Vegan goddess Natalie Portman wore the black Airseal Engineer (non-steel) boots for the January 2010 Marie Claire photoshoot - see pic 5 on their website

The Team - Helen (editor of Viva!life), Justine (VVF senior health campaigner) and Juliet (director of Viva!/VVF)

Vegetarian Shoes are proud to be sponsoring the 15/24 Viva! Challenge. This involves walking 48 km in 24 hours, including ascending the 15 Welsh mountain peaks whose summits are above 3,000 ft..

On July 3, 2010 at 3am, with other Viva! supporters, Helen (editor of Viva!life), Justine (VVF senior health campaigner) and Juliet (director of Viva!/VVF) will start the walk of their lives as they disappear steeply upwards into a Welsh dawn, borrowing Captain Oates’ famous last words – “We may be some time!” This is a breathtaking (literally) undertaking deserving of magnanimous support. Please, please sponsor them by the mile, by the peak or by the blister.

Good luck to all 3 of them.

The Team - Andrew Taylor, Jules Howliston and Andrew Knight

	Andrew T. posing on Ben Nevis in the snow	Andrew K. on Scafell Pike	Jules on Ben Nevis

Congratulations to the intrepid team from The Extreme Vegan Sporting Association who attacked the 3 peaks (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) riding on our glorious Snowdon boots on 3rd May, and here's their story...

From 13:00 3rd May to 12:25 4th May 2009, an all-vegan team completed the famous UK Three Peaks Challenge. Why would three otherwise well-behaved, sensible young folk brave snow, freezing winds, sharp rocks and assorted injuries to run around cold, dark mountain peaks in the middle of the night? (i) because they were mentally ill, (ii) to repent for past sins, or (iii) because they were wickedly blackmailed into participating?

Whilst the truth may never be fully revealed, certain facts are clear. The three peaks they successfully climbed are the highest in all of Wales (Mt Snowdon), England (Scafell Pike) and Scotland (Ben Nevis). They walked, ran and painfully limped around 25 miles (40 km), climbed around 10,000 feet (3,050 m), and endured a hair-raising drive of nearly 500 miles over winding mountain roads at night, averaging less than 2 hours sleep!

However, the climbers did have one important advantage. All are members of the Extreme Vegan Sporting Association, which means that as well as being naturally skilled at doing extremely silly things, they are committed vegans, and therefore enjoy certain important advantages over meat-eating mountaineers, such as higher antioxidant status ― which speeds exercise recovery. The vegan guarana tablets also helped, as did the super-comfy vegan boots, energising vegan sheese and flapjacks supplied by their kindly sponsors.

The Snowdon Boots		Jules cools her feet	The summit of Ben Nevis

Although the free vegan food was admittedly a major motivation, the main reason for completing this crazy event was to raise money for Animals Count ― a UK political party for people and animals. The team raised over £1,200, which will help Animals Count contest the EU elections on 4th June 2009. This will be the first time a UK political party for animals will have contested these elections. By doing so Animals Count aims to increase the consideration given to animal issues by all political parties.

Team Vegan minimised their environmental impacts during their Three Peaks Challenge by leaving no litter, using mountain paths, and neutralising the carbon emissions created by their trip by purchasing a resource conservation portfolio at www.CarbonNeutral.co.uk (no sponsorship funds were used for this). Most importantly, however, they and their equipment were entirely vegan! Why is that important? Because animal agriculture is the largest single contributor to global warming and species loss, producing more greenhouse gases than the entire transport sector combined (1). It is, of course, also frequently cruel to animals, and bad for human health. Further information about these important issues is available from organisations like the Vegan Society and Vegan Outreach.

Check out the photos of this extreme event, and our video (coming soon!). For additional extreme events visit the Extreme Vegan Sporting Association ― proudly showcasing vegan fitness through novel means of risking life and limb!

  Full details available at www.vegan3peaks.info

Ben Nevis stream	Spectacular Ben Nevis Cliff	Andrew Knight on the descent from Ben Nevis