On May 8th, six of my friends and I set off to Fort William, Scotland to begin our five peaks challenge. For the uninitiated, the five peaks is the act of walking up and down the highest peaks in each of the four British countries, and also the highest peak in the Republic of Ireland – in 48 hours. So, that’s Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England, Snowdon in Wales, Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland and Carrantuohill in the Republic of Ireland.
At about 8 o ‘clock on the morning of the 9th; we began our challenge by walking up Ben Nevis (4,409 ft), of which about the top half was covered in snow. We reached the top and for about ten minutes we were the only people up there – and therefore the highest human beings for hundreds of miles in any direction; it was a wonderful thought. The top of Nevis and the views were absolutely beautiful, the snow-capped top had treated us very well indeed. One of my friends celebrated by getting completely naked and mooning the rest of us while having a photo taken – which was… great. O_o We reached the bottom of Nevis after five hours of ascending and descending and set off on our way to the Lake District to begin Scafell Pike.
We arrived - after a fantastic rally-like performance from our drivers through the country roads - at Scafell Pike (3,209 ft) in the very late evening. It wasn’t dark so we began our ascent in good spirits. By the time we reached the top, we had to get the head-torches out and after a short break, in which I came over very cold all of a sudden; we began our descent in the dark and fog – and eventually rain. We completed the mountain in about three hours, which was a cracking time considering last year, it caused us no end of demoralising problems.
At about 3am on the 10th, we reached Snowdon (3,560 ft) in Wales. By this point, after the 3-4 hour journey from Scafell, I had come over quite ill indeed. The weather outside was absolutely hammering it down and the wind-speed was formidable. I couldn’t even make it outside the car without serious effort, so decided not to take part in the climb, instead having a sleep in the front seat to try and recover. The four other climbers completed the mountain in about three hours after encountering horrible winds and lashing rain the whole route; this culminated in debilitating 70 mph winds at the peak.
I had started to feel better after my kip, but after the rainy descent of Scafell and total washout of Snowdon, all of our gear was becoming very wet indeed (probably the reason for my downfall) with no way or time to get it dry. We proceeded to Holyhead to catch the two hour HSS ferry to Dun Laoghaire in Ireland. We all managed to get some sleep on the ferry and half-dry some clothing using the hand dryers in the toilets.
Once we arrived in Southern Ireland, we immediately travelled (through no less than three toll booths) to the North-East corner or Northern Ireland and our fourth mountain, Slieve Donard (2,789 ft). We arrived in the afternoon and began our fairly horizontal ascent which quickly became one of the toughest mountains we would face. The sheer steepness and weather conditions of the climb truly beat our spirits into the ground, and after finally reaching the top, we were wet, windswept and sad. Luckily, a small stone keep at the top gave us some respite from the weather, and we began our descent, catching some beautiful views of the coast and surrounding sea once the cloud had cleared lower down. We finished Slieve Donard in about three and a half hours I think, and headed off to the opposite end of the Irish island.
After about 5-6 hours of travel, where our drivers – well everyone – were becoming very tired indeed, we arrived at Carrantuohill (3,406 ft) in the Republic of Ireland. This mountain became, for me anyway, probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. We began the climb about 2 o’clock in the morning so had no visible way of seeing the task ahead, simply our GPS, head-torches and the immediate path in front of us. About halfway through we reached the infamous Devil’s Ladder, and soon discovered why it is both called this, and why it’s infamous.
To clarify, the VAST majority of the challenge is simply walking up mountains, it’s just pretty tough walking; the Devil’s Ladder however was actual climbing – up loose rock. We had no safety hats, ropes or previous experience in doing this – so personally, I was absolutely bricking it, so to speak. We couldn’t see further than a few feet in front so had no idea really how tall or steep it got. It wasn’t vertical by any means, but for every metre you were gaining in distance, you had to climb about two metres up to get there.
After about an hour’s climbing, we finally reached the top of the ladder. We were absolutely elated and polished off the last 900 ft of tiring ascent. After reaching the top and having a shot of horrible whiskey from a hip flask, we began our final descent. We basked in the glorious sunrise and its light lit up the surrounding hills beautifully. It also highlighted the downright irresponsible thing we had just climbed, the Devil’s Ladder in all its ‘glory’. We, very carefully, descended down the ladder, along the marshes and cobbled paths leading to it and finally reached the car park.
Done… challenge complete in 46 hours, 38 minutes… never again…
The next few days and nights were spent in Dublin; what a city, but that’s a whole other story.
