The Three Peaks Challenge...

Introduction

Once upon a bar stool, a long, long time ago, a band of brave administrators were mulling over a chilled sherbet and wondering what they could do to raise some money for St Peter's Hospice as part of a fund raising event..

 And it came to pass that one was given to go amongst us saying "I've got a good suggestion..."

With the benefit of hindsight (...evolution's way of telling you that something was a real BAD idea...) this should have caused a mass stampede in the general direction of 'Elsewhere' . Unfortunately, since ours powers of telepathy were on pause (as blinding insight knocks off after the hours of 5:30pm GMT)  we did not twig. So with a certain feeling of 'we're overlooking something important here, lads...'  the germ of a blisteringly good idea was planted...took root, attacked feet and grew into a cross-divisional attempt on those three challenging peaks! 

So, twelve months down the line, on Friday the 14th July, nine staff were cruelly kidnapped by a madman with a ginger beard, forced into a diesel van and driven north from Bristol. Occasionally we escaped up large hills, only to be recaptured at the bottom and driven somewhere else. When we finally did manage to break free it was too late...our legs had regressed to being  just about able to keep our bums from touching the floor and not a lot else...in fact if they ever make Group Limping an Olympic event we would have won the Gold, Silver, Bronze AND nicked all the crutches to boot!

So, without further ado let's meet the cast.

Bristol AO

...the drinking club...

...with a walking problem!!!

10 go mad in a an LDV...

Andy Axworthy, Jamie Cullen, Hannah Cross, Simon Godfrey, Paul Holland, Steve Hughes, Lorraine Rogers, Andy Stephens, Graham Underhill...and not forgetting driver and navigator extraordinaire... Pete Stables.

10 do what??

For those of you not familiar with this fiendish piece of physical sado-masochism which masquerades as a brisk trot in the country, the idea is to climb Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis...all in the space of 24 hours. The event is flexible in that you can set the degree of difficulty by your choice of team size, time of year, order etc. In our case, we were aiming to start at the bottom of Snowdon and end at the top of Ben Nevis within the allotted time. The reason for this discretion ahead of valour was due to our sponsorship commitments, but also down to the simple fact that although we were all reasonably fit, none of us had attempted anything on this scale before.  

It may not sound too strenuous, but the problems of weather, traffic and other miscellaneous & random sabotage ensures the outcome is more than a mere formality (unless you own a Ferrari and have a penchant for sleep deprivation and a blatant disregard for the Highway Code). Above all, this is a popular event and you are guaranteed to meet other walkers which means a battle for the choicest parking spaces if you are unprepared!!

10 say "...why?"

This was part of our ongoing year of fundraising in aid of LIVE175. This event is to commemorate 175 years of our employer, Standard Life, being in business. The idea is that whatever we raise throughout the regions and branches will be doubled and distributed to charities nominated by each branch. In our (Bristol's) case, we are raising money for St Peter's Hospice.

And also, as any climber will tell you, because they are there...don't ask me for any other justification until my knees have dropped their mitigation case against my brain.