Three Peaks Challenge 2008The Challenge
The National Three Peaks Challenge is a mountain-endurance challenge in Great Britain, with a history of over 40 years, in which participants attempt to climb the highest peaks of each of the island's three countries. Whilst the challenge has no official rules or time restrictions, many participants try and complete it within 24 hours, or more leisurely over a weekend, using motorised transport to travel between the mountains. Some participants choose to start and finish the challenge at sea level, whilst the majority simply start and end at the foot of the first and last mountains.
The mountains climbed, in order of elevation, are Ben Nevis in Western Scotland, 1,344 metres (4,409 ft), Snowdon in North Wales, 1,085 metres (3,560 ft), and Scafell Pike in North-Western England, 978 metres (3,209 ft). In all, the challenge involves some 42 kilometres (26 miles) of ascent and descent, with total travel approaching 765 kilometres (475 miles). The challenge is usually undertaken starting with Ben Nevis, the highest, and for many the most distant. There is no formal governing body of the National Three Peaks Challenge. Each year many organised attempts are made at the challenge with the aim of fundraising for charity, in which sponsorship is sought by participants, but many people are purely interested in the physical challenge and make attempts in small groups, usually with non-walkers performing a supporting function by doing the driving and having food ready.
The Standard Route
To take advantage of the good weather and long hours of daylight, most attempts are made in the summer months, and follow a common pattern, employed because it has proven to be the easiest way of achieving success. According to this method (times used here are very approximate and offer only a rough indication of the timescales involved), the challenge begins with the start of the climb up Ben Nevis at 17:00, with the summit being reached via the easy Tourist Route at 20:00, and arrival at the bottom at 22:00. The Tourist Route features approximately 1,320 metres (4,331 ft) of vertical climb. The time of year is important because if Ben Nevis has to be climbed earlier to avoid nightfall on the way down, less time is available the next day unless Scafell Pike is begun in darkness prior to daybreak. Care must be taken to minimise turnaround time at the base of mountains; the usual practice is for food to be prepared by others in anticipation of the return of the climbers, and then eaten on the road after immediate departure for Scafell Pike. The trip down through Scotland to the Lake District is the longer of the two road journeys, taking perhaps six to seven hours depending on driving speeds. Walkers are strongly advised to get some sleep during this period. If Scafell Pike is reached at 04:30 it can be climbed via a choice of routes, arriving at the summit at 07:00. Walkers generally start at Wasdale Head, although the route from Seathwaite may also be done in the time. While it may be the lowest peak of the three, Scafell Pike is often considered to be the hardest, possibly because it has to be climbed first thing in the morning after having rushed-up Ben Nevis the previous evening and having had little sleep in between, and possibly because the usual Wasdale route provides the steepest climb of all three mountains, with 900 metres (2,953 ft) of ascent over only 4 kilometres (2.5 mi). If care is taken to keep to the correct route it should be possible to depart by 08:30. There follows a journey of several hours to Snowdonia, during which walkers are likely to feel tired, stiff and hungry, and all the while worrying that the time they have available for completing the third peak is slipping away. This is especially true of the last few miles to Snowdon, which are the slowest of them all due to the nature of the smaller A-roads approaching Llanberis and the possibility of traffic bottlenecks from summer tourists. If Snowdon is reached at 13:30 the summit can be reached by the Pyg or Miners' tracks by 15:30, leaving an hour and a half to return to base within the time limit. The route from Pen-y-Pass features approximately 720 metres (2,362 ft) of vertical climb, totalling around 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) of vertical climb on the challenge. Teams who for some reason lose time on an earlier stage may find themselves pushed to the limit of their abilities on Snowdon, particularly if they have picked up injuries or fatigue in particular areas over the course of the first two mountains. Being confined in a car or minibus between mountains does not help matters.
While participants do need to be reasonably fit to stand a realistic chance of success in the challenge, most active people, and particularly those who are young or used to hillwalking, should not be put off by the daunting prospect of climbing three famously high mountains in succession. British mountains are relatively small by international standards, and as long as the weather is conducive to walking (the conditions on Ben Nevis in particular are notoriously changeable) then 24 hours need not be an impossible time. In fact, doing the large amount of driving required, especially when combined with preparing food and other matters, is quite a challenge in itself. The great flaw in the Three Peaks Challenge is that success is to a great extent dependent on the speed of driving and the state of traffic. One major delay on, say the M6 or the A55, could seriously compromise well-laid plans.
Why?
This was another very big challenge and sharing it with me this time were Bryant, Foy and Daz
So, why were we doing it? No major reason really, just that the challenge was there to be tackled. None of us had a great deal of mountain hiking experience, so this was to be quite new to all of us.
Now.... doing The Three Peaks Challenge is a daunting enough task. Our research had shown that previous challengers had organised overnight accomodation before they started and had support teams to drive them between each mountain in order that they could get valuable pockets of time for some short naps. Hmmmm.... not us! Oh no, we decided to drive from South East England to Scotland and just start straight away! Not only that, we would do the driving ourselves between the mountains! What could possibly go wrong??!!
THE START
We were to start our challenge in the evening of 14th May 2008 with the aim of completing it in 24 hours.
It all began early in the morning at 5am on 14th May 2008 where we all met in Tunbridge Wells. We had a long drive ahead of us to Ben Nevis in Scotland. There was every chance that we would not be sleeping now for a day and a half!
Click on the links below to read details of how we progressed on each peak