Hello everyone

I am hoping to complete the 3 Peaks Challenge at the beginning of March 2012 and then a month later struggle up to Everest Base Camp.

3 Peaks Challenge: Get to, and climb the 3 highest mountains of Scotland (Ben Nevis – 1,344 metres), England (Scafell Pike – 978 metres) & Wales (Snowdon – 1085 metres) within 24 hours.

Everest Base Camp: 15 days guided trekking to reach Everest base camp.  I think up to just under 6000 metres.

I am paying all the expenses myself so all money raised will go to The Nepali Children’s Trust.  This charity works with the Disabled New Life Centre in Kathmandu which looks after and arranges education for disabled children from around Nepal.  I like this charity not only because of the work they do for such a good cause but also that they welcome volunteers that can offer only their time as a donation.

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**Update 06/03/12**

 

Hello & thank you to everyone who has donated so far. 

The 3 peaks in 24 hours challenge is now complete.  Was it a success? I will let you decide.

Saturday 07:40, myself, Bill & Martin set off from Manchester to Scotland on an 8 hour drive that I would like to say went without incident but as Martin was driving that wasn’t going to be the case.  We call Martin the Curb Crawler, this is because he occasionally likes to test how well his wheels are fixed to his car by smashing into the odd curb.  I must firstly thank Martin for getting us there and back safely (specifically drifting back onto the road as quickly as we left it, and also avoiding that head on collision).

Ben Nevis – We set off at 15:30, it was raining as it often does in Scotland.  The walk was difficult and I was aching by the time we reached the peak, we were the last up of the day and were warned of the weather by everyone coming down but we weren’t deterred.  At 6pm we were high fiving and getting our pictures before realising the daylight was gone and we were in a snow blizzard.  The plan was to get out of the kill zone as quickly as possible so I started down not realising I was rushing down in the complete wrong direction so presumably would have a been falling off a cliff face soon but thankfully Bill has a sense of direction and after 10 minutes we had a found the nearest cairn.  Unfortunately the visibility was so bad that a few cairns later we were lost again and heading down a slope that led nowhere.  Eventually we went back up, found the correct path and we were racing down. 

Getting back down at 20:15 and into the car I immediately started to feel sick, annoyed about everything and didn’t want to eat or drink.  At the time I thought I was just tired but I now realise I was missing something, probably hydration.

Scafell Pike – We set off at 02:15, I was still feeling terrible and would have been happy to quit without even attempting getting out of the car but I started off up the mountain anyway from Wasdale all the time urging Bill to go on in front in case I didn’t make it.  He wouldn’t so I moped up the mountain clutching an energy drink and a mars bar.

By the time we reached the flat part before the top, the fog/cloud was in and we couldn’t see a thing.  Having no idea which direction we needed to go and having learnt from our near death experience on top of Ben Nevis we made the decision to turn back. 

Back to the car at 05:10, disappointed, wet, tired and still clutching my mars bar which I’d only managed one bite from, we settled in for a 5 hour journey to Wales.

Snowdon – Our final mountain and still raining we set off at 10:30.  I had eaten a sausage McMuffin, I don’t know what they put in them but I was feeling a lot better.  It had been snowing heavily so most of the mountain was hiked in snow chains (great investment by the way).  We got to the peak at 12:45 just in time to see an amazing view through a break in the clouds and then once we got near the bottom the sun actually came out.  We were down at 14:25 and timed our challenge at 23 hours so we were happy as we estimated an hour lost on Scafell.

Lessons that I learnt while doing this challenge:

·         > Do this challenge during the summer and preferably in daylight.

·          > Drink more than 2 litres of water within the 36 hours it takes to do   this challenge.

·          > Buy ski goggles (my glasses froze over on Ben Nevis)

·         > Learn how to use a map and compass

·         > Buy a map and compass

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**Update June 2012**

The second and final part of the challenge is complete.  Thanks again for the further donations.  I have posted a blog (link below) with pictures and you can add me on facebook to see the rest.

http://getting-lost-everest.blogspot.co.uk/