Alps

The achievement is breathtaking. Recognition is growing. The fastest known time is hers.

Ultrarunner Sophie Woods will have more to say after a few well-deserved full night’s sleep. For now, consider her unvarnished secret to traversing a mountainous 1,242-mile trail network through Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France and Monaco in 28 days, 17 hours and 59 minutes — nearly a week faster than anyone else has been known to do so.

“Just one step. That’s all you have to do. Just one step forward,” Woods said on Instagram.

Woods earlier reported the record time as 29 days, but corrected it in an email to The Times on Monday, saying she and her husband George “were all so exhausted they hadn’t calculated correctly.”

The Via Alpina course follows the length of the Alps with elevation equivalent to climbing Mount Everest a dozen times. The length is a nice round number in kilometers — 2,000. The total elevation climbed was roughly 110,000 meters, an average of 12,000 feet of daily vertical ascent per day.

Yet another number is equally impressive: Woods is 42 years old.

Woods, who competes using her maiden name Sophie Amy Grant, set off on July 4 in Trieste, Italy, and finished on the Mediterranean coast of Monaco. She endured heatwaves, storms, wildfires and a swarm of horseflies. She ran, climbed and hiked 14 to 18 hours a day, covering 40 to 50 miles before getting a few hours of sleep in a van, tent or occasionally a hotel room.

“I am ecstatic but knackered,” she told BBC Sport. “I’m really tired.”

She ate and drank what would be expected of someone exerting herself to the nth degree. Energy gels containing carbs, electrolytes and amino acids along with a sprinkle of caffeine were essential, but Woods also splurged on McDonalds and mounds of pasta when she met up with her husband, photographer Zoe Salt and dog Nila at day’s end. She estimated that she consumed close to 7,000 calories a day.

The first week was the toughest, with Woods describing her feeling “a thousand pulled muscles,” but by halfway through the journey she told Her Sports that “things still ache now, and by the end of the day my feet are definitely ready for a rest, but I currently only have one small blister on my heel, which I’m calling a huge win. All things considered, I’m feeling really good.”

Sophie Woods runs a route on Via Alpina at Klausenpass by Hotel Meiringen on July 20.

(Zoe Salt)

The previous fastest known time in the Via Alpina was 35 days, 21 hours by British runner Jake Catterall, 34, in 2024. Tessa Caspers, 33, set the fastest women’s time for the route at 38 days, 2 hours last year.

Catterall might need to update his website, which claims not only the Via Alpina record but others including an arduous mountain trek in North Africa and a 3,500-mile mad dash across the entire length of Europe, from Norway to Andalusia, Spain.

He knew all about Woods’ effort, however. On day 20 of her journey, Catterall met her in Switzerland after she had traversed “a particularly spicy descent on a sketchy section of via ferrata,” according to Woods’ Instagram.

“Safely back at base camp, she was met by a brilliant surprise,” the post read. “Waiting to cheer her on was @jakecatterall — the current Via Alpina FKT holder — who had gone out of his way on the journey to his own adventure just to support Sophie. It was such a thoughtful gesture, and one that gave everyone a real lift.”

FKT is short for the “fastest known time” that a person or small group achieves on a particular course, usually somewhere it would be difficult or impossible to host an actual race.

To submit an FKT, the route must be at least five miles long or have at least 500 feet of climbing. Some are very short — the Manitou Incline in Colorado is less than one mile long but climbs 1,900 feet and begins at 7,000 feet of elevation. Others such as the Via Alpina and the Appalachian Trail are thousands of miles long.

For verification, GPS information must be submitted to the FKT website. The route can be linked by uploading it to Strava, Garmin Connect or another online training platform. FKT has not verified Woods’ record yet.

Woods’ mark likely will be tested by another runner, although someone else her age and gender completing the Via Alpina in fewer than 29 days would be a challenging feat.

Woods is from New Zealand and she and her husband spent a decade in London before living in their camper van for years while traveling throughout Europe, finally settling in Andorra, a tiny principality situated in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

And it is there Woods will rest for a spell.

“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” she said on Instagram a day after she completed Via Alpina. “I still can’t believe that we did it.”

A giant mountain swing is sending visitors soaring more than 2,000 metres above the Swiss Alps as ski resorts look for new ways to attract visitors beyond the winter season

Thrill-seekers can now soar over the Swiss Alps on a giant mountain swing that launches riders over the edge of a cliff.

Visitors to the Villars ski resort can now brave the BalancAIR swing, a 12-metre-high attraction perched 2,110 metres above sea level that sends up to three people at a time soaring out above a dramatic Alpine drop. Riders are strapped into saddle-style seats fixed to a structure resembling an Alpine Ibex before being hauled backwards to a 90-degree angle and released high above the valley below.

Alexandra Henchoz, 37, admitted she was nervous before testing the attraction with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. She said she: “I had a bit of a pit in [her] stomach” before she was strapped in to the harness.

“But once it is happening, it is just incredible. You feel like a bird flying,” Alexandra added.

The swing, which opened earlier this month, forms part of the resort’s efforts to attract more visitors outside the traditional ski season as Alpine destinations adapt to the effects of climate change. Martin Deburaux, head of the Villars-Gryons-Diableret ski area, said: “We are really trying to diversify our offering.”

The 12-metre swing “provides us with a source of attraction that can function independently of snow conditions”, he said. Although the resort has enjoyed record winter visitor numbers over the past two seasons, Martin said warmer conditions meant planning for the future was essential.

He added: “But we know we are facing climate change. We are looking for substitutes to conserve jobs, the dynamism and the tourist economy built up around our ski lift facilities.”

The resort currently welcomes more than 700,000 visitors during winter but around 100,000 over the summer, now busses hope the new attraction will help draw more visitors outside the ski season in a bid to boost off-season tourism.

Among those giving it a go was Marc Truffer, 70, who admitted the experience left him both frightened and amazed. He said: “It was so scary… I didn’t even scream.

“It took my breath away going down, but then the view was magnificent.”

Nine-thirty on a sunny Tuesday morning, and the platforms at Nice-Ville station are buzzing. Office workers nudge their way past backpackers, passengers clamber on to trains heading east to Monaco and Italy, or west to Antibes and Cannes. My husband and I, however, are heading away from the glittering coastline and boarding the Train des Merveilles (Train of Wonders) into the Alpes-Azur mountains.

Back on track last December after a programme of major works closed the line for a year, it’s one of the most spectacular train routes in Europe, a two-hour journey that climbs 1,000 metres in 100km, linking Nice with the medieval town of Tende, surrounded by the soaring peaks of the Mercantour national park.

It’s barely 10 minutes before the suburbs of Nice begin to melt into low hills, scattered with auburn-roofed villas and copses of chestnut trees. Once the ascent begins, it’s easy to see why maintaining the line, begun in 1883, is a serious task. More than 100 bridges and viaducts – and almost as many tunnels and retaining walls – stitch the track together, along with ingenious helical loop tunnels, which gain altitude by following a series of bends inside the mountain itself.

It’s a breathtaking ride, the hills gaining height and heft, until a great mountainscape begins to unfold before us; jagged peaks that make the valley road below seem little more than a thin sliver of ribbon.

Many passengers ride straight up to Tende and set off to hike the mountain trails that lead off from the town. But we want to see a little more, and disembark first at Sospel, a medieval town where the 13th-century Pont-Vieux straddles the Bévéra River. It’s market day and, even in such a small town, there are flower and vegetable stalls, great wheels of cheese and delicious looking breads. We stroll the quiet streets, past crumbling baroque churches and gothic-style houses. It’s amazing to think we are barely an hour from Nice – it feels like we’ve been transported to an entirely different region of France.

The higher we go, the more the feeling of stepping back in time grows. At La Brigue, the gateway to the Mercantour national park, the tangle of medieval streets feel barely raised from their winter sleep; the town only really comes alive in summer, when the hikers arrive. La Brigue’s claim to fame is the Chapel of our Lady of Fountains, a couple of miles outside the town. Named for the seven springs that trickle through the rocks nearby, parts of the church date back to the 13th century, when, legend has it, villagers built it as a sign of gratitude to the Virgin Mary after prayers for a new water source for La Brigue were answered. While the facade is unassuming, the interior is truly extraordinary; its walls and ceiling are covered in 15th-century frescoes by Giovanni Canavesio that are so vivid the church is sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of the Southern Alps.

By the time we arrive in Tende, where the houses cling to the mountainside, we are 800 metres above sea level and there is nothing but wooded slopes leading to high peaks and a crisp, clear silence. We follow the modern main street through the clustered, medieval houses of the old town up to the ruins of Chateau Lascaris, where the views stretch to the distant peaks of the Marguareis massif, the last mountains before Italy. It’s quite a pull, and afterwards we reward ourselves with mammoth croque monsieurs at Stella Alpina – part outdoor equipment shop, part rustic eaterie. Around us, hearty looking chaps in Lycra cycling tops are tucking into pints of lager and platters of local cheese and cured meats.

Much restored, we dip into the Musée des Merveilles, where we learn (through our fractured French) that the area is home to one of Europe’s largest Neolithic and Bronze Age rock-engraving sites. The town’s more recent (relatively speaking) history is tied to the Salt Road, a mule train route between the Piedmontese Alps and the Ligurian coast, used from the middle ages until the 18th century. Built as the last French stop-off along the trade route, it partly explains why a town of such a size was located in such an isolated, mountainous location.

Next morning, we’re back in Nice, from where we head along the coast to Antibes. It’s such a bonus, being able to explore so easily; 40 minutes later, we’re strolling past gleaming yachts in the marina and on to the 16th-century ramparts, to sit in the sunshine and watch the kitesurfers whisk across the bay. We head to a restaurant on the Place Nationale, where I eat crispy fritto misto (mixed fried seafood) and try to ignore my husband tucking into buttery, garlicky snails. The following day we take the 10-minute hop east for lunch in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, where the streets ooze belle epoque glamour, and the Plage de la Petite Afrique makes the perfect spot for a paddle and a pile of mussels, thick with cream and garlic.

Food, inevitably, plays a big part in our time in Nice too. As touristy as the old town is, we find two absolute gems; a recommendation sends us to Acchiardo (on Facebook), where the fourth generation of the Acchiardo family serves up classic local dishes such as daube Nicoise – a rich, slow-cooked beef stew and duck breast with fig sauce. The second, Les Bar Des Oiseaux (on Instagram), we simply stumble across. It’s a classic bistro, with wood panelling painted with flawless reproductions of artworks by everyone from Joan Miró to Paul Klee and Roy Lichtenstein. My bourride (a traditional Provençal fish stew) was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten.

And that’s the beauty of Nice. It’s both a destination itself and a gateway to very different worlds, all of them just a train ride away. The Train des Merveilles is unarguably the highlight; those extraordinary twists and turns, the grandiose scenery, wild and untouched, so different from the busy streets of Nice. But to pack all of it into one short trip is to make the very most of this diversely beautiful region; a trip des merveilles indeed.

The trip was provided by Mama Shelter hotels and the Nice Côte d’Azur tourist board. Doubles at Mama Shelter Nice from £114 B&B. The Train des Merveilles runs daily from June-September, with an onboard guide on the 9.30 departure. A regional rail day pass with Ter Zou!, including the Train des Merveilles, is €20