Would you be up for it?

[+Simply Paul]

Hopefully forum users will already know I've a caching event at the top of Ben Nevis on June 30th this year. When I set it up in January I thought it would polish me off, but thanks to some serious weightloss and fitness improvement, I think I could do a bit more. The obvious thing is to turn it into Part 1 of a Three Peaks Challenge, by adding a cache event at the top of Scafell Pike in the middle of the night, and a Snowdon Peak event the following morning. Would anyone else be up for three events in 24 hours at the highpoints of Scotland, England and Wales? It's not something I'd want to set up just for me- although each event would be a stand-alone proposition for anyone to attend. Snowdon, particularly, is a piece of cake to get to the top of, thanks to the railway line... Any thoughts?

[+Cache U Nutter]

Hopefully forum users will already know I've a caching event at the top of Ben Nevis on June 30th this year. When I set it up in January I thought it would polish me off, but thanks to some serious weightloss and fitness improvement, I think I could do a bit more. The obvious thing is to turn it into Part 1 of a Three Peaks Challenge, by adding a cache event at the top of Scafell Pike in the middle of the night, and a Snowdon Peak event the following morning. Would anyone else be up for three events in 24 hours at the highpoints of Scotland, England and Wales? It's not something I'd want to set up just for me- although each event would be a stand-alone proposition for anyone to attend. Snowdon, particularly, is a piece of cake to get to the top of, thanks to the railway line... Any thoughts?

 

A great idea and a challenging day/night.

I did the 3 peaks 10 years ago and completed it with minutes to spare owing to an incompetant driver !!!

 

One thing you should bear in mind however and this was brought home to me following a conversation with a Lakeland farmer a few years later.

Scafell is usually the second peak of the challenge and as such is usually reached in the middle of the night. Hundreds of walkers do the challenge and all arrive by car/minibus at Seathwaite making loads of noise an waking the locals. They are all fed up with it !!!

I would advise parking further down the road away from the village and walking a few hundred yards further [not making any noise] or alternatively go up scafell another way.

Good luck any one who tries it !

[+MBFace]

 

Scafell is usually the second peak of the challenge and as such is usually reached in the middle of the night. Hundreds of walkers do the challenge and all arrive by car/minibus at Seathwaite making loads of noise an waking the locals. They are all fed up with it !!!

I would advise parking further down the road away from the village and walking a few hundred yards further [not making any noise] or alternatively go up scafell another way.

 

 

They don't all arrive at Seathwaite - Wasdale gets a right hammering too. I think I'd better ignore this thread before I get wound up!!!

 

MBF

[+ITCHYthirdEYE]

we are doing scarfell with nevis anyway but we are doing scarfell on the sat then going up to nevis on sunday doing a bit of local caching monday and meeting you tuesday.

[+Stuey]

I'm doing the Three Peaks on July 3rd.... I hope to sneak in a cache or three if I can push on ahead of the rest of the group. We'll be quiet at Wasdale Head for MBFace, promise!

[+stonefielders]

I did the 3 peaks some time ago - its basically a test of how fast you can drive so I wasn't too taken by it.

From memory we set off up the Ben 6am then drove to get to Wasdale Head & climbed Scafell Pike early evening, getting down before dark before driving through the night & arriving at Pen y Pass early morning in the dark to climb Snowdon to arrive around sunrise.

 

So no need to disturb locals in Wasdale if the schedule is planned right...

...the dark ideally should be used for the driving & the easy underfoot walk up the Miners/Pyg Track to Snowdon

[+Icenians]

Why not try a different peak in the Lakes?

 

In the summer THOUSANDS do this and the damage to the environment is not worth it.

 

As someone else said, it's more a driving challenge than a walking one and it's been done to death now.

 

Being quiet is all well and good but people turn up, qiute literally, in bus loads. the vehicles disturb locals everyone wants a pee when they get off there etc.

 

To top it all, is it really a challenge when you get to the top and find a hundred others all with the same idea?

[+flipflopnick]

Why not try a different peak in the Lakes?

 

In the summer THOUSANDS do this and the damage to the environment is not worth it.

 

As someone else said, it's more a driving challenge than a walking one and it's been done to death now.

 

Being quiet is all well and good but people turn up, qiute literally, in bus loads. the vehicles disturb locals everyone wants a pee when they get off there etc.

 

To top it all, is it really a challenge when you get to the top and find a hundred others all with the same idea?

I agree it can be a driving challenge that can irritate locals at the drop off points.

 

Why not make a different challenge? We are after all cachers. Make this a multi, perhaps. Visit 3 peak caches in your own time to find a 4th cache. The peaks may not be the usual highest points, but 3 other caching peaks. The remotest cache in UK, the highest UK cache and the lowest, perhaps.

Log the multi with evidence of visiting the qualifiers. see NineSquared

Now that's a challenge I'd rise to. Might take years.

[+Simply Paul]

I really do appreciate it must be annoying for locals to have folk arrive and leave late or early, but I think I can minimise my personal impact. By being very quiet. Also, it's be on a Tuesday night- not the traditional weekend slot, so as to avoid the rush. I'd gladly do another peak, but, you know, there isn't another one as tall as Scafell Pike in England; it's the classic challenge so you have to follow the rules. The sense of personal achievement isn't linked to how many people have done it before. If it was, people wouldn't keep running the London Marathon, as that's been done by a million plus...

 

Also, the day after my proposed events will be my brother's 40th birthday, so he'd like to join any group for the challenge. He's never even been to Scotland or the Lakes so it'll be a triple treat for him!

 

However, I do take your point about the driving so if/when I do it (the two other events have been offered up but are pending as I type) it'll be all three peaks in 24 hours, not the more popular full ascent/decent of each mountain model. That way the driving can be rather less frantic/more legal.

 

I like flipflopnick's suggestion about adding an extra dimension. If I get the OK to hold the Snowdon and Scafell events I'll approach the owners of the three highest physical caches about leaving laminated cards in them, giving some values which will lead to a further cache. Just where that would be will have to be decided; the peaks of ROI, NI or the IOM would all be obvious spots, but I've no plans to visit any of them for a while

 

The UK's most remote cache is probably mine, but that could change; it's not impossible to get to Rockall

Britain's lowest cache is hard to tie down, and the highest physical is on top of Ben Nevis... Some things to think about. Thanks for the ideas

[+Simply Paul]

A little bump for this as it's the right thread for it really.

 

Having persuaded my brother to join me for the Ben Nevis climb on June 30th he was keen to extended it to a full Three Peaks Challenge* so I've set up a cache event on top of England GC1PRQV - Scafell Pike Vertical Limit Extreme Geocache Event at 3am the following morning (!) and GC1PRQ0 - Snowdon Vertical Limit Extreme Geocache Event on top of Wales at 2pm later the same day; July 1st. Each event is a stand-alone meet, but I've had some interest from cachers wishing to join in on doing all three. I hope to see some people waiting for us at each stage; you'll recognise me, I'll be the one looking like death.

 

*Actually, it'll be the 'being at the top of all three mountains inside 24 hours' version, rather than the more demanding 'climb and descend all three mountains inside 24 hours', to give us a little more time at the tops for caching related chitchat and to keep the driving legal/safer.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Simply Paul