Aug 13 2012 by nutt

3 Peaks Personal Review and Thoughts

Posted in Challenge Nutt, Outdoors

Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon, 3 Peaks Done! So what did I learn?

  • Weather is a key player in how good the experience is.
  • Plan for road conditions
  • Walking at night?
  • Sleep?
  • Food intake.
  • What’s next?

So Our Stats for the 3 Peaks were:

Ben Nevis – 5hrs, 14km, 1326m gain, started 2am finished 7am.

Scafell Pike – 3hrs 30mins, 8.7km, 900m gain, started 3pm finished 6.30pm.

Snowdon – 3hr 45mins, 13.4km, 965m gain, started 12am finish 3.45am

 

Total Distance –    36.1km                               Total Height Gain – 3191m

 

Firstly I would like to point out that this was done with no training, if you are planning on doing the 3 peaks I would strongly say do training unless you know your fit enough and skilled enough to do it.

Favourite things overheard or said on the hills was,

What a waste of £5 on a map and I didn’t need it – said by some idiot walking down Scafell Pike, yes conditions were perfect but I suspect he couldn’t even read the map if he had required it, we have the best detailed maps in the world always travel with one.

Weather

We were lucky with our weekend the weather was perfect. Up Ben Nevis we had cool conditions at night with a low wind but made it perfect for walking, the wind was warm anyway. We were walking between 2am and 7am [with a beautiful sunrise at the summit]. Scafell Pike we had a warm sunny day and a cool breeze on the tops. We were walking this between 3pm and 6.30pm which was around the best time as when we were coming of it was starting to get cool quickly and there were colder winds coming in. Snowdon came with some gusty cool winds down the mountain against us. Although as we got closer to the halfway house [Llanberis Path] we found that Snowdon shielded us more from these gusts. The downside was it was very dark with little moonlight to aid us. We made the top where there were cooler gusts but still very good conditions. The only rain we had was as we came of Snowdon.

Road Conditions

We were very unlucky with our travelling and there was nothing we could do about it. Travelling up to Ben Nevis we had over 2hrs of delay from accidents on the M6. Then travelling from Ben Nevis to Scafell we encountered more delays on the M74 from a car fire which with a few other delays came to around 2hrs. Travelling from Scafell to Snowdon was ok and we didn’t have to much of an issue here. Again travelling from Snowdon home was very quick. A massive thank you to the awesome Tammy as she drove the entire distance and well she is a legend and smiled all the way. The total distance was 1,104 miles.

Walking at Night

Well we had hoped to only be walking Ben Nevis at night and to walk Scafell Pike in early morning and to walk Snowdon late afternoon but due to delays it meant that we ended up walking Ben Nevis and Snowdon at night. Personally walking Ben Nevis at night was nice as you couldent tell just by look up how far away the false peaks were. Although you could work out where we were and how far we had to go from the map, if I can see where I have to get to then I have a focus, however when I haven’t got that focus then it drives me more to move quickly to get to a point in this case just top peak. The best part was we were near to the summit just as sun rise came up this was a real boost and made it so worth while [it was such a reminder of the submit of Mt. Elgon in Uganda, good times].

Snowdon was a different story having walked the routed many times, now in the dark meant I knew where I was and what part was next and the condition it would be in so again it was a head down and try to keep moving quickly. Its a long slog with a steep section before the final push to the submit. We made excellent time going up and summitted in just 2hrs, the return journey was slow at 1hr45 due to fatigue and the rain making the stone slippery so slower going, also my torch was starting to run out of juice.

Sleep

Well I woke up Friday morning and the first time I had proper sleep was Sunday night. I was quite surprised on the couple of hours here and there in the car that I didn’t feel more drained but I think this was down to the high quality food intake we had that just kept us going. If I did it again I might consider a camper van so that you could sleep between stops in a much comfort as possible as being in the seated position for a long time did not help the quads or knees.

Food Intake

Well a massive thanks to PJ for sorting out the ration packs [will add company that supplied them later as they were great]. The packs were a days food and had boil in the bag that tasted very nice and came with electro lit drink mix and high energy cereal and chocolate bars and much more. For the cost they really are a great deal as its high quality quick food that’s also got everything you need.

What’s Next?

I would like to go and beat our time to get firstly under 12hrs walking time [12hrs 15mins was our time]  but I would like to get a time for walking under 10hrs I really think this should be possible for myself to do with some training. I would like to also attempt the Welsh 3000’s and even the 5 peaks.