2 Down 1 to go

The National 3 Peaks challenge to climb the three highest mountains in Scotland England and Wales within 24 hours started with a minor setback: When offered the free use of a 17 seater minibus and free tank of fuel from Northgate Vehicle hire in Horwich we jumped at the chance, however considering we were setting on of a time trial you can imagine the language as we hit the motorway and discovered the 60mph limiter

As for the peaks themselves individually they were challenging but collectively they were tough, on “the Ben” we started in rain at 4pm leaving behind the cosy warm comforts of the bar at the official start to the Nevis climb just as the atmosphere was picking up as the day trippers all came down from the mountain with their tales of snow and fog and howling winds at the summit. They weren’t wrong, with a snow and ice capped peak and winds blowing 90 to 100 miles an hour did proving to be a problem and people literally being blown off their feet as we got to the top  we sensibly made a decision not to hang around especially with 2000ft vertical cliffs just meters away, so we quickly headed down  back through the rain to complete our first peak in 5 hours and 5 minutes.

The journey to Scafell was hampered somewhat with fog over the Cumbrian fells reducing the speed to 10mph and a stop to throw up what little food I had consumed thanks to the wallowing nature of the bus and travel sickness. We arrived at Wasdale Head shortly after 3am donned our gear turned on the head torches and set off up Scafell Pike in the dark and fog at 3:30am up its punishing relentless path, remembering to keep left at the fork for fear of crossing the scree. Just short of the summit Dominique could go no further as she was in severe pain from an injury she picked up on Nevis when she slipped and hurt her leg, so she turned back whilst Kev and I finished our climb and quickly caught back up with Dominique only to find she too had thrown up. The top of the mountain was even more so covered in cloud and although it was daylight by now there was not a view to be seen. With Dominique suffering from her leg strain and Kev’s knees starting to cause him some pain we carefully made it down the hill as quickly as possible getting back to the bus at 7:47am having completed the hill in 4 hours and 17 minutes things were still looking good.

After a change of clothes we left Cumbria at 08:30 and headed south once more to Wales and the promise of sunshine on our third and final and definitely my favourite mountain Snowdon which from my from a point of view that unlike the Scottish and Cumbrian mountains with a peak that towers on the top of an almost pyramid shape block of rock and granite with stunning views over lakes and mountains and which looks beautiful just as much covered in grass or snow, fortunately for us there was no snow to be seen as we set of in the sunshine, joined by Liz by my Kilimanjaro partner, at 1:36pm on this our last leg of this great challenge feeling tired having only cat napped for about an hour and a half in the last 28 hours. Kevin and Dominique struggled up the steep inclines but their spirits never broke no matter how much pain they were in and although we were going slower that hoped we made good progress cheered on by Liz and her friend Cath and we made it to the top of Snowdon in the cloud touching the summit in 2 hours and 35 minutes later at 3:41pm 23 hours and 41 minutes after setting off up Ben Nevis, the 3 mountains in 3 countries conquered. To celebrate this and because of the amount of Pain Kevin and Dominique were in we decided to have a wee sit down to a cup of tea and cake in the café at the top before heading leisurely and carefully back down the mountain to arrive back at the bus to Andrew our driver and a glass of celebration Champagne at 18:53 were waiting for us- Job Done

Would I do it again? – Possibly, certainly as individual climbs without the clock ticking and definitely not before Kilimanjaro, I kid you not it is a tough challenge but once you have completed it you know you have achieved something special, there was a fleeting moment on the Snowdon ascent when I doubted that I could do it but the thought that I was doing it in memory of beautiful little Katy Holmes who suffered much more than I was and more than I could imagine before finally succumbing to the Cancer of her cruel brain tumour and knowing that she was looking over us and willing us on gave me the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Another child somewhere in the UK has been diagnosed with this cruel illness this week and his or her parents will have been told that there is no hope and in all likeliness they will die. What I am doing is nothing compared to the suffering these children and their families are going to suffer, please you know I am doing my bit to put an end to this, do your bit, please donate to this cause, £1 £5 £10 whatever you can afford and help put an end to Childhood brain tumours. If you haven’t already done so please do visit my Just Giving page and make a donation https://www.justgiving.com/Mark-Maynard1  or by texting KMAN61 and the amount to 70070

Thanks go out to Andrew our trusty driver who was steady and kept us on track and provided moral support and made sure that we arrived safely and on time at our designated drop of points and being there ready to go at our pick-ups. Thanks to Liz and Cath for geeing us along on the Snowdon and a special thank you to my daughter Dominique and her fiancé Kevin for doing the challenge with me and for working through the pain and the sleeplessness to see it through to the end

With Less than 3 weeks to go before My trek up the 5500m Mount Kilimanjaro I would like to thank you for your support and well wishes, Kili will be different especially with a vastly depleted oxygen supply, about 50% less than we breathe down here and the inevitable worst hangover possible effects of altitude sickness but I am now beginning to get excited about the prospect of standing on top of the roof of Africa

Watch this space for updates to see how I get along