28 Engineer Regiment LAD 3 Peaks Challenge

28 Engineer Regiment (C-CBRN) LAD 3 Peaks Challenge

Scribe: Cfn Binnington

On the 4th September, members of 28 Engr Regt (C-CBRN) LAD took part in the 3 peaks challenge. 2 members of the LAD (Cfn Binnington and Cpl Downham) along with 2 Sappers and 1 LCpl were joined by my stepdad and his colleagues too. Over the course of the weekend, we covered 882 miles in the minibus, 23 miles (37km) on foot and a total ascent of 3064 metres (10,052ft).

We decided to do this challenge for the charity Help for Heroes. We felt that this charity was the closest to all of us, it was also the first charity which came to mind. We raised a total of £800 for Help for Heroes which is a significant amount and will help so many people in many ways!

All our preparation came down to these 24 hours and we were ready. We stepped off Ben Nevis car park at 1030 and took on the first peak as well as the highest point in the United Kingdom. The ascent was by far the worst out of the three, as it kept going on and didn’t seem to be getting any closer. The views were unreal, we’d often stop and take everything in for a short amount of time, as you could see for miles over Fort William. As we got to the summit, we quickly took pictures as there was a queue to get up to the point where everyone wanted to be. With us being under pressure, we quickly set off for the bottom. The descent was probably worse than the ascent, as the mountain took its toll on our legs, especially our knees. It appears everyone was out on Ben Nevis that day, as we kept getting stuck behind people, or having to let

Ready to ascend Snowdon A the top of Scafell Pike

people past on their way up. But we eventually got to the bottom in a time of 4 hours, 42 minutes and 3 seconds.

Next was Scafell Pike. We set off and reached the car park at around 2230hrs, which wasn’t ideal because the journey took much longer than expected! So, we prepped ourselves, before eventually stepping off the base just before 2300hrs. With it being pitch black, we couldn’t take anything in other than the blinding head torches of other people coming down. We’d gotten just over halfway of the ascent; my stepdad had gathered the few in front of me up and got a little cupcake out and waited a few minutes to wish me a happy birthday! After I quickly ate the cake and got more energy, we set off on our way to the top, where we would then take pictures and quickly took on some much-needed water. We quickly descended as we were behind our predicted time and reached the bottom with a total time of 3 hours, 14 minutes and 23 seconds. Finally, we set off for Mount Snowdon. With us all being exhausted, we tried to get in some sleep, but this seemed impossible as we struggled to get comfy on the minibus. We arrived in North Wales at just before 0800hrs, and with us having to wait for other members to go to the toilet, we eventually stepped off for the summit at 0824hrs, which put us under pressure as we had to get up and down the 1085m mountain in 2 and a bit hours. During the ascent, we once again admired the surrounding views and took them all

in. The weather was perfect, however it made it difficult to climb as it was warming up. We scrambled up the mountain on the miner’s path, which resulted in going on all fours and bringing our knees up towards chest height at some points! With the peak being in sight for most of the ascent, we finally reached a more suitable gradient and pushed for the final 10 minutes. Just like Ben Nevis, there was a queue at the top. We reached the top in just under 24 hours, but the rules of the challenge are that you must include the descent and stop the time when you reach the bottom of the third mountain! The view was amazing, I didn’t want to leave. But we had to get to the bottom, we wanted to do this as quickly as possible. Our legs seemed broken; we were physically drained. We reached the bottom giving us a total time of 3 hours, 27 minutes and 42 seconds.

Overall, the time took for the overall challenge was a total of 25 hours, 50 minutes and 13 seconds. This wasn’t ideal but we gave it our all with great times on the mountains, but unfortunately, we lost time during the travelling. We had a wellearned pint at a pub just down the road and we felt free. The gruelling challenge had finally come to an end, with every one of us congratulating each other and talking about how rough it was! We weren’t happy with failing to do the challenge within the 24 hours, but we are eager to complete this again, in a smaller group and to smash the time!

At the top of Snowdon, the final peak!

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