3 Peaks Challenge: Log of Events

Here is my version of the play-by-play, or log of events from my experience taking part in the 3 Peaks Challenge. I might remind you that this challenge consists of climbing the tallest 'mountains' in England, Scotland, and Wales. These include Scafell Pike, England at 978m, Ben Nevis, Scotland at 1344m, and Snowdon, Wales at 1085m... the extra bit to this challenge is the goal of completing the three peaks in 24 hours. Did we do it? Read and find out (even though I already spoiled the answer through my f-book status).:
NB: I'm using surnames due to double first name confusion... and then it also sounds more like a play-by-play ;)

08:00 (Friday): Team arrives at the start point in Reading (apart from Edge and Keegan who have later pick ups). Due to leave at 08:15. ummm... as I heard, this was a bit off because the van wasn't in the previous night as promised by the rental company. Typical start to a time-focused event.

10:00 (Friday): Watson calls Edge to let her know the Reading team are 'running late'. They report they are only near Oxford, when they should be past Banbury.

11:15 (Friday): Edge meets team Reading at the Hopwood Services on the M42 for what was thought to be a short pick-up/ pee break stop. Nash orders a fry up to 'sit in'. This ends up with Nash sitting at a picnic table behind a fence with 11 anxious onlookers on the other side. Quite zoo-like and it reminded me somewhat of the Old Speckled Hen commercials "And here we have a Nash eating a sausage... interesting, but it's not a hen". For those Canadians reading: it's a beer commercial without the bikini clad chicks at a mountain hot tub party (yes, there is such a thing) where a fox browses through a plethora of curious situations looking for something a little different (Old Speckled Hen beer).

After two sausages and a couple fork-fulls of beans, Nash has had enough (perhaps of us staring at him) and we are on our way North... way North.

Much of the rest of the day was dozily spent in an 18 seater Minibus/ van whatever you want to call it- uneventful to say the least. My notes don't start up again until 18:35 with an interjection at an unspecified time before that: Peters wanted me to mention that Wilkinson SHOUTED hello from the back of the minibus while everyone was asleep. Watson was ever-so annoyed by this disruption to her sleep as reported by Swiss who caught death glare darts in his forward direction at the time of the incident.

Notes start back up at 18:30 (Friday): stop at Sainsbury's somewhere in Scotland. While most were making their key purchases of sandwich materials, bananas, porridge, etc. I was sure to purchase my own essentials: A bottle of Merlot on offer and some Emergency Chocolate. Why Emergency Chocolate is capitalised, you wonder? Because that is exactly what it was: For immediate relief of: Chocolate cravings, lovesickness, exam pressure, mild anxiety, and extreme hunger. Directions for use: Tear open wrapper, break off desired dosage, and consume. Alternatively massage into affected area. Repeat dosage as required until finished. If symptoms persist, contact local confectioner. I am really not joking about this, and to add to the collection I also purchased some 'Girth Control' (to help you stop thinking about 'it' for 15 minutes), 'BOCHOX' (to alleviate symptoms from wrinkles and crow's feet') and 'Invisible Chocolate'. In any case, I think you get the idea about my priorities in life.

18:45 (Friday): Leave Sainsbury's. Progress!

18:47 (Friday): Stop for gas at Sainsbury's gas bar. Patience... ugh! Oh yes, and cabin fever started to set in at this time as I reverted to calling it 'stopping for gas' vs. stopping for petrol.

18:52 (Friday): Go!

19:00 (Friday): Stop! For good reason as we picked up Keegan (peaker) and Mr McGaw (driver/ Scottish tour guide) from Barhead. Everyone at this time is complaining about being hungry, tired, crazy, whatever so we stop at the dodgiest Turkish Kebab place I have ever entered in my life for an attempt at dinner. Dinner= unsuccessful. How this place is even allowed to be open blows my mind. I walked in, looked at the sweaty donner meat rotating on the spit, scanned the salad bar to see pre-packaged containers with green 'stuff' inside and decided for once in my life, I would actually rather go hungry. The rest quickly followed suit.

XX:XX (Friday): Found somewhere suitable to eat: KFC/ Subway/ Dominos/ Marks and Sparks food hall and took a pitstop.

22:00 (Friday): Arrive at the foot of Glencoe in Scotland just past Loch Lomond for a picture break/ leg stretch. I have officially added this part of Britain to my list of places to return. From Loch Lomond to Fort Williams I was feeling slightly lusty as much of the landscape reminded me of the pre-Rockies in the Nordegg area/ middle of British Columbia terrain: large foothills, vast lakes, green trees, few people.

22:10 (Friday): Get back in the minibus and floor it (oh yes, this bus is limited to 60 mph as I should probably mention) to the hostel as they will shut at 23:00.

22:50 (Friday): Arrive at the hostel: Aite Cruinnichidh or something unpronounceable as Ellis stated. Quaint and chalet-ish with woodpanelling interior and a sauna. Unfortunately we arrived too late for the sauna and unfortunately I hate woodpanelling now that I have had to deal with so much of it in my house. Also unfortunately, too late to have any proper sleep and the cabin fever from the van had really settled in with me so I was feeling jumpy- good thing for emergency merlot!

24:00 (Friday):By the time we unpacked and repacked (if you were a girl, I noticed) for the next day and made our beds for the night (bed linens included, but not assembled, again, if you were a girl) it was time for bed and time to set our alarms for daft o'clock (03:00). Night night!

03:15 (Saturday): Alarm! Time to go! Fight for the showers/ loos. Get your stuff together.

03:45 (Saturday): Breakfast time. I brought my own instant oats in a disposable pot= no washing up= win! The majority of the others pooled in for stove-top oats.. which ended up heavily congealed and burnt. oops! Nothing like a start to the day with a little bit of extra carbon in your tummy- or an extra arm work out trying to scrub the oats off the bottom of the communal pot. Good thing was, the breakfast served as some good-spirited humor to start the day. Jokes consisting of the Indiana Jones large ball of terror rolling down the mountain to a thermal hair piece.

04:38 (Saturday): walk out the front door of the hostel and set pedometer to 0 (GCC Stepping Competition)

05:05 (Saturday): Arrive at Ben Nevis. The mountain is clear and although it is early, we all seem ready to go. There is another group of nutters starting just ahead of us doing the challenge for Marie Curie Cancer Trust and we end up leap-frogging them for the next two mountains.

05:15 (Saturday): Official start time: The path is winding made mostly of dirt for the first half of the climb and turning into larger rocks placed into steps as you trek above the grassline. the views are absolutely fantastic: velvety green peaks dotted with cottony sheep and lakes in the valleys.

We are expected to climb this peak in 3 hours with a 2 hour descent but ran into a spot of delay when one member started to feel ill. It was a shame and we all felt for her as she organized the entire event; without her we wouldn't have experienced these views and I probably would have spent another weekend strengthening my right shoulder muscle painting. She made the decision to go back to the start while we carried on.

The satisfaction continued to grow as we kept climbing, seeing more and more of the Highlands as we reached the top There was even snow! Seeing snow still makes me excited, which must still mean I am Canadian at heart.

08:25 (Saturday): Summit of Ben Nevis in 3 hours and 10 minutes. I think that most of us were still taking in the views on the way down as this mountain/ visit to the Highlands was a first for many and it took nearly as much time to get down as it did to get up.

11:15 (Saturday): Foot of Ben Nevis and ~27,000 steps. Legs okay, but my hands were tingly and fatter than I have ever seen them: not a wrinkle to be seen which was a bit worrisome.

11:30 (Saturday): All in the van and off to Morrisons (supermarket) for a loo-break.

12:05 (Saturday): What was thought to be a quick stop turned into half an hour and some yoga on the parking lot ground by Nash... but it's all systems go back to Sunny England to get to Scafell Pike.

15:27 (Saturday): We are driving in Scotland in some terrible rain, which starts to cause concern (time and weather wise). McGaw gets a text saying that it hailed and Snow'd-on Snowdon the previous night... adding to the concern.

16:00 (Saturday): Break from driving and we ended up at the same services as when we first drove up... still in Scotland. Timings look like they are going out the window now for completing the challenge in 24 hours. This spurs discussion on the interpretation of the rules of the 24 hour climb: Is it from the bottom of Ben Nevis to the top of Snowdon? Or bottom-top-bottom-top-bottom-top-bottom? Or as scientists, can we throw in a correction factor to make it work to our needs?

16:22 (Saturday): Go!

16:28 (Saturday): Stop! again for gas, ugh!

18:48 (Saturday): Arrive in the vicinity of Scafell to very heavy rain on a very narrow and very very bumpy 20 minute drive in. Wilkinson is looking very green and reported afterwards that he nearly chucked his Irn Bru.

19:15 (Saturday): Start Scafell in no rain but slippery conditions. The first part of this path reminded me very much of some of the mountain hikes along the small rivers in the Rockies that my family used to go on. This terrain turned into the large rock-embedded paths with spongy green grass and sheep (black sheep and sheep with white faces and brown coats) which turned further into garden sized rocks that were loose, slippy, and utterly annoying. As far as the caliber of this trail, it was less enjoyable than Nevis because the rocks were slippy. The views were nearly as nice, still velvety green almost-mountains much like the interior of BC. Keegan claimed the view was very different to that of Nevis (perhaps it was his Englishness that could tell the difference). Injury claimed two more of our members during this hike.

We were due to complete this peak in 4 - 4.5 hours and were not far off by finishing in 4.5 - 5 hours. On the way down we were lucky to see a vibrantly magenta sunset over the Cumbrian hills and a bit of the coast. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera for this endeavour as the prospect of rain looked high so photo credits go to Peters and Keegan for the Scafell shots above.

23:45 (Saturday): Mine and first half of group's official complete time.

00:00 (Sunday): Second half of group's official complete time ~ 45, 100 steps (for the day). Rowe adopts the parking lot yoga and hits the deck.

00:09 (Sunday): Depart back up the bumpy and windy road. Wilkinson tries to eat some form of tuna noodle casserole/pasta (how brave considering how he felt coming down this road the first time) and decides it's not working. Everyone steadily dozes off as we make our journey to Wales.

02:16 (Sunday): Stop at services somewhere in middle England. A very strange situation is occurring where there were two big men in suits and a t-shirted man just outside the men's loos with a black car parked in the lot. There is speculation about whether or not he is a celebrity. Then another group of burly looking men drive up and get out. Many are a bit scared that we have walked into a drug deal arrangement. eeek!

03:08 (Sunday): Get back in the van and go to sleep. Seems like we are off.

04:00 (Sunday): Wake up in the van and realise we are still in the same car park. I have a brief panic and look around to make sure everyone is here. Everyone is accounted for, but I can't see the driver. Panic slightly again, but the rustling seems to wake up the driver (who was catching some zzz's) and we are off.

So at this point we are obviously not making the continuous 24 hour mark, even if we decided that it was only to the top of Snowdon... we might be able to get near with some heavy k-values.

07:00 (Sunday): Arrive at PYG trail Snowdon. Trekking in the light is very welcoming as we thought we would be doing this one in the dark, Clearish weather, a bit cloudy on the top: all signs look good. Discuss if we should do the slow and steady Miner's Track as we know we aren't making the 24 hour time or if we should do the quick and dirty PYG track to get it over and done with. Consensus = PYG as everyone is tired.

07:30 (Sunday): Go! We estimated to complete this peak in 4-4.5 hours. Spirits were pretty high, although a bit groggy from lack of sleep. Terrain here is mainly boulder-steps and a bit more rocky in general from the other two peaks. The views of the two lakes are spectacular with the emerald green hill and turquoise water competing for vibrancy. We have light and it is dry... until about the half-way mark- it started to rain, blow, and it was cold and slippery. My hands start to freeze up even wearing gloves and are shooting pains... legs are fine. We reach the uppermost ridge to gale-force winds. Nash and I are crab walking across the top ridge and the rest of the group who was slightly behind us had to crawl across the top as Kelliher's super-mom instincts kick in and she catches Watson before she blows away.

09:40 (Sunday): Nash and I summit. I attempt to purchase coffee at the top (there is a cafe!) and my hands are functioning worse than a 90-year old woman with arthritis.

10:13 (Sunday): Everyone else summits. We strip down and put our jackets on the floor (it's heated) to steam them off. We discuss what to do next over coffee and oggies as the weather isn't letting up. There is a little steam train that takes people up and down the mountain. Kelliher, McGaw, and me decide to fork out the £18 to take the train and the rest of the group decides to brave the weather and take a different route down the back of the mountain.

11:09 (Sunday): Walking team departs the summit

12:00 (Sunday): Train team departs the summit

13:00 (Sunday): Train team ends up in Llanberis (not where we started) and makes our way down the road to the pick up point using the Sherpa service (a double decker bus for 1£). I have never been so glad to catch a train and a bus in my life!

Oh yes, there is no cell reception at the pick up point, so communicating to the driver where we were was impossible and a bit worrying; especially as we found out the walking team made a wrong turn on the way down and are now on the other side of the mountain. Thinking caps on- what is the best way to get everyone together again?!

13:20 (Sunday): Receive a call from the walkers that they are finished, wet, cold, and on the other side of the mountain.63,000 steps complete from the start of Nevis.

14:00 (Sunday): Train team gets to pick-up point and explain to the driver what's happened.

14:44 (Sunday): Get to the walking team at the Snowdon Ranger Hostel. Nobody looks very happy and we have forgone a final team picture because we all just want to go home. This is the fastest anyone has got back into the van in the past three days.

15:00 (Sunday): Go home.

All in all we were generally lucky with our weather and did complete 3 peaks. Let's do the math to see how we fared:
Bottom Nevis-top Nevis-bottom Nevis= 6 hours
Bottom Scafell-top Scafell-bottom Scafell= 4.5 hours
Bottom Snowdon-top Snowdon-bottom Snowdon (- oggie break)= 4.75 hours
Driving only time= 10 hours and 55 min
Thereby, full climbing and descent + driving= 26 hours 20 min
If minus Snowdon descent (2 hours and 10 min)= 24 hours and 10 min
If minus illness stop on Nevis (20 min)= 23 hours and 50 min.

HOORAY! Pfaffing aside, it looks like we actually did complete the National 3-Peaks Challenge in UNDER 24 hours! Hooray team and thanks to everyone involved: Abi, Anthony, Derek, Emma, James, Jo, Kirsty, Keelan, Mick, Phil, Phil, Rachel, Rachel, and Sam.