Richard Branson's Family Pulled Off An Insanely Tough 1,000-Mile Trek Across Europe

Richard Branson has been known to pull off some pretty daredevilish stunts, from jumping out of skyscrapers to flying hot-air balloons across the ocean.

But this time, it was his son Sam Branson and nephew Noah Devereux who attempted to pull off something big. Together the pair organized and completed the Strive Challenge, a thousand-mile journey from London to the top of the Matterhorn in Switzerland. A core team of 10 people ran, rowed, cycled, hiked, and climbed to complete the journey while raising money for the Big Change Charitable Trust, a British nonprofit that inspires young people to achieve their full potential.

Branson and Devereux were joined by a number of amazing athletes on the core team, including former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, triathlete and former race-car driver Stephen Shanly, world-record marathoner Arnaud Haines, and adventurer Justin Packshaw. They were also joined by special guests at different stages of the challenge, with Sir Richard Branson himself even participating in the cycle phase.

The challenge took them nearly a month of travel over a huge variety of difficult terrain, raising more than £560,700 for Big Change along the way.