The Three Peaks Challenge - Snowdon

A couple of hours sleep is all that I could manage between Scafell Pike and Snowdon unfortunately. By the time I reached Snowdon I was starving hungry as well as weak and feeble. We got to Pen-y-Pass car park at just before 02:00 to find it jam packed. There were two coach loads of people just finishing the first stage of the three peaks challenge. The way I was feeling it was a not very pleasant surprise to get out of the car and find a hog roast had been prepared for those finishing the first of their three peaks. I felt famished and just didn’t have the time to stop and beg for a hot pork roll. Gutted.

The forecast had been for heavy rain over Llanberis but luckily the weather was fine, just touch misty. Snowdon turned out to be an absolute killer. I knew the route fairly well so wasn’t too concerned about getting lost but it felt like I had to stop every ten minutes for a rest. The pyg track turned out to be a real hard slog. I was absolutely shattered and felt like curling up and falling asleep at every ten minute stop. I met one group of people coming down who were just starting the three peaks. They had somehow managed to lose one of their team and were asking whether I’d seen anyone else on the way up. Hopefully they found him as he definitely hadn’t passed me.

The higher I went the colder it got and the worse the visibility got. My headlight wasn’t really helping as it was like using your full beam in the fog. Luckily at about 04:00 it was light enough for me walk up without the torch. All I remember from reaching the summit is how tired and cold I felt. I unfortunately don’t recall any sense of achievement, just a desperate need to get off the mountain, get a cup of tea and get home to bed.

I had decided to come down the Llanberis path as the pyg track would have finished my knees completely. Coming down this route was, thankfully, completely uneventful. I had a few nice views but unfortunately the cloud cover had ruined any chance of a decent sunrise.

I finally made it down from Snowdon in 3 hours and 37 minutes which actually amazed me considering how slowly I thought I’d gone up. The total time to up and down all three peaks and travel between them was 23 hours and 30 minutes. My only thought on accomplishing the three peaks was please get me home to bed. Getting a decent amount of sleep during the challenge would have probably put me in a better mood and helped me feel chuffed about completing the challenge there and then. As it was, I had to wait until had a good 8 hours sleep before I felt pretty chuffed about completing the challenge. The fact I did it by myself (the hiking part anyway) does give me a sense of achievement, I felt like quitting so often but managed to dig deep and keep on trudging.