National Three Peaks Conquered!

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Charles Holt (Lincoln)

My wife was very alarmed when I announced that I was signing up to join an FCG team to take on the “three peaks challenge”, as she thought I was going to run up (and down) them all. I am a bit of a runner, but absolutely not a fell runner! We were always planning to walk them.

Frankly, “just” walking them was a huge challenge, so how the fell runners do it, I have no idea.

The FCG team of Allaster, Elizabeth, Harry, Jess, Sophie and I, along with our driver, Flora, met up at Glasgow airport for the journey to Ben Nevis. We were excited and nervous, and anxious as to whether we were adequately prepared. Would our kit actually hold out? Would our legs make it? We set off full of anticipation for our first hike – up the tallest peak in the British Isles.

It was a pleasant evening walking up, and the weather was good. The views were glorious – until we were about two thirds of the way up. Then we were in the cloud. Visibility reduced to around 50 metres, and I was told off for getting out of range of the rest of the team. Rightly so – but I was just keen to get to the top!

As you near the top of the mountain, it flattens out, but the “path” disappears into a steadily rising plane of rocks and boulders. And then you hit the snow. After climbing this slushy, slippery mess of white stuff, more rocks and boulders appear through the fog. All the way, you are navigating by the cairns of rocks. We were very thankful for these guides along the way.

We were elated to reach the trig point and war memorial at the top of the mountain. We had finally achieved the first leg of our trek. Then it was downhill all the way to the bottom, with legs jarring and light fading, and we made it back to the minibus just before darkness fell.

There followed a long over-night drive to Scafell Pike in the Lake District, the tallest English mountain. A navigational error made us somewhat late, but we set off in good spirits up the gently rising track. The sign on the track bottom said 2.5 miles to the top. Well, that doesn’t sound very far, but after a while the terrain really slows you down.

Again, it is steep, rocky and very dodgy under-foot. Hands were used to help us clamber over tricky bits, and once more we were soon up amongst the clouds. Along with the clouds comes damp, but at least it didn’t seriously rain on us. We gladly peaked Scafell Pike soon after 9 in the morning of day 2, feeling elated that we were over half-way in terms of effort expended.

We didn’t stay long as there were no views through the cloud, so it was back down the mountain. Simple, we thought. But it was very slippery, and we all sat down hard (by mistake!) a number of times on the descent. And one of us (the writer of this piece) decided to try a summersault at one point, with his hat being the only defence against a nasty head graze…. Nevertheless, we reached the bottom, fairly unscathed.

Following this was the long drive to Snowdon, interspersed with some sleeping and dozing in the minibus. But as we got deeper into Wales, the rain started. And it didn’t stop. We set off onto Snowdon in full wet weather gear, all of us well equipped. But it is amazing how wet Welsh rain is, and we all ended up soaked through.

The track starts off looking relatively benign, and we all thought that – maybe – it would be like that all the way up. After all, there is a train track up there, and you can, apparently, walk up in a pair of sandals. But we were not on “that” track. Our route involved some considerable clambering over rocks, big decisions on which was the path (and which was just a sheep track) and what we could or couldn’t see through the rain and fog.

However we finally reached the railway track amongst the murk, and then the path to the top was obvious. As we approached the summit, the wind and rain intensified. So we were all amazed to see a fell runner overtake us, seemingly oblivious to the conditions!

The peak was reached by us all together, feeling wet, tired and blown away but essentially very happy. What an achievement! We didn’t do it within the “target” 24 hours (our fitness, the poor weather and navigation issues put paid to that) but the main aim was to climb all three mountains. And that was certainly achieved.

Very special thanks must go to Flora, our driver. It’s not a glamorous role in the endeavour, but a hugely important one. We have raised more than our target sum for the two charities we were collecting for, and we are massively grateful to all those who have supported us. Thank you all!

And one final point – for chocoholics. I managed to eat 12 chocolate bars during the challenge. My old body just needed all that instant energy.

The FCG team took on this hard challenge to raise funds for two charities close to our hearts, which support farming and rural communities across the country: Air Ambulances UK and The Farming Community Network (FCN). There is still time to donate until the 10th of July 2026, please follow this link if you would like to show your support: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fcg-take-on-the-three-peaks-uevbc

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