Your June 2024 company update – The Three Peaks Challenge is complete!

Last time, we filled you in on our latest fundraising event: one of our team members, Jon Bissett, would be taking part in the Three Peaks Challenge on 13 and 14 June 2024.

The Challenge involves climbing the UK’s three highest peaks – Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon – in just 24 hours. That’s around 37 miles of walking with nearly 10,000 feet of elevation, no mean feat even for experienced hikers.

We are proud that Jon joined a team from Griffiths Marshall Business Advisory, a like-minded firm with which we work very closely, to complete the hike. This was done in support of two charities, Maggie’s Cancer Care and The Griffiths Marshall Foundation.

Keep reading to find out more about these important causes, and how the team fared when they hit the trail.

About Maggie’s and The Griffiths Marshall Foundation

Maggie’s is a cancer care charity, founded in 1996, that provides all-round support to those experiencing this difficult and often life-threatening disease.

With 29 centres in total, Maggie’s works alongside hospitals to offer comprehensive services to cancer patients, from healthcare, to emotional support, to financial advice.

Alongside Maggie’s, the funds raised from the Three Peaks Challenge were shared with The Griffiths Marshall Foundation.

The Griffiths Marshall Foundation awards grants to small- and medium-sized charitable organisations in Gloucestershire. They work with charities offering services to children and adults living with disabilities or other disadvantages that may mean they require additional support throughout their lives.

We’re proud to have supported these two important initiatives with the Three Peaks Challenge.

Let’s see how Jon, along with the Griffiths Marshall team, got on.

The story of the Three Peaks Challenge

Ben Nevis, Scotland

We set out from Fort William just before 6 am to take on Ben Nevis.

The weather was surprisingly good, and we quickly ended up stripping off our layers within the first half hour of the climb. After two hours we approached the 1,000 m elevation mark, which is where the snow began…

From here, there was another 45 minutes of climbing in the snow. It was slow going, but we were rewarded with clear views on the summit. There was no time to hang about, so after a few minutes and a picture at the top, we headed back down.

Coming down was quicker than the climb up, although still tough on the quad muscles and slow in places where the footing was tricky. We made it down in one piece ready for some well-earned food – the favoured choice being Pot Noodles and Skittles!

Scafell Pike, The Lake District

From Ben Nevis, we had a six-hour drive to Scafell Pike. During the journey we all used Josh’s massage gun, which helped to prevent our muscles from stiffening up during the long journey.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get much sleep during the trip to Scafell as it was still the middle of the day.

In better news, we were lucky with the traffic and had a pretty straightforward drive down. But as we drew closer to the Lake District, the weather progressively became worse, and by the time we arrived at Scafell the wind and rain were in full force.

We quickly layered up and began the climb within 15 minutes of arriving, starting Scafell Pike at approximately 5.10 pm. Within 20 minutes we were all completely soaked. The climb, although much shorter than Ben Nevis, was far more difficult. The terrain was very steep, rocky, and slippery in the wet and wind.

The final 30-minute ascent was above the cloud line, so visibility was very limited, and the winds were gusting at 50 mph which certainly made the rain and hail sting our cheeks!

We didn’t hang about on the summit as it was very rocky and difficult to stand in the wind – the best way to describe it was like taking part in the cyclone challenge on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

Descending Scafell Pike was slow due to the slippery and rocky footing. It was nice to take our wet gear off at the bottom and tuck into more Pot Noodles!

We left Scafell ready for our final drive to Snowdon, scheduled to take four and a half hours. The roads were winding during this trip which made sleeping difficult.

Snowdon, Wales

We arrived at Snowdon at approximately 1.15 am. Not exactly a typical time to complete a hike!

We quickly put on our now soaking wet boots and head torches ready to set off. We headed up the PYG Track to the summit.

Although this was technically our shortest and easiest climb of the whole challenge, it proved to be very difficult to navigate. The combination of the dark and thick fog made sticking to the track very tough and slowed us down quite a bit.

We reached the top after just over two hours of climbing, took a quick picture of the trig point, and started our descent.

We took the miners’ track back down, which was initially very steep and technical to descend. Most of the steep descent had been turned into a mini waterfall from all of the rain during the night which made the footing difficult.

Having progressed past the steepest part, we now had two miles with a more gradual descent to the finish.

With very little time remaining, it was going to be close, but we couldn’t give up now. We switched between running and walking for the final stretch and managed to come in under time, with a final finish time of 23 hours and 42 minutes.

Time to sleep!

The team raised £3,655 for Maggie’s and The Griffiths Marshall Foundation

We’re proud to announce that the team raised £3,655 in support of Maggie’s and The Griffiths Marshall Foundation by completing this epic Three Peaks Challenge.

Congratulations to all who participated for finishing this mammoth hike within 24 hours – the money raised will make a huge difference to the charities we’re supporting.

If you’d like to sponsor our hikers and give to these worthy causes, you can do so on our GoFundMe page.