At 6am one Saturday morning, I found myself not tucked up in bed, but standing at the foot of a 700-metre mountain, ready to embark on the 12-hour hike. I was doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks, a 24-mile walk up, down and between the three highest peaks in the Yorkshire Dales National Park (the most popular hike in the UK last year, according to data from Ordnance Survey).

Many of my fellow hikers were groups of women walking with friends or colleagues, and the Three Peaks Challenge, who run guided walks of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, as well as the National Three Peaks, the Surrey Three Peaks and the Welsh Three Peaks, say women now make up around two thirds of those talking part – with those aged late 20s to mid 30s making up the largest age group.

Three of Ordnance Survey’s top 10 most popular walks are now more than 20 miles long, including The Wanderlust Way in Lincolnshire and The Surrey Three Peaks as well as the Yorkshire route, with data showing that between April 2022 and March 2023, people walked over a third longer compared to the previous 12 months. Hiking and walking app AllTrails also reports that people in the UK are opting for longer, harder routes – choosing more ‘difficult’ rated trails and adding more distance to their walks over the past year.

“I’m one of the hundreds of young women obsessed with long-distance day hikes - here’s why we’re in love with walking adventures”