Three Peaks 24 Hour Challenge
The National Three Peaks Challenge
The national Three Peaks Challenge is an event in which participants attempt to climb the highest mountains of Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Snowdon) within 24 hours. The driving route is 462 miles and the total incline ascent is 20.7 miles.
The Idea
The idea came from Logan Brown and Mike Jones when they were looking for a challenge for 2010, which happened to be discussed at a Hogmanay party, 31/12/2009. They decided to take on the Three Peaks 24 Hour Challenge in June 2010. Their plan was to raise money for three charities; The Meningitis Trust, Cancer Research UK, and Macmillan Cancer Support.
David MacTaggart then joined the team. David had experienced a dreadful family tragedy losing firstly his teenage daughter Sarah-Jane with meningitis, then six months later lost his wife Juliette to cancer. With all these charities so close to his heart he felt duly bound to play a major part in this challenge. David volunteered to navigate the team car by finding the quickest route between the Three Peaks.
Next to join the team was Louise Aitken-Walker MBE who volunteered to drive the team. Finally, Karen Brown took the responsibility of being the first aider, also providing the food and back-up. So, the team were now “The Famous Five”.
The Execution
A 7.30PM start on Thursday the 17th of June saw climbers Logan and Mike set off on their first challenge – Ben Nevis. The pair managed to complete this in 3 hours, 13 minutes, and 4 seconds. At 10.45PM they departed to Scafell Pike where they started their ascent at 3.21AM they were back to the bottom in 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 5 seconds. Now onto the last of the Three peaks, Snowdon. They managed to complete this in 2 hours, 33 minutes, and 9 seconds – a great effort from the two. The challenge was completed. The total climbing time was 8 hours, 1 minute and 8 seconds. The total driving time was 9 hours, 4 minutes, and 10 seconds. So, this gave us a total time of 17 hours, 5 minutes, and 18 seconds to successfully complete the Three Peaks challenge!
The challenge is divided into four time thresholds for the awards which are the following; Bronze for sub 24 hours, Silver for sub 22 hours, Gold for sub 20 hours and Platinum for sub 17.5 hours. So, this meant it was a truly Platinum performance for “The Famous Five”.
Now to the most important part – the fundraising. The team managed to raise a staggering £46,824 all of which went to the chosen charities (The Meningitis Trust, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support).
The team would like to thank everyone for their donations and a special thanks to Mercedes Benz of Coldstream for supplying a Mercedes ML350 to complete the challenge in.