Three Peaks Challenge - the Driver's view

Ben Nevis

Everybody set off at the appointed time meanwhile I had to take our minibus to a garage as on the previous night we noticed that one of the headlight bulbs had failed to operate. After a little wait whilst the awfully nice garage guys chased around to repair the vehicle for me it was back to the starting point to wait for my friends to arrive from their first part of the challenge. For me the plan was to wait until 1200 hrs and then start to prepare hot pasta and soup to replenish depleted energy levels. Quite honestly the weather at ground level became more and more hostile and I was worried as to how and when my colleagues would arrive. I had imagined that it was not beyond the realms of possibility that they would not make it to the top, but given they knew the mountain I put all negative thoughts to the back of my mind.

As for the walkers Rob, the tennis coach, had never seen a mountain before and his only training was walking up and down Ditchling Beacon near Brighton so he really was an unknown quantity. Adam and Mark had quietly prepared for the challenge, the former had been doing "boot camp" with a personal trainer, and Mark had been running up and down hills near his home in the New Forest, and although nothing was said between them, I could sense there was a little personal challenge going on - both being very competitive strong minded individuals. If you met these two guys, given my description, one would quite correctly suppose they were fairly full on testosterone, driven individuals but actually they are both quiet, unassuming characters and both have a very amusing sense of humour and are both great observers of funny situations.

Simon on the other hand is far more gregarious and very funny indeed, given his history on the mountains it is credit to him that he has even returned for this challenge on his 40th birthday. On one memorable occasion the first time Simon was introduced to Ben Nevis I heard all sorts of comments ranging from "what am I doing here", "I could be in the pub" "I have seen the top (although 500 yards away) can we go home?" etc. Simon had his own game plan and that was to break 4 hours 30 minutes on Nevis.

So how did they do on Ben Nevis? I was surprised to see three bedraggled walkers appeared before me at 1145hrs, Mark Rob and Adam had completed Ben Nevis in 3 hours 45 minutes which is no mean feat for people who do not live near any mountains. It was not too long before Simon appeared his time was just a little over 4 hours, again, no mean achievement especially in the dreadful weather. There was snow on the way up and they had driving hailstones in their faces for a lot of the upper levels of the walk.

Scafell Pike

So on to our next part of the trip, which as usual is fairly uneventful but we made good time and arrived at Wasdale Head for the next part of the walk. Adam had started to feel the pressure and I have since found out that the fast time on Ben Nevis had taken a lot out of him. Pushing too hard on the first mountain was not the best idea and given the age difference between Adam and two other younger men the recovery times were much longer. Mark looked terrible prior to the start of the second mountain citing travel sickness as the problem. Given we had a slow minibus I have to say on the country roads to Wasdale the vehicle was worked quite hard, I used a lot of engine braking which probably did not make for a comfortable trip, however we did not exceed any speed limits.

Simon seemed to have paced himself quite well and was sticking to his game plan. It seemed that no sooner had I tidied the bus and washed the dishes in the freezing cold river which runs off Scafel Pike I got back to the minibus to find Rob standing there, having completed this peak and now waiting for the next part the challenge. Mark followed about five minutes later then Adam appeared and finally Simon (who was inside 3 hours).

The mood inside the vehicle was a somber urgency. For my part, as the driver, by now I was getting very tired and only managed a 45 min power nap before we seemed to be off again on another 5 hour trip and this time into the night. The journey from Wasdale to the M6 motorway is awful, and those country roads go on for an age. At one stage I was asking myself "have I the energy to do this?". I know only too well the dangers of driving tired and wouldn't put other people's lives in jeopardy, but on the other hand I was thinking how am I going to tell them! Luckily we stopped at a motorway services on M6 - but only to find the Marks and Spencer food store closed so we only managed a coffee and a toasted cheese and onion sandwich before the final part of the journey.

I had good fortune in that I decided to buy one of those new style energy drinks. it tasted awful and I had to nearly chew it down, that said, after ten minutes I felt like I could drive, walk up mountains and chatter non stop (much to the annoyance of my friends who were all trying to sleep). We finally arrived at Mount Snowdon at about 0300hrs. The weather was ok but in the car park it was as dark as dark can be.

And Finally Snowdon

My friends all set off and after what seemed like five minutes they were all back in the vehicle 22 hrs 45 minutes later - job done. There was a mixture of triumph and fatigue on the journey back to Basingstoke.

We managed to stop for a full breakfast en route before arriving back to the house for a surprise little party for Simon's 40th. We made some nice presentations starting with an oversized pair of white Y fronts, which he promptly put on. A nice pair of old man slippers complete with a nice flat cap, some slim fast to sprinkle on his breakfast from there it was to the pub, but nobody had any energy to talk or drink.

Hopefully that's the last you will hear of our Three Peak's Adventures!

Webmaster's Note: Thanks to Nick for sharing these experiences - but I don't expect he'll be hanging up his boots just yet!

Well, where to start, this time if nothing else we tried to be a little more organised. Organising a group of people with busy lifestyles is a challenge in itself, and that's without adding in the challenge of 5 different personalities. The one thing we all seem to have in common is a very healthy sense of humour, which was needed at times.

The plan was to leave Basingstoke at 1000hrs in our hired minibus. That was the first dilemma. Simon and Mark had collected the bus from Southampton only to find the thing was governed to 65mph which in itself brought all sorts of negative comments like "well that's challenge over before we start etc". Somehow we moved on from that and set off for Fort William. Much to my delight and surprise Mark, Adam and Simon shared the driving, and we arrived by circa 2000hrs. We booked in two separate hotels, had fish and chips bought from a lovely shop in a village situated just outside Fort William, we then went to the Ben Nevis Inn for a couple of pints then back to our various hotels for bed.

Our challenge was to start at 0800hrs, the weather at ground level was hostile, the notice board at the start of the path indicated heavy rain and thunderstorms, coupled with high winds. Just what the walkers needed!

Ben Nevis

Scafell Pike

And Finally Snowdon

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Participants:

Nick as Driver