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Three Peaks Challenge


chrisjpainter
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Next year a group of us are planning to do the UK three peaks. Has anyone done it? if you've got any hints about where to stay up near Ben Nevis, or specifically what time to start (morning or night) that'd be great! Kit, training and the like won't be a problem, but it'd be good to get some feedback from anyone who's done it!

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I've done all three peaks but separately Ben Nevis 4 times, Snowdon 4 times and Scafel just the once, most tend to start at Ben Nevis at night and then scafel and Snowdon. The best place to stay is Glen Nevis camp site or in one of the caravans which are nice, It's right at the bottom of Ben Nevis, you can cross the road at the youth hostel straight on to the youth hostel trail.

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Have a dedicated driver. That person isn't doing any of the mountains, they are the support crew.

 

People usually start heading up Ben Nevis 1-2 am. Pick a full moon (or close to it) and, assuming the weather is decent, you won't need headtorches on the lower part. By the time you get higher up, the sun has risen

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Have a dedicated driver. That person isn't doing any of the mountains, they are the support crew.

 

People usually start heading up Ben Nevis 1-2 am. Pick a full moon (or close to it) and, assuming the weather is decent, you won't need headtorches on the lower part. By the time you get higher up, the sun has risen

Yeah the plan thus far is 2 drivers per vehicle. How was the driving from the traffic point of view

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We did it on 21st june so the longest day, started at 5pm at nevis and by the time we hit scafell it was just coming to dawn so all three walks were done in the light, we pushed hard one the first two and pottered up snowdon and did it easily in the 24hours. Definately have a dedicated driver tho its so much easier. We stayed in a lovely hotel in fort william and had a skin full the night before and a good meal, gives you most of the day to explore fort william before you start too

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I did it about 5yrs ago. It was great fun,but hard.

I can recommend a book that covers it in great detail.

 

Book: Brian Smailes The national 3 peaks walk

( official challenge guide )

 

We had 8 walkers in a large minibus with 2 drivers.

That worked quite well.

Ben Nevis was the hardest to get up. Scafell Pike was the hardest

To navigate.

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done it twice for charity carrying a 35lb back pack, one of the most physically demanding events I've ever done, best advice i can offer is do it in mid June, longer daylight hours,and train for it, don't think its a good idea to just turn up on the day thinking its going to be a doddle,as some do, get ready to ache but worth the challenge

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done it twice for charity carrying a 35lb back pack, one of the most physically demanding events I've ever done, best advice i can offer is do it in mid June, longer daylight hours,and train for it, don't think its a good idea to just turn up on the day thinking its going to be a doddle,as some do, get ready to ache but worth the challenge

Yeah, as I said the training's all in hand - that was left to me as I'm the more experienced outdoors one of the group but, having never done the three peaks and seeing as there seems to be quite a lot of conflicting reports as to when is the best time to start, I thought i'd sound some voices out! No one's talking of a 10am start? some of the organised days seem to go for this, on the basis that you're climbing the mountain everyone will know best and is easiest to navigate (snowdon) during the dark, as well as making the section of road between Scarfell and Snowdon a bit quieter from the traffic. Thoughts on that? I've done Ben Nevis in filthy weather and Snowdon in the dark whilst foggy, and wouldn't like to say which I'd prefer to do at night!

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We started on ben nevis at around 4pm, the reason being that we would do scaffel in the dark, one of the guys that was doing it with us was scared stiff of scaffel, whenever we went there to train he would chuck a whitey and start fainting and throwing up, we did it in the dark so that he couldn't see it lol.

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My brother done it this year, lke others have said around 21st June + a full moon will give u the most light, And bring a driver and hopeully have a bit of space in ur car ie only 2 on back seats.

The 3 of them doone minimal training althou are naturally fairly fit and done it fairly easily althou struggled the last 500-800ft up Nevis as into driving snow and that was in June!!

 

Just to be different my bro started at Snowden about 10 am, idea being get both snowden and scafell done on first day and drive throu the nite to Nevis, be dawn about 4-5am so still 5hrs to get up and down.

If i was doing nevis first which is the norm, think i would be starting late avo/evening so i was coming off around 10/11ish so travelling throu the nite to scafell.

 

Good luck with it

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