Recently an online friend of mine blogged about something that happened a year ago, so I thought I’d copy the idea. A year ago on 25th July with a team from Weymouth, I completed the Three Peaks Challenge. Basically we climbed three mountains (Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Mt Snowdon in Wales) within 24 hours; we did it with 20 minutes to spare.
The training, as might be expected, started slow & easy and increased in distance, pace and toughness of terrain as the date of the challenge approached. We started in February with a route that took us across Weymouth and included as many hills as we could cope with. As well as our regular mid-week walks, we took three Saturdays out to do longer walks that lasted the entire day. Two of these were spent climbing Skafell Pike and Mt Snowdon and the other was spent walking the hills of the Jurassic Coast from Bowleaze Cove to Durdle Door (which was actually bloody hard work; not for the feint of heart or out of shape).
Of the 20-odd people that were in the group at the beginning, 5 completed the challenge. Most quit due to lack of fitness, others because of personal commitments. It was hard work and fitness was certainly a concern for me throughout, but I was determined not to give up.
The personal financial cost was quite high too. I didn’t keep precise accounts, but I think I must have spent between £350 - £400. This included equipment (Walking boots, socks, bags, sticks, etc…), food and drink, accommodation and fuel (two training trips and then the challenge itself).
One thing that I found difficult was the pain in my legs just above my knees when descending the mountains. This had been the case throughout my training and I just learned to live with it. This is the one thing that I would address in my training if I did this challenge again.
We decided as a group that we would raise money for charity and chose The Night Shelter Project run by Action for Children. We set a group target of £2000, which we did raise when all was counted.
I was surprised by the number of ways that can be used to raise sponsorship these days. As well as the traditional sponsorship forms and collection boxes, we used Facebook to raise awareness of our endeavour and set up an account on Justgiving.com, which makes it easy for people to give online.
Of the three Mountains, Ben Nevis was my favourite. We set off at 5pm and planned to return to the mini bus by 10pm. It was a really clear day and the visibility allowed views of what seemed like the entire mountain range.
It was hard to know what kind of a pace to set and this was made harder by half the group racing ahead. My main consideration was that we had three mountains to climb and we needed to pace ourselves, but I had no choice and I legged it to try to keep up. We made it back down by 10pm and after a quick meal were straight in the minibus.
After 8 hours on the road we reached the foot of Scafell Pike. We didn’t get much sleep as the minibus driver, it turned out, was a maniac on the road and actually thought he was on a time trial for the British Touring Car Championships. I fell off of my seat several times when he braked hard or flew around the corners. We voiced our concerns and had a much smoother ride from then on.
Simply put, Scafell Pike was a Bitch! It’s well known that this is the hardest of the three mountains to climb, but at 6am having had not much sleep when you’ve already climbed Ben Nevis, it’s a bitch. And the pouring, unrelenting rain didn’t help. That’s all I have to say about Scafell Pike.
I can’t remember what time we got to Mt Snowdon, but I do remember that we had to leg it in order to get back down within the 24 hours and complete the challenge. It was particularly windy and there were parts of the climb where I had to cling on to the nearest rock for dear life.
We all made it down with 20 minutes to spare, but on the way down I fell over and gashed my knee. The shards of slate that make up the surface of some of the paths on Snowdon left some deep cuts and I’m sure I should have gone to the hospital. It healed ok though…
When I arrived back home I slept for about 14 hours, but thinking back I don’t remember how tired I was or the pain in my legs. I remember being surprised at how we all managed to keep going; good nutrition was certainly a big part of this. I remember the thrill at having completed the challenge successfully with time to spare. All the training and money spent was totally worth it just for that moment. It is still one of my proudest moments.
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