Vegan completes ‘Everest’ in Canadian mountains

Vegan runner Alister Gardner took on an extreme challenge that would test any elite runner.

7 November 2020

The Canadian aimed to run the equivalent of the height gain of Everest, in one day.

The run focussed on La Brome, a peak 553 metres above sea level in Southern Quebec. Twenty six complete climbs would be the same as running up (and down) the world’s highest peak.

“In no way was I trained for this, so just took it easy from the beginning and aimed to stay constant” says Alister. “The approach paid off and even though my segment was far from ideal for a fast time, I managed to have fun throughout.”

Alister fuelled himself with 2 bags of chips, 20 Fruit2 bars, some R&D xact products, a veggie burger and 3 bananas – that he can remember.

Amazingly he completed the challenge in 16 hours 46 minutes, having climbed 9039 metres (compared with 8488m for Everest) over 108 kilometres.

Alister started turning vegan in 2010.

“I had been reading a series of articles from the Guardian about the hidden truth ofmodern farming. I washorrified torealise I was being a part of that by buying meat products.”

Alister’s profile

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