Three Peaks Completed
Over Sunday 14th and Monday 15th June, 5 intrepid adventurers made an assault on the three peaks challenge, climbing the UK's three highest mountains in under 24 hours. Congratulations to Michael Denley and Glen Walker (Canvey Boys' Club), Lloyd Quin (Colne Valley ATC) and also to EABC staff Martin and Keith who all completed the test. Lloyd kindly took time to reflect on his experience and his account is below.
After what seemed a long but easy going drive up to Fort William, we made the short walk to the local supermarket ensured that our water and energy drink stocks were at the level we believed would be required to undertake this increasingly daunting challenge. I was to find out later though that very little could prepare any ‘first timer’ for the awaiting test I was faced with. A quick fast food stop not only revamped our energy supplies but also helped us to gain a few minutes to calm our nerves and take in the incredible peaks that surrounded us. All of which hid the tallest of them all, Ben Nevis, the first of the three mountains we intended to summit.
Our Start time was 16.30, and off we set to what seemed like a clear, warm afternoon in the beautiful Scottish countryside. After a good thirty minutes of walking, to what seemed like a good pace. The silence and our concentration was broken by the deafening thud of a helicopter and from out of no where drifted the Royal Air Forces Sea King Helicopter, what a sight it was. Our ascent was completed when we arrived at the peak of Ben Nevis after an arduous trudge through snow to the very top. By now we were surrounded by light cloud and temperatures of around 0ºC. Boy, when we stopped we felt it! For the last couple of hours the rain had continued to fall and a continuous build up of sweat meant everyone was becoming rather uncomfortable. After a few quick photos and a bite of something to eat we were off. Our descent was considerably quicker. A mixture of running and scrambling down scree slopes eventually brought us back to the foot of our first and highest mountain. We then set off on our drive to Scafell Pike, Cumbria.
After a long drive during the night to Scafell, gaining a small amount of valuable sleep and having lots to eat, we began our ascent of Scafell Pike. For me, this was extremely difficult due to the seizing of my abductor muscles (those that lift the leg) and their inability to cooperate resulted on the slowing of my climb. However, I caught up by the top, where photos were taken and a quick snack whilst the sun rose in the very early hours of the morning (04.00am). The descent of Scafell was the quickest of all three mountains on what seemed like a stupidly steep scree slope. After a slow and uneasy start we were soon to speed up and arrive back to our transport and some much needed bacon rolls. We then got back in the van and headed off to north Wales for our final mountain, Snowdon.
Snowdon is hidden behind an assortment of mountains and ridges. Due to its long and extremely arduous ascent, it seemed to be the hardest or rather most time consuming of the three. Our group stuck together for almost the entire climb only to arrive at the summit in cloud and poor visibility, although it had remained dry! The decent of Snowdon seemed to take a very long time, obviously with our aim being to make it down as quickly as possible and for this reason we began to run. With slight differences in our finishing times I arrived back at the bus after 23.03 hours, having completed the Three Peaks Challenge.
It was a truly unforgettable experience and one that would not have been achievable without the efforts from the Staff at EABC.
