Resurgence and the Three Peaks
It comes as no great surprise to either myself, or anyone that knows me, that I've thus far failed spectacularly at keeping my blog updated on a regular basis. Happily, it's never too late to change (old dog, new tricks is not applicable here).
It's not like I've had nothing to write about since my last post either. The two highlights (at least in my desk-bound life) being a successful completion of the Three Peaks Challenge in August, and a trek to Everest Base Camp in September, and for some reason, the thought of not making at least some attempt to document these experiences has been scratching away at the back of my mind of the past, ahem, six months. Ah well. As a wise man once said “Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.”
I'm guessing there are no shortage of blog posts about the Three Peaks Challenge (especially given the number of people we encountered attempting the same challenge on that August bank holiday weekend), regardless, as an attempt to reconcile my feckless journaling, I'm going to provide a brief account here.
I've been to Snowdon before, and like many others, surprisingly, enjoyed the all-too common blanket-of-thick-moist-cloud conditions that greeted me some way before the top. A trip to the postcard rack or a powerful imagination were now the only means of experiencing the vista before me, so the postcard rack it was. This had set my expectation for the the two other peaks (Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike). I'd imagined some divine measure of luck would be needed to experience clear conditions at the top of the UK's highest peaks.
Regardless, I was pretty excited when we finally departed Birmingham on a Friday afternoon. Even though departing Birmingham is generally an exciting event in it's own right, the prospect of racing against the clock, in some of the most dramatic landscape the UK has to offer, is most definitely my cup of double-shot cappuccino.
My fellow participants (Ben, Bethan, Lucy, Becky, Clare, Ed, Alan) and I set off for Fort William in a Minibus, seemingly stocked with enough supplies to scale most of the planet's eight-thousanders. After a long and well-sustained cruise up north, we arrived in Fort William that evening and with a decent nights shut-eye, some minor faffing and coffee-shop dwelling we're ready to tackle our first peak - the mighty Nevis - at 4pm the following day.
This was a pleasant enough climb on a well defined upland-path type of route, and Three-Peaks-running-about nonsense aside - if you ever get the chance to climb this Mountain, grasp it enthusiastically. We didn't have much visibility on the ascent, but every now and again, broad beams from the setting sun would pierce the murk and illuminate the some of the magnificent surrounding landscape. These captivating vistas had me staggering along, oblivious to the fact my day-pack had opened up during the descent, and I'd long since spilled some of it's contents on the upper reaches of the Nevis track. Goodbye expensive gore-tex shell, hello opportunity to spend yet more cash at the nearest outdoor shop..
Navigation isn't really one of the major challenges in the Three Peaks (with a slight exception when ascending in darkness). The real challenge, particularly if your in a large team, is staying focused. We were generally making it up and down the hill just inside the allocated time (according to our calculations), but it took some discipline not to stand around at the top, savouring the achievement, and not to lie around at the bottom, attempting to recover from the achievement. I was the exception to this - without blowing my own trumpet, I was generally up and down the hill ahead of everyone else, so was able to do a satisfying amount of standing around and lying about.
We'd descended from Nevis around 8.30pm, and after a welcome feed from our drivers / support crew (Cheers Michael and Becky / Clare's Dad - Sorry I can't remember your name), we we're bound for Scafell Pike.
This was my favourite peak. We arrived at Wasdale Head around 3.30am and set off in the darkness, with the very highest ramparts of the Peak being the only real visible features of the mountain. Clusters of thee-peaks teams, identifiable only by their head-torches, were strewn about the mountain, providing both guidance, and confusion in equal meaures, as to the route ahead. Despite this being another well-defined upland path, we managed to stray sufficiently in the darkness so as to get lost.
In a way this lack of predictability about the route ahead actually made the ascent a little more exciting (however I'm sure there are members of the team that may have felt differently) and we actually needed to map read, and employ some navigational skills to get us to the top. After hours of stumbling in the dark, the early signs of twilight stared to break through, and before long we're able to see our way clear to summit.
As before, sidelining the context of a challenge, I'd highly recommend you attempt to summit something like Scafell in time to see the sun rise. Standing on the summit in the watery dawn light, peering down on the mirror-like expanse of Wast water in the far distance, while smoky cloud billowed up from the crags below and around the feet of my sleep-deprived team mates - tired eyes absorbing the majesty of the scene before us.
In a way this lack of predictability about the route ahead actually made the ascent a little more exciting (however I'm sure there are members of the team that may have felt differently) and we actually needed to map read, and employ some navigational skills to get us to the top. After hours of stumbling in the dark, the early signs of twilight stared to break through, and before long we're able to see our way clear to summit.
As before, sidelining the context of a challenge, I'd highly recommend you attempt to summit something like Scafell in time to see the sun rise. Standing on the summit in the watery dawn light, peering down on the mirror-like expanse of Wast water in the far distance, while smoky cloud billowed up from the crags below and around the feet of my sleep-deprived team mates - tired eyes absorbing the majesty of the scene before us.
What did I say about standing around at the top? Our deviation from the path had cost us far more time than we'd allowed for the
Apparently the last leg of the road journey was a slow one, but I wouldn't know as I'd managed to pass-out almost as soon as the minibus started to move (a rare, almost narcoleptic talent I posses). I awoke shortly before we arrived at the start of the Pyg track ant Pen y Pass - our chosen route to the summit of Snowdon.
True to form, the wind-driven rain drummed against the side of the minibus, and the peak itself lay buried in thick cloud, almost similar in shade to the slate that defined the region. I think the sight of these conditions, combined with the now 'challenging' time constraints on ascending and descending this peak (in accordance with the rules of the three peak challenge) were enough for some our team to call time on their involvement in the challenge.
I began the ascent at a pace that I can only describe as 'highly f**king motivated'. Gone, was any notion of a team ascent. I figured it was going to be a close call, and that if I wanted to complete within 24 hrs I'd need to shift, so that's what I did, passing hordes of fellow, sodden ascenders, many with faces familiar from encounters on the previous two peaks, on my way to the crowded summit. After a brief pause in the swirling cloud and driving rain, I began my descent, and soaked to the skin by fine Welsh rain, I completed the Snowdon leg in 2 hrs 20 mins.
I wallowed in a damp, solo celebration at the foot of the Pyg track, as the minibus was nowhere to be seen. As it happens, It was attending to a far worthier cause - collecting the other members of the team who had descended via the Llanberis track. So, with no remaining mobile phone battery power, and consequently no means of contacting the rest of the team, I paid the price for my unilateral action by making my soggy way to our hostel in Llanberis, on foot.
Despite the unceremonious end to the challenge, I have to say I loved every minute of it, and regardless of whether you think you'd actually be able to complete all the peaks within 24 hrs, I'd highly recommend giving it a crack. If nothing else, you'll experience (but not necessarily see) some of the most wonderfully dramatic landscape the UK has to offer.
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