Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Hi Everyone,

Like many ‘bright’ ideas that occur whilst drinking a few of us have decided to join forces and embark on the ‘Three Peaks Challenge’. For those of you who are not aware this involves scaling Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and in a recommended 24 hours, doesn’t sound too bad we thought but then we were made aware that this includes coming down each of the mountains as well as the driving between them!!

Many of the team have been involved in various events over the years but this is a challenge that none of us have ever attempted before and is one we would all like to try and get under our belts.

As well as just attempting this challenge we thought it would be a good idea to try and raise some money along the way, the charity we have chosen is the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation which is a charity very close to Dean's heart.

We all realise that there never is a good time to ask people for sponsorship but if you are able to donate it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks for all your help in advance.

Max Boulton, Adrian Totton, Dave Weekes, Andy Beasley, Scott Francis & Dean Libby.

P.S We are starting the challenge on Friday 1^st July so all hands together and wish us some good weather.

 

 

Finished - finally!!!

Unfortunately we didn’t complete the challenge within the 24 hour timeframe; however we did manage to save some lives along the way!

Day 1 (Wednesday) – Travelling to

We all met up at Gatwick airport with everyone as you would expect in extremely buoyant mood and looking forward to the challenge ahead. Everything appeared to be going to plan until we arrived at and were informed that our minibus had been in an accident with the replacement vehicle on root but many miles from us.

Approximately 7 hours later the replacement vehicle (albeit brand new had a top speed of only 62mph) arrived and we began making our way to where our ‘luxury’ youth hostel accommodation awaited finally arriving at 01:45.

Day 2 (Thursday) – Day of the walk / climb / hike / scramble

After not having the best night’s sleep we set off to the local supermarket to onboard as many calories as possible followed by purchasing the much needed provisions for the challenge ahead. The only panic of the morning was when another walking group all but cleared the shelves of bananas, fortunately Chris (one of our drivers) shone like a beacon when he strolled round one of the aisles clutching the yellow gold dust items in his arms – phew!

The rest of the morning was passed with us all helping Scott to find some necessary headgear and walking poles along with trying to work out what would be the best attire to begin the walk in as Scotland was having its usual ‘four seasons’ of weather in one day.

Mountain 1 –

After much debate about the time we should start we were finally fuelled and ready to begin the hike up at 16:10. The early pace in the glorious Scottish sunshine (I didn’t think there was such a thing) set by saw the group nicely strung out with me bringing up the rear, a position that would become entirely familiar to me over the next day or so.

Good progress was made with us arriving at the 1000m point in just under 2 hours. All smiles however were quickly dashed when the temperature began to drop considerably and with the more familiar Scottish rain now making an appearance.

After asking Adrian for the umpteenth time if the peak I could see directly above us was the last we finally reached the top in approximately 2.5 hours with some of the views we were lucky to have being absolutely glorious – what is a lake doing some 900m up from sea level anyway?! 

The walk back down largely passed without incident apart from some of the huge steep steps already beginning to take their toll on some of the teams knees. We finally reached the welcome doors of the minibus at 21:40 where fresh pizzas were waiting for us kindly purchased by the drivers Mark & Chris.

After a quick change whilst en route to Scafell Pike in the and before settling down for some well earned rest, after the cramp in my calf & hamstring subsided, I thought it was interesting how each of us had already found their own place within the group:

– Team lead taking it upon himself to ensure the general well being of us all both on the mountains and in the minibus.

Max – Wiley ‘old’ fox with some straight forward words of encouragement when needed.

Andy – Team comedian, whenever the chips were down, and they were down a great deal for me, he always brought a laugh out of each of us.

Dave – The machine ‘who needs poles’ and ‘more than one allocated seat in the minibus to do this challenge’ Weekes

Scott – Team sleeper, never failed to amaze me how quickly he managed to get to sleep after both Ben Nevis and , I think he was actually asleep before the rest of the team made it onto the bus!

Me – Team moaner, well someone had to be amongst all these cheery soles!

Mountain 2 –

Having had a most urgent toilet / fuel stop we arrived in Seathwaite at 04:00 only to be greeted by torrential rain. After tiptoeing past the farmer’s house we made the initial steady climb up Scafell whilst being battered by the wind and the very persistent rain.

Some 2.5 hours had passed when the mist that had now settled in was making the journey up quite dangerous especially having to navigate across several boulder paths which had many gaps. With our heads down making the final push for the summit we were stunned to hear in the distance a cry for help, quite eerie when we had not seen anyone else since leaving Mark & Chris back at the minibus!

We quickly found where the shouts were coming from and found three men that were severely inappropriately dressed with one of them shaking violently. They had set off at 02:00 and after reaching the top had spent the best part of 2 hours trying to navigate their way down with little success.

Having giving them some of our rations and clothing we toyed with the idea of continuing to the top and then picking them up on our way down to show them the way (all they had was a drawn map and no compass compared to us having Adrian!) but it was quite clear that if they had waited for us at least one of their group may not have been able to get down of his own accord, therefore with heavy hearts we agreed as a team to make the turn for home there and then.

After , Andy & Dave had made the small detour to show the guys their path we all arrived back at the minibus at approximately 10:00 where discussions about what we had just experienced were rife. They say things happen for a reason and for me the guys we had met were incredibly lucky as we didn’t see anyone else setting off for the summit climb until we had reached the bottom, god only knows what state they would have been in by that stage – doesn’t bear thinking about.

Mountain 3 -

Whilst making our way to it was becoming clear that Scott was suffering heavily with an old knee injury and he made the hard decision to call it a day, a major blow to the group’s morale.

We reached the start point at approximately 15:30 and began to make our way up courtesy of the Pyg track. The climb started out in blazing sunshine and remained the same for the majority of the ascent with the views behind us looking absolutely beautiful.

Superb progress was made with us making the final turn for the summit after only 2 hours, this I thought was unbelievable considering it felt like I had been running on empty since descending .

Within the next 20 minutes we finally reached the top with an incredible sense of satisfaction waving over us. We had just enough time for some group photos before making the descent to Llanberis where some well earned cold beers were waiting for us.

Having started out at 16:10 we finally reached the finish line at 19:58, not quite what we set out to achieve but at least we finished safe and sound. A special thank you goes out to Chris & Mark at this stage for not only giving up their precious time but for also keeping us safe on the roads under some quite testing driving conditions.

As you can see from the above we managed to scale and get down each of the peaks in respectable times but unfortunately our change around times / minibus speed restrictor hindered us greatly but in the end the time was insignificant and for me the experience with these guys will be something I will always treasure and thank them for.

I would also like to point out that the team without exception agreed to raise money for just CLDF when I’m sure other equally deserving charities could have also benefitted - thank you again gents.

I would also like to express our thanks again to everyone that has sponsored us; your kind donations are very much appreciated and will make such a difference to many families affected by liver disease.

Thank you

Max, Adrian, Dave, Andy, Scott & Dean

 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.