David Walker, Paul McDowell, Gavin Plews, David Barnard
Rotary
Club of Great Missenden
The Three Peaks Challenge
for Sightsavers
International
Congratulations to the three Rotarians - two from Great Missenden Rotary Club and one from Chesham Rotary Club - for successfully completing the Three Peaks Challenge within 24 hours ... and along with one other person in the team, they raised over £3,200 for the international charity, Sight Savers International. This report outlines how they formed the team, their background, training and the actual climb. Many thanks to all who sponsored them.
The Team
Just
at the turn of the year I was reading the Rotary Club’s DG’s Newsletter and
saw the opportunity to achieve a goal on my ‘tick box’ list. A brief chat
with Gavin Plews to check his interest and he took at least a nanosecond to say
yes!!!! Gavin in turn asked David Walker from Chesham Rotary Club, who also
responded quickly and positively with a yes.
David
Barnard, the Treasurer from the MS Centre, Halton took a little longer as I
described it as a small challenge!!! He too succumbed within a couple of weeks.
We
had a team!!!!!!
David
Walker was instrumental in securing our first driver, Brick, a young athletic
South African who may have been just as good a walker as he was a driver!!! It
took us several months to find a second driver. Thanks to David Barnard we
secured the second driver Audrey Hughes, who was clearly very fit, as she cycles
50-80 miles easily, at one go, with her cycle club on a weekly basis!!!
We
had a complete team as we needed two drivers or we could not compete.
Even
the formation of the team was a complete team effort!!!!!
The
Preparation
We
had several meetings at the Full Moon in Cholesbury, to test the beer, to get to
know each other and plan our training sessions.
During
the months of preparation, we never got the chance for all four of us to walk
together, however there were many times when we had two or three of us to pound
Coombe Hill and the surrounding hills to get in some simulated practice. As we
were to find out there is no way to simulate the stamina needed for the The
Three Peaks in the Chilterns!!!
However
the pedigree of the group was reasonable:
David
Walker has completed all the London Marathons since it’s inception in 1981!!!
Gavin
Plews is an avid cyclist and fitness fanatic, completing the cycle ride from
Lands End to John O’ Groats in 2004!!!
David
Barnard, an enthusiastic walker, who has climbed many if not all the Munroes in
Scotland and as recently as last year walked half of the Ridgeway (44 miles) in
a single day!!!
Paul
McDowell has completed 12 Marathons, and three Sierre-Zinals (Swiss Mountain
race).
The
latent talent was there but none of us had completed the Three Peaks before.
The
Travel
Gavin
had organised the transport, so Friday the 27th June, all the walkers
were collected and headed up to Winslow to collect Audrey at noon.
An
uneventful trip up the M1 and M6 found us at the Westmorland Hotel, Tebay before
6pm.
It
is hard to believe there is such a beautiful setting for a hotel so close to one
of our major motorways. We decided
to eat early and after a few beers, wines and even whiskies we started to plan
our routes up the mountains.
We
had a relatively early evening and had a leisurely start at 8 am and a lunchtime
arrival in Fort William.
The
tension was mounting. However everyone was relaxed!!!
We
needed to sign in at the base of Stob Ban at about 3.30 in the afternoon ready
for a briefing at 16:50 and we crossed the start line at 17:10 on Saturday. We
were the last team to start as we were the last team to enter.
The
weather was reasonable, however as we were to find out there was mist and a
degree of chill at the summit. The teams started at five minute intervals so
during our ascent we had to negotiate the passing of
many of the other teams on the way down, which on a narrow path and steep
drops on either side was distracting and tended to slow us up. The summit was
both misty and cold so we only spent seconds there before we descended. We kept
up a reasonable pace and passed several teams during our ascent and descent
arriving back at the check in just over 4 hours, ahead of the average time for
this mountain.
To
Helvellyn
We
had a reasonably quick change and set off without any real refreshment and
stopped at the Stirling services, as we had on the way up to Fort William and in
hindsight spent too long there as we had been given a start time to climb
Helvellyn at 2:45 am. We thus struggled to get to the Helvellyn start position
on time and in the end started walking at 3:30 am.
We
were warned that the weather was not pleasant; mist, rain, windy and cold!!! As
daylight came the day was darkened by the increasing mist on our ascent.
No
wonder we were instructed to have the right gear, we needed it!!!!
All
the marshals on the mountain were bivouacked and only appeared as they heard
voices approaching. Each time we passed a marshal we called in on our
walky-talky to confirm our arrival at the checkpoint.
The
descent became more and more enjoyable as the sun came out and the views were
fantastic. Arrival time at the finish of the Helvellyn walk was approx. 7:30am
on Sunday.
Following
check in at the finish area we took a few minutes to get into dry gear and shot
off to Snowdon, we did not want to lose time on the driving section again.
Snowdon
We
had been allocated a start time of 11:56 for the Snowdon walk, so apart from a
fill up of diesel and a cup of coffee, we did not stop and therefore made our
check in time. The weather was again reasonable and only when we arrived at the
top were we engulfed in mist. On the way down the weather brightened and the
views again were magnificent. Unfortunately the writer suffered a bit on the
ascent and slowed the team down, the total walking time being approx 5 hrs.
Apologies to those who heard the grumpy old man in me!!!!!! That comment was
directed at David Walker who had assessed I was knackered and needed drink and
sustenance. Thanks David!!!!
The
good news was that we arrived back at 16:55 on the Sunday, just making our goal
of under the 24 hrs mark for The Three Peaks.!!!!
The
experience was a feeling of achievement; we worked well as a team, four being a
good number, as larger team with variable walking abilities found it difficult
to keep together as a team.
The
Celebrations
Unfortunately
neither Brick nor I could stay for the celebrations on the Sunday evening, so I
will leave it to others to fill in this part of the events.
The
Money Raised for Sight Savers International
The
running total so far is: £3,200 plus a bit more!!!!!!
The
Results
Our
time was 4.07 on Stob Ban (3rd fastest), 3.46 for Hellvellyn (4th
fastest) and 4.46( 11th fastest) for Snowdon
Out
of 15 teams only 7 got back under the 24 hrs so we were pleased to come in 6th
of the 7 teams that made it in under the 24hrs.
The
End, …….until next time?
The
Drivers
My
I take this chance to say a very big thank you to both Audrey and Brick for
navigating and driving as this part of the job was vital and was executed with
distinction.
Best
Wishes
Paul McDowell
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