In a futile attempt to combat the onset of middle age, we have decided with very little forethought to defy fears of heights and general ineptitude to do something difficult – some would say stupid – for an excellent cause.

On the penultimate weekend in August, seven plucky Englishmen and one Viking will converge on north Wales to take on the slate-strewn slopes and knife-edge ridges of Snowdonia’s 15 peaks of greater than 3,000 feet (915 metres). In 24 hours.

It will be hard and almost certainly terrifying, the trail incorporating more than 4,000 metres elevation and taking us over the infamously skinny spine of Crib Goch, where people die, so the websites state with sadistic satisfaction, all the time.

To invest this caper with some worthy purpose, and to dissuade anyone from pulling out at the last minute, we will be tackling the 3,000 in aid of Merlin (www.merlin.org.uk), the frontline medical charity that provides emergency healthcare in parts of the world ravaged by war, disease and natural disaster.

As well as putting some spring in our boots and some determination in our brows, your donations will help to maintain mobile clinics in Darfur, fund primary care centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo and support medical infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

All money contributed will go into the pot for ‘Cycling the 6’, Steve Fabes’ 50,000 mile circumnavigation project, due to kick off in January 2010. You can find out more about Steve’s little bike ride at www.cyclingthe6.com.

Please try not to let the comparative grandiosity of this endeavour, or the fact that some of you will be intending to donate to this separately, detract from your inclination to chuck a couple of quid into this fund. £2,000 is a modest target, and it would be nice to smash it. Especially what with us risking our lives and that.

Thanks,

Simon Bonner

Steve Fabes

Matthew McMahon

Matthew Bailey

Tom Schaub-Jones

Dan Twort

Nils Ulvik

Henry Wismayer

Note: All expenses – fun-size Mars bars, odour-eaters, rescue helicopters – will be entirely funded by those taking part.