David Fox-Pitt
Director
Mobile: 07710 446332
Email: david@wildfoxevents.com
David (on the right) has been a pioneer of the adventure challenge concept ever since he set up the Caledonian Challenge in 1996. The initial four day route over 32 Munros, from Ben Lawers to Ben Nevis, nearly finished off everyone who attempted it. So he dreamed up the hugely popular 54 mile hike in 24 hours along the West Highland Way instead. In 1999 David set up his own outdoor challenge company Events and Activities and founded the Loch Ness Marathon (now the UK’s 3rd largest marathon) in 2002. His recently re-branded company, WildFox Events, now runs a portfolio of six challenges, including the epic Kindrochit Quadrathlon and the Martin Currie Rob Roy Challenge.
A big outdoor man himself David regularly takes part in the events that he organises. He even likes to throw in fresh challenges for good measure. In 2007 he walked the Tour de Mont Blanc, a 178 km hike through France, Italy and Switzerland in 45 hours. He does this to remind himself just how hard these challenges are so that he can offer sound advice on how to best tackle them. “I think that together with our participants it is only fair that I put myself through some form of agonizing torture every year.” Masochism aside, David loves putting on adventure challenges because of the money they raise for good causes. He estimates that so far his events have raised around £20 million for charitable work, helping tens of thousands of people both in the UK and the developing world. “I would not be interested in running these events if it wasn’t for the real difference they are making to people on the ground.”
David lives and works on the south shore of Loch Tay in Highland Perthsire, an area his family have a long connection to. His great-great grandfather was the minister of the Free Church in Kenmore on the loch’s eastern shore. David and his wife Jo have a busy home life with their three young children: Sacha, Isla and Jamie. David is always on the look out for new ventures and is currently working on the following:
Project Rough Seas
David is playing a big part in this innovative project to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds escape a vicious cycle of drugs, alcohol, crime and unemployment. Run by the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) and the youth charity Catch 22, Project Rough Seas is mentoring a group of young people though a series of outdoor challenges. David put them though their paces with a week of survival training around Loch Tay in July. The SAS taught the group how to build shelters, forage for food and make fires. They were also be put through their paces with long walks, kayaking and high rope work with the Abernethy Trust.
Their final test was to crew the tall ship Stavros Niarchos across the North Sea and up the river Thames. The project’s mix of outdoor adventure and personal development is designed to help these young people take positive steps towards adulthood. David is passionate about his work with young people: “It is wrong that young people from troubled backgrounds are so often seen as a nuisance. They are valuable participants in our society who should be helped and guided rather than judged.”
Project silver bullet
In 2010 David organised the brand new event, Operation Silver Bullet. Along with nine other adventurers, he rode a vintage Royal Enfield Silver Bullet motorcycle on a 1,000 mile odyssey through the Eastern Himalayas. The nine day journey took the group from Darjeeling into the highest reaches of the Singalila Forest reserve in Nepal, ending in Bhutan.
The trip raised £14,300 towards a potable water project in India that is being run by Mercy Corps in 2011. Project ‘TRISHNA’ (which means to quench one’s thirst in Hindi) will build a new water distribution system to supply clean drinking water to 450 individuals on the Marybong and Gairee Gaon tea plantations in Darjeeling. The project to should make a huge difference to families blighted by water borne diseases such as dysentery.
The Hannibal Challenge
David is looking into setting up the Hannibal Challenge in the Queyras National Park in the southern Alps. The idea is to recreate part of Hannibal’s route over the Alps,with participants being sponsored to hike 75km over two days. There are numerous arguments as to where precisely Hannibal crossed the Alps with 20,000 foot soldiers, 4,000 horsemen and numerous elephants to march on Rome in 218 BC. David has chosen a possible route that starts at the fort of Mont Dauphin in France and finishes at the source of the River Po in Italy.
To assess the challenge David organised a small group of 10 friends on the walk in 2010. With the words "Warriors of Hannibal, now, in the name of Carthage, we shall march on Rome. To Rome!” David led his own army of ten brave volunteers into the snow-capped peaks of the southern Alps. While David couldn’t provide elephants for his mates, they did walk in helmets, breastplates and swords (care of the National Theatre Costume Hire). In his typically enthusiastic style, David refused to take off his aluminum helmet despite the fierce sun and collapsed with heatstroke at the end of the first day.
Having established that metal helmets are not advisable wear for adventure challenges, David’s team hiked over the 3,000m high Col de la Traversette, across the Italian border and into the Po Valley. They may not have conquered Rome but they did have a well earned slap up meal in the hikers’ hostel of Pian Del Re.
