The 3 Peaks Challenge!

At 20:35 on Monday 2nd July 2012, Charlotte Gould, Louisa Ramsay, Lucy Soden-Craven and I all finally completed the UK Three Peaks Challenge! We were absolutely exhausted and had feet, joints and muscles that all felt as if they were concrete, but we finished the challenge!

On Sunday 1st, my dad, who had kindly volunteered to be our driver, drove us all up to Fort William in Scotland so that we could start the ascent of Ben Nevis at 5pm. Louisa and I had written up route cards the day before, and we anticipated getting the the summit of Ben Nevis at 21:10, and then reaching the bottom again at 23:45. Instead we reached the summit at 20:15, and then reached the base at 22:30! Somehow we cut an hour and a quarter off our time which was fantastic!
The weather was really quite decent on the way up Ben Nevis, the lot of us walked up in strap tops (and Louisa and I in shorts), only putting fleeces on when we got into the cloud at the top and found all the snow! As we neared the top, this Royal Navy helicopter flew over and paused about 1km up the path from where we were, so I, being a bit of an aircraft nerd ran up the mountain to get a better view! It turned out that the helicopter was dropping off a mountain rescue team at the base of the cloud so that they could walk up through the cloud and rescue a person who had fallen off five finger gulley. If you have ever been up Ben Nevis you will definitely know what five finger gulley is like. It's five sheer drop gulleys which in snow and fog like it was when we were up there, are very easy to fall down! A lone climber had fallen and we saw them being pulled up over the edge as we headed back down. I hope whoever it was was okay!!
There was another team who were doing the Three Peak Challenge at the same time as us and raising money for Help for Heroes and Cancer Research. They were faster than us on the way up, but on the way back down we overtook them, and then as it was such lovely weather, and such a good feeling to be nearing the bottom of our first mountain, Louisa and I decided to run down down the last kilometre.

Start of Ben Nevis

View as were neared the bottom on our descent

Ben Nevis Summit!

The unexpected snow

The hard climb upwards

Part of Five Finger Death Gulley

Panoramic from the summit with the ruined observatory centre right.

We arrived at Wasdale Head, after having followed the other team's minibus because we didn't have a sat nav, at 04:30. I ate a breakfast of pork pies and yoghurt, and then we all kitted ourselves out in waterproofs, hats and gloves to combat the weather. It was pouring with rain - sheet rain - all the way up and down. I think next time it might be wise to invest in some goretex, as the rain soaked through all of our layers and we were literally dripping by the time we got back to the car at 10:20. Navigation was quite difficult as we neared the top of Scafell Pike, because, for anyone who has ever been there will know, the path is kind of non-existent; it's just shale and rocks. That's bad enough even in good weather, but when you have visibility of about 20 metres max, it's quite hard to work out where the path goes! We eventually got to the top thanks to compass bearings and cairns, but it wasn't like Ben Nevis where we sat around for ten minutes and admired the view...we got there, touched the trig point and got off the summit as quickly as possible! When we eventually got back down to the car, it was a case of wet clothes off, dry clothes on and off we go!

The base of Scafell Pike: wet, windy and cold

 

Horrendous weather at the summit

Louisa looking happy in the rain

 

Panoramic with two overflowing rivers on Scafell Pike

We had aimed to start Snowdon from Pen Y Pass at 15:20, but the sole had fallen of my boot on the way down Scafell Pike, so unfortunately we had to nip into Cotswolds in Betws Y Coed and buy me some new boots which added a bit of time on...It did mean that I had nice dry boots to start the last mountain in though! Sorry to you guys who all did it in wet boots! :-S We started our ascent of Snowdon at 16:30 and headed up the Pyg Track. Yet again the weather was horrendous: sheet rain, fog and wind, but it was quite cooling when we were all sweaty from climbing! I didn't dare take my camera up Snowdon with me, because I'd had to change raincoats to a dry one, which was bit thinner and I worried it wouldn't protect my poor camera. We had a photo at the start and then I sent a text message to my friend, who wrote a facebook status for me when we reached the summit, and finished the 3 peaks challenge! In fact he wrote all my facebook status' along the way. (Thanks very much!)

Start of Snowdon at Pen Y Pass

When we'd finally got into the car, curled up and decided not to move again for a month, my dad drove us all down to the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel where we got to sleep in A BED and eat a COOKED BREAKFAST in the morning! It was the best thing ever, and a great way to finish off what had been a very difficult and exhausting, but a hugely rewarding challenge.

Thanks to everyone who gave their support on facebook, by text and on the Virgin Money Giving page. You can still donate if you would like to on the VMG page:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ptthreepeakers
More photos from the challenge are also visible on there in the photo album on my page. Please have a look at the photos even if you aren't in a position to donate!
Thanks all!


Josie xx