The night before...on the start-line - Glen Nevis

We are here, ready to go, if not quite raring to go. I think we all just feel quite tired after a long day of travelling, but somewhere amongst the nerves (quite deep down!) there is also a bubbling sense of excitement. We've planned and prepared and trained and now we are going to find out if we've got what it takes to climb the 3 highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in just 24 hours, otherwise known as 1,440 mins. We will have rarely packed so much into one day.

Already today we’ve driven over 320 miles just to get to Fort William where we've met Tris who has come almost 500 miles (thankfully a lot of that was on a plane to Glasgow). But we've enjoying the amazing, almost mythic landscapes, on the way north, crossing Rannoch Moor and coming through Glen Coe on the way up to Ben Nevis. Even in poor weather it's impressive. I think that tomorrow we might be a little less attentive to the scenery. The weather looks less than pleasant so the chances of seeing any of it seem quite low. The forecast is for rain and a 'feels like' temperature of minus 5 degrees on the top of Ben Nevis. Where did the heatwave go??

I don't know how much sleep I'll manage tonight - I didn't sleep that well last night thinking about everything - but come what may we'll be off at 7am. By 9.30am we need to be on the top of Ben Nevis, ready for the slide, hop, skip and jump down to the bottom. I'm ever the optimist :-)

As many of you will have seen the match fund opened today at noon and will run for the next week.

https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05WS000004KNuDYAW

We are already past £4k - towards our target of £20k - which is amazing. Thank you. And thanks for all the messages of encouragement. They are really valued and make a difference.

So, the planning phase is over. Tomorrow it begins proper and we’re very aware that to paraphrase von Moltke, 'No plan survives first contact with the enemy".

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

It’s a bit windy!!