3 Peaks Challenge

 Our journey began early on Thursday morning with a flight to London.  Upon landing we were picked up by minibus by our friend Angus who had done all of our planning for us!  The mini bus was equipped with a mattress for sleeping in between challenges, sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets to keep warm.







Friday morning, with our 2 additional group members, Ron and Lucy, we headed closer to Ben Nevis.   The normally 2.5 hour drive ended up taking nearly 6 as the snow was quite heavy.  Chains went on our mini bus, and we made it...slowly. Ron's father kindly took us in for the night, and Saturday morning we were off.





We arrived at the base of Ben Nevis Saturday morning around 11AM, and were met by two more friends.  By 11:30 AM Saturday morning we were off and climbing.

Our team, from right to Left: Angus, Me, Walid, Lucy, Ron (who drove us allowing us to sleep),  Canna (the whippet cheerleader) & James

Ben Nevis was a very pleasant climb, which we completed in about 5 hours.  The final portion was very much white out conditions, but with two handheld GPS' and a map, the 6 of us made our way to the summit.

From Ben Nevis we drove towards Scaffel Pike.  After passing through a few flooded roads, a GPS malfunction, a road ending in a snow bank, and minor mishaps, we were at the base of Scaffel Pike around 11-1130PM in the pouring rain.  We climbed, making it to the Summit ridge in about 2 hours, with sleet, and 60MPH winds.  The conditions were miserable!  Back down, around 330AM we headed to our final summit-Snowden.

This photo may appear distorted, however its just the rain and wind blowing across the lens of our waterproof camera.  

Arriving to Snowden just after sunrise, we were met by Lucys parents, to have her father join us for our final summit!  Conditions were beautiful, up to the summit ridge, where it became very windy.  Lucy and I climbed to the summit on our hands and knees.

Fatigued, we checked out watches, to see that we had completed the 3 peaks with 10 minutes to spare!

White out at the Ben Nevis Summit!  

It was a wonderful adventure with a great team!