We did it!! We climbed the highest mountains in , and all within 24 hours!!! The official time was 23 hours and 58 minutes 30 seconds!! Really was cutting it thin then. We’ve posted some photos of the challenge here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/41602528@N07/. And below is a recap of the weekend.

Thursday 20 August:

Our team of 10 hikers and 2 drivers flew from to , and ran into our first problem – the minibus that we had arranged to collect at had been cancelled by the car hire firm, for some still-unfathomable reason. Anyway, after a couple of hours of negotiation, threatening and ultimately begging, we managed to obtain a minibus, albeit one limited to a maximum speed of 62mph. With around half of the duration of the challenge involving driving the 460 miles between the mountains, we knew that being limited to 62mph on the motorways was going to put us on the back foot in terms of time right from the start. The second problem was the weather – having left London in 30 degree sunshine, we slowly began to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge ahead as we stood in McDonalds in FortWilliam on Thursday night watching horizontal rain lashing against the windows…”Och aye…” observed one of the locals “…this is nuthin’ compared ‘tha top o’ Nevis.” Great. Managed to get to our hostel, and after a couple of beers and final run through of our schedule (setting a target time of 23 hrs – to allow 1 hr for contingencies), we got to bed just after midnight.

Friday 21 August:

4.45 am – Up, dressed, quick breakfast and a last chance to use a proper toilet for 24 hrs! We made it to Glen Nevis and set off at exactly 5.50 am in absolutely freezing conditions and torrential rain. The first part of the climb up Ben Nevis was a nightmare as we battled the conditions (and our inexperience – most of us had put on too many layers of clothing at the start and were all overheating during the first part of the climb, necessitating removal of waterproofs to remove the underlayers, and getting a good soaking in the process!). Anyway, after we’d navigated the steep first part of , the weather broke for a while and we picked up our rhythm nicely, making up time on our schedule. Once above cloud level it got really, really cold and we needed all of our layers, hats and gloves as we got to the summit. It was so cold at the top, we only stopped for a couple of photos, a quick glug from the hip flask (well, we were in !), and then it was back down. The descent really hurt, a lot of us started to get pain in our knees and that was only the first mountain. We lost a bit of time trying to navigate down the steep lower third, as the rain had made the rocks treacherously slippery, but we finally made it down to the bottom at 10.45 am, right on schedule, did a quick set of stretches and piled into the minibus headed for .

10.50 am – 5.20 pm – The journey to Scafell was terrible. Ten soaking wet people trying to dry off, change and eat on a minibus is like a nightmare game of Twister. Moreover, the minibus’ “sports suspension” put pay to any chance of getting any sleep. But worse was to come as we got stuck in traffic in and had to take a detour through the city centre, putting us an hour behind schedule. Nevertheless, after safely navigating ourselves out of , we made steady 62 mph progress to Wasdale and the foot of , dived out of the minibus, stretched and hit the trail running.

5.20 pm – We blitzed this. Knowing we were up against the clock, the team really pushed on and made use of some great weather to reach the top in 1hr 45 min. I have to say the weather really played its part here – it was dry and clear for most of the way, and although very cold and windy at the top, the absence of rain helped us out no end. The descent was uneventful in as much as we kept our momentum, although the toll on the joints was increasing. 1000mg of Nurofen+ and the contents of the hip flask helped to silence the complaints somewhat, and we completed the descent against a beautiful sunset and managed to get back to the minibus, stretched and on the road by 8.40 pm. We completed in 3 hours 15 minutes (as opposed to the 4 hours that we planned for!!) We’d made up 40 mins on our schedule and were now only around 20 mins behind.

8.40 pm – 1.45 am – the elation of our progress at Scafell was gradually replaced by tiredness, and as the Nurofen+ wore off, pain. But even the minibus’ sports suspension couldn’t keep sleep away on this leg, and thankfully we did all manage to get some rest. The speed restriction on the minibus was a real cause for concern by now though, and the frustration of sitting on the inside lane of a deserted 3 lane motorway doing 62 mph when up against the clock was beginning to make us anxious. We lost another 35 minutes against our schedule during the drive, putting us 55 minutes behind our target time of 23 hours and therefore just 5 mins ahead of the 24 hour deadline for completing the challenge. As we approached Snowdonia, we rallied, tried to get motivated for the final push, and as the minibus pulled to a stop in the Penn-y-Pass car park we jumped out, stretched and hit the pitch black track up to .

Saturday 22 August:

1.45 am – Sheer hell. We knew we had just over 4 hours to complete the last – and supposedly easiest – leg of the challenge. But although the rain stayed away for most of the climb, the freezing wind and mist meant that we were going to need every last minute. It was just a case one foot in front of the other and there was none of the conversation that had accompanied the previous two climbs. And with our mind constantly on the clock, our progress seemed excruciatingly slow. The combination of the darkness, the wind and the mist made the final third of the climb a real war of attrition – visibility was down to around 5 meters and it was really tough going near the top. Nonetheless, we made it to the summit in just over 2 hrs, but the team were visibly waning – despite the well wishes of a couple of Australians who were camped out in sleeping bags right at the top – incredible! It was now 3.50 am and we had exactly 2 hrs to get to the bottom if we were to complete the challenge – certainly achievable on paper, but we were all physically exhausted and very, very cold. Then, near disaster. Right at the top of our descent, we missed a waypoint because of the poor visibility and took a different trail. Although we realised this pretty quickly, by the time we had backtracked and located the waypoint in the mist, this had cost us a precious 10-15 minutes. The rest of the descent was one of the worst physical experiences. We had to stop on far too many occasions coming down, as injuries simply began to get the better of the team. With 45 minutes left, we’d pretty much accepted that we weren’t going to make it, but then we hit the relatively flat track around the valley, and as daylight broke we gave it one last push. Alas, it wasn’t going to be enough, and as I watched my stopwatch click to 23h:54m:00s we were still a few hundred feet up the side of . Then, out of nowhere the hostel and car park appeared in the distance and we broke into a sprint – OK, so it was more Night of the Living Dead than Usain Bolt, but it FELT like a sprint – making it down the path to the car park at 5.48 am with the stopwatch at 23h:58m:30s! Just unbelievable…

6.15 am – 2.15 pm – The minibus journey back to was a mixture of euphoria and agony, as the adrenaline wore off, joints swelled and muscles stiffened. We stopped off in a café for some well deserved hot breakfast before making our way back to . There’s no doubt that it’s been worth every ounce of effort!!! Thanks again to everyone who has sponsored the team for this challenge – you can rest assured that we’ve worked very, very hard in respect of your donation!!!

We would like to give a special thanks to our volunteer guide, Sarah Wright, who kept us together and led us to a successful and safe completion of this mad challenge.

We did this challenge in aid of Hackney Family Backup (HFBU, www.hfbu.org.uk), which supports disabled children and their families in the UK's second poorest borough (Source: Government Office for London, http://www.go-london.gov.uk/boroughinfo/). HFBU is positive about disability and works closely with families to improve the quality of life to these children, who all have disabilities or disabling medical conditions. The services they provide are often seen as outside the immediate medical or social needs, therefore is often not funded by the government, but they do give the greatest relief to the affected families. An example of HFBU's services (the Family Support Volunteers program) is that they are able to send trained volunteers to give a helping hand to the families affected.

We have set a big fundraising target of £10,000, representing £1 for each foot that we will climb. We would greatly appreciate your donation and encouragement to help us through all these mountains. Hikers are bearing all costs of the challenge so your donations will go directly to HFBU. We are working closely with the charity to ensure that your money works hard to support the people in need. We have agreed that all donations will go towards supporting the Family Support Volunteers program which is currenlty at risk of being discontinued due to funding shortage. 

Many thanks for your support!