First of all, I would like to thank each and everyone of you who very kindly sponsored me - it helped to spur me on when the going got tough!!

So how did we do?

Originally there were 10 of us in Personal Care Retail and 3 drivers who were going to be part of the 3 Peaks Challenge.

However, on the Monday before the challenge, the weather started to close in and conditions according to all the forecasts were pretty grim for the Thursday and Friday - the actual 24 hour challenge period. In the end it came down to a personal decision on whether to postpone or go for it. Myself and two other collegues (Neil and Kevin) decided to go for it and take a chance that a window of opportunity would present itself at each of the Peaks for the actual climb.

In the end it was a good call, as we had perfect conditions for the climb up Ben Nevis, which we completed in 3.5 hours and 2.5 hours to get back down to the base, arriving back at the car at 9.25pm! This was despite a weather warning just 2 hours before the climb.

From Fort William, we then drove through the night and arrived at Scafell Pike in the Lake District at around 4am in the morning. It was pretty clear from the journey that the weather was attempting to stop us in our tracks, as we had run into a force 6 gale - there was no way that anyone was going to reach Scafell Pike summit that day and our safety was always the main reason for agreeing to leave Scafell at 6am and go on to Snowden! By this time we had slept for only 2 hours and unfortunately, one of our party had to leave us due to very bad car sickness brought on by the horrible road conditions during the storm.....And then there were Two!

By this time we had to take our own cars and travel to Snowden, arriving at 12.15pm. Again the forecast was for strong gusts and rain, but this time we got it right and climbed in perfect conditions, taking 2.5hrs to climb to the summit on the Snowden Ranger trail and only taking 1.5 hours to get back down.

Obviously, we were dissapointed not to climb Scafell on the day, but our decision was the right one, as we heard yesterday that a climber was blown off the Mountain and died on the day that we were there -  so it was the right decision. I did climb Scafell in preperation for the challenge and plan to climb it with all the collegues who made the decision to postpone the challenge until next week, so can now claim that i have climbed the 3 highest peaks in the UK!!

It was a tough challenge, but thanks to Neil and Kevin and the IT guys who also climbed it in the same 24 hour period as us -    it was great fun and there were quite a few moments we will remember for a long time!!

 

 

So what is the the 3 Peaks Challenge?

It sounds quite simple - to climb the 3 highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours, which depending on the route chosen will be between 23 and 27 miles/37-43.5 kilometers with 9800ft/2900m of ascent. This breaks down as follows:

Ben Nevis - 9 miles / 14.5kms.4370ft/1290m ascent

Scafell Pike - 5.8miles / 9.3kms.2900ft/885m ascent

Snowden - 8miles/12.9kms.2400ft/730m ascent

 

Thanks Again,

Kind Regards,

Mike