Ajay Gour
INTERTANKO-OCIMF
Fundraising for Sailors' Society
Story
Success!
The Three Peaks Challenge has been completed and it took us 22hrs!
It was much harder than I expected - mainly because I'd heard that a lot of people do this challenge and therefore underestimated the physicality of it!
Friday - 18 June
We (Bernard, Philip and I) took a flight from Heathrow to Glasgow and of the many many people taking this flight Philip's bag was the only one that did not make it!! Secretly, I was hoping that this wasn't a bad omen and a sign of things to come.
Dinner was arranged at the Glenlee Tall ship in Glasgow Harbour where the participants got a safety briefing and signed off disclaimers etc. Here we stuck our neck out and pledged £9,000 (we had, at this point reached a total of £7900)
Saturday - 19 June
Tension builds. Everyone is in their climbing kit and after breakfast we are driven to Fort William where we have about an hour to buy provisions for the forthcoming 24hrs and prepare our backpacks for Ben Nevis. We all ended up purchasing more that we were ever going to consume in 24hrs.
We get to the start point where the teams are set off at 5 second intervals and some start (attack) their climb at a run. All Scandinavians these - Nordic skiers!
This wasn't a challenge - it was going to be a race!
We (Bernard, Philip and I) get in on the act and agree to run/jog the parts which are either flat or not too steep! I was hoping that we wouldn't burn out half way up but surprisingly we kept up a pretty rapid pace.
Ben Nevis is 1344m high but the distance from the start to the top and back is about 10 miles!
The top third of the climb is very gravelly which makes it very hard going. There was some snow on the top and the path took us through a steep climb of about 30-40 feet of snow!
The climb to the top took about just over two hours and the descent thereafter which included a lot more jogging took about an hour and three-quarter. We made the first bus which was the first 10-11 teams! Now the pressure was on. A quick strip down, new t-shirt, shorts, lots of Gatorade and then an attempt to get some sleep bright sun shining through the coach windows! Impossible!
Ben Nevis took us 4 hrs. The journey to Helvellyn was going to take us about 6hrs and we were supposed to start that at 0100hrs. We depart at about 1800hrs.
Sunday - 20 June (0100~0300hrs)
The coach driver gets slightly lost and we lose some time so instead of getting to Helvellyn for midnight we get there just short of 0100hrs and its out of the bus to start another run up a mountain. Only 950metres but the feels like a lot more.
Everyone is ready having not had much sleep at all and spent the last 30 mins in the coach preparing headlamps (one of the Nordic Skiers had this incredible flood lamp fitted to his head!).
Helvellyn is not the highest peak in England but was picked as it offers the easiest parking for four coaches.
The route is the shortest to the top and therefore the steepest. 90% of the route is almost vertical and rocky with only the last 150mtrs being somewhat gently inclined. The descent is very tough on the knees. The total distance is about 4 - 4.5 miles.
We did this in 2 hrs.
Sunday - 20 June (0900 ~ 1200hrs)
Having finished Helvellyn and consumed a bacon sandwich and tea for a 3AM breakfast we were driven another 5hrs to Snowdon where we started climbing at 0900hrs. An opportunity for some sleep but with the adrenalin, the smell of sweat, the smell of "tiger balm", "deep heat" and other forms of liniments sleep wasn't easy.
Snowdon is the highest in Wales at 1085 metres and we went up what is called the PYG track which is 3.25 miles to the top and descended via the Llanberis path which is 10miles to the bottom - a total of a little over 13 miles.
This took us 3hrs with us jogging wherever we could on the way down.
The End
22hrs and we had completed the challenge! A total of about 27 ~28 miles!!
We were received at the bottom by the Sailors Society who had soup and beers. Both were delicious and strangely you had people with a glass of beer in one hand and a mug of soup in the other!
Considering the complete lack of training as a team and apart from the odd runs, this was a very good effort by the three from the INTERTANKO-OCIMF team and, at least as far as I am concerned, a couple of blisters and a black toenail is not too much damage.
Would I do this again? Yes, but I'd also have the option to enjoy the scenery which I missed in the incredible weather that we were fortunate to have - 20degrees and not a cloud in the sky!
On behalf of the team, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those that donated to the cause - the money has been very well received - and if anyone would still like to give a little bit to the cause (Sailors Society), then all you have to do is either click on the "donate now" link at the bottom of this email or go to the just giving webpage (http://www.justgiving.com/INTERTANKO-OCIMF) and click the donate button to follow the instructions.
Every penny counts - So please dig deep and donate now.
Thank you all for your support and generosity!
Ajay and the team.
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A little money goes a long way:
« £1,150 enables the Society to run the minibus service in where seafarers are often berthed miles from amenities, for 3 months « £285 a month will support the running costs for our Indian Port Chaplain in « £200 a month supports the Sailors’ Society food programme in « $10 buys an international phone credit for seafarers to contact their loved ones Keep visiting this page regularly and we will keep you updated with photos and notes on our training. Thank You - Thank You - Thank You