3 Peaks Challenge

22 individuals took part in the GRS 3 Peaks Challenge on the 8th/9th May 2009.

We started off on Snowdon on Friday morning and had a pleasant walk up the Miner’s Path. As we reached the summit the wind had picked up and some of the party had to get to the summit cairn on their hands and knees!!!

We headed off down the Llanberis path in good spirits to meet the mini buses and head off to Seathwaite to tackle Scafell in the dark. We got to Seathwaite for 1930hrs and headed straight off for Scafell via the Corridor Route. Again the weather was pretty kind to us but of course we were losing the light quickly. We ascended the scree slope/boulder field in darkness to reach the summit. It was very misty on the top making navigating the descent a little more tricky than hoped.

After our successful ascent of Scafell we then made our way up to Fort William. We arrived at Forth William at around 0730hrs in torrential rain and high winds. We decided to wait the storm out a bit and by 0900hrs the weather was a little better (but it was still lashing it down). Ben Nevis gave us all a very stern test and the group had to tackle snow and ice on the paths and white-out conditions on the summit.

The Challenge had been achieved and everyone in the group were obviously elated with their achievement. A great weekend was had by all and the worst injuries were nothing more than a few bruised ankles, blisters and sore legs.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the challenge and maybe we should start thinking about a new challenge for next year!!!

Report by Gavin Roberts