IT'S TIME! 24 Hour UK Three Peaks Challenge weekend... READY, STEADY, GO!

 

Just a quick one...

IT'S FINALLY ARRIVED!!! Shame I've been struck down with a cold, but that's life... (Excuses in already...) I'm really looking forward to the weekend and (hopefully) completing the UK 24 Hour Three Peaks Challenge. It's something I've wanted to do for so long and it's finally here! WOOP! (Sorry for whopping...)

I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning to meet up with the rest of the group in Chester ahead of the LONG drive to Scotland. We're meeting at 11:30am and scehduled to arrive at our camp near Ben Nevis for the night at around 8pm, so there's plenty of book reading time (I'm taking The Night Circus with me) ti be had on the coach. We start the challenge at approximately 7:30am on Saturday morning and we hope to finish early Sunday morning in Wales after climbing Snowden. It's going to be a very long 24 hours, that's for sure.

I'm going to rock the crap out of that headtorch...

So I should be back home for mid-late afternoon/early evening time on Sunday. All I'll want then is a big tub of chocolate fudge brownie Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Or as it is commonly known 'God's dessert'. (Yes, I made that up! I'm so funny...)

Thank you all so much once again for your donations/donation promises/best wishes. I'm hoping to smash the £550 mark comfortably, which is just fantastic and makes it all so worthwhile. Not to sound like a broken record, but Mind is such a fantastic charity who do so much for people struggling with mental health difficulties. It's an issue that means a lot to me because of my own personal problems surrounding OCD and depression, so raising awareness is a big deal for me. I look forward to meeting everyone taking part tomorrow.

Last ditch attempt to pull on the heartstrings... They've given rain in Scotland on Saturday. Not. Good.

My fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=Milkwasabadchoice&isTeam=true.

Here's my story: http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/8483_walking_the_three_peaks_challenge_for_mind

For anyone who might be interested, I'll try and do as much tweeting as I can (signal/battery dependant), so if you want to track our progress then @WalkingforMind is the account to follow.

The aim:

To have climbed Ben Nevis (1,344m), Scafell Pike (877m) and Snowdon (1,067m) within 24 hours (slightly over due to legal constraints). Each mountain is the biggest in its country and the overall challenge will consist of approximately 25 miles of hiking and 480 miles of travelling between Scotland, England and Wales.

The proposed timeframe for the challenge:

Friday 6th September:

11:30am: Meet at Chester and travel to Scotland for overnight accomodation in the Ben Nevis area.

Saturday 7th September:

7:30am: Begin ascent of Ben Nevis

12:45pm: Return to the minibus and head back down South to England to head to Scafell Pike.

6:45pm: Begin ascent of Scafell Pike. (Night walking! Headtorches at the ready...)

Sunday 8th September:

12am: Return to the minibus and head to Wales to climb Snowdon.

4am: Begin ascent of Snowdon (headtorches required again!)

8:20am: Hope to have finished Snowdon and be having a celebratory breakfast!

Thank you all.

Matt.

PS/ If you read this, thank you for lending me your iPod for the weekend, Loobs. Greatly appreciated, albeit slightly disappointed at the lack of T-Swizz.