Beverley Athletic Club’s Alan Flint celebrated his 63rd birthday by tackling the 3 Peaks Challenge. This involved climbing the 3 highest peaks in the UK – Ben Nevis (1344m) in Scotland, Scafell Pike (978m) in England and Snowdon (1085m) in Wales – all within 24 hours.
Accompanied by fellow Beverley AC runner, Carla Stansfield, he started the climb up Ben Nevis at 7 o’clock on the morning of Sunday 2 September. They ran as much as they could but the steep terrain forced them to walk a lot.
It was foggy and cold when they reached the summit so they only stayed long enough to take photographs of each other. They were able to run most of the way down and arrived at the bottom to record 2 hours 51 minutes for the ascent and descent. They were surprised and delighted to have completed the first peak so quickly.
After breakfasting on bacon sandwiches from a local shop they set off for the Lake District.
The weather there was similar to what they had experienced in Scotland so the views from the summit were very limited. Although they found the Scafell Pike more challenging than Ben Nevis they took only 2 hours 16 minutes to climb up and down.
They were then driven down to Wales for the final peak. They arrived at Snowdon at 11 o’clock at night and started the climb immediately. They did well for the first few miles despite the darkness but then took the wrong path and found themselves way off course. To get to a path leading to the peak they had to climb up steep rocks. Alan found this very difficult. “It was hard going and a bit scary,” he said afterwards “but we kept our spirits up and through determination eventually found the right track and made it to the peak to our relief.”
They found going down much easier and were able to run most of the way. It had taken 3 hours and 5 minutes to climb up Snowdon but the descent took them only 50 minutes.
They completed the whole challenge in less than 20 hours. If they had not lost their way climbing Snowdon they would have finished in less than 18 hours.
Not satisfied with that, Alan is now trying to persuade Carla to climb Snowdon in daylight and see how fast they can reach the top!
Reported by Kay Farrow
