Friday 9th September
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| The Smelly Bus |
Alarm went off at 4.30am and we were up and out in the car by around 5.10am for our drive to the meeting point at Betws Y Coed, Snowdonia. Was great to meet up with the rest of our group and after a decent breakfast in The Alpine Cafe we climbed into the minibus for the long drive up to Fort William. Here we were introduced to our two guides, Kenny and Aaron.
We finally arrived at 7.30pm, nine hours after setting off, Ash our driver was amazing but that was a long time in a minibus, pretty uncomfortable and cramped but despite loathing the last few hours of the journey, little were we to know how much we would come to love the sight of it.
Our digs for the night was the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel, typical hostel....basic, but warm, we checked in then strolled down the road checking out the start position for Ben Nevis as we passed to the Glen Nevis Hotel, Sam and I both had the burger and chips, delicious after all the rubbish we had eaten on the way up. A couple of pints for me to help me sleep and we went back to the hostel for the night.
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| Sam, making his bed |
As the rooms did not provide any plug sockets a number of us sat in the hall way outside the rooms using the sockets there to charge our phones, in fact some of our party were taking it in shifts to ‘man’ the sockets, anyway phone charged we got our heads down around 10.30pm.
Saturday 10th September - Ben Nevis 5hrs 10 minutes, start time 4.38am
I woke around 3am and knowing we were to be up at 3.30am was not a lot of point in going back to sleep, so lay there wondering what Ben Nevis would be like?
Kenny one of our guides rose at 3.30am put his head torch on and got dressed and ready for the day, this provided enough light for us to see what we were doing and also get up, funny though as Sam pointed out, not sure why someone just didn’t put the light on. We were met with porridge and bananas in the kitchen which we forced down, quickly washed up and then headed outside into the night to wait for the start.
It was dark, cool and the air was damp, Kenny gave us a few instructions about keeping together as best we could, then before we knew it we were off. The pace was being set by the other van that had travelled up with us and their guide Stewart was renown for setting a good pace. The first part of the climb is up a zig zag path which is been built over many years made of rocks for steps, you feel like you are climbing forever and made more difficult at night as your head torch only shows you where you are actually treading so you have very little comprehension of distance or height, however after around 50 minutes these finish and we headed off on a more flat and curving path which was a welcome rest bite from the intensive climbing up. At this point it was starting to get light and we could see down to Fort William was such a beautiful view.
After the relatively easy walk on this flatter section came the final ascent, this was mainly made up of loose rocks and scree and took around an hour, the path got gradually steeper and steeper and as we climbed higher the visibility became poorer with the cloud and then came the rain. This came in so quickly we had very little time to put our waterproofs on, and winds made it lash and sting our face and eyes. With visibility down to around 10 metres the only guide forward as we neared the top were from the Cairns, large pyramid like structures around six foot tall made up of loose rocks, through the cloud and mist they looked as if they were other walkers waiting on the mountain side.
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| Ben Nevis Summit |
The summit was very flat and with the thick cloud it was easy to imagine being on a different planet with the entire surface covered in rocks. We had a quick photo session then headed back off down. Initially we passed a few of our party still trudging upwards but after that it must have been at least half an hour before we came across another party of climbers, again the wind and rain fired up, but as we got lower this settled down.
On the final part of the descent down the zig zags we came across hundreds of other climbers, some doing their own three peaks challenge and others clearly should not have been let loose on a mountain like Ben Nevis wearing trainers, jeans we even passed one man with an umbrella up, would have like to have seen how far he would have flown at the top?
Once down we were greeted by Ash with a cup of coffee and some biscuits, Sam and I had already been prepared with a full change of cloths, when hiking I don’t think we had realised how wet it was, there wasn’t an item of clothing on us that wasn’t wet, our boots oozed water out of them and even our underwear was soaked. We had a quick change at the hostel Sam in a toilet about 1 foot in diameter and me in the laundry room, we then knocked back our protein and carbohydrate shakes and waited for the rest of our party to arrive back down from their climb, cheering and hugging them as they arrived. Before we knew it we were on the minibus heading for Scafell Pike.
The journey passed relatively quickly, with texting Jo and other family members and trying to eat the time passed and soon we were at our next climb.
Saturday 10th September, Scafell Pike 4 hrs 45 minutes, start time 5.10pm
Scafell seemed slightly harder than Ben Nevis in that although the initial part of the walk for around 20 minutes was following a trickling stream it became a steady climb for a longer period. The path up was made up of laid rocks to form smallish steps but made harder by the fact it was very wet, however in no time the view back down to Wasdale was stunning.
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| Scafell Summit |
As is normal with most mountains there comes the point where the walk turns from a path through moor land to rocks and loose scree, something Scafell has in abundance, as we approached the final part of the summit we became less sheltered by the other hills around us and it became apparent how windy it was. We were at this point unaware of the high winds that were starting to batter the West Coast of the UK, however the for last 40 minutes of the climb we were being absolutely smashed by the wind. Once we reached the summit again there was only a couple of minutes available whilst we took photos, it was at this point that one of our party was picked up and thrown by the wind, we headed immediately back down.
The descent was relatively easy at first not only because there was still a marginal amount of daylight but we were still walking on the rocks and scree paths, however as the light faded and night fell we put on our head torches and by this point we were then walking down the tricky and wet stone steps, which do seem to go on forever.
Sam again coped very well with the mountain however the pain in my left knee had returned and despite popping what seemed like a lethal overdose of painkillers caused me to swear under my breath with every movement of the left leg. That said it didn’t seem to slow me down too much and slowly the lights of Wasdale got larger and brighter.
It was on Scafell that we met other groups of ‘3 Peakers’ coming up whom had passed us coming up Ben Nevis when we were going down, and I remember the look of intense concentration on their faces as they passed, one foot in front of the other, one goal of getting to the top as quickly as possible. When we got near to the bottom I looked up to see little groups of lights moving around the mountain above, a warming sight to see knowing we had nearly completed this one and one more to go.
9.55pm we were back at the minibus and a welcome cup of coffee greeted us with biscuits, and I must say getting back in that stinking cramped minibus was heaven, never thought we would feel like that. We had a quick turn around at Wasdale and must have been on the road within 10 minutes of us all arriving back down. My highlight of the trip out of The National Park were the ‘sleepy sheep’, they like to sleep on the road as the grass is wet and the road is warmer and dryer, but was so amusing to see poor Ash having to negotiate the sheep all over the road in a 12 seater minibus. The rest of the journey was a blur really, after a little food and again contacting loved ones we tried to get some sleep, I remember thinking how quiet it was on the bus, for most of the other journeys we had all been awake laughing and joking but now the atmosphere was very subdued...and even more smelly. This is the time I think we all felt the emotional side of our trek, and it was lovely to receive texts and messages from home, sort of added a bit of normality to this cocooned environment we were in.
Sunday 11th September - Mount Snowdon 3hrs 20 minutes, start time 3.10am
Kenny our guide was excellent and prior to arriving knew we all needed waking up so he played a word game with all of us, starting with one phrase with which we all had to repeat, then two phrases etc and so on, was really funny and certainly did the trick. We knew we were under pressure with time and were were out of the minibus and off within 5 minutes of parking up.
The route we took was the Miners Route, longer than the others but much easier as it is a very long and gradual climb on a relatively smooth surface. The pace we were going at was just short of a jog and was the easiest by far, spirits we high in the group as this was the last one to go and in around an 1 hour and 10 minutes we were 10 minutes from the summit, however at this point despite being secluded by mountains on both sides it was obviously windy and at this point we came across Stuart from our second van.
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| Snowdon, as far as we could go |
They had not been much further than us and had to turn around due to the extreme winds and so it was agreed not to attempt the final summit as it would have been too dangerous. I think we all felt the same a mixture of frustration and relief mixed with sadness that we couldn’t get to reach the top but also that our journey was now nearing an end. We took some pictures and headed back down, most of us walked alone at that point with our own thoughts.
When we reached the minibus I can’t remember much celebrating but I think we must have. We were then taken to our hostel in Betws Y Coed, however as we arrived around 7.30am we were told our rooms were not available until midday. Now you have to imagine at this point the adrenaline is subsiding and we started to notice how much we stank, a shower and a bed was really all we wanted. However after much negotiating with the owner Kenny and Ash had reduced that time to 10am, they even drove up and down the village to find somewhere open for us which was the local 3 Star Hotel, the pride of the village. Fortunately the morning staff seemed to take pity on us and with the condition we avoided their guests opened up the lounge for us and supplied us with tea, coffee and bacon sandwiches, what a sight we must have all looked.
After checking into the hostel at 10am and having a shower and around 2 hours sleep it was surprising how well we felt and so met up at a local pub for lunch and a few drinks. We finished off our day with a meal out and met Jim the owner of Adventurous Ewe whose company had arranged the whole trip for us, was a great night and the bed back at the hostel was extremely welcoming.
The next day after another delicious breakfast we headed home however after traveling 2-3 miles on the A5 it was apparent how bad the wind had been there were branches and leaves all over the road and not long after we realised the road was closed due to storm damage and so had to find an alternative route back.
At home we were met with banners and balloons to celebrate our successful trip, along with a lovely home cooked meal in the evening.
It was a very surreal experience as despite the challenge only taking 24 hours your day and night is broken up into sections of getting out, climbing, getting back on the minibus, getting back out and climbing etc. Time seems to have very little relevance apart from the 24 hour deadline and so the 24 hour trip seems like 3 days rather than just one 24 hour period.
For anyone reading this and thinking about doing the 3 Peaks Challenge I would recommend the following: Train hard in advance and make sure your mountain fitness is very good, for first timers use a company to take and guide you, they are called mountains for a reason, they are very inhospitable places and the weather can turn at any time leaving you somewhat unsure of your position and do make sure you have the right boots and clothing.
Would Sam and I do it again? Definitely but later as there are other mountain challenges to be achieved now. Next up, maybe the Welsh 3000, 15 Peaks above 3000 feet, can be done as a 24 hour challenge or over a 3 day period, allowing time to soak in the views.
Finally I am pleased to say that as I write this we have raised just short of £1000 for Acorns Children’s Hospice.
