25th of May I and some mates set off to sunny Scotland to do the Three Peaks Challenge on behalf of the Turner Syndrome Support Society. I am after two things, your experiences if you did it, and your money if the story in the link below makes you think you want to.

Just Giving page for our little jaunt…
(the story on that page isn’t quite as dramatically written as it could be, Emie isn’t my kid, but I am glad my kids aren’t affected the same way).

8 of us going, in a 16 seater minibus, two drivers to keep each other company and prep a bit of warm food for us as we get back to the bus to save as much time as possible as the bus won’t be quick.

I am probably the least fit, but 11 miles and 2,300 feet of climbing wasn’t too bad last weekend, Got some decent boots and socks I have had a while so don’t need breaking in, got some decent clothing if needed and even got a 4 man storm shelter.

So what is going to hurt first, knees or thighs, and what are the best blister avoidance techniques, as that is my main fear…

Don’t drop litter, and don’t get lost and call out mountain rescue.

Kettle’s on.

Sorry, but I’m sure you’ll find other people think the same way as me; it’s an exercise in driving rather than walking and has been roundly condemned as such.

best blister avoidance techniques

Boots that fit, and fit well. Get them worn in well before you need them.

Depending on where you live hill reps are effective. Not sprinty running ones, just lots and lots of ups and downs.

I’ve just started hill work with my running, this involves reps with 1032ft of ascent in 0.86 of a mile. Very effective for both the ups and downs.

*flounces off to make a brew

Good luck, sounds like you are committed to the event, but have a read of This for an understanding of the issues surrounding this event. Bear these in mind to reduce your impact if you can?

Actually scotroutes, the kettle isn’t on yet, but that is my next port of call and no piemonster, enough MTB events with gel wrappers around the place make me a little fastidious about littering.

Tom B, an interesting and thought provoking read. Apart from the impact of the driving I have to admit that when I was asked to go along I didn’t give it a second thought. We dont intend abandoning the bus in the obvious car parks and our drivers will be getting some hot drinks ready in flasks for our return.
As for the littering, I have always done as I was taught when I was little and brought it home, and get shirty with anyone who doesn’t.

piemonster, come back, we can walk up a hill together!

crikey, I can see your point… especially after reading Tom B’s link. Still think I will find the whole thing bloody hard though!

Do three other peaks.

providing you are not insanely unfit it is not a hard challenge. a normal walking pace and luck with traffic/weather will see you well under 24.

The weather will hinder if its wet underfoot as the rocks will be slippy. the impact on your knees walking down will hurt more than walking up.

the killer is traffic. we lost an hour and a half getting to snowdon and had to run halfway up and all the way down in 50 mins to get under 24. i was a broken man after that.

oh and make sure one of you knows how to use a compass and a map. whilst the paths are pretty obvious mistakes can happen especially if its grim out.

Yeah – do the three highest peaks in the UK instead.

Got to agree with Crikey. I did one several years back; lots of (bad) driving, and up and down each mountain on the most boring paths of each rather than the nicer and/or more technical routes.

It encourages speeding, driving when tired, and adds almost nothing to the local economies apart from where you finish and rent a room. It is also anti-social as you inevitably have to start one of the peaks at a silly hour. (I think we upset people living near Scafell Pike unloading the van.)

Physically speaking I found it a challenge. The routes we used totaled around 23 miles of walking but I remember very little of it compared to proper holidays hill walking in the national parks and I was knackered by the end of Snowdon.

I’ve also run a marathon for charity and that was far more enjoyable and personally rewarding. If asked again I would opt for three peaks in Snowdonia and forget all the driving nonsense.

buzz-lightyear – Member
Do three other peaks.

Genuinely, any other suggestions? The one in the Dales? (not promising it will change, it’s not really my trip, but am interested).

Overall climb 26 miles ?

The problem with doing something else is recognition with sponsors.

Can’t think of another walking challenge in the hills which is as well recognized. Yorkshire 3 peaks is the closest at a guess.

Plenty of other 24hr challenges and just plain old challenges, but some are possibly too much. And most will be almost unheard of.

27 miles and 10080ft ascent

Or

43.5km and 3071m ascent

Do all the Welsh 15 peaks in under 24 hours. HELL of a walk and no dashing about in vans. I did it in 16 hours many years back..some nutter ran it in 4.30

Unfortunately no event can be impact free. Unfortunatly you get idiots in all parts of life. Fort William and the areas around snowdon do benefit from the visitors.

These challenges are by no means a way to appreciate the mountains.

pie monster, that is how ended up with it, people have heard of it…

DavidB, now that does sound like a challenge! But not for this coming jaunt.

Van Happen, yea, not expecting to feel like I have “done” any of them at the end, just done something difficult.

just done something difficult.

See, I know I’m coming across as Mr Grumpy, but it’s not actually that difficult is it?

If it was, all those charity chaingangs that are messing up the climbs and littering the mountains and annoying the folk of Wasdale wouldn’t manage it, would they?

It’s an exercise in attempting to sleep in a car with three walks, and as such isn’t a great epic, however much it appeals to chubby office workers in cagoules.

Lots of truth in that.

I have to say that, having taken part in many charity-funding events over the years, it seems that the level of difficulty does not affect the fund-raising as much as the actual cause – i.e. although folk might be impressed by what you are about to attempt, the major factor in their willingness to part with money is their connection to/sympathy with the charity.

the point of the BMC piece isn’t to read it and say it’s thought provoking! the point is to cancel any planned attempt you may have, and refuse to sponsor anyone who does – as the article says, basically they’d quite like to ban it completely…

the harm it does is very real. I’d say: just don’t do it. And, like Peter, refuse to sponsor anyone who does

http://www.ldwa.org.uk/challenge_events/events_list.php?list_type=M&event_type=A

There’s a few options there. Sadly it comes back to recognition with sponsors with these things, unless you’ve got the time to really relay the challenge to folk.

Somebody mentioned the Welsh 15, record for that is 4hr 20m. First to last summit.

Well, I don’t work in an office, but I do use the word cagoule, not really that chubby either… And I don’t walk that much, so yes, I think I will find it difficult. Pretty sure I will do it, but not easy. And no, not Mr Grumpy, nor anything more offensive 🙂

I was suprised how naieve the other members in my group were with regard to mountain experience and what it is like. They liked the outdoors but the reality of scale, weather, impact, etc were all missing. I took them up snowdon a month or 2 before and they suddenly appreciated the challenges as the weather was a bit crap and it was cold and miserable.

Oh, and brooess, sorry for my bad habit of thinking after receiving new information rather than just doing what I am bloody well told! 🙂
There were many other words before the end of that piece that made me think…

Right back to the original question……………!
Get yourself a fresh pair of socks and kit for each walk, Aldi ones are great at £2.50 a pair.
walking poles are useful.
Make sure you’ve got the routs sorted both walking and driving sorted.
Another one is to cut your toe nails
Sort out some decent digs in Llanberis, could be a bit tricky.
As long as you’ve done plenty of walking mountains you’ll be OK.

http://www.gofar.org.uk/Cumbrian%20Traverse.html

I quite fancy this one at some point, bit trail for me but looks good.

The problem with doing something else is recognition with sponsors.

Good point. I recognise this challenge and won’t sponsor anybody doing it, so choosing this rather than any other challenge would have a direct impact on the amount you’ll raise.

Though I’ve never worked out why it’s necessary to do something for your own benefit in order to persuade other people to give their money to charity, and why the doing something rather than just the collecting money bit is described as “for charity”.

I think it’s something to do with “focus”. My Mrs went off to Everest Base Camp last year on an organised holiday. Lots of our friends wanted to give her money for charity – even though she wasn’t collecting for one. I do think (most) folk appreciate that you are going to endure some sort of physical effort/discomfort and that should somehow be rewarded. However, like I said above, I’ve yet to see a correlation between the scale of the challenge and the amount raised. I think my most successful ruse was saying I’d bleach my hair if I reached £1,000 of donations. Not only did I reach that amount but as soon as I’d dyed it, lots of folk asked why then gave me even more. I think I managed almost £3,000 in the end and that was just for a 20 mile walk on the Southern Upland Way.

The problem with doing something else is recognition with sponsors.

flip it round doing this event has removed a chunk of sponsors.

I personally don’t agree with the event for a lot of reasons. Being creative can be a lot better. This is nothing against your cause.

One tip would be not to try defending it as an event.

One tip would be not to try defending it as an event.

Wasn’t aware I was.

piemonster – Member
One tip would be not to try defending it as an event.
Wasn’t aware I was.

No idea if you were or not as the advice was for the OP in general. Though your fast defense may be a clue…

Not really no

I guided a group on the ‘challenge’ last year just because I was curious as to how the event was ran and about the type of people doing it. What did I glean from the ordeal (and it was an ordeal!)?

1) I felt I was in the van more than walking – indeed I was.
2) The people who were undertaking the challenge were genuinely trying something hard for them to raise money for a good cause.
3) the company I was working for briefed all members about the problems surrounding the ‘challenge’ so they were fully aware of their impact.
4) the itenary was such that there were no excessivly early departures through private properties causing disruption.
5) I won’t be doing it again!

Unfortunately point 3 isn’t always done by other companies. Many individual fundraisers, not using a third party company, do not do any research into the ‘challenge’ and tend to cause more damage than they raise in sponsorship through erosion, pollution and noise etc.

Have fun either way but thought I would put a bit of an input into the debate. I don’t like the event, but I realise it does raise money for charities which is no bad thing and it provides an income to some people, like myself. There are better events to partake in and would love to see the end to the N3P.

As you may have guessed, the person who originally came up with the idea isn’t a climber/hill walker/mountaineer, she runs, quite a lot. I tend to ride mountain bikes, so apart from here don’t really mix with anyone who has raised the issues the same way.
a racer, fully appreciate that you won’t be sponsoring us, but I honestly doubted anyone here would really. Times are hard enough as it is and virtually none of you know me in real life.
However, the recognisable nature of the challenge did help get free minibus hire and already a good chunk of fuel sponsorship so in that respect its swings and roundabouts (I appreciate a different challenge may not need a bus and fuel though…)

Will own up to the fact that I am doing it because I want to though. Was asked, sounded like a challenge, thought I might enjoy it. And as a bonus, I could help out a mates charity efforts, for a charity that helped her and her small family through a very rough time.

It seemed like a win win, but clearly isn’t so clear cut…

Having done this 3 times i’d agree with most of the advice above –
make sure everyone is equipped to handle the challenge and anything it may throw at them – our exploits were lead by 2 very experienced climbers / walkers so we were well briefed on what to expect and what we should be wearing / carrying. We also did a whole load of walks before hand to get ourselves (a little) up to speed. One of the 3 trips saw us in snow on top of Ben Nevis and torrential rail on Skiddaw and Snowdon. Pretty much Zero enjoyment on that particular trip…

Best advise I can proffer is to nominate 1, preferably 2 people in the party whose sole jobs are driving and preparing food / drink for those walking. A brew / soup as you come off the hill is great for morale and someone who (should be!) fully awake is far preferable, IMO, a driver than someone feeling the effects of a lot of walking and little sleep..

One of the 3 trips saw us in snow on top of Ben Nevis and torrential rail on Skiddaw and Snowdon. Pretty much Zero enjoyment on that particular trip…

Especially as Scafell was probably the peak you were aiming for in the lakes not Skiddaw 🙂 weather must have been bad

Thanks marsdenman, second driver/cook confirmed this morning so the gruelling/boring aspect is now fully covered. I like snow, but I don’t think it is a day to hope for it!