COLLABORATION | PURE TRAILS ADVENTURE

Helm Wind Outdoor Skincare Pure Trails Adventure Collaboaration.

We’re teaming up with Pure Trails Adventure.

Together we'll be putting our products through their paces to protect the skin of eco-conscious trail runners taking on the most mesmerising and iconic mountain landscapes the world has to offer, from the British Lake District to the High Himalayas.

PURE TRAILS PRODUCT REVIEWS

Meet Charlie Knights founder of Pure Trails Adventure

Hey, I'm Charlie.

I first dreamt up the idea of Pure Trails Adventure 10 years ago when I was up in the remote Himalayas. Rather than trekking, I’d decided to fastpack a route as I was short on time.

One day I was running along a glacial stream, as I reached the shoreline, I stopped to watch locals wash their clothes in the mountain water. I could see and smell burning juniper from a nearby monastery, the ice-cold wisps of wind that blew up from the valleys below and the towering mountains that surrounded me made me feel so alive and reinvigorated in this incredible place…and there was nobody around to share the experience with.

At that moment I realised we had something. People don’t realise what they can achieve if they put their mind to something. Why not travel these amazing trails with a group of like-minded people, routes that are journeys rather than races, that combine with cultural gems and peel back the skin of a destination so that you can get to know it better, and treading lightly as we go.

Why is running sustainably important to you?

Since day one, it’s always been about giving back, protecting the places we run and leaving the smallest of footprints. We set up Pure Trails Adventure to be just that, pure trails.

We are privileged to be able to travel and combine our passion for trail running in some of the wildest places on earth, but with that privilege comes guardianship. We must do our bit to ensure that trails are kept pure for everyone, forever.

How do you pick your trails?

We are very fortunate, and quite spoilt when it comes to arranging new routes. The world is full of trails, we could go to all four corners of the globe and find a route deemed worthy.

That said, we are quite picky though. We try to avoid mass-market areas, routes that are seriously well-trodden and established. We don’t want to be the same as everyone else.

Our priority is first to find a trail that can be travelled sustainably, what I mean by this is that our overall footprint is light, so to look back, you wouldn’t even think we’d been there in the first place. It needs to be off-grid, where we can discover the true beauty of landscapes few people get to enjoy. We also always stay in family-run guesthouses and lodges and employ local staff in more developing countries to ensure that a good chunk of the income stays exactly where it should do within the country we visit.

How is trail running in mountainous landscapes harsh on your skin?

Every destination throws different weather at us, but the elements are always there to test us regardless of where we go.

We usually travel to destinations in their respective spring and summer months, usually when the temperatures rise and it’s considered the best season to be there -That means hot, dry and sweaty.

We’ll travel to heights above the 2000m where the strength of the sun really ramps up, not forgetting long days on the trail where we are out on our feet between 3 - 5 hours per day. You can imagine what we look like when we arrive in camp at the end of each day.

Why choose to partner with Helm Wind Outdoor Skincare?

We are on a mission to make a positive impact on every trail we run, which means working with local communities and finding local products that allow us to achieve that.

Helm Wind fits the bill perfectly. The fact that they produce products that withstand the extremities we travel to, look after our skin and protect us from the elements, but do so in a sustainable and cruelty-free way is mesmerising. I’m so pleased we found them.