths isn’t always possible. In some challenges (we’re looking at you Dragon’s Back Race!), the route sees you traversing areas where there are no clear paths to follow. In these cases, tread lightly and carefully and make sure you have brushed up on your orienteering skills. We don’t want you getting lost!

3. Respect the local wildlife
Though some challenges might push you so close to the limit that you won’t notice the red kite flying overhead, others offer plenty of chances to enjoy the local wildlife. Mountain environments are home to a spectacularly diverse ecosystem and are some of the best places to catch a glimpse of animals you will not see anywhere else. Engaging with nature and observing wildlife is one of the great joys of being in the mountains, so embrace the opportunity and keep your eyes open.

That said, you should always keep a safe distance, observe from afar and not interfere with any wildlife you encounter. It is partly for your safety. But it is for the animals’ well-being, too. If you get too close, you may scare the animal, forcing it to flee. In doing so, it can hurt itself or unwittingly make itself a target for predators. Forced fleeing can also cause animals to use essential energy reserves they require to get through the winter.

Travel and Transport

4. Leave the car behind
One of the most effective ways to make your mountain challenge more environmentally friendly is to leave the car behind and pick an alternative, more sustainable form of transport. We love a train journey – so we may be slightly biased – but travelling by rail is a fantastic idea. Not only is it more eco-friendly, but it also allows you to sit back, relax and soak up the view. No pre-challenge stress, no traffic, and no busy motorways. Just you and a window seat as the beautiful British countryside rolls by.

If you must travel by car, try to ensure you do so with a full vehicle. If you are not participating with a group of friends or family, check out the event’s social media pages and see if you can find anyone who wants to rideshare in your area. You can also contact event organisers and ask if they have any arrangements to facilitate carpooling.

5. Add to the challenge with a long approach
If participating in a mountain event is not enough of a challenge for you, why not add an extra element (and reduce your environmental footprint at the same time) by incorporating a long approach? By that, we mean walking or cycling to the event location. While this is obviously not an option for everyone, it can be a fantastic way for participants who do not live too far from the event to turn a one-day challenge into a multi-day monster of an achievement.

6. Consider the location
If you look at it scientifically, travel is where you can reduce your environmental impact most significantly. Generally, transport does much more damage than you could ever commit with your own two feet.

With this in mind, the easiest way to participate in an environmentally-friendly challenge is to choose an event close to you. If you are driving halfway across the country or flying abroad to the French Alps or the Himalayas, it’s hard to argue that you are being environmentally friendly.

However, we recognise that this is not always possible. For one, we often want to explore distant areas of the country and love travelling to far-flung exotic places. Second, not everyone lives near an event. In this case, travel is a necessity, unless you organise your own event. It does not have to be big and glamorous. Nor do you have to scale the highest peaks. It can be just you and a bunch of friends deciding to do something cool, enjoying each other’s company and achieving something magic.

Big things start small. Organise your event and who knows, it may end up the next Bob Graham Round, Charlie Ramsay Round or 3 Peaks Cyclocross challenge – all of which started as one person’s dream and have since risen to national and international prominence.

7. Choose a less popular mountain challenge
Three Peaks. Dragon’s Back Race. Snowdon Six. We understand that big-name mountain challenges hold a certain appeal. They are prestigious for a reason. They tackle the highest peaks and pose the hardest challenge. We don’t want to put anyone off pursuing their goal of completing one of these epic events. Not the least because we have participated in them ourselves and hope to continue doing so.

But these high-profile events attract a lot of people. And that puts more of a strain on the local environment. To minimise your environmental footprint, you may want to consider a less popular mountain challenge. There are plenty to choose between. We love the Welsh 3000s, Edale Skyline and Yorkshire Three Peaks, in particular.

If you are committed to completing one of the big events, our sister site published a great guide to making your Three Peaks Challenge more sustainable. Though it is targeted at the Three Peaks Challenge, you can apply the advice to most other mountain events.

8. Research your challenge company
If you are participating in a mountain challenge through a dedicated adventure-oriented outdoor organisation (say… RAW Adventures), it pays to do your homework. Not all companies are created alike and there are varying levels of commitment to sustainability.

When choosing a company, we recommend looking at whether the organisation discusses issues surrounding environmental sustainability and how it attempts to minimise its footprint. We also believe it is important to go with people with connections to the local area. Naturally, people who live and work in the region are more invested in protecting it and understand the unique environmental and community concerns.

Accommodation and eating

9. Find eco-friendly accommodation
As we become more aware of environmental issues, the amount of eco-friendly accommodation available to travellers is gradually increasing. It includes anything from off-grid shepherd huts to guesthouses that generate a large proportion of their energy from renewable sources.

Staying in sustainable accommodation is a great way to support small local businesses that take an eco-friendly approach. It also helps you reduce your impact on the local environment. While it is not always easy to find this type of accommodation, some websites use special icons to highlight low-impact options, so keep your eyes peeled.

10. Shop and eat locally
Supporting local businesses also extends to where you eat and shop before and after the challenge. Local produce typically boasts a much smaller carbon footprint than food shipped from the other side of the planet. Investment in local communities also leads to greater prosperity and an improved ability to protect and care for local environments.

It is important to note that, in rural areas, local communities are very much part of the environment. They have shaped it and acted as stewards for hundreds of years, so support for those communities is also support for the environment they call home and with which they interact on a daily basis.

11. Learn about the local area
We love to have a little context for our outdoor adventures. We don’t want to turn up at a challenge, get changed in the car, climb a few mountains and then head home. We want to know some local history, understand what these mountains mean to local people and immerse ourselves in the area and event’s culture and traditions.

These events are not possible without the mountains themselves or the people who organise them – learning about the local area before you participate is a fantastic way of showing respect for that heritage. We also find that striving to better understand the area and event gives you a greater appreciation for the environment. You feel invested and develop a connection that encourages you to act in a way that protects what is valuable within it.

Equipment and challenge gear

12. Choose ethical and sustainable gear
Everyone has their favourite outdoor brands. Maybe they make hiking boots that offer excellent support or backpacks that sit just right. However, many outdoor equipment manufacturers utilise materials and processes that can be environmentally damaging.

Wherever possible, we recommend buying from brands (local, if you can) that prioritise ethical sourcing and sustainable manufacturing. There are a whole host of certification schemes and eco-friendly awards out there. So do your research and make sure you are shopping with an eco-aware business. The Ethical Consumer’s Guide to ethical outdoor clothing is a good place to start.

13. Maintain your equipment for longer life
Finally, regular equipment maintenance is crucial if you want to slow the consumer cycle and ensure your gear lasts longer. If you can buy less and wear it for longer, you are drastically reducing your environmental impact.

Make sure you clean your shoes and boots at the end of the event and apply any protective treatment necessary. Adhere to washing instructions for garments and give all drinking bottles and containers a thorough wash too. The better you care for your equipment, the longer it will look after you.

What next?

If you are considering a mountain challenge and require any additional guidance on how to participate sustainably, or would prefer to organise the challenge through an experienced company that emphasises an eco-friendly approach, we would love to hear from you. At RAW Adventures, our experienced mountain leaders have all the expertise required to help you plan your ideal mountain challenge and guarantee a safe, enjoyable and sustainable experience.

To find out more, head to our contact page and fill in the enquiry form. See you on the mountain!