Events
Event Date: 22 September 2009
The 3 Peaks Challenge
On Saturday, 4th July 2009, Brian Hammond, Guardian ECL’s Managing Director, undertook the ‘3 Peaks’ challenge to raise money for our nominated charity, Little Havens Children’s Hospice.
So-called because of the challenge of scaling three of the UK’s tallest mountains within 24 hours, this is also generally accepted to be one of the most grueling challenges to undertake.
Brian was accompanied on the challenge by a group of fellow participants, including his son Scott, who also works for Guardian ECL.
The first leg of the Peaks challenge was Mount Snowdon, the UK’s highest peak south of the Scottish border. The 3,560ft peak is located in Snowdonia National Park, and the group arrived to find extremely wet conditions for their 9am start. Despite the difficult conditions, the mountain was scaled in an hour and a half, the descent taking a further hour and 45 minutes.
Having completed the ascent and descent of Snowdon, Brian, Scott and co then faced the long journey to the next peak, Scaffel Pike. Crowded onto a mini-bus hired especially for the challenge, many of the competitors took the opportunity to rest and recuperate in preparation for the next challenge. After four hours on the road, they all arrived back in England for the second leg of the challenge.
Scaffel Pike, England’s highest mountain is located in The Lake District National Park in Cumbria. At 3209 ft, it was no minor challenge for the second leg of the journey, and proved to be an arduous leg of the 3 Peaks Challenge. Because of the extremely rocky terrain, the ascent proved challenging, followed by an even more difficult descent. After the two and a half hour ascent, and three hour descent, the participants were looking forward to the rest before the final challenge.
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Having completed two-thirds of the challenge, the tiring participants were by now grateful for the six and a half hour mini-bus journey to the final peak, Ben Nevis. The United Kingdom’s highest mountain is 4,409ft, and is located at the Western end of the Grampian Mountains.
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The last leg of the challenge proved to be the most grueling for most. Now in the second day of the challenge, tiring legs and poor weather made for a difficult ascent, and the descent again proved even more time and effort consuming. The final peak was scaled in three hours through poor weather, including snow! After a three and a half hour descent, all participants were relived that the challenge had now been completed, and were all looking forward to a long rest.
Brian was delighted to achieve fund-raising to the tune of £3,500, all of which will go to the worthy charity, Little Havens Children’s Hospice.
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