UK Mountains Expedition Report

Team 'A' set out from the visitor centre at Glen Nevis at 4:40pm on Friday 21st June for the ascent of Ben Nevis. The weather was excellent with good visibility and high clouds. Being the weekend of the longest day, we were far from being alone and found ourselves passing other walkers both going up and coming down. At times it became a procession of walkers, all with the same aim in mind.

As we headed up, it began to get colder but still we could see for miles in all directions. The Pony Track is a long ascent of the Ben zig-zagging as it does on its way ever upward. The Ben itself is not immediately in view, that is Carn Dearg (pronounced Jerrag). As we reached the upper level of the zig zag path, it was time to stop briefy to don extra warm clothing as, despite the climbing effort, we were all getting colder.

Soon enough we came to the summit ridge and encountered the remnants of the winter snows - the path went straight through a couple of patches which gave one or two a few nervous moments as they slipped their way up. Finally the path flattened out and we completed the short section to the summit itself, arriving at 07:00am. Stopping for a group photo or two and some food and drink we soon left and began to make our way down, pleased at our fast ascent. One or two elected to jog down part of the way, others preferring to walk as we made our way back to base camp, arriving at 9:00am giving a mountain time of four hours and fifteen minutes - a great start and an hour faster than planned.

Our team driver/cooks were busy with dinner and we were soon tucking into a chilli and rice but noticing that the Scottish midges were doing their best to tuck into us!

Having eaten our fill, we packed away and headed off South to Seathwaite in the Lake District for our ascent of Scafell Pike. We arrived about 03:20am and were away by 03:43am. Our elected route took us straight up the valley to the ridge line and a right towards Sty Head to pick up the Corridor Route. unfortunately we made a navigational error, attempting to cut the corner and ended up losing time as we firstly attempted to locate a way through, then abandoned and returned to the path to take the Langdale path to Esk Hause and ascend from there.

Scafell Pike itself was horrendous to say the least! It had been raining continuously since we left the mini-bus but now there was a gale force wind blowing, knocking people off their feet. Scafell Pike is a big boulder field and were soon finding ourselves treading carefully across the boulders to the summit area. The mist was low and the wind freezing, but we took the time to confirm our location with the GPS - yes, it was that bad - before leaving the mountain and retracing our steps down again.

The walk out seemed a long way and the team were tired from their efforts but continued downwards along the long valley back to the waiting drivers who, by now had become quite worried as we had estimated three hours for the mountain, eventually completing in 05:17.

Given the time, we elected to set off straight away for Snowdon as we were concerned that we would run out of time which would have been disappointing to say the least.

En route to Snowdon the team made their preparations so that on arrival we could jump out and be off. 1:15pm we pulled into the car park. We had three hours and twenty five minutes to complete the Pyg track to the summit - achievable but it would be a close thing.

We set off at a punishing pace, passing people as we went, but inevitably getting caught behind slower walkers - come on!

It was a windy, but dry day in Snowdonia with cloud cover starting at about 850m. The path is so obvious that it caused us no problem and we eventually reached the large standing stone that marks the top of the Pyg track where it joins the tourist trail and mountain railway tracks. It takes about ten minutes from here to stand on the summit but with the near white-out seemed to take longer.

The traditional photos out of the way, we were off again, down. We had taken 01:30 to reach the summit which gave us 01:55 to get down. Barring major disasters we would do it.

We still had hold-ups on the path which proved frustrating, but we finally walked into the car park at 4:15pm on Saturday 22nd June meaning we had completed the challenge in 23:35. Celebratory handshakes all round, our mini-bus waiting, we jumped in and relaxed in the knowledge that it was all over, we had succeeded in the challenge and what was more, we could take off our boots and leave them off.