With under 4 days of preparation time before the start date of Monday 8th May at 6pm (at the foot of Ben Nevis), a friend of mine decided that he could not spare the time to do the event and so passed his place on to me. The challenge is to run up the highest mountain in England, Scotland and Wales in as quick a time as possible and ideally in under 24 hours.
Scotland (Ben Nevis - 1344m)
England (Scafell Pike- 978m)
Wales (Snowdon - 1085m)
After a quick flight to Inverness, and a bouncy drive to
the start line, the team that I had joined shot up and down Ben Nevis in just
under 4 hours. Despite thick snow covering the peak and reported 60mph winds,
the climb was swift although wearing shorts may not have been the best idea.
As the sun dipped below the snow-kissed hills, we began our descent. A few
of the team tripped and fell on the way down and a recurrent injury took one
of our team out of the rest of the event. Torches weren't really required
until the very last bit and we were all keen to take on Scafell Pike.
After a very rapid pasta meal, we strapped ourselves into the minibus for
a 5 hour slog-of-a-drive to Seathwaite and the start of the next climb. We
arrived just after the dawn chorus, although there was a rather long and arduous
ramble to get anywhere near the main climb. At 5am, after not much sleep,
bodies were starting to feel well used! To get to the main peak of Scafell
Pike from the direction from which we came did mean clearing some other mountains
first. The path was full of boulders and quite tough going. Mental alertness
was the one thing I lacked and the one thing I needed as we picked our way
through the boulder fields that led to the highest point in England. After
a quick break at the top, it was a matter of returning to the base before
rattling on to Wales and Snowdon.
Although Snowdon does have a railway that can take you to the summit, this
was not in service and so we resorted to walking! The views and paths were
excellent and made a pleasant change from the clambering over rocks and snow
that we had encountered earlier. The seagulls were wheeling above the rocky
outcrop that was the peak in the manner of ravens circling round an evil castle
in a horror movie, but on arrival, it turned out that all they wanted was
a bit of food. Time was tight and so we didn't stay too long at the top. It
had taken an hour and a half to get to the top and we had about the same time
to get down; I was in the lead group and there were other slightly slower
members of the team who were about 20 minutes behind us. As it was a team
effort and winning criteria was the time taken for the last team member to
complete the challenge, I suddenly became aware that we hadn't been working
as much of a team. The less fit members didn't want to be patronised by having
us goad or cheer them on, but at the same time, the faster group had got on
with it and left the weaker members to sort themselves out. However, as a
brand new team member, I was still trying to find my place within the group.
We descended Snowdon and made it back to the car park with about 30 minutes
to spare. With 12 minutes to go, the last of the team members joined us and
we celebrated a job well done with a glass of bubbly. 23 hours 48 minutes.
Not a bad result and with some lessons learnt. Next time we could do it a
whole lot faster!