24 peak challenge - Leeds

The evening meal

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 10:13:03 +0200

We toast our teams efforts, we have finished.

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The finish line

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 10:10:34 +0200

Finished at last

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Two day team

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 10:05:48 +0200

Having done all the big hills we pushed on towards Helvellyn.

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Day two photo

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 10:02:40 +0200

The views were lovely, but I had to keep on stopping and taking the weight off my feet, they were searing with pain.

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We have finished

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 09:56:46 +0200

We stopped updating the blog when it got too hard. However this is our final write up:

We got up at 03:45 on Saturday morning, we started taking the tent down making sure we made as much noise as possible to disturb our neighbours who had interrupted our sleep the night before. One of our neighbours noisy anecdotes was retold, just as loudly.

We packed up and headed for the start.

Breakfast while waiting to start was sparse. Muller rice and bananas. Simon had his own special blend of lamb and rice. Alison joined us and the team was all together.

The hooter sounded and we headed to the first tent and had a communications briefing, a list of check points. Hooter. A medical check, a few questions to check we had no medical reasons not to start. Hooter. Kit check, did we have head-lamps, medi-kit, pencils, whistles, good boots. Mohammed's boots got a sneer, they didn't look waterproof. Hooter. Emergency shelter, a quick explanation and trial 1-2-3 up, 1-2-3 down, we were shambolic, Nigel and Simon collapsed into each other and pulled the shelter of the lighter team members, but we got the idea. 1-2-3 up, that took a while from a tangled starting point, we stuffed it into the sack and Mohammed was told he'd be carrying it. Hooter. Down to the start line, a quick photo. Hooter, it's 5:55 and we were off, a lovely ramble along side Buttermere lake, flat.

It started to get light and we stopped at the bottom of Red Pike, took off our warm clothes, lucazade'd up, Snickers bar and off up the first climb. We'd done this climb before on a practice walk, it starts off stepped, it's a nice rise, the body warms up. We talk guilty of pleasure in seeing our Sheffield colleagues only just ahead of us. We caught them a the tarn and marched on past. It provided a boost to pass them. We made it to the top and the first check point. We rested a little and our Sheffield colleagues arrived, then our Dunstable colleagues too, that was a small blow, they started five minutes behind us. We set off for hill two.

We spread out a little heading for hill two, Pendle and Mohammed bursting off ahead, they were called to stop every five minutes. There was a mist on Hill two, but we spoke to the guide and the cloud lifted, we could see the Gables in the distance and our path on-wards. We were about 20 minutes ahead of schedule and feeling good. We walked on.

You'd have thought than one half naked woman was more than most walkers see on the hills (We been passed by a bikini and lycra clad jogger on a practice walk), but against all the odds, coming down a tricky dissent, the lads had a further boost as another team's female member stripped off below us - not on purpose and she blushed as we reached the bottom. We pressed on, over the last peak of the first ridge and off down to Haystacks.

We checked our times again, we were 20 minutes behind. This dealt a crushing blow to Alison. She considered herself the slowest walker and therefore responsible for loosing us around an hour since we reached the first peak. She was gutted and Nigel stepped in to provide encouragement. Simon suggested to Mohammed that he might carry her bag for a while, we were walking up a grassy hill, the soft flooring was sapping the energy and Mohammed hadn't made it known that he'd twisted and banged his knee on the first assent, he's a proud and brave lad and doesn't voluntarily show weakness. Mohammed took Alison's bag, Pendle and Nigel took a walking pole each and pulled her up hill. Double bagging, Mohammed marched off into the distance. The strain showed, Nigel shouted at Mohammed to wait, Mohammed's smile disappeared for the rest of the morning. Simon then took Alison's bag and pulled he also helped Pendle pull her using the walking poles.

At the top of the grassy hill we stopped and Nigel said to stop pulling Alison - he said the problem was in her head, not her legs and that we wouldn't have the energy to expend on anybody but ourselves. Also that Alison wouldn't be able to know whether she was good to continue unless she did her own hard work. It seemed cruel and we were sure she would drop out as soon as possible, but that shouldn't be until we'd bagged Green and Great Gable.

We dragged up Green Gable - Alison made it, seemed emotional, but recovering and we moved onto Great Gable.

Simon dropped back again to accompany Alison, talking her through it, keeping her moving along. We progressed well, not too slow. Alison put a load of effort into getting to the top carrying all her gear. Simon said he was glad to walk with her, her pace suited him fine.

We started the descent. Jo was slow on the descent - she doesn't like going down - that double entendre we laughed at on every downwards stretch afterwards. With a bad left knee Jo struggles going down hill, it's painful for her.

At Styhead tarn below Great Gable we stopped. Gary Johnston had walked up with 4 litres of water, Mars bars and snacks. It was a boost. The achievement of the Gables seemed to boost Alison and we encouraged her to continue and that the pace was OK, if she could continue at that pace we wanted her with us, we wanted to get the team around. The thought of doing all the peaks in 24 hours had gone, long gone. We were focused on getting us all round now, that's all we wanted. We expected to see more teams tumble down Great Gable to where we lunched for half an hour, maybe Sheffield and Dunstable, but none came, we took strength from not being passed and continued. Having robbed Gary of his provisions he couldn't join us to walk up Scafel, probably just as well, it's a team thing. However grateful we were for his snaffle, it would have been an unbalancing distraction to have him walk with us - he's a strong fast walking guy, we'd already done six peaks.

Having eaten spicy meat balls for lunch (they were supposed to be Gary's dog food!) Simons digestive system started stirring. He walked with Alison and her pace quickened. His farts now had a presence of their own and we were considering getting them to carry some gear. We filled our water bottles again from a water fall and progressed we up to the base of Lingmell.

We went quickly up Lingmell - Simon took Alison's water bottle so she had to catch him to get a drink. It wasn't a toughie.
Simon updated the blog for the final time at the top of Lingmell. The entries were dull and it took 5 minutes to send every one, logging onto the email client via GRPS, selecting all the options and typing out an update. We yomped back down to the ranger and moved on.

We starred at Scafel, it was covered in wispy cloud. We started our trudge. At some point we got a football score, Yeovil were one nil down, a blow to Simon. We chatted our way up Scafel in good fashion, plonked ourselves on the top, it was an easier route than the scree slope we'd struggled up on a practice walk. We sat there pleased, photo taken and blogged, a moment of triumph. Mohammed's mood seemed to have recovered from before lunch, his smile was back. About 4:40 Pendle told Simon Yeovil had reversed it to lead 2-1. He kissed the badge. Top effort from Pen to get the score.

Over the summit of the next two peaks we saw the ranger who was the 7:00 cut off, it was 6:15. We saw some teams walking around those last two hills. Cheating. We saw our Dunstable team walking that flat path, they'd been through their own pain, their own hell and their walk was not affecting ours, but it burst a bubble of anger and we cursed them again. There seemed to be no path to that ranger so we simply headed in a straight line to get there as soon as possible, it was hard to push yourself so late in the day, but we didn't want to fail now.

At the ranger we checked how long to go on, Alison was contemplating dropping off here. An hour and a half to the summit of Bowfel and a really nice two hour stroll down to the cars we were told. Jo had volunteered to accompany Alison off the mountain, IF Mohammed had been asked I think he may of gone too, but Nigel didn't know about his knee and didn't offer him a way off. Nigel quite rightly stated that if you missed one hill on day one, then it would be so much harder to get going on day two, you'd have already mentally given in to the mountain. I think Alison only heard the hour and a half part of the time remaining, re-summoned energy and said she's walk on. It was an impressive moment and were all buoyed by it.

We walked on, up two more preparation peaks towards Bowfel, they were hard, we were struggling. Alison started walking away from us, Feet were burning with each step. We tried to contact base with instructions to get Alison's car to the hostel, it had towels and changes of clothes to replace our tired and sweaty covers. Our radio battery expired. Sheffield team caught us up, very impressive, they were walking strongly, seeing them was a positive experiences this time, there was no begrudging them, they were going through the same pains we were. We used their radio and they passed on by.

Mohammed dropped back and said he wanted words with Alison. He gave Alison a great talk, expression his admiration for her, she's a mother of three with a busy life and getting to the start was impressive, having lows and pulling herself on again was inspirational - Mohammed expressed everyone's thoughts - that woman's got big balls, she was doing what many good men and women had been dropping out of all day. All lifted by our efforts Bowfel didn't seem so very, very far away.

It was getting darker and Simon farts had becoming unbearably smelly. He also had to borrow Jo's vasaline to cure a little chaffing, unsurprisingly she didn't want it back. He left his mark at the top of Bowfel only to find that there were still two teams behind us. Sorry guys.

We started to walk down. Some put their headlamps on and we started off down hill. It was about nine o'clock. It got proper dark after about 3/4 hour and all the lamps were on. The path was shitty and in bad light the walk wasn't the lovely effortless stroll we'd been promised.

At Three Tarns we stopped to search for the path on, Mohammed, Nigel and Pendle searched, It took around twenty minutes to find the path, the search wasn't that methodical or good natured, but we found our way and started heading down.

Pendle kept matching ahead, in the dark he got stiff rebukes and barked at. He plodded on ahead never the less. Mohammed's torch failed, Simon gave him some spare batteries, as his torch was better and his knee was knackered. We stopped many times over the next hour, fallers, stopping to bunch back together. It was mentally draining and frustrating. Jo found some grapes in her bag and they were handed round. We could see the car lights we were aiming for, but they didn't get closer. We walked looking at them for over an hour and they seemed no closer, that hurt us too.

Simon's torch failed and Mohammed tried his best to shine his light further on for him to see. We plodded on. We caught up with another team, they were going very slowly and slowed us further. Waiting for members of our team was frustrating, but being held up at sty's and gates by other people was annoying. We could see some house lights ahead, we longed for it to be the finish, we were low, stumbling, drained and dehydrated. Thankfully the farm house didn't play tricks, we approached it in good time and it was 100 yards to the finish. We were clapped to the finish line, but we were too tired to appreciate it. They did have water though and we were happy about that.

It was 10:40. The boots and the backpack came off, we congratulated each other on our days efforts, we all did more than we could have ever have expected to. We slumped into the cars to be taken to the hostel, our support car with most peoples spare clothes, day two gear etc was still at the start line. We'd half expected that and didn't have the energy to kick-off or curse as we might have done.

Our bunk room was upstairs, cruel. Simon mysteriously bagged a top bunk even though he was first in. We went down for supper and most of us had difficulty forcing the food down. Simon didn't, Double curry and pudding.

We sat next to the Sheffield team and ate, we were both pleased for each others teams to have survived.

Dunstable came back after us, it seems the escape route wasn't much better than out route down, they'd finished at 11:00. The anger and bitterness towards them lessened, they'd had just as shit a day as we had, they'd been through their own hell.

Mohammed just found the energy to get his leg raised before nodding off. Simon, Jo and Pendle shared Simon's towel, Nigel got his head down before the support car, which was being collected, arrived. If you'd have asked us now, no-one would have done day two. 1:45 Alison phoned to say the stuff was here, Nigel and Jo went down to get it. Nigel had a shower and we all got some sleep.

3:15 we were called for breakfast. The one's that managed to wake "politely" refused and we tried for some more sleep.

3:45 the alarm went off, Mohammed was already up having his knee strapped and getting food. We crawled out of bed and tested our legs, everyone seemed ok so we got ready. Removing any unnecessary weight from our bags. Alison said she won't be joining us, she'd already achieved so much, but with a twisted knee couldn't give any more. We got in the car and were whisked away.
The car park was dark and full of low cloud, we were quickly briefed and after asking twice for directions to the gate out of the car park we were away. And lost, five metres out of the car park we couldn't see a path or the first marshal waving a light stick. Some "wave your stick" banter flowed over the radio and we saw where we were aiming for and headed off.

100 yards by 100 yards, light stick to light stick we scrambled our way up hill one, everyone said it was the worse thing about day two. We struggled on hoping that was true. It took about an hour, plenty of stops, but we got there, the first summit. We were above the cloud and could see how very high we'd already climbed. Good job we didn't see that bastard from the car park.

The ranger pointed out the path to follow, down then up, we trudged off, Mohammed's knee was sore, the first aider had strapped it before we set off and advised him not to walk today, Jo was suffering on the down hills again. Simon walked down as tail-end Charlie, always happy to accompany who-ever was walking slowest, talking bollocks but he kept them going. We slogged up hill two, getting passed by a few teams, a fair-haired blonde who'd been skipping on day one, passed head down focusing.

The radio was full of people dropping out in the first hour of day two, we were over that first hill and flinging our selves on. Hill three was hard, regular stops. The guide chatted to us about the decent being very bad and we were over taken by a team of two women, they offered us a tot of whiskey and that lifted the spirits.

The decent was straight down a steep scree slope, not deep enough to 'surf' down, just treacherous. We might have taken about an hour to cover those 1,000 yards. Mohammed managed to borrow some poles which sped his progress, the gradient was killing his knee.

Next a blob of a hill was steep up, steep down. Jo's knee was badly hurt by the decent and she said she'd walk around the side of the next hill, the ranger was a bit of a dick and Nige might have punched him, had he not retracted his flippant remarks.

Jo waited for some other walkers to go around the hill with (they were going off an escape route), we had our Mars bars and we attacked it. It was very hard, mostly scrambling we made it up in about 25 minutes of steep, steep hill. The tumble down the other side was little better. Halfway up the up Mohammed and Simon took Ibuprofen everyone's feet were aching and Mohammed's knee was searing. We met up with Jo again, thankfully in good spirits, We were worried having missed one she'd fold, she didn't. She was like a metronome all weekend just pressing ahead, she probably gets mentioned less than anyone else because she just kept on walking, no faltering.

Dolly Wagon Pike, it was renamed big bastard fuck-off pike. Our path up was the steepest route, beside a wall, without a path, a huge gradient. We started slowly and slowed. A few went ahead, Nigel outwardly struggling for the first time, and Simon struggled on, sharing Kendal mint cake and the pain. Progress was in inches. We'd been told this was our last big climb, we heaved our arses up the hill and it hurt us. We made it, after maybe an hour, about 800 yards up that hill, the lowest ebb. One false horizon and the gradient eased we walked to the summit.

We were all in pain. Two more small rises and we met the photographer, Nigel almost punched him, Mohammed smiled and jived for him, we had a group shot, except Pendle had walked on. We caught him up and another peak on we could see Helvellyn. It wasn't too much higher than where we were and we walked easily onwards.

The directors walk met us on Helvellyn. They looked smart, all Nike walking tops, clean boots and no sweat. They tried to motivate us, bless ‘em, but we knew by now that we’d done the job. We smiled politely and got an extra half days holiday then we walked on

Three to go. A triangle of peaks, not much of a rise to them or between them, but everyone was aching. Simon tried getting jokes out of everyone started telling to take our minds off the pains, It helped a bit, probably. Jo stopped behind a pile of stones and announced "That man can see my bum!", that man was a dot on a hill 55 million miles away, tsk!

We plodded on to the last hill, Mohammed had his knee re-strapped, Nigel's trouser split down the crouch, Pendle was sunk inside himself. He never really gave or took from the team all weekend, just ploughed through always at least ten yards ahead. He was hurt now, head down, moving one foot then the next, zombie fashion.

One rise to go, we'll do this one for Alison, she showed us how to push on through the barrier day one, we renamed this one Alison's hill and trundled to the top. We made the last peak, not as euphoric as we had expected, pleased, but not fanatic, probably mindful of how much the descent the day before had hurt.

We started off down the last descent after being told an hour would see us home. A few more shaggy dog stories, we wound our way down, it was hard, but OK, nothing like the hell the day before. The finish line didn't pay tricks on us, our pace quickened and it same towards us as it should have We grouped together, Pendle even briefly held Simon's hand as we walked towards the line. Applause greeted us, this time we soaked it up but really it was the stopping we appreciated, there was water and lucazade from our back-up team today, an improvement, we brief slumped and chatted, then had photos taken, smiled for the camera, got chatted to by directors most of us had only seen at the road shows before being swallowed into a car and whisked to our hotel. Yes we'd finished, yes it almost finished us.

The dinner was a sit down job, Simon surprised us all by buying some champagne and we toasted the last two days:

Nigel, for getting us to the start line, for being sun powered as proved by getting narky in the dark, he has an obvious solar panel. The toast was to Nigel's bald patch.

Alison, for having the guts to drag herself around all of day one when good strong walking men and women were dropping out, an inspiration. The toast was to Alison's big balls.

Pendle, not really a member of the team, but helped by setting a path and blazing a trial. The toast was to Forest Gimp.

Mohammed, for fighting on through the pain of busting his knee on the first hill of the first day, for reminding us that this was not hip-hop. The toast was to Mohammed's knee.

Jo, for walking strongly all weekend, but mostly for getting four lads up in the morning by wondering around in her pants. The toast was to Jo's pants.

Geoff and Ian for going to get the car from Buttermere.

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