Loewy Three Peaks Challenge

• Three mountains in three countries completed over 14/15 June
• Six people from Rainier PR and Lighthouse PR
• 28 litres of water and 6 litres of lucozade
• 20 portions of pasta salad
• 24 rounds of egg and 30 rounds of tuna sandwiches
• 460 miles travelled by car in 10 hours
• £3,000 raised so far for Macmillan Cancer Support
• 3,400m of climbing: approx 14 miles up and 14 miles down
• 22 hours and 10 minutes to complete the challenge

Arrived Ben Nevis visitor centre around 3pm, and decided to bring the start time forward to 4pm. Car park packed with minibus loads of Three Peaks Teams. Stunning views of the mountain.

Despite snow flurries earlier in the day we were very lucky with the weather conditions: excellent visibility and no rain but cold at the summit (0 to 2C) and pockets of snow remain.

The team was up and back down in 4.5 hours beating the schedule by 30 minutes. Bradford boy Tim Hoang put in an impressive of four hours, running whippet like down the mountain.

Next stop Wasdale Head in the Lake District for the ascent of Scafell. Drive from Fort William (via Glen Coe) down to Glasgow incredibly stunning but slow. Current estimated time of arrival 2am.

09.48am, Saturday - outskirts of Edinburgh en route to Fort Willam. ETA 1pm. £2,769.78 raised so far via JustGiving.

Here’s links for five day weather forecasts from the BBC for each of our Three Peak locations:

Ben Nevis
Scafell
Snowdon

Any teams making a challenge attempt this weekend has got the weather on their side.

There’s a less than 20 per cent chance of visibility at the top of Ben Nevis during winter months rising to 50 per cent during summer months.

The likelihood is that it will be covered in mist when we make our challenge attempt on 14/15 June. But that isn’t surprising. None of the team has ever managed to get to the top with visibility of greater than 100m.

Today though, the weather on top the big Ben is absolutely marvellous.

This image is provided courtesy of the Visit Fort William web site and is updated every five minutes or so rotating through a series of camera views. If you can’t see the mountain then it’s either night time or the weather is poor and you’re looking at genuine Scotch Mist.

With our Three Peaks Challenge only a couple of weeks away, young northern scamp and team member, Mr Timothy J Hoang went on a test run up Scafell Pike last weekend in’t Lake District – the highest mountain in England, no less.

Taking on the harder route “with proper climbing and that”, Tim and his partner managed the traverse in five hours (an hour over our allotted time, but who’s counting?).

Here’s a photo Timmy took from the summit.

Next post – Three Peaks: Who’s your daddy?

Here’s our proposed Three Peaks schedule for 12 and 13 June with thanks to Ed Foster for providing a detailed schedule of his team’s successful challenge attempt from last year, on his web site.

Sunset at Ben Nevis on 12 June is approximately 22.00hrs and sunrise on 13 June at Scafell is approximately 04.30hrs.

Ben Nevis, Scotland: 1,344m / 4,409ft
Scafell Pike, England: 978m / 3,208ft
Snowdon, Wales: 1,085m / 3,560ft
Total walking distance: 44km / 27 miles

With our Three Peaks challenge a mere month away, five of the Loewy Three Peaks Challenge team embarked on a trial climb of Snowdon last Sunday. It will be the last of the peaks in our challenge attempt. The mountain was beaten (up and down from Pen-y-pass) in a very respectable time of 3 hrs 36 mins. Next stop – Ben Nevis. Please sponsor us.

Photo shows left to right: Sam Grace, Chris Lee, Stephen Waddington, Rebecca Gregory and Tim Hoang.