No. 3 Snowdon

Well, as I've already said - we did it. We successfully completed the challenge to climb the 3 highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales respectively, and all the travel in between, in less than 24 hours. We are now forever part of the elite 40% who manage it. Yeah!

But it was close. One wrong turn, one extra toilet stop, a few minutes of extra faffing along the way, or not having the food and cars ready to go once everyone was back down from the mountain, and anything less than total commitment to the hikes and a focus on team, and we wouldn't have done it.

We left Scafell Pike and began the 4 hr 30 min drive to Pen-y-Pass before 9.30pm, but somehow both cars independently decided to go cross-country, rather than sticking to the main roads and so had a very exciting and for some car-sickness inducing tour of some of the remoter parts of the Lake District as dusk turned to darkness - which was beautiful. Bizarrely, there were sheep everywhere on the road - many of them pretending to be asleep. We know they weren't because the previous car had shooed them off the road literally just minutes before.

Soon the improving weather around Scafell Pike gave way to drizzle and then heavy rain. The hikers tried to get some sleep, with varying degrees of success. Amazing job Kelly and Chuck, for provisioning us, driving through the night and getting us through all sorts of poor weather and visibility and various diversions. It was not an easy drive, but we safely arrived separately at Pen-y-Pass - one of the start points for Snowdon between 2.30am and 2.45am.

Now for me this was by far the hardest moment. I absolutely DID NOT want to get out of that warm dry car into the cold night, put on various items of damp clothing and start walking up Snowdon in the dark using head-torches - in the rain. But, that was what we were there for so that's what we did. But it was not easy.

The dreaded moment

I had managed to break one of my walking poles in the car park at the bottom of Scafell Pike so borrowed Steve's intact poles as he wisely, given his knee sitation, opted to sit this one out. So, 5 of us set off at 3.03am. As we had actually started at 7.02am on Ben Nevis yesterday morning, that gave us 3 hours 59 mins to get up and down with the 24 hr limit. In normal circumstances that should have been no problem - but it was the middle of the night and we'd already climbed Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike and it was raining...again.

There's no two ways about it - we were slow. But it was just hard to go faster. The terrain was difficult, the path often unclear, visibility very poor (it was dark and foggy and then it was slightly lighter and foggy) and the driving rain increasingly heavy and horizontal.

Slowly the light grew from around 4am (I’m not going to call it a sunrise) so that the torches went off and we pushed on higher and higher, where inevitably the weather got worse and worse 🤦‍♂️Around 4.45am we realised it was now or never. We had to really go for it or fail in the attempt. Ben, who was increasingly struggling with his ankle, wisely decided to skip the summit and start his steady descent. The remaining 4 galloped - alright, I'm exaggerating - for the summit. About 5 seconds after we took these photos we were gone - it was so awful on the top.

David, Mark, Tris and Evelyne

Don’t know who that guy was, but he was not well. He was wearing shorts.

As is so often the case, the descent was tougher than the climb. I had hurt my knee on Scarfell Pike and now every step down brought a shooting pain. David and Tris went fast, Evelyne and myself somewhat slower, with quite a lot of frustrated shouting and moaning from me with every jarring slip or crunching step. There were only sheep around and they didn't seem to mind. Anyway, we didn't stop, but just kept going and from being utterly convinced I could never make the 7.02am cut off, suddenly we were in a section I recognised and I started wondering if it might just be possible.

All this meant that with a good 20 mins before the cut-off David had made it, followed some mins later by Tris and Evelyne, and then I finally crossed the line with 9 mins to spare. Ben also made it safely back in case you're wondering. We were victorious! We were greeted with some damp cheering from the rest of the team.

We were done, in every sense of the word. But what a team effort! In celebration we went for a large breakfast and medals appeared from somewhere.

As with any significant achievement, it takes a number (sometimes a lot) of people, preparation, perseverence and sometimes just a bit of good fortune. All 8 team members were equal parts of the In2Out 3 Peaks Challenge and those that eventually summited the 3 mountains know they could not have done it without the support and encouragement of the others. The achievement is shared between us all. What a Team!

As I write this our fundraising total has just passed £18,000. How amazing? What sometimes seems impossible can happen with a team, good preparation, stubborn persistence and yes, a bit of 'luck'. Just as there was this morning, there is still a distance to go, but it suddenly seems like a distinct possibility that we'll make it to £20k or even beyond. Whatever the final outcome, we will use those funds to make sure that if they want it, young people leaving prison have a team around them, encouraging, supporting and guiding them to summit their own mountains. Thank you for being part of the wider In2Out team that makes that possible.

And thank you for following along and supporting us on our Challenge. It does mean a lot.

Chuck, Steve, David, Kelly, Tris, Evelyne, Ben & Mark

xxx

Just for a joke I am taking suggestions for future fundraising challenges. Any thoughts in the comments please. But can you avoid anything that involves hiking, rain, bogs or wet clothing or inadequate sleep? Thanks.

Fact: In the 1930's a hotel was built on the summit of Snowdon. It's not there now. I really wished it was this morning!