The 3 tallest mountains in the UK.
Summit time: 2h05
21 hours 50 minutes, 57214 steps, 25 miles and 11170 feet.
The three peaks challenge completed!
To those of you who haven't come across the
National 3 Peaks Challenge the aim is to climb Ben Nevis (Scotland), Scafell Pike (England) and Snowdon (Wales) in 24 hrs - including driving time.
This is a short post on how Matt (who talked me into doing the challenge) and I got on completing the 3 Peaks.
We started in Scotland at Ben Nevis on Friday 17th June and finished in Wales at Snowdon 21h50 later.
BEN NEVIS - The Start
(Picture: The Start - Ben Nevis visitor centre car park)
(Picture: Summit Ben Nevis)
Total time: 3h24
Height: 4409 ft
Steps (Pedometer): 21858
We were planning to start the challenge at 7pm (Friday), with the aim of getting up and down the Mountain before dark at around 10.30pm. However due to poor weather and less evening light we changed our plans and started early at 6.40pm.
The climb was in fairly poor weather; rain and cold, with thick cloud at the top. This made things fairly hard going, visibility at the top was down to about 15 feet.
We could easily see how people get in trouble on Ben Nevis, the cloud cover was fairly disorientating.
We managed to get up and down in fairly good time (3h24), with much of the descent done
running. By the time we reached the bottom I wasn't sure if we had gone off too fast and should have left 'more in the tank' for the next two mountains.
On getting down we managed to leave the Ben Nevis visitor centre car park fairly quickly. We got in the car for a 6 hour journey down to Scafell Pike (Lake district). At this point Matt and I did our best to get some sleep as we were being driven by my Mum and Gemma (my girlfriend).
SCAFELL PIKE
(Pictures: Top of Scafell Pike)
Summit time: ???
Total time: 3h58
Height: 3210 ft
Steps (Pedometer): 20356
After traveling to Scafell Pike overnight we arrived at about 4am. We were not sure how our legs were going to be functioning after 6 hours sitting still in the car. As it turns out the legs were actually OK, however this was the least of our worries.
After quickly getting out of the car at just after 4am we headed off on what we thought was the right track. We quickly caught up with 4 other walkers doing the 3 Peaks and checked with them that we were on the correct route. They confidently said "yes" so we got our heads down and got cracking - big mistake. To cut a long story short we had headed off on the wrong track. We had been 'at it' for 40 minutes before we realised that we had gone the wrong way! What was more soul destroying was that we realised that the quickest way to get back on track was to run right back to the start and begin again, there was no other obvious 'short cut' to get back on the correct trail from where we were.
By the time we had reached the bottom again we had wasted exactly 58 minutes, but more importantly we had sapped valuable energy out of our legs. Disaster. There was no other choice but to get started again. Although Scafell Pike is the smallest mountain in terms of height it seemed to be the toughest of the three mountains. There is a boulder field about mid way up and the top section is covered in scree which makes things hard work.
As with Ben Nevis the weather was poor so we reached the top in almost zero visibility and ice cold driving rain. We made a quick stop to take the photos and headed back down. Due to our mistake at the start we took almost 4 hrs on a mountain we were planning to complete in under 3 hrs. In low spirits we quickly got changed into dry gear and got in the car for the 5 hour journey to Snowdon.
SNOWDON
(Picture: Snowdon - at the peak)
Summit time: 1h35
Total time: 2h56
Height: 3560 ft
Steps (Pedometer): 1500 - approx
Although we wasted an hour on Scafell Pike we were still on to complete the challenge in the allotted 24 hrs - all was left to play for.
Our aim was to finish strong. That meant we had to complete Snowdon in under 3 hours. We knew it was going to be painful.
For the first time we set off without any rain, which was a great change.
We were most confident about completing Snowdon as it was the only mountain we had climbed prior to the challenge. In fact we had climbed it twice in one day while we were doing our training.
We managed a very fast time to the top, by our standards, making the peak in 1h35. The top was packed with other walkers so we quickly got our photos and began back down. By this time our legs were like jelly and are knees were sore but we had to get down quickly to make sure we made it in under 3 hours.
After what seem like an age we rounded the final corner, the visitor centre car park was in sight. We knew we were going to complete Snowdon in under 3 hrs! With 4 minutes to spare we jogged into the car park and had completed the National 3 Peaks Challenge in a total of 21h50.
Tired, beaten up but very proud we had managed to do all three of the highest mountains in the UK under 24 hours.
A great achievement.
21 hours 50 minutes, 57214 steps, 25 miles and 11170 feet.
