Lessons learned...

Hi all,

So I've had a bit of sleep and I thought I'd put up one final post to mention some lessons I've learned and post a few last photos that I couldn't get off my camera while on the move.

Important notes for budding 3 peakers:

1. Ben Nevis is not your friend.
2. Co-op bacon and egg mayonaise savoury bites are not food.
3. Pot noodles can be made into real food by the addition of chorizo and sundried tomatoes but after the first peak you won't care...
4. Compeed (unlike Ben Nevis) is your friend.
5. Scree slopes... don't.
6. Blisters are nature's way for weakness to leave your feet, embrace them.
7. Do it with good mates and not on a tour, you'll feel better for it.

Finally, thank you to all that sponsored us/ followed our blog/ texted us or even were just vaguely interested in what we were doing.

Thanks,

James K

Phil Getting ready for Snowdon

Phil being far too enthusiastic

Scafell Pike sheep

Home

That's us back in Norwich, exhausted but pleased at our achievement... sleep needed!

See you at the hog roast!

James K

Done!

Hi all,

As Phil said, we've completed all three peaks with only fairly minor blisters. The weather was better for scafell pike than the other peaks and we made it down just as it got dark. Our time was 3 hours 50 minutes so we're pretty happy. You can see our scafell pike route here.

Just got to drive home :-)

James K

Mission accomplished

Despite a few hairy moments and accidentally taking an 'alternative' route to the top we managed to reach our third peak, the top of Scafell Pike. A respectable 3hr 45 from top to bottom, and now on our way home ETA 4am, sleep beckons. More updates on money raised and more pics to follow. Thanks for all your support X

Cumbria

We're now in cumbria, marvelling at place names, just passed through cockermouth and bigrigg. Getting ready to start scafell pike.

Lewis

Back in England!

We've just passed back into England again. Even though we're close, it'll still be 5pm before we get to Scafell Pike. The roads leading up to the last peak look narrow and long so fingers crossed this goes to plan!

James

Ben Nevis info

Hi all,

Just an update for Ben Nevis. You can find the GPS track here and I'm uploading some lovely photos for you all to enjoy (seriously, these photos just don't do the weather justice, I just couldn't take my phone out for most of the walk!)

James K

ben nevis

So we have been up to our second peak, around trip of 5hr 2min, which was bloody cold, but no one got hypothermia so i guess thats a win. everyone is veryglad to be able to feel their extremities again. Onward to Scafell pike.

Ben Nevis

Hi all,

We've arrived at Ben Nevis after pulling in for a nap near Fortwilliam. The severe weather appears to have missed us but fingers crossed anyway...

James

Snowdon images

Hi all,

Just a few images from our Snowdon climb. As you can see we were pretty lucky with the weather... until the top.

James

Snowdon route

Hi all,

Hopefully we've sorted our technical issues and can post now... to celebrate, here's our Snowdon route!

James

Sights of Scotland No 1

Lewis has just pointed out the birth place of snooker player John Higgins, this is turning into a wortwhile trip...

Welcome to Scotland

Crossed the border a little while ago, one hour to Glasgow. Norris is excited about his first trip to Scotland, but it turns out you cant see it in the dark

Wales

We have made it to wales. Beautiful countryside, confusing road signs. More updates if we can find Snowdon

On the road

We've hit the road (sorry lewis), arguments are already breaking out over the cd player.

Blisters

During the walk last Friday I figured out that my boots don't fit properly anymore, so got some lovely 1 inch diameter blisters on both feet.  I've got 7 days for them to heal, and they're getting there but by no means ready.  I've bought some compeed pads for the trip, and I've been spraying with Savlon daily & trying to wear flip flops as much as possible to air.

This will pale in comparison to the pain of doing it with a cold though, I need to quaranteen till Friday..

James

PLAGUE

I have come down with a cold. Some may call it man-flu, but I prefer to call it THE SICKNESS. I will soldier on, but in the interests of fairness and comradeship, I have taken it upon myself to try and covertly infect the others. By sneezing on their lunch.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I have never "hit" a peak, nor a gymnasium, thank you very much indeed. That would be folly.

Yours stoically,

Lewis

The magic 300

A big thank you to everyone that has donated so far, the latest additions from the Wild family and my Dad (Phil) takes us over the £300 mark! But let's hope we can take that total even higher over the next few days...

James, James, Lewis and Phil

Hitting the hills...

Hi all,

Today was a big day in our training. James N, Lewis and I decided we needed to get out and about in the countryside and actually climb a peak. So at 6am we left Norwich and headed north to Derbyshire to climb Kinder Scout. The weather was good and we had lovely views. We also successfully tested our gps tracking software that allows us to map and post the routes that we'll use on each peak. You can see the route we took today here.

The idea is that during the challenge, we will post after each peak and upload a route map like the one above as well as having a google map embedded in the blog that shows our current location.

James

Running improvement

Since my last post I'm now quite close to running 3 miles without stopping.  The improvement is quite staggering actually, I'm going every other day and each time I'm easily able to miss out a couple of breaks (bits where I was catching my breath walking).  Went out Saturday and stopped 5 times, today stopped 3 times.  I guess the training for the Norwich 100 cycle this year is helping aerobically, but the main thing I'm working on is some calf muscles.

Hitting the gym

As James N mentioned the hill training options in Norwich are pretty limited so Lewis, Phil and I have been hitting the gym regularly over the last few weeks. We're currently doing a combination of running rowing and weights so hopefully we'll be up to some hill climbing come the end of August...

Running

Norwich is not the best place to train for hill climbing, especially if I'm going to stick to my "don't do gyms" rule.  So I started jogging today for the first time ever (yes it's late, but it will at least take the edge off).  Went out for 30 minutes and didn't do too badly, tried to pace it 2 mins running 2 mins walking & could have kept that up for longer than I did.  I'll go out again sunday and burn out completely.

Just giving page set up

We are doing this for Break, a local charity who provide care to families in East Anglia. You can donate here.

Cheers,

James, James, Lewis and Phil

The jailbreak?

The 'jailbreak' is set up by the Alexandra Tavern in Norwich, and Break, a local charity who provide care to familes in East Anglia. We have 48 hours to get as far away as we can and back. We have decided to try and do the UK 3 peaks. The plan is as follows:

1000, 27th August 2011 - go the the pub (dressed as convicts). Drink tea.
1200, 27th August 2011 - Escape from said pub. Climb highest mountans in Wales, Scotland and England.
1200, 29th August 2011 - return to Alex for hog roast.

Simple!