The Modern Three Peaks Challenge is a challenge that more often than not looks at raising money for charity by a team of walkers ascending the three highest peaks in Britain within 24 hours. The event has a long history, and there are thoughts that it goes back to the 1960’s. The best known challenge before the road challenge, was the Three Peaks Yacht Race, who even knows this happens anymore?
This event was develop by two Doctors based in Barmouth, former home of the great Bill Tillman. A highly decorated British Explorer and Mountaineer, renowned for his Sailing and Himalayan mountaineering. Rob Haworth, had been friends with Tillman, and had come up with a way to spend his holidays doing a ‘mini Hillman adventure’. Discussing his plan with the partner at his GP Practice, the pair conceived it as a race.
The first race took place in 1977 and continues to this day, it is quite an undertaking to this day. With the only rules to restrict the size of crew, no other transport, no engines other than for coming ashore, and originally boots on the land, although now it is accepted that fell running shoes are more than likely the footwear of choice.
Of course it is likely that somebody somewhere attempted an earlier three peak challenge, prior to 1977 race. They were however very different affairs to to the modern event, early challengers faced the harder challenge of making ferry crossings, poorer infrastructure, cars that simply weren’t as reliable or fast and of course equipment that even by some of today’s less well equipped teams, was basic at best.
However, the early challengers were of course mountaineers or assisted by them. What the modern challenger brings to the hill is little more than a bunch of enthusiasm and a bag full of kit they have been told they need. Insisting that every team has a map and compass is all very good, but not knowing how to use it means they might as well have a roll of bog paper and an iPhone to twitter there progress to there family, friends and colleagues at home.
Now there are two main ways that groups complete the three peaks, the first is via a reputable company who effectively help the groups with logistics and safety on the hill. These companies charge each group a price, and one that I have worked for arranges many weekends by focusing on different sectors of the business world. One week might be banks, another construction, etc… What you get for the entry fee is a organisation that arranges safety marshalls on the hill, cut off times, safety equipment and two way radios for each team.
The Marshalls are experienced local mountaineers or instructors, these guys basically sit out on the hill in key locations and check all the routes up and back down the mountain, can administer basic first aid and can advise when the conditions are simply too dangerous on the peaks. If there is a problem they can also help raise the local mountain rescue teams, if and only if they are required, and this is a point I will revisit later.
The other type of three peak challenger is the independent group, who simply get three maps and a SatNav and go for it. There is no checking on individuals equipment, no monitoring progress and no organised safety net. If something goes wrong, which recently can be simply it rained or there was low cloud, then they will just call 999 and get local rescue teams to come to there aid. Now of course they are more than free to do that, after all its what the teams are there for.
However, some of these groups are raising £100000’s for big charity’s, charity’s that probably have millions in the bank. Yet these independent groups are using local Mountain Rescue Teams as ‘safety cover’, and these teams aren’t rich, they often struggle to balance the books, and end up spending more money rescuing these weekend warriors, who are dangerously loaded with the mindset of the summit and bugger the consequences. In the hands of inexperienced walkers, who don’t know how to look after themselves on a hill, and with little safety equipment and of course even more limited understanding of its use. Here the lakeland rescue teams leader blast the event
What you get is a every weekend a series of do or die groups battling whatever conditions they find on the hill. For Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, where the last hill lies its becoming a situation that we can set our clocks by, when Sunday afternoon becomes rescue a 3 peaker day. Personally, I usually have something better to do on a Sunday afternoon, usually working to be honest.
However there are some members of the team who off the record have expressed there concern over the issue. Highlighting that these challengers are robbing from the poor rescue teams to give to the very rich charities (Heart, Cancer, Third World Children Charities).
I give you an example from a few weeks back, the team receive a call for a assistance, one challenger has run ahead of his team, got lost and needed finding. He had no idea where he was. Our only clue he could see a lake with and island and two trees. The only way he could have seen this was to have gone over or around Crib Coch!
The team deployed to find him in very poor visibility and heavy rain, in the mean time he finds his way back to Pen Y Pass, where a Warden overhears him saying he has had an epic, has called for assistance, and is heading back up the mountain without his bag, as he only has 2 hours to reach the summit before the 24 hour deadline. Did he phone up to say he is save and well, no. He basically left the Mountain Rescue team out on the hill in bad weather for no reason.
At times like this it would be great to have the support of the police to arrest individuals for wasting the teams time. Sadly the rescue team can often feels that as a free service arranged by and for the police, who give little in the way of real support, ‘support’ that is likely to reduce in the face of the government cut backs heading our way.
Three recent case have done this one in Scotland after some walkers wrote HELP in the snow, another one in the lake district when a journalist thought it a good idea to test the callout system when walkers had been warned not to hit the fells due to the team being tasked to search for Derek Bird the lakeland gunman and even in Wales when two students were fined around £2000 pounds each, when they jumped into the menai straights off britannia bridge. The money going to the RNLI, Helicoptor and Coastguard.
It brings up the thorny subject of charging for rescues, something that the mountain rescue teams of the UK are against. However, the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team had over 180 call outs last year, an unsustainable number for a voluntary team. Given that a rising number of these being attributed to 3 peakers, what can be done? Everyone has a right to climb Snowdon, and I’ll be honest on a good day, pretty much anyone with reasonable fitness can make their way safely up and down the mountain via one of the major footpaths. However these teams are often exhausted, and see that they ‘have to’ climb the mountain come hell or high water.
The challenge was of course made more popular last year when Chris Moyles and a team of Celebrities completed the challenge as a warm up for Kilimanjaro. These guys completed the challenge in full on winter conditions and had the assistance of local guides. However, that is something that many would be challengers forget, and believe that they know best.
Should the three Peaks challenge have a well publicised set of guidelines(if you read these its all well and good, but it doesn’t help you be safer? take the first guideline –Inform authorities at Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon of your event – timing and numbers. Who should they inform?!). Should challengers pay an insurance fee to local teams? Should teams charge these three Peakers for rescue? The answer is I don’t know, however it is a growing issue locally on Snowdon and and even bigger one in the Lake District, which has a stream of three peaks challengers drive through the area in the middle of the night, climb the mountain and disappear to Wales.
Basically the Lakes District gets little in the way of local spending from the event, yet has to put up with unsocial driving. SHould the challenge not be a 24 hour challenge, as anyone can make this deadline giving enough fast driving (It should be noted that most properly organised events have strict driving times based on national speed limits!). It would still be a hard challenge if you did it over three days, and would help spread the secondary spend across all three mountainous areas that are used.
What can be done to stop a do or die mentality, i really don’t know. Maybe if there was death on an event then maybe some challengers might listen for a month or so. Other than that there is very little we can do.