Finally home safe and sound after the incredible experience of the National 3 peaks challenge. 3 mountains, 23miles of mountain hiking, 3 countries, 795miles of driving, driving rain & the hardest physical challenge we have ever attempted in a single day.

A HUUUUGE thank you to everyone that has supported us so far with your wonderfully generous sponsorship. Your kind support makes this worthwhile.

It was a particularly special moment to be descending from the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK, ahead of schedule, to discover at the first ping of mobile signal, that we had also just climbed over our first £1000 in donations to Cancer Research. Our shout's of joy were probably heard all over the Cairngorms, giving us just the boost we needed to push straight on to the next 2 mountains. Thanks to your encouragement our team time for climbing up and down the 3 mountains was an amazing 27mins faster than the challenge requirements.

Ben Nevis, offered up a very slippery start to the mountain, with us seeing several people falling on their way down, as we started our ascent. Due the slope of the boulders that were set along the trail favouring the incline, it made for pretty treacherous conditions for those on their way down. So much so we passed a very unfortunate 3 Peaker, who had badly broken her leg and was awaiting a lift off the mountain.

Following our summit of Ben Nevis, we also took a couple of falls trying to speed off the mountain ourselves, with one of us snapping a pole which broke a fall.

After safely negotiating the 10mile hike of 4409ft high Ben Nevis a good ten minutes faster than hoped, we set off for the 6hr drive to Scafell Pike in England's Lake District.

Arriving at the base of Scafell Pike around 4:30am, it was still dark and wet, so we geared up with waterproofs and head torches and set off on the next 7mile leg of our challenge.

About 20mins into Scafell there was tricky little section of river to negotiate, which claimed a fair number of 3 Peakers boots during their crossing. We were no exception, with 2 of our team having to complete the rest of the mountain with soaking wet boots.

Scafell Pike at 3209ft is the smallest of the 3 Peaks, it was however, much steeper than Ben Nevis right from the start. And the higher we ascended, the rougher the terrain became, in keeping with the poorer visibility (as you can see from our Photo of Scafell Pike above). One of the Teams we met on our way up Nevis, got lost in the rain and mist on their ascent of Scafell Pike, which resulted in them taking a hair raising and dangerous scramble to find the summit. One of their team said he remembered being perched on a ledge, holding on to nothing more than a large clump of moss and looking down into the misty void behind him, wondering if he was going to make if off the mountain at all !!! No wonder their team seemed so pleased to see us all at the summit. However the physical strain and the stress of their ordeal, was too much for one of their team to recover from quickly. So he told his team he couldn't go on and let them descend at the fastest pace possible to recover their lost time, while he waited at the summit for a while and descended slowly in his own time. Sadly, that was his challenge over.

On our way down Scafell we also bumped into a chap we met on our way up Nevis. When we asked him where his other 3 team mates were, he said the pace they needed to get up and down Ben Nevis in the 5 hrs required, had really taken its toll on them, leaving him as the "Last Man Standing" in their group. He seemed pretty strong and was committed to finishing the Challenge regardless, so we wished him the best of luck and hoped to see him again soon.

Because of the vast amount of really rugged terrain on Scafell, our descent was nowhere near as fast as we had hoped. Trying to jog down from the top was really not an option for us. We weren't experienced fell runners after all, and the risk of a broken ankle or leg on from the jagged boulder field that covered the upper section of the mountain, was far too high to contemplate increasing our speed too much on the way down. However, we pushed on as fast as we could, managing to shave another 5minutes of the required time for this Peak.

When we finally reached the car, almost 4 hrs after we set off that morning in the dark, there was a resounding sense of unity among our team, that we were in no hurry to face that mountain again any time soon. So we changed out of our wet gear as quickly as we could, crammed as much food and calories down throats as we could possibly muster, swiftly setting off on our way to Mount Snowdon, The Highest Peak in Wales.

As we drove through the Snowdon range on our approach to the start of the mountain trail, we thought the weather had finally cleared up a little and there might be a chance of climbing this one without out any of out waterproofs on. Then as reached less than 300 yards from our start point, the heavens opened again. Charming!

We decided to opt for the Pyg Track route up as it appeared to be a bit quicker. We also heard that Snowdon was supposed to be the easier of the 3 Peaks, and were expecting a bit of a stroll in the park. Boy were we wrong! After 2days with virtually no sleep and having already climbed up and down over 7600ft of mountain in the last 24hrs our legs were pretty battered. We needed to ensure a fast pace up and down this mountain to achieve our objective, so this final Peak proved to be pretty grueling and far from easy. Despite the ever growing fatigue in our legs we reached the summit of Snowdon in well under 2hrs, which was amazing with everything considered. The sense of elation in our team on the top of that mountain was hard to describe. As far we were concerned then, we had already done it and we knew everyone of our supporters was there with us in spirit! The trek back down was merely a formality.

When we are arrived back at the hotel that evening, we were shadows of our adrenalised selves at the the foot of Nevis the previous day, but we were still mentally buzzing from from everything we had achieved in the past 24hrs. Recapping every crag and companion we had encountered along the way.  What an amazing Journey!

We devoured our dinners as though it was the first real meal we had eaten in months, then sat in the lounge with our pints, struggling immensely to keep our eyes open. Within 20mins of finishing dinner we were like 4 old men asleep in our chairs. The stairs to our beds was the only mountain left for us to climb that day!

Thank you so much for all your support, from the bottom of our hearts. Non of this would be possible without your support and kindness.

If you've not had a chance yet, there's still time to make your donation here, so please take a moment to offer your support of this truly worthwhile charity.

Your support means a lot to us and everyone who is touched by this cause.

The charity we are raising money for with this event is Cancer Research UK; the reason being that we all feel it is a very worthy cause, and on a more personal note some relatives of team members have been directly affected by this devastating illness. One important point we would like to make is that all money donated will go directly to the charity; any costs incurred whilst doing the challenge will be met by team members.

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 - We raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now if you haven't already.
Many thanks

Will, Steve, Jon, Rem