Three Peaks Challenge - Snowden (The final peak)

We reached the final peak and I knew exactly what I had to do.

I had 5 hours to complete the challenge in the 24 hour time limit. The guys who had done it before said it should be easy to do it in that time. I was still a bit worried that I'd got this far and could still fail to complete the challenge within 24 hours.

I thought that Snowden was the most picturesque peak that we did. There's a lake that you walk around for the first half hour or so which is paticulary beautiful. The lake section is basically flat. Unfortunately this is not the case further on. The lake section finishes abruptly and you are left looking up a steep path with the Snowden summit a high and distant destination. There is no let up in the steep path and it changes into more of a scramble as you get closer to the summit. This was very hard going especially as the first half an hour was so easy in the lake section.

Tourists who had gone up on the train were running down in flip-flops and sandles with shorts and t-shirts, this just made my back pack and boot seem heavier.

We finally reached the top in about 2 hours. At the summit you could see for miles and miles around it was amazing. As I looked around the summit I could understand why people put themselves through such difficulties to get to these summits.

We quickly ate something and set off back down. One of the guys who had done it before suggested that we take a different route which would be easier on our legs. Unfortunately we took his advice.

The route was flatter than the path we went up on but we had no clue about how long it was going to take to get down. This was agonising as I just wanted to get down as quickly as possible. Two of us were together and we were both cursing the guy who had told us to go down this way.

Now, time was ticking and we didn't know how long was left to go so we were both getting a bit worried that we wouldn't finish on time.

Finally with 1 hr and 1 min left until the 24 hours were up we could see everyone waiting for us. Suddenly I could feel my legs again and we had a race to the van. We had done it.

I finished in a time of 22 hrs and 59 mins (The slowest in the group :-).

Three Peaks Challenge - Scafell Pike ( Scare Fell)

The walk up Ben Nevis was a real experience. All the way down I was debating with myself about whether I should continue with the challenge or not. I decided to wait until we got to Scafell Pike to see if I wanted to continue.

We set off for Scafell Pike, the second peak in our challenge.

The drive to Scafell was done overnight. We all tried to get a bit of sleep (except the driver) to recover from 'The Ben' but it was difficult having 6 people in a VW Sharan all trying to get comfortable at the same time. I didn't think I got any sleep but everybody said I did so I must have got some.

We reached the starting point for Scafell Pike at about 1 - 2 am in the morning. This was too early to start because under the rules you are not supposed to start before 4 ish in the morning as this can disturb the locals. We decided to stop the clock and get a bit more sleep.

It got to about 3 ish and it became apparent that we couldn't sleep any more. We saw some people in a camp site near by, they were preparing to start the hike. We decided that it should be ok to start our hike.

It was still pitch black so everybody checked their head torches. I felt pretty good after the sleep and rest in the People Carrier so I decided to carry on. I made a concious effort to pack a lot less than on 'The Ben' with only a sandwich, a small lucozade bottle, my water pack and a sandwich.

We started the hike with a walk through some farms and then got on to the hike proper. It was decided that we would take frequent stops and walk together because it was dark and no one knew the proper way up.

Scafell is supposed to be the most difficult of the 3 peaks because of the terrain, the fact that you don't see the summit until the very end and there is some scrambling involved.

I was feeling really good as we went up, I tried to stay with the leader as much as I could.

There were a lot of stops because navigating in the dark was really hard. This helped me in a way as the frequent stops allowed me and everyone else to rest.

It was starting to get light so we decided to have a drinks break before the last stage of the hike. Surprisingly I was still feeling good.

Scafell's terrain was mostly small rocks until we got about three quarters of the way up. Then it turned into big boulders. I didn't like this section because it meant that I had to lift my legs more than a millimetre in order to jump over the gaps between the boulders (By this time my style of walking was more like sliding rather than discreet steps, so this was difficult).

I was near the back of the pack but still walking strong, we were all fairly close together. There was a peak fairly close to one side, a few of us thought (probably hoped) that it might be the summit. It wasn't to be...

Finally we saw the summit. The bad news was that we had to go down a steep path and then climb back up a path to get to the summit. I wasn't happy when I saw what we had to do.

We were going down quite a narrow ridge and I could see a fair way down the sides of the ridge. I thought that one wrong step could mean disaster (It wasn't that bad but it felt worse when I was there).

The final scramble to the top was quite scary because it was steep and there was loose stones all the way up.

As the sun was rising we reached the top. It was a very nice moment.

A group of girls was coming up the summit form another path. They were running up !!! I was amazed at that. They were doing the 3 Three peak challenge as well. One of them took our Summit photo and I took the Summit photograph for them. We had a quick chat and then the girls were off. We set off soon after.

Again the transition from uphill to downhill was major pain. The jogging technique helped as before. There was some great views as we walked down and I started to see why people do this kind of thing.

My knees felt sore, but were hurting less than then when walking down 'The Ben'.

We got to the bottom of Scafell and even managed to race the last bit (We regretted it when we got to the MPV).

The second peak had been completed and we were on the last leg and on our last legs :-) Next it was on to Snowdon.

Three Peaks Challenge - Ben Nevis (The Ben)

We started at about 3pm on Saturday afternoon. One of my work colleges
had done the challenge before. He said that Ben Nevis was the longest
one of the three peaks, but it was easier than Scafell Pike. I was in confident mood as we started.

My
confidence was completely misplaced. As soon as we started I knew it
was going to be tough. The first section on Ben Nevis is fairly steep
and everybody else in the group was powering ahead, I was struggling
straight away. I was using a completely different set of muscles then I
ever did playing football or even normal running. On top of that it was
quite hot and I had a big back pack with me. I had been ultra cautious and packed the back pack with lots of extra stuff.

After
about half an hour of trying to catch up to the other, we decided that
we should all carry on at our own pace and then meet at the top. That
was fine by me because I was struggling to keep up. I carried on at my
own pace.

One of the things that I wasn't prepared for at all was the terrain. It was so varied. Some of it was big boulders that you had to climb over, some of it was bricks and some of it was like pebbles. The big boulders were really draining because you had to lift your leg up that extra bit for every step.

There
were lots of people coming back down as I climbed, they were all saying
that I was nearly there and there wasn't long to go. Some guys coming
down stopped where I was resting and we started talking about Monty Panaser
and how he was going to bowl out all the Aussies in the Ashes. It was a
really friendly atmosphere and everybody was trying to encourage one
another.

I really couldn't wait until I was coming down.

Finally
I reached the top. the rest of the group was waiting and taking
pictures of the view. They said that I was only about 10 -15 minutes
behind them. I was quite happy with that because all the way up I had
been thinking I was miles behind everyone else.

I had my photo
taken on the highest point in the U.K., had something to eat and
quickly prepared for the journey back. We split into two groups with
two fastest ones of the group going ahead and the rest of us in another
group.

Walking downhill felt completely different to walking up
hill. At first it felt really good because I was no longer using the
climbing muscles but the more we walked the more it felt like my knees
were going to explode. For some reason it felt better when we started
to jog down than when we were walking. I think it was because when you
walk you are constantly trying to stop yourself from running down, this
causes a greater impact on your knees whereas if you run / jog you can
go with the flow more and this reduces the impact on your knees.

We finally reached the bridge where we had started ( the other two and the driver were waiting for us ) the three
of us took our boots off and soaked our feet in the river under the
bridge. It felt good. We finally managed to get out of the river and
struggled into the people carrier to set off for Scarfell Pike...

Three Peaks of Great Britain Challenge

Last weekend my work collegues and I did the three peaks callenge. The callenge is to climb the three peaks of Great Britain in 24 hours or less. The three peaks of Great Britain are Ben Nevis (Scotland), Scafell Pike (England) and Snowden (Wales).

It was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done. I thought I would be fine doing the callenge without specific training because I am quite fit and play football a couple of times a week. I WAS WRONG. If you try to do the callenge please do some specific training before attempting it.

I completed the challenge in 22 hours 57 minutes. I am glad I did it but I won't attempt it again in a hurry.