LMC Champagne Challenge

The London Mountaineering Club’s endurance challenge involves traversing the 15 Welsh 3000-foot peaks in a loop, starting and ending at Fronwydyr. The route covers the Glyders, the Carneddau, and the Snowdon massif, making for an epic day out. The minimum distance is approximately 52km with 4500m elevation gain. The peaks can be visited in any order.

Finishers

Finish Times Over the Years

Three decades of finishes tell a story of the Champagne Challenge that has grown from a hikers’ test of endurance to a increasingly competitive ultra-trail running event.

The founders of the challenge, Angel Vila and Stephen Clark, and early finishers between 1995 and 1990 were very strong hikers, and nobody finished the challenge slower than 18:30 until 2006. The popularity of the challenge increased tremendously between 2006 and 2009, with 17 finishers in 4 years. During this period, Gareth Craft improved the previous course record by 3:22 hours, becoming the first to achieve a sub-15-hour finish (11:57) and claim a bottle of champagne.

Between 2012 and 2019, there was a steady number of 2–5 finishers each year, with average finishing times clearly dropping. There were two more sub-15-hour finishes (Philip Brocklehurst, 14:32; Eoin Brady, 12:27) and the current female record was set by Julia Kelly at 16:29.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of the Champagne Challenge increased again. In 2022, Murray Sanders became the fourth person to finish below 15 hours (14:16). The favorable conditions in June 2024 resulted in a record of nine Champagne Challenge finishers, another sub-15-hour finish by Sam Khalid in his third attempt (12:50), and Linus Dietz setting a new course record of 11:30.

The 30th anniversary of the challenge saw 15 runners set off, with four completing the course. Janos Wimmer and Elisabeth Barbey both ran strong races on their first attempts, Sam Khalid recorded yet another sub-15-hour finish (12:53), and Anaïs Thizy made history by setting a new women’s record of 14:25 and becoming the first female runner to break the 15-hour barrier.

In March 2026, Tomasz Piwowarczyk completed the challenge in snowy winter conditions in 14:05, becoming the first person to achieve a sub-15-hour finish on a winter attempt.

The Champagne Challenge meet in June 2026 proved to be record-breaking with 8 finishers, all under 15 hours. The duo of Tom Baxter and Sam Khalid broke the overall record (11:04), and Iona Casley improved the women’s record to 13:40.

Personal Bests

So far, we have only 14 finishers below 15 hours! How fast can you do it?

Which Direction to go?

The Champagne Challenge can be completed in either direction. The anti-clockwise route is appealing because it traverses the most technical ridges of Crib Goch (Grade 1 Scramble) first. However, it seems that, overall, the clockwise direction is 87 minutes faster than the anti-clockwise direction.