The Big 4 is a combination of arguably the hardest mountain challenge route from each of the UK nations.
England - The Bob Graham Round - 105km - 8600m height gain - 42 summits
Scotland - The Charlie Ramsay Round - 96km - 8200m height gain - 24 summits
Wales - The Paddy Buckley Round - 105km - 8400m height gain - 47 summits
Northern Ireland - The Denis Rankin - 90km - 6000m height gain - 39 summits
Individually, the challenge is to complete one round within 24hrs and a few have done some incredibly quick rounds. Also a couple of people have done the GB big 3 (no Northern Ireland) in different forms including Mike Hartley by driving in between and John Kelly, cycling in between.
The rules for the UK big 4 are as follows:
- There is no time limit on each individual round.
- Other than the time, each round must be completed according to its own rules.
- You have 7 days to complete including travel
- The total time of each round added together, within 7 days is the challenge.
- The 7 day total time limit is intended to provide a sufficient time for driving between the rounds without putting anyone at risk on the roads.
Therefore, if each round is completed in 25hrs over the course of 1 week, then the recorded time is 100hrs in 7 days.
