3 Peaks Challenge 2010
Folowing in the footsteps of the Chain-gang members who completed the Three Peaks Challenge in 2008 a new Chain-gang team took part in The Three Peaks Challenge.
Gail Preston’s recap
I survived the challenge! I wanted to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to my sponsors and the warm wishes. I am pleased to say - that with your help - the team has exceeded its £5,000 target, which is brilliant and it takes us to almost £40,000 raised for SPARKS by Chainbow since 2008. Also, thank you to my lovely friends and family who called and text their support whilst I was on the mountains and kept me going.
Scotland
We had a good plane journey up to Glasgow on the Friday afternoon, all in fairly high spirits not really knowing what lay ahead of us. The drive to Fort William was spectacular. We basically skirted loch after loch for a couple of hours and the scenery was stunning. We arrived at Fort William and checked into our bunk house which was a ‘cosy’ establishment then on to the local Morrisons and stocked up on supplies for the next 24 hours. We went for dinner at a local pub before a fairly early night. Next morning we had a quick breakfast then into the bus to the bottom of Ben Nevis.
The climb up Ben Nevis was long with various different terrains ranging from a gravel path to rocky steps to loose stones – you name it. In some parts, particularly at the beginning, the climbing was quite steep but the weather was good and the scenery spectacular. We walked for an hour at a time and stopped for three minutes to stuff our faces before carrying on. As we neared the top we were above some little fluffy clouds which was very peculiar and you could see a good view of where you had walked and how tiny the people much further down the track looked. We made it down in a good time and had a quick (non-alcoholic) drink in the Ben Nevis Inn at the bottom. We got back in the bus for our long trip to the Lake District for Scafell Pike stopping at a service station for our driver to have a legally required break and for us to stretch our aching limbs.
England
We got to Scafell Pike and started climbing at 7pm - practically walking in streams constantly for the first hour or so until we reached the corridor passage as our path took us along the edge of the river which was overflowing onto the path. At first we tried to keep our feet dry and tread carefully but that in itself is very tiring so we ended up just going for it and ignoring the fact that our boots were squelching on every step. We reached the corridor path in good time and the rain had eased. The terrain changed dramatically and we had to physically climb and clamber in sections precariously close to the edge of a large drop. As we neared the top the cloud was so heavy that it was practically dark. By this time some of the team was flagging a little but the sight of other walkers coming down and telling us it was not much further spurred us on. We reached the summit at 10pm, a respectable time. The descent turned out to be much, much harder than we imagined, mainly because of the dark. The corridor was treacherous with some slips and falls and bits where you dared not look down. My torch held out until after the corridor but then gave up which was mildly irritating to say the least, I ended up walking directly behind someone all the time to steal their light. By this point the rain had appeared again and we got absolutely saturated. The descent took over three hours which was very disappointing. We got back to the bus totally exhausted and soaked through, changed our clothes, ate and settled down for a kip.
Wales
We arrived at Snowdon at 6.30am and very stiffly waddled out of the bus and put our soaking and squelching boots on, thank goodness for clean, dry, thick socks. The Pyg trail started off with some very large steps/boulders to climb which was pretty punishing on the thighs, sheer adrenaline kept us going. The path eased off slightly before we neared the final ascent to Snowdon where it got rocky with lots of steps before a final steep and punishing switchback for several hundred meters before reaching the top. We individually clambered to the top of the cairn, collapsed and then quickly got down as the wind was bitterly cold and there was little specks of ice flying around. We had reached the summit in 2 ½ hours, 26 hours after first starting Ben Nevis. We practically flew down the mountain taking the miners route back to the bus which is longer but after a very steep section is practically a flat path around the lake in the valley which was a bit of a relief on our tired knees.
So that’s all folks… Again, a massive thank you for your donations! This was a great experience and I am so pleased I did it but I can safely say that there is little chance of me doing it again, well, not for the foreseeable future anyway!
