The Three Peaks Challenge...

   Ben Nevis

"Four wheels on our wagon, and we're still rolling al....hang on, what about the spare?  Righty-ho...five wheels on our wagon, and we're still roll...there are two spares, chief.   Six wheels on our wagon, and we're still rolling...and there's four wheels on the back. Fine...8 wheels on our wagon, and if anyone mentions the steering wheel there will be bloodshed....that doesn't rhyme....Grrrrrrrr....right, no steering wheel then....8 Wheels on our wagon and what about the fly-wheel?...right, fisticuffs!"  

It's amazing where your mind will wander when you've been on your feet for 24 hours. Fortunately ours had a map, compass, pack lunch and a copy of Planet Weekly so it didn't go too far (although the ? X-variation mentioned on the previous page meant that my own actually arrived back 5 minutes ahead of where I was. This left me with a severe attack of deja-vu and a blinding headache while my mind juggled a time/space equation and subsequently mangled causality because it forgot to carry the one.)  Back to reality, then...

Well, we were singing a happy song (or at least the radio was) as we speed away from Scafell like the proverbial priest from a brothel. The sheep had wisely moved off the road so the journey back to civilisation was reasonably uneventful. The next major landmark on our visual map was to be Glasgow which also had more than its fair share of traffic lights. Once through this we headed north west towards Argyll & Bute and Fort William.  The A82 is more or less the only direct route up to the Ben with very few turnings to worry about. No worries, right? Wrong...the Standard Life Loch Lomond tournament was in full swing (...arf, arf) and we were caught up in a sort of melee of would-be golfers in the general rush to watch the last round. Fortunately for us, the local police had made a very good job of the lane priorities and it didn't take us too long to get past the general scrum of traffic. Nothing left for us to do then, apart from to admire the view and point out the occasional approaching bend to our driver. 

The fact that the landscape was getting higher all around later alerted us to the fact we were getting close. Soon we were heading up the last road and pulled in just along from the Glen Nevis youth hostel. The whole area is beautiful, a fact made more apparent by the blue sky and sunshine that had spread over the west of Scotland. Whether or not the good conditions were also responsible for the army of walkers that had descended upon the area is open for discussion, but I suspect not. We spent about 20 minutes once again gearing up, massaging and coaxing tired muscles into life, applying sun block and generally geeing each other up, not that we needed much encouragement. This was the last climb. It was also the longest and highest but that did not detract from the fact that the whole team were looking forward to it.

View of Ben Nevis taken from Glen Nevis Youth Hostel

Starting off from the youth hostel, and deftly dodging a team of welsh students having a photo call at the start of their 3 Peaks Challenge, we headed up towards the main path that could be seen skirting up and around the lower slopes of Meall an t-Suidhe. Before we could get into stride, however, we lost Steve. Another case of bad knees meant that he could no longer support his weight properly and he opted to stop before going beyond the point of no return. Team morale took a little knock, as it did when Lorraine had to stop on Scafell, but the fact that the decisions to stop were made with the team in mind helped make up for the loss. Once Steve was safely headed back to the sanctuary of Pete and the van we once again started our ascent. The path is easy to follow on the lower slopes, although you do have to watch your step for the most part as it is rocky and uneven, although nowhere as challenging as it is on Scafell Pike. It is also quite narrow in some places. Not dangerously so, but given the amount of people on the climb it does mean you have to stop regularly to let other walkers pass. That in itself is an advantage, though, as it enables you to take a rest and admire the view. The path climbs steadily up and around to the left with the Red Burn below on your right. It is at about this point, especially on a clear day, that you suddenly appreciate just the size of the task ahead of you. Looking up to your right you can see where the pony track follows the contour line up and over the Red Burn. Then you realise that you can see walkers above that, and if you look really closely, higher again. It was at this point, after about an hour of climbing that we lost the next of the gang. Simon had started suffering exhaustion from the effects of dehydration and decided that it was best to stop and turn back while he could. Another wise decision, but another blow to the team. Once we were sure he was OK to walk back we started on the climb again. Soon afterwards we reached the switchback were the path leaves what is now a conservation area and loops up and around to rejoin the old trail near the Red Burn crossing. There was a bit of a log jam of walkers around the ford on the Red Burn, all taking a chance to have a drink of the ice-cold mountain run off. We filled a couple of water bottles and then picked our way past the gathering and on up towards the zig-zags. Shortly before we came to the first of these we lost our third member. Lorraine was suffering a reoccurrence of bad knees and was beginning to struggle. Surveying what was left of the climb ahead of us (or at least what we could see) she decided to turn back before the going became a real strain on her joints. By now all of us were beginning to feel the strain on our knees in varying degrees so we could see the logic in her decision. We took a few moments to redistribute kit and passed the excess gear and some water to Lorraine for the trip down. Once she was safely on her way, we all took a deep breath and started what was for all of us the hardest part of the climb. According to the map, the pony track doubles back on itself eight times before straightening out towards the summit. There was a more direct route on the version we had, but just one look at the boulder field we had to cross, and the angle of ascent and the zig-zags won the unanimous vote. The glance up also allowed us to see the continuing string of other walkers gradually getting higher as they traversed to and fro. Although we did not know at the time, we were only just over half way distance to the summit in walking terms, although to be honest it seemed a lot further. The zig-zags were hard work for us all as the track was part walk, part climb and all up. By the time we had turned taken the sixth bend the fact that this was the last climb was beginning to make itself felt. Our group pace had noticeably slowed and knees were beginning to hurt, in some cases badly. Although we had plenty of time to get to the summit (which we had decided would be the timing point for the twenty four hour target,) Andy S was itching to go the whole seven yards (or more like 1,700 yards!) and head for top and back down to the van within the 24 hours. It was plainly obvious that Andy was in far better shape at that point than  the rest of us, and bearing in mind the Ben was teeming with walkers it was an easy decision to let him go on ahead. The time elapsed at that point was 21hrs, 30 mins. Once Andy S had nipped off quite literally like a man on a mission and leaving a cloud of dust behind him, we took stock of our condition, squared our shoulders and headed on. As it turned out there were just two more bends before the track straightened up and the incline lessened but for all this they were none the less difficult. There was a small snowfield at the edge of the plateau which heads up to the summit so we stopped for a well needed rest and to take some pictures. Well four did - Andy A was suffering the same knee problem that had afflicted Steve and was beginning to struggle as he couldn't bend his right knee or support any weight on it. Stopping only made it worse so he headed on towards the summit to save time. At this time Andy S went hurtling by on the way back down with roughly 135 minutes to go to make the van...we wished him luck and then turned our attention back to the final part of the climb. By now we were sure of making our target time so the pressure was off in that sense but it didn't make the climbing any easier. The last 1/2 mile is a rocky path on the top plateau which on this day skirted a cornice before going through another small snowfield up to the summit itself. 

The trig point and cairn	Paul and Lorraine half way up	Andy A at the peak cornice	What a view...

So it was that 22 hours and 15 minutes after starting off from the car park at Rhyd Ddu, we arrived at the top of Ben Nevis. No matter how ragged we were feeling, there were big beaming smiles all round. We were standing on top of the mainland UK. We always knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we had achieved exactly what we had set out to do and the feeling was euphoric. And that's not all - the best of the weather had saved itself for the highest of the peaks - there were only a few clouds in the sky and view from the top was awesome. Given the view, the fact that we had earned a rest, and more  pragmatically, to attend to various ailments (- Andy A had more or less hopped the last quarter of a mile with his right knee totally shot) we decided to spend some time on the peak. We were in no rush to get back down and the view was too good to miss. We managed to get a mobile phone signal so we let the team/family know we were up and OK and when we expected to get back down. A few drinks, a quick snack, a change of clothes (...don't ask...) and a spot of field surgery on Andy's right knee and we were off again. The first 1/2 mile back took longer than anticipated as we joined in the continual round of camera swapping with other teams of walkers. It's ironic that with the walk over, a couple of Scandinavian girls gave us the only dodgy moment of the day when they handed over their camera and then trotted blithely out onto a cornice for the picture. One sharp intake of breath later and a warning in basic English and sign language they were going for a screamer if they lingered and the girls were back on terra firma wearing faintly puzzled expressions as to why the five faces opposite were now as white as the snow they were standing in. That served as a timely warning to all of us that we weren't finished yet so a quick kit and knee check and we were off again. 

This time we took the more direct route and missed out the first four traverses. However this route was 100% scrambling and Andy was only operating on half limb power so we reverted to the pony track again. The journey down was enjoyable and we stopped to talk to a lot of the walkers to both offer and listen to  encouragement and advice. Apart from the fell runners that periodically nipped past, a good 75% of the people we spoke to were involved in the Three Peaks. The main difference was that they were all on their first hill, whereas we were coming down our last. Quite a few of the walkers remarked on the fact that we all looked in good shape considering we were on our final descent which boost our confidence no end. On reflection we were not in half as bad a shape as we thought we would be. OK, so we were suffering knee problems to a greater or lesser extent which made walking a bit painful  but we were not feeling out of breath or the effects of over-exertion. Apart from a faint buzz that comes with not sleeping for 36 hours we were still operating and with no blisters or obvious fatigue. Buoyed up by this we headed back down with a spring in our minds (...as that saves the knees!), stopping off once again to have a drink at the Red Burn. By the time we were back on the lower slopes of Meall an t-Suidhe we were in a long queue of Peakies all heading down to the hostel which made progress surprisingly easy on tired limbs. Finally, 24 hours and 30 minutes after starting out we were back at our van. The rest of the crew were waiting to greet us at the footbridge in front of the hostel, having watched the last 40 minutes of our descent from the parking bay. It was a case of High Fives all round, especially because Andy S, the only mountain goat with a single-figure golf handicap, had completed the whole challenge in 23 hours and15 minutes after running down the mountain. Way to go, innit?! Back to the van, then, for warm down, more photographs and a change of gear. 

It soon become obvious the euphoria of finishing was not going to subside so we cleared the general travellers' detritus out of the LDV, packed up and set off in search of Banavie, our guest house, a quiet drink, a shower, several noisy drinks, something to eat and a bed for the night although not necessarily in that order...                            

To Scafell Pike...	Confessions of a minibus driver...	Warm down & Journey home...

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