This was my 3rd attempt on the Gritstone 100. This time I made the full round, which is psychologically difficult, as the mid-point of the route is about half a mile from my home in Hope, Derbyshire. This year I had set myself the goal of completing at least 100 miles unsupported, as I am coming to understand how much I love the unsupported style. My first attempt on the Gritstone 100 was back in April, 2022. Lack of a pacing and sleep strategy saw me quit a mile from home, totally depleted. I tried again in August, 2025, but a late summer storm which included hours of very heavy rain and high winds put an early end to that attempt. I stooped yet again just a mile from home, but this time in a state of mild hypothermia.
October is not an ideal time to attempt this distance, but time was running out on my 2025 goal. I knew from previous experience at unsupported attempts of this duration require real patience and a good sleep strategy. I'd also packed considerably more food (around 3kg worth) than my summer attempt of the Snowdonia Way. The Grtistone 100 is far from mountainous, but underfoot it's very tough and the navigation is often very tricky, as it follows few well-established paths. October also meant that the bracken, although turned brown, was very high in places and much of the heather was knee deep. This made for slow going in many places, and even with a GPS device the route was invisible at times.
In any case, I set off Friday morning, hoping to get through Bleaklow in daylight. The first 40 miles or so went pretty smoothly, although the area around Grinah Stones was especially overgrown and slow going indeed. I had a fairly comfortable bivvy up on Kinder, just past the Downfall. I was aiming for a finish time of around 40 hours, which meant at this point I should have less than 24 hours to go. 40 hours proved to be overly optimistic in the end.
Despite the fact that the route is within such a popular destination as the Peak District, the Gritstone 100 in fact only passes through 2 towns, Edale and Castleton, both roughly near the midpoint. I passed through Edale early enough to miss the crowds (it was, in fact, still almost dark), but by the time I got to Castleton the early morning hikers and tourists were out in full force, enjoying the fairly mild but rather overcast and dull day. Much of the following 20 or so miles were very busy with hikers and tourists, as I went over the Great Ridge, Win Hill, Ladybower Reservoir and other popular spots.
By this time I was thankful for evening and also the quieter areas around the Strines, but the final 25 miles proved to be really difficult, as darkness, combined with very sore toes and some difficult navigation through the Burbage area forced me to drop my pace to a crawl. By this point I realised it would be worth having a short sleep to keep my mind and morale from dropping too low. The final miles seemed endless, as the route meanders over the beautiful (in daytime at least) edges above the villages of Grindleford, Froggatt and Calver. Thin mist in the hills meant my headtorch was not much use and although I still had the legs to run when the trail evened out, the footing, navigation and darkness turned most of this section into a hike.
I finally arrived at Chatsworth House some time in the very early morning to complete the effort.
The Gritstone 100 is an excellent local route and apart from the section between Castleton and Bamford, explores some less well explored parts of the Peak District. I wasn't able to follow the official route after the car park at Ladybower to Bamford Clough, as a fence has been erected and this part now appears impassible. I made up for the mile or so shortfall by doing the Bamford Edge section twice. The official GPX file includes 319 waypoints. These were a real help for the first part of the FKT, but far too many for my 5 year old Coros watch to cope with.
This has given me the confidence to try longer unsupported FKTs in 2026, so I will be planning those in the weeks ahead.