National Three Peaks Challenge

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Outline map showing the location of the three peaks.

The National Three Peaks Challenge is a mountain endurance challenge in Great Britain in which participants attempt to climb the highest peaks of each of the island's three countries within 24 hours, using motorised transport to travel between the mountains.

While usually referred to simply as the Three Peaks Challenge or the Three Peaks, this challenge should not be confused with the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge.

The mountains climbed, in order of elevation, are Ben Nevis in Western Scotland (1344 m), Snowdon in North Wales (1085 m), and Scafell Pike in North-Western England (978 m).

Each year a large number of organised attempts are made at the challenge with the aim of fundraising for charity, in which sponsorship is sought by participants, but many people are purely interested in the physical challenge and make attempts in small groups, usually with non-walkers performing a supporting function by doing the driving and having food ready.

The Challenge has certainly been completed in as little as fifteen hours, including ten hours driving time.

It may be extended to four peaks, by including Northern Ireland's Slieve Donard, or even five peaks by tagging on Carrantuohill in the Republic of Ireland. This longest route is usually only attempted as part of a high-profile charity event involving the use of helicopters. With such aerial assistance, the record time to ascend and descend all five peaks stands at about twenty hours.

Contents

Criticisms

As the popularity of the challenge has grown in recent years, it has been increasingly criticised by local residents and conservation bodies in the areas around the peaks. It has been blamed for an increase in traffic at unsociable hours in rural areas. Participants have also been accused of dumping litter, causing erosion by using short-cuts in an attempt to save time, and inconveniencing residents and other visitors by illegal or inconsiderate driving and parking of vehicles. A particular problem in Wasdale Head, the usual starting point for Scafell Pike, is the lack of mains water; on ocassion the influx of challengers has meant the limited water supply has been exhausted. In June 2003 alone 29,000 people attempted the challenge.

Another criticism is that, although money is raised for the charity of choice (with a proportion sometimes going to an organising company), these and similar challenges stretch the resources of other charities such as local mountain rescue teams. The event also presents road safety hazards due to driver tiredness, although these can be mitigated by using drivers who are not themselves walking.

A set of guidelines has been drawn up by the Institute of Fundraising [1] (http://www.lake-district.gov.uk/uploads/pdf/Charity_code_leaflet.pdf), which, amongst other things, asks participants to:

avoid weekends
avoid the period from late June to mid July
limit events to 200 participants or less

Supporters of the events maintain that it is only a minority of badly behaved participants who cause problems, and that the benefits of the challenge to their charity outweigh the costs.

The standard route

To take advantage of the good weather and long hours of daylight, most attempts are made in the summer months, and follow a common pattern, employed because it has proven to be the easiest way of achieving success. According to this method (times used here are very approximate and offer only a rough indication of the timescales involved), the challenge begins with the start of the climb up Ben Nevis at 17:00, with the summit being reached via the easy Tourist Route at 20:00, and arrival at the bottom at 22:00. The time of year is important because if Ben Nevis has to be climbed earlier to avoid nightfall on the way down less time is available the next day unless Scafell Pike is begun in the dark. Care must be taken to minimise turnaround time at the base of mountains; the usual practice is for food to be prepared by others in anticipation of the return of the climbers, and then eaten on the road after immediate departure for Scafell Pike.

The trip down through Scotland to the Lake District is the longer of the two road journeys, taking perhaps six to seven hours depending on driving speeds. Walkers are strongly advised to get some sleep during this period. If Scafell Pike is reached at 04:30 it can be climbed via a choice of routes, arriving at the summit at 07:00. Walkers generally start at Wasdale Head, although the route from Seathwaite may also be done in the time. While it may be the lowest peak of the three, Scafell Pike is often considered to be the hardest, possibly because it has to be climbed first thing in the morning after having rushed up Ben Nevis the previous evening and having had little sleep in between, and possibly because the mountain has a fairly flat profile, making the route long and even tedious if time is of the essence. If care is taken to keep to the correct route (this mountain is climbed far less than the other two and paths are not as clear), it should be possible to depart by 08:30.

There follows a journey of several hours to Snowdonia, during which walkers are likely to feel tired, stiff, and hungry, and all this while worrying that the time they have available for completing the third peak is slipping away. This is especially true of the last few miles to Snowdon, which are the slowest of them all due to the nature of the roads and the possibility of traffic bottlenecks from summer tourists. If Snowdon is reached at 13:30 the summit can be reached by the pyg or miners' track by 15:30, leaving an hour and a half to return to base within the time limit. Teams who for some reason lose time on an earlier stage may find themselves pushed to the limit of their abilities on Snowdon, particularly if they have picked up injuries or fatigue in particular areas over the course of the first two mountains. Being confined in a car or minibus between mountains does not help matters.

While participants do need to be reasonably fit to stand a realistic chance of success in the challenge, most active people, and particularly those who are young or used to hillwalking, should not be put off by the daunting prospect of climbing three famously high mountains in succession. British mountains are small by international standards, and as long as the weather is conducive to walking (the conditions on Ben Nevis in particular are notoriously changeable) then 24 hours need not be an impossible time. It should be noted at this point that doing the large amount of driving required, especially when combined with preparing food and other matters, is quite a challenge in itself! The great flaw in the Three Peaks Challenge is that success is to a great extent dependent on the speed of driving and the state of traffic. A team which runs all the way down Snowdon and finishes with minutes to spare is likely to have achieved rather more than a team with a fast driver who arrives at the start of the last mountain with six hours available.

Conclusion

The attraction of the challenge then, is less the pure physical challenge, but more the satisfaction of conquering these three British giants in one go, and the overall experience of a marathon task shared with a group of like-minded and similarly motivated people. There is also a growing level of criticism of the environmental and other adverse affects the challege can have. However, if its present popularity is anything to go by, the Three Peaks Challenge will continue to attract people in future.